1843 replies to this topic

[Mini Waco]

I removed all the metal tabs to hold the loom in as they are poor fasteners and can harbor rust. I'm using cable tie mounts and fastening everything up properly like the windscreen washer pipe

 

Love this idea..  learning so much from you

[Ben_O]

Do you know if that loom tape is available in pale grey by any chance Pete?

 

I tried looking round but can't find any

[Petrol]

 

I removed all the metal tabs to hold the loom in as they are poor fasteners and can harbor rust. I'm using cable tie mounts and fastening everything up properly like the windscreen washer pipe

 

Love this idea..  learning so much from you

 

 

You have mail with dolly dimensions

 

Do you know if that loom tape is available in pale grey by any chance Pete?

 

I tried looking round but can't find any

 

I bought if off ebay Ben, it's gloss black but I know the colour your after and it might be difficult to find. There's loads of cloth tape available in all sorts of colours but the grey pvc stuff seems hard to find.

[Jase]

Amazing again Pete, great tips. I'm about to go through a new loom I bought so will take all of these points onboard. The same regarding sealing the vents. I thought about fitting under wing plastic guards, what do you think of those?

[Petrol]

Arch liners are a great idea, most manufacturers fit them but aftermarket products can often be a poor fit. If the liner rubs on the shell, it will do more harm than good so I have decided not to bother with them. At the end of the day, there are lots of areas on a Mini shell that are susceptible to rust. The biggest problems are the outer sills due to the very wide seams. IMO it’s better to spend money on filling the seams with zinc rather than plastic liners under the arches.

I did a silver paint run today, takes a bit of time as it’s silver basecoat followed by lacquer (clearcoat)

Brake bias valve

 

Also did the rear trunnion bolts, these are zinc plated but the paint will add a bit more protection

 

 

 

Pete

 

 

[Artstu]

A lot of people ditch that valve on the bulkhead. It does divide opinion though.

 

http://www.minispare...ble-bias-valves

[Petrol]

A lot of people ditch that valve on the bulkhead. It does divide opinion though.

 

http://www.minispare...ble-bias-valves

 

Thanks. I wondered how the front 4 pot calipers would effect the brake bias. I also don’t know the size of the new rear brake cylinders. I’m now going to ditch the stock valve and plumb the fronts from one port on the master cylinder and the rears through the other. This will give a front / rear split and bias will be controlled through a Wilwood brake proportioning valve. This sounds like a much better arrangement.

Pete
 

[Petrol]

Rather than edit the above, I thought it better to post up what I have found as some of the information I read on the net was misleading. Having been to Minisport today and looked at a brake part / configuration manual I now have a much better understanding of the various braking systems.

Fist of all, Mini's built with a split diagonal brake configuration are few and far between and are easily identified as this arrangement needs 2 brake pipes running from the front to the rear of the car. The setup on older Minis (drums all round - 1973 ish) was a single master cylinder with a limiting valve fitted to the rears. Later models have a dual master cylinder for a front / rear split system. Some of these dual master cylinders have different bore sizes to assist with brake bias compensation as disks are less efficient than drums. (Disks are better but need more force to stop the car than drums) 

The setup on this MPI is a dual master cylinder with a compensating valve again with a front / rear split. The bore sizes of the new rear wheel cylinders I bought are 19mm. These, coupled with the Minisport 4 pot calipers should give the correct brake bias when used with the stock limiting valve. 

 

I guess I will only know when I test the brakes, left foot braking will identify any problems but the last thing you want on a Mini is too much bias to the rear, especially in the wet. The upshot of all this is, I'm going to fit the stock limiting valve but if the brakes aren't right, I will mod them accordingly.

 

Pete

 

 

[Artstu]

Like I said the removal divides opinion. I believe it is a only a safety valve that is supposed to come into operation when there is a failure on one circuit, so you still have braking to either just the front or back. With the actual pressure differences needed, taken care of by the bore differences in the master cylinder.

 

Others say the valve is more complicated.

 

One my car (Black Midas) I always had poor brakes, I added a remote servo to the front circuit to try to improve things. However the back brakes were always marginal at MOT time, they where marginal before the servo was fitted anyway.

On another Midas with the same brakes I removed the valve, the brakes improved quite a bit without it fitted. I also fitted 1/2" wheel cylinders with no pressure reducing valve. The brakes on that car where much better than the other one, even without a servo fitted.

 

I suppose if your valve isn't stuck, having a servo will mask any issues it creates in non-servo cars.

[Petrol]

Interesting, I'm confident it's a bias valve. The reason it's a bias valve is there's a spring to relieve pressure to the rear brakes.

In your case, fitting a remote servo will only assist pedal pressure and by plumbing it to the front circuit only will make the brakes even more front bias - fronts are assisted, rears are not.

 

Mucho progress has been made ,today with a big shot blasting / paint session. When I started this project I vowed to "do something everyday" The plan's not changed and despite Xmas, I'm still on it

 

Having looked at other builds on here which has helped me enormously, I can post more detailed pics up of this build if it helps

 

Merry Xmas everyone

 

Pete

[Artstu]

Happy Christmas Pete, we like photos   

[Covert]

Do you know if that loom tape is available in pale grey by any chance Pete?
 
I tried looking round but can't find any

You can get it ben but its not cheap
http://www.retrobolt...ape-19mm-x-20m-

[Ben_O]

 

Do you know if that loom tape is available in pale grey by any chance Pete?
 
I tried looking round but can't find any

You can get it ben but its not cheap
http://www.retrobolt...ape-19mm-x-20m-

 

Cheers! That's the stuff!!

 

Thanks

[Petrol]

Glad you got it sorted Ben.

 

I made the centre console out of pvc (fascia board) in an attempt to save weight and it backfired. When I sprayed primer on it warped. Gutted! so had to re make it out of ply...

 

 

Minisport has a sale on in the new year so I'm trying to get a list together of the stuff I need. It's quite long.....

 

Cylinder head -

 

Took a couple of valves out of the 12G295 head I bought, things look good as there are no cracks between the valve seats

 

 

Valves look tired though as you can see with the scuff marks

 

 

Quite a bit of lateral play in the valves, not surprising really. New valves and guides was always the plan :)

 

I bought these twin carbs a while ago

 

 

 

Bling looks good but after stripping them down..

 

 

They need some work. No gaskets on the float chambers, Not ideal when you plan to drive a car to the max as this can lead to fuel spillage on the manifold

 

Inside of the float chambers needs a good clean up

 

 

Throttle spindles are worn

 

 

Again, these need replacing

 

Fuel pipes looked OK....

 

 

This is where it meets the float chamber

 

 

Again, not good, these carbs need a major overhaul.

 

 

As always thanks for looking

 

 

 

Pete

 

[Ben_O]

Shame about the carbs Pete.

 

Where did you get them from?