Tiger Tamers 1964 Hillman Minx Project

[Tiger Tamer]

I fitted the Haltech display mount into the dash panel I made and tried it in, but the shape was not close enough to the rest of the dash panels (first pic) so in the bin it went. I seem to like doing things at least twice, apparently.

I had another spare gauge panel so I cut that up and welded in new steel to fill the gaps and some from the center panel that I removed when fitting the radio. Then fitted the Haltech mount to it.  Now it fits in as well as it always has. I had to use some filler to smooth the shape out which was tricky with the shape. Not perfect but ok. As the old saying goes a blind man would be pleased to see it.

I also altered the gauge pod so it is now symmetrical and gave that a coat of paint to match the dash. Looks much better now.

I am also very busy waiting on important stuff to arrive so I can get it going. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Fingers crossed for a couple of weeks.

 

[Tiger Tamer]

I pulled the car out into the sunshine today and gave it a hose off while I am busy waiting. I did contact them, and they are busy waiting as well which is good as we are all busy.

I am quite tempted to lower the front valance and bottom of the front guards so that they cover the front X member. I don't think I will be destroying any structural integrity as the valance is more holes than steel. I think it would quite good with a mesh type grill there under the front bumper. I don't think it will be that hard to do.

I have done the flare on the passenger side so it gives clearance through full suspension travel which is huge, but I don't like it. It's fugly. I have been looking on lvvta site and suspension drop is measurement of 40mm is given but not compression. I see a lot of cars with flares so close to the tyre that I can't see how the don't rub. How do they get around this. Can I limit travel in compression with longer bump stops, stiffer rear springs, both?. I like the driver side flare as it fits nicely with the front flare but doesn't allow full travel in compression.

 

[Tiger Tamer]

So, thinking about the amount of suspension travel I have in compression and the amount I had to flare the guards to accommodate it I thought I may as well find out if I am allowed to limit it some. So, I made up a cardboard template and sent it through to the certifier.  I got the ok to do it which is good. I made up the bump stop stop out of some 5mm box section I had and have tack welded them in place. 

I suppose I should at least drain the oil out and remove the crown wheel cover before welding it fully. I have been doing a bit of googling the subject and some don't and don't have any problems welding on a diff with the oil still in. 

[Tiger Tamer]

And still we wait for the electronics, engine loom etc to be sent. I do have the drive shaft being done as well so that's another thing I am waiting on, though no great hurry. I still have a list of to do's. I need to weld up and fit the passenger side seat base, find a new handbrake cable or try and free up the one I have, make up some more fuel line clamps etc. I probably won't pull the diff out and weld those bump stop stops yet until I have the car moving and the suspension height settles. The diff needs a new pinion seal and axle bearings so I will do it all then. Maybe even a Qaife lsd unit if the engine and gearbox are behaving themselves. 

Anyway back to the waiting game.

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I have the drive shaft back. I had it done locally by Quality auto Machinists in Hastings. It was longer than the Toyota drive shaft I supplied so they had to use a complete new tube, make up a rear yoke spacer as the Hillman shaft dia was smaller and balance it and fit new universals. It looks good and bang on the money to the measurements I gave them. 

I also bought one of those drive shaft safety loops. It's width was to large for the Minx drive shaft tunnel so it received an adjustment in the vice to close it up a bit. A little trimmed off one of them and new holes drilled and will have a doubler plate inside the car.

[Tiger Tamer]

The loop is fitted with a 3mm plate on the inside and a 3mm plate on the outside of the loop as well. Thought it better that way. The loop came supplied with grade 3 bolts, so I upgraded those to grade 8 UNF. It looks like I could have shortened the lower section of it so it would be closer to the driveshaft. I haven't done a suspension drop to see how much clearance I have so I will do that first and take a pic and probably ask the certifier his thoughts before changing it.

The driveshaft is in and fits how it was supposed to. That's always a relief as it wasn't something I wanted to do (my usual theme) twice. Going by the eyecromiter It's looking like the diff angle and gearbox angle are at about the right angle to each other, but I haven't checked the pinion angle yet so we shall see. Once I figure out how to work that out properly.

[Tiger Tamer]

As we patiently wait for the important expensive make it go paid for parts to arrive, I made up the passenger side seat frame out of 50x25x3 and 3mm doubler plates for the rear bolts. Front bolts use the original front mounts. Bolted in without any fuckery needed which is always a good way to end the day. Needs a bit more of a tidy up and a coat of paint and then bolt the seat to it. Then that will be another task ticked off the list.

I know you are probably sick of seeing pics of doubler plates and I am sick of making and fitting them, but I think that's it.

 

[Tiger Tamer]

A new year and a new box of tricks arrived this morning. I had to wait a while, but I was pleased they sent them in the new year rather than the end of last year in the silly season. 

Now I have to nervously work my way through it. I will start with the instructions as always (not).

[Tiger Tamer]

So, on unpacking it I discovered there are no instructions for the universal wiring loom in with the loom. The connecters do have abbreviated labels so it should all really be self-explanatory as I work through it. The Haltech comes with instructions and warnings of the order to connect and power up initially, so you don't cause damage to the ecu. 

Anyway I had initially thought I would use the original loom until I decided to cheat so I had made a hole and flange in the firewall for the original gromet on the Honda loom which I managed to get off without cutting anything up. Though I was never going to get the connectors on the new loom through the 20mm hole in the gromet. I did have a piece of aluminium tube the largest connector would pass through ok so I made a few cuts in one end so I could get a taper and sprayed on some silicone and stretched it over then passed all the connectors and loom through and then slid the gromet of where needed and the tube back off the loom.

I didn't come with a new loom for the starter so I pulled the Honda one out and will use that. The new supplied fuse box will need to be mounted under the dash as it connects to the cabin end of the loom. 

[Tiger Tamer]

Also one of the first things I did was to fit the dash screen and wiring looms to see how much length they had so I can work out the ecu placement. 

[Tiger Tamer]

I have installed the ECU and fuse box supplied. I would have preferred that the fuse box was in the engine compartment but there wasn't enough length in the wiring to place it there. I would need to make up an extension loom to do so which may happen in the future. For now, where it is will do. The ECU is mounted above it. Connected up the engine loom as much as I can for now. The DBW throttle body has an adapter that needs to be torqued to 40 in/lbs so I will need to get it fitted as I only have a ft/lb torque wrench.

I will need to still get the correct connecters for the DRW pedal and wire that up and the fuel pump and fan. I also need to get back into the cars original wiring and delete what is not needed anymore.

 

[Tiger Tamer]

I have the intake manifold back on. There is F all room to get you hand under it to put the lower bolts in and surprisingly apart from the one closest the firewall I managed to get a socket on them and torqued them to spec. Two of the topo ones I couldn't so I used a ring spanner and the that feels about right technique.

Then of course you change one thing, and you then have to change a few more to make it all fit. The DBW throttle body is bigger and my cooling plumbing was fouling it so I have to change it. So off to supercheap and hunt through their hose selection and managed to find one that will help.

I have (thought I had) most of the fuel fittings, but it looks like I will need to run a return line as the Fuelab 51502 regulator needs one to function correctly. So now I will need to sort that out as well.

I found the correct wiring connecter for the DBW for the BMW pedal from MSEL which looks the same as the one on the Boush DBW throttle body. So I can sort that out as well over the weekend.

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Fuel line nearly sorted. Just the return to do. The top idler mount I made was fouling the end of the fuel rail exit for the fitting to go to the regulator so I dug out the original bracket and fitted that. Belt is still correct and plenty of room for the fitting. Can't really remember why I made that now. Never mind all's well that ends well.

Filled the cooling system yesterday and still no green on the garage floor. So far so good. I better pump some trans fluid into that as well shortly.

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NOT another bloody header pic I hear you say. How many times can he ftu you're thinking. How hard can it be.

So when I firstly made it (well secondly) made it, I made them too low, so I took 50mm out of the height of them which tucked them up and out of the way. BUT I must have changed the angle of the join I had to weld a little BUT didn't check the fit before welding them back up SO the flange on the end hit the old gearbox mount WHICH I trimmed BUT didn't give enough clearance.

Anyway, I knew it was something I would need to address and had been procrastinating about it. So, since I am getting close to start up and I was as far as I could get with the return line and wiring, I decided to remove the header and lengthen the drop in them by 30mm. Even THOUGH I had them in and out 100 times before, once I had all the accessory's etc on the other side of the engine they wouldn't come out without far too much jacking the engine up. So, I had to cut the outer tube off. 

I have added another 30mm and tried them back in and now all is good so l have ordered some V band exhaust clamps that will make this tube removable which will make life easier in the future. Also bought another for the main exhaust so I ca make the tail pipe removable.

  

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I had been looking at made up air intakes and found the price of them horribly expensive, so I bought what I needed for about 140 bucks and took me about 30minutes to fit including making a bracket to support it. The filter sits behind an opening in the front panel so it should get a good supply of cold air.

The fuel line and fittings have arrived so I can get that sorted as well. The v clamps for the header should be here tomorrow so I can sort that out and get my jack back which is holding the engine up for now then the diff has to come back out.

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I had to flick an email to the supplier, and they missed my order for the tube and V clamps for the header. So they very apologetically packed it up and sent it.

So, I made up the removable tube and refitted the header without it and then went to fit the tube and it won't fit through past the engine mount firewall and engine with the chassis part of the engine mount in place. Of course I blame Honda, because if they made an engine that didn't mount on the piss, I would have had a lot more room to on that side of the engine.

So it will fit as long as I fit it first. I need a bit more clearance around the engine mount for the clamp as it's a bit close. But that's not too much of a drama. I will sort that out tomorrow. 

 

[Tiger Tamer]

So I removed the engine mount and adjusted it for clearance for the bottom V clamp and refitted the engine mount and went to fit the tube, and of course it fouled the mount about halfway along its length.  Bastard. So out it all came again, and I had to cut the tube in two places and add a piece in at the top and weld it all up again. BUT not before trial fitting it and all became well in my world. Probably for a very short time but I will take it.

Of course, changing the drop length of the header means the rest of the exhaust didn't fit so I have started on that. The muffler sat a little low anyway and the tail pipe had an fugly bend in it so I will correct those two faults and add a V clamp into the tail pipe so it can be removed from the rest of the exhaust.

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Well, the joy of finally getting the header sorted was premature and was replaced today with a string of profanity's I didn't even realize I possessed. All was well until I went to refit the steering column and the V clamp was just too close to the column. It's not a big deal and easily fixed. Just means removing it all again.

I also went to do the MQS 6-pin connector that fits to the E throttle. I had already done the male connector for the other end but this female one was a bitch. I thought you would crimp the terminals on and push then in until they click in place, Wrong. You need to get the connector apart and take out the locking tabs push the terminals in and refit the tabs and clip back together. Of course, all without breaking anything which is exactly what happened. So, now it's missing one of the tabs that hold it in place but still seems to locate well enough.

Also I bought two new Smiths instruments for the gauge pod. A volt gauge and a Vacuum gauge. I always liked the look of the Smiths Vacuum gauge and had one in my Minx I had years ago. So I decided to fill the gap with another and ordered one without looking to closely at what I was buying. I thought it would be the same as I had had and be mechanical and use a tube to a fitting to the intake, but no, it is electronic so I needed to buy a sender which cost another $250. Never mind, just as well I like it. Anyway fitted them and wired them.

Another win for the day was that I sealed off the interior steering column to the firewall which is another job ticked off the list.

[Tiger Tamer]

Right, finally the header is sorted and also the rest of the exhaust. I had used cotton real type exhaust fixtures that keep the exhaust nice and close to the floor but the metal is bonded to the rubber so I didn't want all the weight only on them. I added another bracket so if the cotton reals fail the exhaust can't drop and hit the road.

I removed the fugly bend in the tail pipe and made up an exhaust tip to finish it off.

Getting close to start up of which I will get some help with.

Now see if I can load 4 pic's

[Tiger Tamer]

I finished the rear flares etc this week and got them primed yesterday so today I fished out the can of matching enamel paint I had for the car. I had bought it before I started on this repower project as I needed some for a repair. Anyway, it had formed a skin and was quite settled in the tin so I gave it a good stir up and sieved through a paint cone sieve that you get from the paint supply shop. Should be all good I thought. WRONG. Still ended up with tiny particles all through it now which are now on the car.

I could see it as soon as I started spraying but decided to carry on with it. It's only a quick spray job so the car is all the same colour until I do the complete repaint. If I can't live with it I will give it a sand down and get some more mixed and respray it. Being like it is, may motivate me to repaint the car sooner rather than later. On the positive there are no runs. Been a while since I sprayed enamel.