MINI Max has a new little brother, Buzz

Today I finished up all the misc odd bits of wiring that needed sorting.....I only have one lead left to run, from whatever switch I deem for the driving lites, then add a few tie wraps here and there to neaten things up and she's done.

Got the antifreeze in today and thank god, it hasn't leaked a drop......I was a little concerned about the radiator, I thought I saw a spot where it might have been seeping, but so far so good. I don't have time for any major headaches before I leave for Mini Meet East in 10 days.

But - I still have an issue with the brakes, I don't know if it's the proportioning valve (I'm betting it is) or something else - but I need to figure it out quick. I have a couple more tricks up my sleeve to try before I break out the credit card and overnight one here on Monday.

 

Probably cause I haven't put up any pics lately! :biggrin5:

So tonight I fixed one of the worst rattles in the dash, I'm still not sure how I did it. The right side - when you pulled out the heater knob the whole right side of the dash would pull out, which would disconnect the headlight switch. I found there was a small bracket that was supposed to be attached that wasn't. I tried one little tiny nut after another out of my collection and invariably I'd drop it and it would roll into someplace I couldn't see. So I stuck my little magnet in and moved it around and came up with most of them - including the one that was originally on the bracket! Somehow I managed to get it to thread on and from there it was all downhill. Fixed!

 

I have to wonder how long it had been rattling around in there?

Today I'm going to work on the brakes till I either fix them, or find out what the problem is so I can get parts on the way. I mean, they worked perfectly before, and all I did was clean and paint. I did overhaul the master cylinders, but they were in pretty good shape, all I did was renew the rubbers and clean things up. The fronts pumped right up, the issue is I can't get fluid to the rear, so whether I have a massive air bubble somewhere, or the pressure regulator is not letting the fluid back there.....gonna hafta find out why. :confused5:

 

More progress today.....it's down on its wheels and off the rack and it now has working brakes!

I found an arcane, weird brake procedure in the old Haynes manual - push the pedal down sharply, hold three seconds, let up slowly, wait 15 sec, then repeat. All I know is that it worked.....and I got a ton of old, black nasty fluid out of the back wheel cylinders. They also followed the (to me) normal procedure of bleed the left rear, then the right rear, then left front, then right front - which is how I've always done it, but the Bentley manual said bleed both front and rear on one side at the same time.......I followed the Haynes way instead and it worked. I was thinking I was going to have to buy a new master cylinder and maybe the proportioning valve too @ $400 the pair plus freight!

I also put the seat in and bolted it down.

I ran the engine for about half hour today, it ran a little warmer than I thought it would, just slightly above the middle of the gauge so I'll need to watch that - I removed the aux electric cooling fan as I didn't think I'd need it with a clean cooling system but I may still - I never drove it in 90* temps before either so I don't know where it will run - I did put a 160* thermostat in it. Oh and my heater valve leaks, I can get a new one at Vicky Brit's so no worries there.

I ran out of energy - plus it's bloody hot and humid out - so I didn't try to drive it yet, I should do that tomorrow. I still need another front outer CV joint boot clamp, then everything in the drivetrain is buttoned up. Once it's rolling I'll need to get it up to school on the alignment rack and get the ride height and alignment straightened out. Then I can really put some miles on it.

I still have an odd electrical thing going on with the rear fog light, but worst case I'll just disconnect it.

 

Yeah, no way I'll be ready, I'm stressed about being ready to leave for Milwaukee the Wed after the Mid O weekend. I'd love to go but it's just not in the cards this year......

 

Well, looks like I found the problem with the fog lite. I was running a new wire thru the dash to power up the sockets for my Garmin and cell phone when I looked at the switch for the heater blower - which also doesn't work - and now I think I know why - the wires that are plugged into that switch are the same color as the ones for the fog light - and not the right ones for the blower motor. And, the switch was on......

Sheesh, I've never seen such a hodge podge of poor wiring done to a car. I'm sure there are worse out their in the world but this thing is just nutso!

On top of that, the engine wouldn't start tonight - like it was locked up. I pulled the plugs and cranked it over and shot gasoline all over the shop - it was hydrolocked. I dried out the plugs and put them back in and it started but wouldn't run up, then after a few moments it died again. I put my fuel pressure gauge on and tried to start it - nuttin - no fuel pressure. Brand new fuel pump - 2nd one - worked fine a couple of days ago. It's going back to O'Reilys and I think I'm going to buy a mechanical pump like the car came with.

Can.not.get.a.break.

 

Where did you get it?

All the parts stores around here only carry these stupid Mr. Gasket pumps....

 

Buzz is alive again....

After days of trouble shooting what I thought was a fuel problem (although it did have a fuel problem - more on that in a minute) as the engine would start sometimes run up a little for 5 sec or so, then die and not restart, like it was running out of fuel......turns out the points had closed up. I had to reach back into my deepest, dimmest memories from the early 70's to remember that my '62 Cooper S used to do that sometimes, and when it did it ran like **** - if at all. So I pulled the points, cleaned, lubed them (I still have a tube of cam lube grease - most people wouldn't know what that was!) and set them correctly (I had to get out a magnifying glass to see the gap!) and the engine popped right off and purrs again.

<Sighs> - two days wasted.....

The fuel issue.....all I can think of is that I must have left the key on for a very long time while doing other things and it just flooded the carb - even tho there's no gas coming out of the vent tube on the carb like it should if it was flooded. But I know that it filled the cylinders and added at least 2 quarts to the sump, so I drained out my nice clean gas-contaminated Brad Penn oil and put in 5 new quarts. I now have 1 1/2 quarts out of a new case of oil left for the trip - hope I don't need it!

The good news is even tho it hasn't been driven, it's been run quite a bit and it's not leaking any fluids, oil, brake fluid, coolant - nuttin!

As it should be.

Since time is getting so tight for the Milwaukee trip (yesterday I was just resigned that I just wasn't going to make it) I'll try to get everything buttoned up and re-assembled today, then tomorrow take it up to school for the alignment. After that, if all looks well Don and I will take a run down K-10 to Lawrence and back, that's almost 100 miles round trip. If it does that with no major issues, then I'll feel a lot better about heading out of town with it....and I'll try and get as many miles on it as I can before Wed's departure.

More as it happens.....

 

Ugh......not out of the woods yet.

When I made the post above I had run it for maybe 3 minutes, it ran perfect, reved easily, idled smoothly and so on - I thought I had it licked. A little later I go down to start it, pops right off, runs perfectly revs smoothly sounds great runs for several minutes and.......................dies. Won't restart. Acted like someone turned off the key.

I tried again about 20 min later, started, ran perfectly, idles, revved, ran for about 4 minutes and died. Won't restart.

Since then I've tried everything - when it cranks it's got great spark, both at the coil and at the plugs. Plugs aren't wet like it's flooding, and when it runs it sounds completely normal.

Tried hot wiring it - nothing. Swapped coils with the Jag - nothing. Put everything back again - nothing. Decided to pull the carb, no dirt or gum or anything in it, looks brandy new inside - and it's full of gas, just as it should be - so it's not running out of gas - it act's like someone just shut off the key.

Just for fun I ran a quick compression test - 180 across the board.

I'm dashed if I know what's bothering it - in my world if they have compression, spark, timing and fuel - they run.