Working on the back end, got all the wiring to the lights sorted, the taillights installed and the right side tank in, along with the Monza fuel cap. Doesn't sound like much but there are a hundred little jobs leading up to this point, painting the tank retaining strips, new gaskets under the hinges, sorting the wires and so on. I still need to install the fuel cross pipe and hoses. I couldn't find another 2" 5/16 -24 bolt for the retainer strap so I made one out of a piece of all thread. Tomorrow I'll get the left tank installed and trimmed out, the sending unit installed, the fuel pump installed and wired up and the em. brake cables installed. Once the back is buttoned up I'll move up to the front and start working on the front wiring harness and lights while I'm waiting for the engine parts to come back from the crank shop.
Both tanks in now, both Monza caps installed, cross pipe in...all I need to do now is install, wire and plumb the fuel pump....but first I want to bench run it and make sure it will pump fuel. While I'm down there I'll install the emergency brake cables, rear brake line and red + cable to the battery.
More news.....None of the fuel pumps I have work, it looks like the one that was in the Innocenti was one of the newer electronic pumps, no points I can replace so it's dead. I have a larger spare off my E-Type but it's dead too. Should have checked it earlier I guess. So, now I have a new pump on the way. I can get one from Victoria British but theirs is really expensive now - which is curious as I've bought them before and did not remember them being nearly this high. In the meantime I'll work on getting the em brake cables installed. Lastly, a little bit of good news - the interior has shipped from Newton Commercial today!
Man I wish I could answer your questions. Maybe some day we will have a bunch of you classic guys, well I mean classic mini owners, we already have a bunch of us classic. Dumb question but just curious, on the fuel pump are you trying to keep it stock? I would think a fuel pump would be easy to come by.
Yes, we're trying to keep it as close to how it was built originally as possible, at least in appearance. that's why I spent the money to buy the OEM interior and the right grill and lights. So I bought a modern electronic fuel pump in an old style body! I got the pump installed already, but my camera decided to turn into a potato, so I'll have to get a better pic tomorrow. I modified my post to better reflect my audiences' experience with classics!
So, the back end is pretty much sewn up, I still have to install the battery hold down but I made a new cable for the negative side. The emergency cables are in and adjusted, Don is coming over tomorrow to install the fairlead plates and gaskets as I cannot crawl under the car at this point due to my back. Once that's done I could even put the boot lid back on but I think I'll wait on that.... Got a better pic of the fuel pump installation. Last thing to do is hook up the main brake pipe to the brake pressure regulator. Oh and give the bottom of the boot floor another coat of paint, Dan brushed some on before we put the subframe back in at the reunion but it will need another coat. Oh, just remembered, I need to put the vent hoses on the fuel tanks - see? lots of little time consuming jobs!
Thanks Dave - and the other 4 people who are actually reading this! After I got the hand brake cables installed I realized that they would rub on the brake lines, so I had to take the brake lines loose and reposition them, no issue since there's no brake fluid in them yet. Now they're good. I also got the tank vent lines installed. I can't find my battery hold down bracket - I'm sure it's here somewhere - so till then I think that's the last thing in the back, time to head around to the front and repair all the wiring for the head lights, side markers and turn signals. That's going to be a bit of a challenge - the headlight buckets are covered in some kind of undercoating that it seems I can only scrape off, none of the solvents I have seem to touch it. Then I have to sort out what goes where and figure out how to both tie it in to the existing harness and find a way to sheath it since it's in the engine compartment. I bought some new headlight buckets from Vicky Brits, but wouldn't you know it - Innocenti buckets are made differently and the Lucas buckets won't fit, so I'll have to clean and repaint these. The interior will be in Tues afternoon, so I'll run the components and the front seats up to the interior shop so he can get them installed, with any luck he'll be done by Friday but there's no rush now. I can do the backs as its simply stretched over the foam....I'm pretty sure I can handle that, if no he's only 6 blocks away. I still haven't heard from the crank guy, I had hoped that since the crank had already been there 2 weeks when my parts came in that I was further up the que, but I think they took me to the back of the line again! I was planning to drop the front subframe again when I install the engine, but now I'm thinking I may just go in from the top so I can save some work. There are advantages to doing it both ways so I may change my mind once the engine is built and ready to go back in....we'll see
I also may have found some headlight buckets at VB that will work, turns out they're for very early Sprites - 3 adjusters instead of two. Just in case I went ahead and cleaned up the originals, they were coated heavily in some kind of thick undercoat that I could not begin to scrape off, so I got out my trusty heat gun and blasting that at the inside while I scraped the outside did the trick! I have some new headlight harnesses that I can modify to work with the bulbs in the car, the wire colors wont be right but I'll tape or sheath over them anyway so it won't matter as long as they work properly. Here's a before/after pic of the H/L buckets, these are still pretty rusty in places but I think if I have to I can get them cleaned up and serviceable.
Slowly getting the wiring sorted out, doesn't seem like it would be that hard, but...…. Found another interesting bodge - they tapped into one of the headlight wires to get the power source for the driving lights (we removed them, they were crap and the installation was even worse!) and it looks like they just used hot glue rather than solder to tie them together! I've peeled back enough wire that I think I'm thru all the bodges now. I was able to get new headlight buckets from Vickie Brits, along with new gaskets and all new hardware, screws, adjusters and such. The headlight wiring harnesses I got were for British cars, so I had to modify them by removing the bulb holder and changing the wire ends for the park bulb. Then I had to shorten one considerably, the other one I should be able to leave the length intact. I'll be tying it all together with regular Lucas bullet ends and receptacles. I made new harnesses for the repeaters on the wings and sheathed them in the correct tubing, once done it should all look pretty much factory original and new......and more importantly it should all work! The last thing I need to do is make a harness for the turn signal/park lights that ties together with the repeaters, then I can go ahead and rivet the headlight buckets in and hook everything up. Then head over to the left side and do the same. Once that's all done all I have to do is re-sheath and tape the harness back up and put it back under the tabs. Once that's done I'll move back to the interior and start wiring the column back up, install the signal switch and then see if it all works. More as it happens.....
Got the left side installed and wired up. Now I need to do the same on the right, then tie them together in the middle and its done.... The Innocenti interior came in today but the upholstery shop is closed for the holiday so I'll take it all up tomorrow.
I went up to the crankshaft shop yesterday afternoon and raised holy hell about my crank being there for 6 weeks and still not done, this morning at 9 am they called and said it was done....???!!! So this afternoon I'll go get it - at last! I leave for Colorado Sunday the 21st so I won't have a ton of time to work on it before I go, but at least I'll have most everything I need to finish. The seats are at the upholsterer's being finished and should be done by Friday.
Yesterday, I drove the one hour up to the crankshaft shop to see what the heck was going on, since it's been a month or more and I still didn't have the crank. The last time I was here they asked me when I was going to get them the gear they needed to match the crank too - I was flabbergasted as I had delivered that gear to them weeks before. They said they would get to it "sometime this week", but this morning I got a call that it was all done (!?!?) , so I drive up there again. They bring out the crank and flywheel assy and I ask about the rods and pistons. They ask did I bring them up? Crikeys! They've had those since day one! So while I wait they go all over the shop looking for the box with those and find them amongst the parts for another car. He says he'll balance them while I wait and about an hour later they're all done. He did say they balanced out nicely, so this should be a nice smooth motor when it's done. I know I'm going to find something missing that I desperately need still, but for now it's all home and back in my control. The seats are also supposed to be done by Friday, so there is some progress at least.....
Very glad you got all your parts back Dave. What you have experienced is what has been normal for me over the years.
Is this the only machine shop you work with for this type of work or did you use it because they were good in the past? Seems they may have some issues with keeping things tidy and correct. I for one would be looking for another shop. But then again, not many shops will work on engine parts for the Classics, but a 'good' machinist who listens might be better than what you have now. Have a good trip, I know Robert has been doing a lot of work to make the Mini meet work well for everyone in Snowmass. Don
As far as I know this is the ONLY crankshaft shop in the KC Metro area, which is why I drove an hour each way to use them. You're right, part of the problem is they have SO much work that they can't begin to keep up, and it's an old shop so there's a lot of just crap laying all over the shop. The crank guy himself is a consummate professional and does great work, but when I went to see him I'll bet he had 100 cranks either waiting or already done. This is a real challenge, most of the shops that did this work are gone because newer cars don't get their engines rebuilt, they get replaced. But there's a grey area of newish cars that people can't either buy a new engine for or can't afford a new engine for, plus the guys building older stuff like me - this means as the only shop around they are inundated with work, and people who can't afford to spend a lot. While I was there a young guy came in - he had just picked up his LS motor - they had it for 6 months - and it came back to him without the oil filter mount, since it was an LS they had plenty of them and just handed him one, but still......he had to make the trip. I won't darken their door again if I can help it, even tho I think their work is fine - I will try and find somewhere else, but I may not have a choice.
Back to work on the Inno engine again today, first I had to clean everything again as even tho I had it covered with shop cloths it got pretty dirty. Once cleaned I installed the lifters, cam, oil pump and the crank. Before I can go further I have to assemble the pistons onto the con rods.....Once that's done then I hope to see pistons right at the top of the block! While I had the crank out I cleaned off all the fretting on the end of the crank, ran a tap thru both ends to clean up the threads, fitted the flywheel and put some valve grinding paste on and lapped the flywheel onto the tapered crank end. More as it happens.....