Most liked posts in thread: So, Today This Happened.....

We had no good luck with "our" racecar tho, after overheating in Fri practice due to a thrown fanbelt, we still had overheating issues, then rain on Saturday during the early race and no rain tires, so he decided not to go out but to wait for the 4:30 race. The car overheated before he even made the grid for the second race.

I left for Phoenix Sunday morning, but they called and said they had decided to just go out and see if they could get some laps in, maybe at racing speed it would cool off as he'd never had overheating issues before and had checked everything carefully and didn't think the head gasket was blown (I would have pulled the head myself, but not my car)

Then while driving it around the pit roads it got stuck in 1st gear and wouldn't come out. Game over. He loaded up and came home.....

He'll bring the gearbox over to me when he gets it pulled out and we'll see what happened.

I'm in Phoenix now visiting family, in a few days I'll head off to Santa Fe to see a friend, then homeward bound. Weather here has been lovely, warm days and cool nights, while KC keeps going thru their cycles - it'll be high 60's there today and 20 tonight!

 

Well, some good news on the baby blue Bugeye, the overheating turned out to be the water pump after all - I took it off and could not find anything wrong with it, but he replaced it and all is now good.

We also know the issue with 1st gear and he'll be bringing it to me in the next few days to fix it. Also a fairly simple fix....when I get it from him I'll post pics.

 

After being gone for 2 weeks or more I was expecting a pretty good puddle under the green Mini but it was only a couple of small spots....so I've decided to leave it alone for now and concentrate on other things.

To that end I got it back on the lift and dropped the old cobbled together exhaust system off. The Play Mini SS muffler has gotten a bit louder lately so I ordered an RC 40 center pipe and resonator which finally came in just before I got home. I installed it today and the old rear box (which I cleaned up and gave a coat of high temp Rusty Oleum)


that I've been using on the engine test stand. I'll either convert the Play Mini to that duty or come up with something else. The pipes were pretty poorly cobbled together.....





The one part of the equation I don't have tho are the rear bobbins that attach the muffler to the rear cross brace of the subframe.....I ordered those from McMaster Carr today and should have them in a day or two.

I also got the new choke cable to install, but I noticed the backing plate is all loose, so I'll drop the heater box down and see if I can figure out how to snug it up again. Then once the choke cable is in I can finish buttoning up the engine compartment, install the air filter and windshield washer bottle and a few other bits and then put some miles on her.

 

So, I got the choke cable in finally.....and maybe cured yet another dash rattle! Whohoo!

Turns out the little bracket that was loose and flopping around was only held in with a nut and a captive bolt, so all I needed to do to fix it was tighten the nut. Of course, I didn't know that's how it went together so I wound up removing all the switches so I could get my hand in there and see how it all went together. the cover plate is held in place by the choke cable housing too, so when the bracket got loose so did the cover plate.





all back together now and works a treat. I've had the switch for the rear fog light just zip tied up under the dash, I think I'm going to replace the silly "check your brake fluid" switch and light with that switch. I may have to extend the wires for it to reach but that's easily done.

 

Mine did that on my trip to Texas, AZ and Santa Fe last month.....I have a pic somewhere....

Edit: Found it.....

 

Motor is back in the car.....only about 1000 things to hook back up and I can drive it again!



This is the new switch arrangement with the fog light switch next to the headlights, and the silly check to see if you have brake fluid switch removed.

 

Yep, all I have to do is bleed the brakes - I ran out of brake fluid so I'll run down and get some this morning. Driving it will have to wait a day or two, it's raining cats and dogs here..... the good news about that is it washes all the damn salt off the roads.

In a couple of days I'll put up a short vid of a drive around the neighborhood.

The new(ish - well, new front resonator, old rear muffler) exhaust is a lot quieter, I hope that makes for a bit less racket on a long drive.

 

Well, it's back together.................again!

I had to remove the radiator again to get to the timing chain cover, in this pic you can see the telltale stain of the oil.....this part is actually the one I took off and resealed last - which makes me think it wasn't leaking but rather the timing cover was dripping down onto the transmission case....oh well.



The good news such as it is is that the crank seal appears not to be leaking, which only leaves the cover gasket. Getting the crank pulley bolt loose (65 ft lbs torque) required removing the starter so I could lock the flywheel. After that it was just a matter of taking out all the bolts and removing the cover. The gasket I used was one of the thick cardboard style but I didn't use any sealer as I thought it would be plenty good without it. Apparently I was wrong......it left a ton of residue to clean off and it was in a very awkward position, but I fired up my air powered drill with a good new wire brush and made short work of it.



Then plenty of cheese whiz on both sides of the new gasket and back together it went.....



I'll finish up installing the radiator this morning then take it for a drive as the leak only developed when driven.....and then when parked. If this doesn't settle it I don't know what to do next. There's no where else on this end of the motor that oil can leak from!

 

I'm beginning to think the Mini gods don't want me to go to this event.

today I went to start the car and drive over to Don's to help him with the tune on his MG that he had rebuilt (a whole nother story in itself) and ......nothing. The starter wouldn't do anything - so I got out my test light and sure enough, no juice getting thru the wire to the starter.

So tomorrow I get to trouble shoot that issue - either a bad ignition switch or a bad wire from the switch, but I'm betting on the bad switch. Remember when I was driving it the other day and it just shut off for no reason, then started right back up again? I've had that happen before and I know it's an electrical issue, not fuel.

So, if it's the wire that's an easy fix, a new wire. If it's the switch, I hope someone has one and can get it to me in time, we're supposed to leave next Tuesday.

Edit: Mini Mania and 7 Ent both show it in stock, but so much for getting break in miles driven before the trip

 

Brad (standing beside his red/orange Mini) had an "interesting" time on his drive up from Atlanta. This was his first time using a tow dolly, he was only about 10 miles from home when people were honking and flashing headlights at him - turns out he had forgotten to release the handbrake on the Mini and one tire was absolutely shredded! So he put the spare on and went back home to change to another set of wheels/tires and set out again. A couple hours later he noticed one of his lights had come off the fender of the tow dolly and was hanging by the wires! So he took it off and did the rest of the trip without them!

Now he's on a quest for a HF or Tractor Supply to get another set of lights he can put in the rear window of the car.

Our drive this morning varied from wet to very wet, so we moderated our pace somewhat. This afternoon it's sunny and warm, but we don't have any more drives today.

Tomorrow's drive looks like it will also be wet, then turning to snow tomorrow evening!

Should be interesting.....I did some in car video, but between the noise my car makes and the wipers going back and forth, it's not much fun to watch.

Pic is from our mid day stop - way more cars are here, they just parked somewhere else as this was our lunch break.

 

Unfortunately he only works on Classic Minis, and he's winding down his business and not taking on any new work. He still has 3 full body paint jobs to do yet, along with his own cars.....so he's busy till well into next year. This is a hobby job for him, he has a "real" full time job too! He squeezed me in as a favor.....

 

I didn't post the pic that really shows it!

it's OK, the rest of the car needs it anyhow, we'll do it this fall sometime....



We have a local Brit car show in about 3 weeks, I'll bet no one notices.....

 

So far today has been spent getting the block ready - I pull all the studs out for a couple of reasons, it makes it easier to clean the surface and I run a tap down thru all the threaded holes to make sure they're clean. I also blow some brake clean down into the holes and blow them out. Then once the block, tops of pistons and everything is clean I lock tite in the studs after I've wire brushed and cleaned the threads. I also clean the studs, one of them is always a little corroded from water coming up around the hole - that's why I lock tite them in, it stops anything from coming up thru the threads.



On my old Jag, the studs go all the way down to the bottom of the crankcase, thru the water jacket. To seal those I had to put a dollop of silicone sealer under the washer below the nuts, that seemed to do the trick, otherwise they leaked water like crazy.

So, the block is cleaned, prepped, studs are in and I put the new gasket on.....these gaskets have a sticky surface to help glue it down once it gets up to temp. I guess that's supposed to help with sealing it up, but it didn't seem to work with this one!

Next I'll need to get the head all cleaned up, once that's done I can drop it on and torque it down. I expect to have it running tomorrow - that will give me time to do some longer runs and make sure it's fixed again. Now that the weather is HOT Don wants to do some runs in his Pup and make sure it doesn't overheat too.



I wonder if I have a new heater cable in stock, that one's looking pretty ratty.....

I don't know if you guys know this, but the center stud hole in the front of the head is slightly smaller in diameter than the rest - something to do with locating the head properly I guess. Just another curious thing about these tiny little cars. And for some reason that's the one that corrodes the worst. I usually have to remove that stud before I can get the head off.

I also remove all the intake and exhaust studs as there just isn't room to push the exhaust manifold back far enough for the head to clear and come off. As long as the threads are clean and the studs aren't rusted badly they come out OK, I do have to double nut them, but once broke loose they come out easily enough.

 

Got the head all cleaned up and back on the block, torqued down. Tomorrow I should hear some good noises out of it.

 

It's always sumthin......

I was rotating the tires and giving the Racing Green a good once over and saw this - the cup under the ball in the left front was completely broken.






Fortunately I had some new ones in stock - even tho it's a PITA to change one without taking the upper control arm off. I managed to get it in tho, but I think I set the suspension height a little high, so I may have to adjust it a bit yet. I thought a quick trip around the block to set the suspension might be a good idea. All the others look fine....no idea why just this one decided to shit the bed.

Don and I did a 50+ mile hiway run yesterday in 95* plus temps, both cars ran perfectly temperature wise, tho it was pretty hard on us! I also got "spotted" and found my pic on Facebook - the angle of the pic makes it look like no one's driving!

 

I had to use a puller to press the axle out of the bearings, it's like it was all rusted together even tho I greased it thoroughly when I put it together, and I'm not sure it's been driven in the rain since I put it all together.

At any rate, when I pulled the bearings out it was clear they were toast, the outer one in particular was really rough, I'm not sure how much further it would have gone before it failed completely - but I'm glad my instincts are still accurate on diagnosis. It almost looked like they'd been underwater, even tho there was still plenty of clean grease on them.



So I've cleaned it all up and drove the old races out and new ones in, new bearings are packed and seals are installed. I found the upper ball joint was pretty free, bottom one is still stiff so I'll re-shim it, grease everything up and see if I can find some new boots.

Before I can put it all back together I still need to clean up the end of the axle and run the die down over it, and clean the seal surfaces and grease it all up, then it's fairly quick to put it all back in the car.

Then it will be decision time - tear the other side down too or just assume it's OK? I have plenty of parts in stock at least.....I always keep front and rear bearings on hand.

They make ball joints that never have to be shimmed, but they're fairly spendy - next time I order parts tho I'm putting a set in the cart - they're about $250 a set - enough for both sides of the car.

 

So, I decided to go ahead and tear down the right side just to be sure, and found the bearings OK, no wear or anything - I also noticed they were Timkens, so I didn't cheap out and buy Chinesium bearings when I redid the front end a few years ago.


However, I found some of the same issues as on the left - the end of the axle all beat over and the suspension cup broken too! I have it all disassembled and ready for cleanup, then I'll repack the bearings and put it all together again - after I fix the broken suspension cup thingy.


The right side is considerably more difficult to fix the broken cup as you have to remove the windshield wiper motor to get a socket down onto the big bolt so you can put the tool in to take the tension off the rubber spring.


That's the big ass bolt on the left side of the car, plenty of room to get a socket on it, and plenty of room to get the tool down in there.



And that's the right side of the car......I'm probably going to have to pull the hood (bonnet) off too, as the tool is too long to get in the hole with the hood on - it will make it easier to work there too I guess.

 

Headed out to Arkansas tomorrow for a 3 day run with the Midwest Se7ens group, should be perfect weather!