150 replies to this topic

[daemonchild]

I did three ball joints this evening starting at 2000 when I got in from work.
I'd have done four, but I ran out of shims..
Tomorrow, I'll take apart the old ones from the front drum hubs and steal those.
And I must remember to do the lock tabs (!!). Didn't want to do any hammering after dark.

[daemonchild]

I've bought a new shed for the garden. It's more secure and so on.
Awesome, but what has this got to do with my mini project?
Well, it means that the old shed is now empty and rather than take it apart, I've just shifted it over a bit.
It's not ideal, but it's making an awesome workshop. AND best of all, the Management says I can get a replacement for it when it falls apart...
So basically, I get a 8x6 workshop where I can actually use my tools with a bit of space! FTW

It's been useful today...

I've finished assembling the two refurbished disk hubs:

- Four shiny new ball joints
- Two wheel bearings

Gratuitous shiny stuff picture:



Bear in mind that this hub looked like the following when it came off the donor car. I'm happy!


(Edit: forgot to add the grotty picture!)

I also assembled the drive shafts ready to go on. One of the CV joints is a little more worn than the other, but nothing to worry about.
With advice from Martin at MRA Minis, I'm putting this one on the driver's side and the stiffer/less worn of the two on the nearside.
The reason behind this is that there are more pot holes on the nearside, so that the 'better' CV should ride out the shocks better. It's a plan anyway!

Here goes -- both driveshafts done as follows:

1) Putting on the inner CV (pot joint) boot. It's flipped inside out to do up the clip:




2) Flipped forwards ready to receive the CV grease (not yet - this will be done just prior to going on the car!)




3) Slide on the outer CV boot. It sort of flips inside-out:



4) Using a hammer and a block of wood, whack merrily until the CV jumps over the circlip, then push it home with same devices:



5) Do up the smaller end of the boot:



6) Fill up the CV joint and work it into the balls. No pictures of this as my hands were a bit messy for touching the camera!
However, once this is done, put on the wide part of the boot and secure it. A tip here is to pre-stretch the boot so that you know it is able to go into place correctly. So do a trial run with the joint DRY. Then it's much easier with the CV grease in place. Yuk!



All done and ready to go to the car!

Edited by daemonchild, 01 May 2010 - 09:35 PM.

[Boycie]

Coming together beautifully mate

[daemonchild]

Coming together beautifully mate

Thanks! Let's hope the MOT man appreciates my efforts.

[Burnard]

Coming together beautifully mate

Thanks! Let's hope the MOT man appreciates my efforts.

If he dont, you can borrow my breaker bar

Good work but one monumentle error. Those parts are ment to be pink on 73 cars!

[daemonchild]

Coming together beautifully mate

Thanks! Let's hope the MOT man appreciates my efforts.

If he dont, you can borrow my breaker bar

Good work but one monumentle error. Those parts are ment to be pink on 73 cars!

Damn.

[leaky]

Looks good mate. Good luck with the MOT.

[analogue_radio]

Cheers for the CV boot photos, will help no end when I do mine

[daemonchild]

Cheers for the CV boot photos, will help no end when I do mine

No problems!

So this weekend, I'm planning to get all the brakes sorted.

Then I can concentrate on getting her started again.
I've done a electro-magnetic conversion on a dizzy ready to go in - photos to follow.

I guess then it's a case of:

- petrol tank out
- quick couple of welds (ha ha ha - ok, so I've been having a go on some scrap, but it's not pretty..)
- fit rear lights properly
- bit of spraying at the front to cover the primer (this will be rough as, but functional)
- fit rear windscreen fillet
- fit front lights properly
- fit interior and seatbelts
- sort doors (swap basically)
- pass MOT (???)

[daemonchild]

(Duplicate post --> 3G dongle on the train from Paddington = not good signal!)

Edited by daemonchild, 28 April 2010 - 06:02 PM.

[daemonchild]

I had a late start today (3pm) but I got a fair bit done:

- Removed one door 'cleanly' (I have two pukka doors to go on in replacement as a speed fix!)
- Half removed the other, but will need to do some hammering...
- Painted behind the door with Hammerite to keep it good
- Touched up a few bits that I'd missed before with Hammerite on the floor and arches
- Put the brake disks on the refurbished flanges and torqued up as per Haynes
- Removed the long front drum hoses (what a laugh on the drivers side )
- Removed the really grungy bonnet release and brought it home to Bagpuss clean.

The bonnet release just wasn't working properly mainly due to 37 years of crud and grease in there:

Being cleaned:


Ready to paint:


And painted in silver Hammerite:


We'll see what it looks like in the morning, but I'd say it'll be a tiny bit better!
The paint should keep off some of the crud ( and make it easier to clean off when it does get there ), so I'm hoping this old mechanism has a few more years in it yet...

(Picture quality very low - due to Nokia mobile... )

[daemonchild]

Got a bit done today too. I was busy all day, but I really don't feel like it's a days worth of progress.
Anyway, a few pictures today as I remembered to take my digi-compact camera around to the garage.

Firstly, I spent a while on trying to get her started. And failed.
I used the famous Doug Lawson static timing guide and also called one of the guys from TVMC to see if it sounded like I was getting it right.
And it should be starting now. We have fuel (wet plugs and a petrol smell).
We have a spark from the coil and from a spark plug. I guess it's just not happening at the right time!
Perhaps the mixture is too rich too? Who knows? If anyone wants to pop round and help....

I got a bit fed up and used the aggression to attack the stuck door.
I also bought a cordless Dremel. Between the Dremel and a large hammer and cold chisel, the door has finally come off!
I made a bit of a mess of the bolt head...



As per the other side, I've put Hammerite behind where the door was.

I did the drivers side drive shaft and hub (the long one...)
To complete the photo story in a previous posting, here is the inner CV joint being attached. I was a bit worried about the plastic ratchet bit of the cable tie hitting, so I left it long while I did a couple of rotations of the shaft. It was fine, so I then cut off the long tail.

Here goes with the shiny stuff:

1) Installed the hub and loosely did up the ball joint nuts:



2) Brake disk attached (it's bolted to the flange in case you've never done this bit yourself, dear reader):



3) MMMMmm. Nice calipers courtesy of MRA Minis (TY Martin!):




Tip: put the hose on the caliper first. This makes it easy to ensure no kinks and twists when you run the hose to the subframe.

4) All ready to be torqued up. Notice the big fat washer. This is to bring the whole assembly together before you remove the castle nut and insert the conical washer. (Hope you like the flanges!)



I also used my new dremel to cut a channel in the filler that had been used to smooth the pretty large gap between the wing and front panel. Hey, I didn't do it. But it's good and solid - just a poor fit, so we'll let them off.



And primer. At a distance, you'll not be able to tell it's not a 'proper' gap:



I've also sprayed a second coat on the bonnet catch that I cleaned up yesterday and also cleaned up the door-hinge plates. They were really crappy, so they had wire brush and Hammerite treatment too. Hey, it's the detail that makes the mini right?!

[leaky]

Looks good mate. Will it be ready for L2B? I do still on intend of coming round and helping sometime its just the bloody garage wont give me my car back.

[daemonchild]

Oh god. So much has happened in the last year.
But it's time to start work on Little Em again tomorrow....
I wonder if she's rotted away in the meantime!?!?!

[Shifty]

Bleeding hell, its a ghost!!!

Nice to have you back around!!