Most liked posts in thread: MINI Max has a new little brother, Buzz

Thanks Don, that's part of why it's taking so bloody long, that and I keep having to take things apart again because the next part won't fit!

Alrighty then..... it's all pretty much back together, the only major part I have left to install is the exhaust system, I'm tempted to start it without the exhaust just to see how much I can annoy the neighbors, but I probably won't. :lol:

I still need to sort out the last bit of the fuel system to figure out where to put the pressure regulator and fuel filter, but that's minor stuffs. Now I just need to pull the plugs, crank up oil pressure, add some water to the radiator and gas to the tank and see if she'll "make the noise"!

I know it doesn't look much different, but a lot of work has gone down today.....

 

Still trying to sort out an electrical glitch, I'm getting a current backfeed from someplace, when I hook up the battery all the dash warning lights come on, including the high beam indicator and that's with the key off or even completely out of the lock. So far I disconnected the alternator, pulled all of the fuses and even took out the ignition switch and yet the lights still come on.
It's vexing, last night I spent a lot of time with a magnifying glass and the wiring schematic trying to guess where it's getting the power from.....

I did crank up oil pressure and got the rest of the fuel system sorted and the exhaust installed. It's ready to run as soon as I figure out this electrical problem.....



Ha - didn't realize I'd caught my reflection in the oil cap!

One other interesting note, after adding exactly the correct amount of oil (10.2 pints) the dipstick reads at the "low" mark, so on the trip home after I bought it when I saw that I added a quart - maybe that's part of why it was leaking oil everywhere - it was overfilled?

 

The problem....



and the fix, a bridge-ectomy! :lol:



Mini people aren't happy with my fuel line arrangement - concerns arose about it being too close to the exhaust and the possibility of vapor lock - don't know how that can happen with the electric fuel pump mounted in the rear like I did, but I may rethink the layout and bring it up and over the top of the air cleaner and around to the other side. That will keep it well out of harm's way and away from the hot spots.......

Need to see if my neighbor can come over after work tonight and help me bleed the brakes and clutch.

 

I put an electronic ignition on my old Jag in the early 90's, mostly because it was so awkward to get to the points on it - but it has been dead reliable ever since so a similar unit is in the cards down the road. There's no reason to fear points tho, they've been used on millions of cars for over a hundred years.....

Every time I've started it today, it's popped off in less than one rotation of the crank, and it sounds sweet. Now I wonder how much of my running issues on the way home from Baltimore and on our fun run back in March could have been due to the points and condenser?

At any rate, I'll have a spare set in the toolbox on the road, but I seriously doubt I'll need to mess with them again. I do need to double check the timing tho - I'll do that in the AM before I head off to school to do the alignment.

A few final fiddles on Buzz tonight.....I built this bracket to mount the fuel pump to, it sits on some rubber standoffs now so it makes no noise. But....putting it there instead of in the back where I originally had it means there's no place to mount the washer bottle and washer fluid pump. After all the wiring repairs I had to do, it's nice to see that things I fixed like the wipers and heater blower are working properly now



I also made a "cold air intake out of some heat riser tubing....this is pretty much the final arrangement - at least for this trip to MEmW....



Here's where the relays for the high powered high beams and driving lights wound up - the labels will help me remember which is which!

 

Seems almost odd to see it with its hood.................erm, bonnet on again!



Tomorrow I'll do the 100 mile run, we got stormed out today.....

 

I reinstalled the electric cooling fan and wired up a manual override switch, the weather has cooled off exactly as they promised, so I think we'll be good to go. We'll meet for breakfast in the am and then hit the road, see you all in Milwaukee!

Look they all fit in the garage!

 

Well, I said I'd know in the first 50 miles whether it would make the whole trip or not......it actually went 65 before I said "Uncle" and turned around and drove back home - where I loaded up Buzz's big brother Max and caught up to the rest of the group at our overnight stop in Jacksonville, Ill.

Of course, that meant I drove an extra 130 miles that day too....but since I could run so much faster, and take the regular interstates, I only lost an hour to the group.

We drove the rest of the trip today and it was a long, tiring day - we took back roads all the way, most of which were great - some of which were rough as hell.... while most of the scenery was fabulous, you con only drive past so many cornfields before you start longing for the open interstate roads and to just get there.

We went to fireworks tonight - tomorrow is the first event day and it starts at 7am with car washes and breakfast, then we hit the road at 8:30 for a 60 mile drive thru the Kettle Moraine forest.....

But here's a teaser photo for those of you who think they know their Minis - identify this and tell us why it's so special. Those who know the owner or maker sit on your hands and let someone else play....

 

Sorry I haven't updated lately....

I bought a mechanical temp gauge and will install it tomorrow so I can learn whether I have a temp problem or a gauge problem.

As to the Mini above, that's a Mini sprint - the top is chopped and the body is sectioned as well. Here's a pic compared to an original back in the day when they were new.....

 

An eventful day of sorts......first off, the weather is absolutely gorgeous! 70* and low humidity, unheard of in July in Kansas - thank you polar vortex, or Canadian low or whatever you want to call it!

Anyway, I finished the mechanical temp gauge installation except for the connection to the engine, the adaptors supplied with the gauge did not fit the engine so I called Autozone - the instructions listed a part number for the adaptor I did need - they said they couldn't get it. I found it at Summit Racing, but their website said it wouldn't ship till August sometime. on a whim I drove up to Victoria British and took a look in the Midget catalog, thinking I might just buy a new sending unit and try that while I looked for the adaptor - guess what - they had the exact part I needed in stock! VB for the win, once again!



Once installed I fired it up and let it idle in the drive - I'm having a MINI shop day at my shop on Sat so I thought I'd take advantage of the cool weather and clean out the shop - something that hasn't been done in months. The Jag surprised me with a dead battery again, so I hooked up the charger - it sparked and shut off - I found a couple of bare wires right at the metal housing so I tore it down to fix the wires, rolled the Jag off the lift and hooked it up to charge while I clean the shop.



All this time Buzz is idling so I walk over to check the temp after about 10 min - right on the money. I have a 160 thermostat and it was running 160. Of course, it's like 70* today, so not much of a test. I'll take it down the road a little later and see if my speedo works and whether the temp will climb again like it's been doing. Fingers crossed!

 

No joy in Buzzville tonight.....

I took him up on the highway around town and in only 6 or 7 miles it was up to 190.....I didn't go any further tonight, I have other things to do first. Tomorrow I'm going up to school and reset the ride height and alignment - it's already settled some on one side and it pulls slightly. I'm also leaking some grease out of one of the outer boots, so I'll need to re-clamp that.

Once that's done and it's driving straight then I maybe I can address the hot running and the still insistent horrible dash rattle that I somehow still have not found!

I'm really glad I didn't try to drive it to Milwaukee, it's just not sorted out enough yet - but I'll get there.

 

I got the radiator Monday from UPS, and it wasn't even damaged! Yay...

Before I put the radiator in I decided to go after the last major rattle in the heater assembly while the coolant was still out....it's not too hard to get out as it's only held in there with 2 studs and 2 screws... and a few hoses. Once out I found the artful bodger had been in here too....the heater core itself is only help in place by foam pieces and they been replaced, but it was still loose in the case....



I decided some grommets would stop it from contacting the edges of the holes and wearing a hole in the pipes, so I drilled them out slightly and fit the grommets, a nice co effect was it took all the play out and the core was now held snugly.



Next I fixed the control flap that directs the air up to the defrost or into the car - these cars were all built to a cost and it shows in assemblies like this - the flap pivots on two pins with no bushings so it also could have been rattling too - I put some shrink tape over the pins and not only did it quiet the noise, it pivots more smoothly now too! I also replaced the foam on the flap that seals it to the core.



It took a huge amount of willpower not to completely disassemble the housing, sandblast and paint everything and rebuild the motor, but somehow I managed... :lol:

Once I had it all back together I realized where another set of rattles may have been coming from, there are two long studs that hang the rear of the unit on some tabs - once I measured the distance between the tabs I figured out that there have to be some nuts on the inside of the studs to back up the outer nuts, otherwise as you tighten the outer ones they just bend the tabs and it never really tightens the unit down - so that was my next challenge



Got it all installed and banged on it with my fist - no rattles!



Yes I see the green wire hanging down, no I don't know what it's for.....

Tomorrow afternoon I'll get the rad installed and fire it up and see how it works, if it goes well I'll start taking some short trips, if all goes well there I'll do some longer ones and if that goes OK, I'll call it good for our trip this November.

 

Took Buzz to the local MINI Club's Sonic night, the temp thing is still inconclusive, it was a fairly cool night and I didn't get much of a run down the highway but the terrible rattle is gone!



I also learned a few more things, the new headlights are pretty poorly aimed but on bright they're pretty amazingly bright, the low beams not so much tho.
Also my dash lights were out, and it's oh so dark in there without them!

Tomorrow I'm meeting a fellow classic owner for breakfast and after we're going to take an 80 mile round trip run to Lawrence - it's supposed to be mid 80's tomorrow, so that should be a good test.

 

I ordered a new heater core for Buzz about a week ago from Mini Sport in England and it showed up today in the Royal Mail - that's about how long it takes our postal service or UPS to get me parts from California!

The old core had started to leak, and while I did find an online substitute that was exactly the right dimensions and even had the offset inlet and outlet like the old one, (for a late 70's Toyota pickup!) the cost was higher than an OEM part from England - plus no one seemed to have one in stock, so......

Here's the old core......



I didn't see this damage a few weeks ago when I had the core out to fix the horrible rattle in the box, as it was covered in foam padding - the rattle was caused by a loose fit of the nipples thru the metal heater case, which I fixed with some grommets. When I put it back in the car it was still warm out so I didn't try it, the first time I did I immediately smelled coolant.

Here's the new core for comparison. The first thing I noticed on taking it out of the box is that it weighs half what the old one did - which is easy to figure when you look at them...the old one has metal end caps soldered on vs. plastic crimped on caps on the new one, and the old one has 11 tubes where the new one has 7. Looks like it will take a bit more foam padding to keep this one from moving around in the case.



I don't really care tho, as long as it doesn't leak and makes heat.....I'll put it in this afternoon, then I can button Buzz up and see what good if any my latest mods have done for him. I removed the yellow plastic radiator fan completely as I could not get the engine up to temps on colder days (I still have the electric fan mounted), and I've tried a trick on the tires to get them in balance, If this doesn't work I'll take them up to the shop Don has do his and concede defeat.....our balancer at school just isn't sized for these tiny tires.

 

More Buzz work, next up - electrical stuff that needs fixing, in some cases - again. I thought I had all this sorted when I redid the engine and front suspension and changed the fuse boxes and such but on the last drive I noted the following......

1) No heater fan - it was working, I'm hoping it's something simple like I just didn't hook the ground wire up last time I had it down.
2) Brakes lights not working - they did. I don't know what's up with this....
3) Dash lights out - same thing, they used to work fine.
4) Turn signals - work but don't self cancel. I may have to make the cam if it's missing - I understand they were made from plastic and are no longer available.
5) Fuel gauge - wildly inaccurate. Fill the tank and it takes 75 miles to come down to F, in 75 more it's empty. I hope it's just a matter of bending the float arm.
6) Aim the headlights properly, they're close but need a bit more tweaking.
7) Move the fuel pump. Right now it's on the firewall, I'd prefer it's in the back near the tank.
8 ) Once the fuel pump is relocated, I can install the windshield washer reservoir and pump.
9) Install the Pertronix I bought months ago.

I also need to tidy up some of the wiring I did under the dash, and I'm contemplating swapping the spots in the dash for the temp gauge and tiny tachometer. I have a complete mix-match of gauges as it is, so it won't look any different to the uninitiated with a casual glance at the dash.

More as it happens....

 

Yes, I thought I was going to need that to get the wheel off the shaft, turns out the big retaining nut that holds the steering wheel on was only finger tight, so the wheel came right off!

I've found a LOT of stuff like this thru out the car as I've worked on it, man if you're not going to do it right, why do it at all? :confused5:

 

I got Buzz all re-assembled this afternoon and took him for a quick spin around the block - he started right up and ran perfectly and all the electrical stuff worked just as it should have done. It's a little disheartening to work so hard for so many weeks and when it's all back together it doesn't look, run or drive any differently - but at least everything worked!

So took him around the block and when I got back I got a nasty surprise, a big ol puddle of brake fluid under the left rear wheel. I haven't done anything to the rear of the car since I got it, although I did pull the drums right before our Arkansas run last month and everything looked fine then.



I made a quick sprint up to Victoria's British Secret (well sorta, the road destruction around here this year is terrible, I wasn't sure if I could get there from here - or back!) and bought two wheel cylinders and incase those didn't fit, two wheel cylinder repair kits - I'll tackle this later tonight. Tomorrow I'm meeting John at school to align both cars to get ready for our Rt 66 trip this Saturday and Sunday.......it's always sumthin with these old cars. :roll:

Oh, and now it looks like it's gonna rain all weekend around Joplin.....

 

Turned out the Victoria British parts were correct - exactly the same as on a Spridget - and I got everything cleaned up and put back together tonight - last thing I have to do is install the clip that holds the wheel cylinder in, and it is being a be-otch! Of course there's a special tool to do this job that I can buy from any of the usual suspects, but that's not gonna help me tonight at 9 pm....I'm sure I'll figure it out....

 

Having gotten thru our Donut Run weekend, I need to get ready for our next fun run, the KC Mini Club and the Iowa Mini club do a joint event every May on some great roads in northern Missouri/southern Iowa. The fellow who organizes and runs the event is the guy who bought my '03 JCW from me - he traded it in a year later for a new JCW but I think he sold that when it ran out of warranty and is Mini-less right now, but he wanted to do the event anyway.

So, after I had a wheel cylinder start leaking on me I decided to replace all the brakes, the rears shoes are not worn out - in fact they look almost new - but after doing the repairs the left rear was still grabbing, as I cleaned up the shoes but didn't have time to replace them, and they were contaminated with brake fluid.

My front pads are also like new, but when you see the old rotors you'll laugh - they look like they've been lying in a puddle of water for a couple of years and have some deep pits - I just looked at it like they were "drilled" or "slotted".......but I decided to replace them too as Moss had them on sale for only $40 ea.

I took the rear drums up to school today and turned them on the brake lather - they had worn typically out of round, so it took a bit to get them rounded out again, and as you can imagine such tiny drums are difficult to machine. I took me a while to get the lathe set up to where everything fit and worked, then a lot of passes to get them cleaned up and smooth, but in the end I only took off about 25 thou and they turned out great. While I was there I put them in the bead blaster and cleaned off all the old rust and paint. The right side drum had either been doing all the work or grabbing as the paint was burned brown on that side compared to the yellow paint on the left side.





Tomorrow if it ever stops raining I'll get some paint on them, then Sat I'll get everything cleaned up, installed and adjusted correctly.....I'll also get to try out the fancy schmancy e-clip installer, as one of the club members has one to loan. I also have new rear brake hoses to install, mine are fine, but they're pretty hard and stiff.

Sat also I'm going to put the almond green car in the Donut Run post back on the alignment rack, the camber adjusters somehow worked loose (not my fault, my back was hurting the day we aligned it so he was under the car making all the adjustments) so this time I'll do the alignment and set it up the way I like it. Don is really happy with his P'up now that I aligned it - I don't know why it took so long for him to let me get it on the machine - but he's been fighting the poor alignment done by another shop for more than 5 years now. Bottom line, it drives great now! I'm going to see if John will let me set his up the same way - he currently runs a lot of camber front and rear (1.5 degrees), I'd like to see him reduce that to .5 degrees - I'm confident he'll like it better.