Most liked posts in thread: Mini Innocenti 1300 Export

The Innocenti arrived today and it's even better than I thought.....straight as can be, original paint and panels - no oversills! It has a few period accessories like the Abarth steering wheel and Cromodora wheels.
First thing we did once we got it on the lift was put a battery in it to see if the engine was stuck. It cranked, so I pulled the plugs and cranked it over - oil pressure came up quickly and it carried 50lbs just on the starter! Tomorrow I'll clean out the carbs and see if I can make it run!
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Today I built up the rear radius arms, installed the backing plates, wheel cylinders, hoses and e brake linkage. I used my little tool to install the retaining clip for the wheel cylinder, seems like the more I use it the better it works.....one thing to remember the curve of the clip goes up, or toward you as you instal the clip. Also, these older wheel cylinders are different than the later ones I've been buying at Vicky Brits - I had to get these from Mini Spares - the only difference is the location of the pin that goes thru the backing plate. I also used the paper gaskets between the wheel cylinder and the backing plate as they were called for in the parts diagram.

I thought I had a set of rear wheel bearings in reserve but I must have used them on Clancy's Moke so I have another set on the way along with some other bits and bobs.....when I took a good look at the hubs tho I saw some damage - this is why I always use a brass drift both to remove the old and install new bearing races....the pic shows what happened, when driving the old one out they jammed the drift into the side of the hub. I used a rotary file to clean up the nubs sticking up, the gouges won't hurt anything.

 

Yes, sort of....you can roll it around, but my garage floor is pretty rough, and it weighs like 800 lbs! However, they are made to be moveable, and on a flat smooth floor it's not hard at all.

The lift makes all this work possible, without it I could not do this stuff, my back wouldn't let me. Best tool I've ever bought!

I'm working on the front end today.....I'll have pics of it later tonight.

 

I have a rounded burr I think I can get in there to grind that head off, as I'm switching to LHD I could just leave the pedal there - it would really confuse people!


Nah……

 

Work continues, I cleaned up the firewall where the rack will fit, added the small foam seal around the steering shaft stub on the rack, and finally got to put another part back on the car!

Two parts actually, as I installed the new LHD accelerator too. Haven't cut the old RHD one off yet, needed to get the steering column off first, but that will require some more unwiring yet.

Speaking of wiring......why does every radio installation look like this?

 

Still in dis-assembly mode for now, but getting close to the end of it...…

Today it was the master cylinder's turn....for those who don't know, removing the master cylinders on a Mini is a stand on your head kind of job anyway, but it becomes significantly harder if one of the clevis pins is rusted into the pedal and won't move. The clutch master was easier, the pin slid right out, so I pulled that out and looked down into the hole - I could just see the brake master's pin, so I got a long drift and a hammer and after a couple of taps it came free. While I was deep under the dash I got the die grinder out with a small ball end burr and ground off the weld holding the RHD accelerator to the bulkhead.




Then I moved over to the other side of the car and with Don's help we took the heater hose retainer plate bolts and nuts out. The heater was full of very clean looking coolant, no rust came out of it at all so I'm hopeful the matrix is OK.

Next we removed the wiper motor and gearbox assemblies, they just need clean and paint....more good news there.

I also removed the manky old front seat belts, the webbing was badly faded which means it has no strength in an accident - and the left side was pulled out and would not retract. We have new seat belt assemblies to go back in.The retracting mechanism is mounted to the companion bins almost at the floor so it's very difficult to even reach the bolts, and the wrench or ratchet will only move a few degrees at a time, so they took a while to remove, especially since the nuts used were nylocks..

Lastly, I took the obnoxious 80's rear parcel shelf speakers out and pulled all the wiring too - our plan right now is not to install a radio of any kind....so we'll cover the speaker holes with a new parcel shelf mat.






Next up, I'll carefully remove the dash assembly to get access to the bolts holding the pedal bracket in and remove that. I should also have access to the wiring for the steering column so I can get that out of the car too, then look at how to re-route the wiring for the left drive components. The turn signal switch lever is broken off, so I need to figure out a repair for that too as I doubt a new T/S switch is available.

Then it will be back into clean and paint mode again till I can bolt all those bits back in place on the left side of the car.

Dan and I are discussing how and when to get the car back to him for paint/polish and interior and then final assembly. In the meantime I have the engine and transmission to do.

 

This afternoon I managed to get the pedal assembly out without having to pull the dash, but the wiring for the radio and required immobilizer for England were wired so poorly I may have to pull the dash anyway to straighten it all out. Then I spent some time cleaning up the engine compartment, I couldn't believe how much dried, oily dirt was on this thing.


The immobilizer wires were simply spliced into a bare spot on the existing wire, I hate bodge jobs. If you're going to take the time to di it at all, why not do it right?

 

Well, it's always sumthin…..

I was thinking about how to route the heater hoses over to the other side of the car, as they come out on the left side now, and the hoses will interfere with the accelerator, when I took a good look at the other side of the heater case and viola! the solution appeared! There are holes already in the other side, all I have to do is open up the box and turn the matrix around to the other side, then the hoses will be on the right side to go thru the bulkhead. Easy peasy!

Except.....

Well first of all if you look carefully at the first pic, notice the fan switch with the light green wire.....looks like someone gobbed on some JB weld to hold the wire on!

Next, when I drained the matrix nothing but nice clean coolant came out, but when I took it out of the box.....well the pic tells the story.

So, instead of a quick touch up to the paint, now I'll be cleaning and painting the casing, replacing the matrix and the switch, and of course new foam around the matrix and on the heater door. But it will all be solid when it's done. I don't know why these heater cores fall apart like this......but I've replaced it in every Mini I've owned except the Green one, and I wouldn't be surprised but what it needs it too although it doesn't seem to be leaking or smelling like coolant.

 

Whew! spendy stuff......I rarely use JB Weld, I usually just weld stuff!

I've had this JB for probably 10 years.....hey, maybe that's the probem? It's just old?

It does cure out hard as a rock tho, once it cures…..

 

Yeah, I'm still not there.....I'm usually pretty good at sorting out wiring too but this one has me a bit flummoxed. The dash light switch is not in any way connected to the turn signals, yet it only lights the turn signal lights in the dash, and not the dash lights! The turn signals also don't work correctly - they light up but don't flash - that could just be a bad T/S flasher unit but I wonder......I may have to rig up some test lights and see what's going on here.....and the head lights still aren't working correctly - the left one seems to, but the right one doesn't light up on high beam - could be a bad bulb but I have a feeling I still have something wrong somewhere - like maybe the color coding on the wires is different between this car and the wiring diagram I have. All the same colors are there, but maybe they don't do what the diagram says they do.....

 

More progress.

Having sorted what the various fuses do, turns out some of my light failures were due to corrosion on the fuses. I'm not surprised at this, my brother used to carry a can of WD40 in his Fiat 124 Spyder that used the same fuse panel, on damp or humid days he simply had to squirt his fuses and all his electrical stuff would start working again!

One last mystery to sort, and it's a doozy. The dash lights that don't come on and the lights in both T/S in the instrument cluster that do. The turn signals now work correctly, and the lights illuminate with the signals as they should, but they should NOT come on when I turn on the dash lights. These two circuits are completely separate - no idea how they are getting power thru the dash light switch when there is no connection to it.

I'm thinking I have a ground issue......

 

Only thing is.....I have a 3:1 diff I'd like to put in, and a center oil pickup, and a new clutch, and a couple of oil seals leaking, a new water pump and thermostat - if I'm gonna do all that...….

 

Today I pulled the engine out of the test stand and stripped it down, then gave it the first layer of cleaning prior to painting the block and head in the innocent OEM black - no MOWOG green on these engines, although this one is currently that color. I think that was done when the car went to England. Although there are traces of both red and a completely different green on it too. I'm going with POR black.

 

One interesting thing, when I turned the engine over to see the internals, I found nylocks on the rod bolts! I thought some bodger had done those, but it turns out they were factory after all! I won't reuse them, and in fact the factory recommended not to use them on any engine used in a race car or driven hard.

 

Not much to report today.....just spending hours and hours disassembling, cleaning, scraping old gaskets off, more cleaning, priming, painting parts......lots and lots of parts!

I hope to hear something soon from the various machine shops I took stuff to....the crank and head are no problem, but I would like to know whether we're going to have to bore the block so I can get new pistons on the way.

Also need the crank guy to let me know whether I can run standard main bearings or if i'll need undersized.....