I went out again last night and looked at those brake lines. Absolutely not enough slack to handle a hard turn... probably massive rubbing issues as well. I don't know why they look so short in my instance (my line is the perfect 20" that is specified by Willwood), but I don't like it one bit. I pulled one of 'em and sent it to a shop in Atlanta that will make me a new set of SS flex lines w/ the exact same fittings but 5" more between 'em. Anyone have a brake line stretcher I can borrow?
Oh yeah... I got the tie rod length set better yesteday during lunch. At least the wheels appear to be pointing th same direction. Here's a link to the tool on Amazon that le me get the inner tie rod bolt loose without having to remove the outer tie rod end: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0038Q0LMK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It went to EL Johnston in College Park. It's an auto parts shop, but they do custom brake and hydraulic lines, with the proper DOT testing.
The new front brake lines should be shipped today, so hopefully the fronts will be wrapped up early next week. I'm gearing up for another garage day this weekend. Too bad... I finally got all of the grease out from under my fingernails and my hands are finally starting to feel normal again. I'm moving on to the rear suspension. Here's my punch list for this weekend: - Rear swaybar - Coil overs - adjustable lower control arms - adjustable drop links It's looking like I can wrap up the suspension and brake work in the next 10 days or so, leaving me 3 full weeks to get the final bits wrapped up and the corner balance / alignment done before MOTD. Yikes. It feels a bit close! I'm praying that this weekend's work goes smoothly and I don't have any more seized bolt fiascoes. ------------ I just skimmed back through all 18 pages of this post. Damn, it's been a lot of work!
I had a swaybar party once. We did 6 in one day. We had 4 MINIs apart at one time, scattered down the driveway. when my wife went to her mothers for a week, I had people over every night for wrenching! I do miss that.
Holy crap that was a long day in the garage! Well... a long day for a guy who sits his fat ass at a desk all day during the week. Rear coil overs, sway bar, adjustable drop links, adjustable lower control arms and the BBK (calipers, rotors, pads) bolted up. I'm still working on brake lines and the hand brake (I'm double checking the install instructions). My new front brake lines are made and should ship tomorrow. Hopefully I can get the car on the road next weekend!
I found a shop in Charlotte that can do a corner balance and alignment and they are only 5 minutes from the house! I've got an appointment in a few weeks (gotta finish the mods and get the height set). It's amazing how many shops replied "Corner balance?" or balked at letting me specify my own alignment settings.
Getting very close! I've only got 1 of the 4 brake lines connected (the fronts are in the mail and I've got some wonky threads on one of the rears... waiting for a die to arrive to clean 'em up). Here's the rears: The Willood rear calipers need a bit of modification to work. You have to drill out the mounting hole, deburr and paint it. You add a spacer and use a circlip (which I just noticed isn't pushed all the way in) to secure things.
Slowly, but surely. I got my die in the mail from Amazon, so I was able to clean up the threads on the rear brake fitting and now the rears are both plumbed. I even got the hand brake adjustment started.... needs a bit more work, but it was a good start, I sure hope those front brake lines show up soon. I really want to get the car on the road this weekend. EDIT: New lines arrived... they look great! Well... they look just like the first set of stainless lines, just with 5" more in the middle!
I got out last night and finished up the hand brake connections, setting the tension correctly Well... I really need to get the hydraulic lines working so I can stomp on the pedal and center the calipers, but it is as proper as I can make it right now. After 7 months of wrenching, I'm down to a 'to-do' list that is less than 10 items long! 1. Connect front brake lines 2. Bleed brakes 3. Tighten bolts to front crush tubes (I forgot to snug 'em down tight and then I put the aero panel on. Doh!) 4. Grind out the openings in the front strut towers (camber plates can't be set because the openings are too small). 5. Drop the car to the ground and test-drive to settle the suspension and to see how badly I've screwed up the suspension. 6. Return to the fuel system (tank sensors have an issue (they were falling apart in my hands and I might return to the first fuel pump... Last time I drove the car I was having an intermittent stalling issue under load...) 7. Run a hard wire line for the GPS unit (I hate dangling cords) 8. Drive it and set the ride height 9. Corner balance and alignment in 10 days. 10. Drive the crap out of it, shake out any issues and pack for the Dragon.
Sunday was a very productive day in the garage! 1. I got the new front brake lines attached. I'm so much happier with the fit. The original Wilwood units were 5" shorter and I didn't think they would survive a lock-to-lock turn of the wheel. Maybe I was supposed to run the line behind the strut, but that seemed to be running into lots of other mechanical pinchy things. I liked the OEM routing, so I needed a bit more slack. 2. I bled the clutch line, to flush out old fluid, and bled all of the new brakes twice. The old brake fluid was seriously nasty. 3. I got a few other minor clean-up things done 4. I put the wheels on and dropped the car to the ground, for the first time in 5-6 weeks! The test drive was great, but I still had a bit of a stumble 2 or 3 times, coming off of hard acceleration... the engine would rev up as I'm accelerating and when I go to change to the next gear it feels like the DSC would kick in (but no DSC light) for 3 seconds or so. What do you guys think of the ride height? I dislike the slammed look... I want a functional, performance / functional look: 5. I've got nice new adjustable camber plates up front but, as is frequently the case w/ R53s, you can't reach the adjustment screws because the strut tower opening is too small. I got out the pneumatic grinder and got to work. I got one side done, but decided to give my poor air-compressor a rest. I'll work on enlarging a couple of these corners and doing the other side in the evenings this week. 6. When I put in the new fuel pump a while back (a high performance unit from Colin Greene), I found that both of the fuel gauge float systems had been mangled by a previous wrencher. They were almost impossible to get back into the car correctly and they only made it a test drive or two before failing. I bought new fuel units for each side (complete housing / float / pump / fliter units) and did the install. Maybe that will fix my stumble issue... perhaps it was a fuel starvation thing. If the new fuel units don't help, I'll have to break down and take Rufus in to the dealer. I did this work while working on my grinding project (while giving the air compressor a rest... an open fuel tank and sparks don't mix well), so I haven't been able to test it yet. I put a standard fuel pump in, in case the high flow fuel pump was my stumble issue. If the stumble is still there, maybe I'll go back to it at a later time. 7. I ran a power wire for my GPS so it's tucked out of the way and doesn't dangle / fly around in the twiesties. I usually run a hard line, but this looks pretty good for now. My old GPS was easier to deal with as it took a 12v input. The new one uses a micro USB port, so I'll have to run some sort of converter and I'm getting a bit tired of spending my weekends in the garage. I've got a good solution to get me through MOTD. Maybe I'll build in some dedicated USB ports next winter... Once I finish my grinding project, MY work on the refresh project is done! I've got an appointment for a corner balance and alignment in a week and I might need to get him into the shop to see about the stumble (and a once-over by a trained tech wouldn't be a bad idea either, really).
Now I understand why it's called the Daily Grind. I'm slowly using an air grinder and a stone wheel to grind open the windows in the top of the strut towers. The pic above is one side. Once I got it ground open, smoothed, sanded and quickly primed/painted/cleared, I discovered that it could still use a bit more room (hence the black marks, letting me know where I have more work to do). My air compressor takes about 20 minutes to fill up and the grinder blows through the tank in about 5 minutes of grinding. I go out 4-5 times a day, grind for 5 minutes then walk away to let the compressor recharge. At this pace, I MIGHT be done grinding tomorrow! I hate removing material from this part of the car (complex, stamped curves like this help provide rigidity), but I figure that the full camber plates and the strut bar (with large, flat top plates) will overcompensate for any weakness I might cause (plus I'm trying to keep a nice, smooth radius to the new corners). I've really got an itch to go for a drive! I really want to see if the new fuel pump and parts fixes the stumble issue. Oh well... I've got until the weekend to get it done. 1. Finish the grinding / painting of the camber adjustment access holes. (one side done... one side has the grinding done and needs a couple more layers of paint) 2. Get the car back on the ground, drive it a bit and make a few minor height adjustments. 3. PDR coming on Monday... the body work is so nice and I've got 2 small dings on the passenger side door. I should have had 'em done when Rufus was at the body shop, but there were so many other issues that you didn't really notice these until the rest was done. I'm getting picky now! 4. Corner balance and alignment on Tuesday 5. Off to the MINI dealership on Wednesday. I swore I wouldn't go back, but I need someone to look at the stumble (if it's still there) and I want someone familiar with MINIs to do a full safety inspection after all of my work and before I go to MOTD. I miss my favorite MINI mechanics back in Dallas (that and having 3 dealerships to choose from). Then it is done! 1 week to go!