487 replies to this topic

[Alan Carruthers]

Stunning mate, enjoy, hope to be alongside you soon! With my leaky diff!

A

[duds100]

^ ditto ^... i'll bring some drip trays!!! 😂

[racerlike]

Heading home tomorrow with the plan to be at Beaulieu on Sunday if the forecast is for a dry day.

[racerlike]

Well she made it there and back without incident. Round trip of 70 miles which isn't much in terms of road testing but its the furthest the car has been in 7 years so I was very pleased.
I entered it into the concours primarily just to show it off rather than compete for any trophies.
Comments from people were very positive and those that took the time to talk to (wow thats alliteration for you) me and ask questions really made my day. It was what I had aimed for when I started this project.

[DEPS]

Nice one. Well done.

[racerlike]

Off to watch F1 tomorrow with the folks so while I was back home I took the mini out to calibrate the Speedo. Thats all sorted and reading much more accurate than before.
However, all is not well.
No traction in first, second or third under anything other than careful acceleration. If I try to put my foot down it gives an awful d-d-d-d-d-d-d sound and I had to back off and accelerate very gently.
Real mechanical sound but ive not got time to check it out this weekend.

[duds100]

What PSI are you running in your tyres? Also, the D-D-D noise will most likely be the idler sprocket skipping on the chain. Check the chain tensioner, you want it pushing on to the chain quite firmly to take the slack out.

[racerlike]

Yeh my first impression was chain slip. I've had both sprockets come loose before when I last changed the diff over. Thread locked them in place but wouldn't surprise me if one or both and come loose again.
Running 28psi and that's been fine - no issue with traction. Felt good going to beaulieu and back

[duds100]

Check the idler pulley tension too. When I get that noise is due to slack in the chain & I have to tighten the tensioner a little.

Sorry, I initially thought you were referring to traction from the tyres hence he psi question!

[racerlike]

You were spot on. Chain was just hanging there. Front sprocket feels loose but it was the tension on the chain that had gone. I guess its still bedding in after beaulieu just needs re-tensioning
Drama over

[duds100]

Glad you got it sorted. I run a couple of washers above the spring on mine just to increase the tension a bit but then I am running a small 14T diff sprocket so there is a fair bit of slack to take up. 

[Shanksy950]

Absolute fantastic build! Looks great!
I read through all 23 pages of this! I'm soo glad you stuck with it.
Very well done!
I am thinking about doing this build. But I want to daily it.
How is the drive-ability of the mini?

It looks a bit low, how does it handle speed bumps?

Is it reliable?

And do you have a rough mpg? Is it really heavy on fuel or is it not bad?

[racerlike]

Cheers for the positive comments.
Ive not done many miles yet but so far so good. I see no reason why this conversion couldn't be used as a daily driver.
Obviously you wouldnt go down the same route as me, stripping it out, rollcage, coilovers etc but if you kept it like a normal mini you could have quite the sleeper.
It low on 10s. 13s would give a little more. I wouldnt fancy taking on a speed hump in mine.

I think it would be very reliable once everything settles down but as for mpg ive no idea at present.

[joe90]

Hi Ollie it's looking good glad it's finally on the road

[racerlike]

So am I!
Not without it's few issues but yeh it is at last road worthy.