83 replies to this topic

[Teapot]

Slight slough of despond due mainly to lying on the garage floor a lot in muck and grease. We found we were missing one
exhaust hanger and couldn't find one locally, so the exhaust went back on the shelf awaiting the arrival of an "express" courier


But we managed to find a pair of inner gaiters for the driveshafts, so we got the
nearside one done with a struggle. The outer gaiter seemed ok.


Dougie remembered to clean the grease off the brake disc. And yes, we did
renew the split pin securing the hub nut.


Fed up with wallowing in oily gunge, so cleaned self up and painted the oil filler cap


Feeling a lot better now :)

[Ethel]

Just a quick q, if I may, did you run a servo before you rebuilt the engine? Also did it clear the breather which is on the gearbox casing? Or is it a removal and subsequent fitting job. Keep up the good work! Cheers, Spud

There's a Mini specific transfer case breather that clears the late type servo master cylinder, the Metro one will foul.

[Spud_133]

Exactly what I was after many thanks Ethel

[Teapot]

Lying on the concrete fixing the downpipe clamps ...


... isn't the ideal way of spending an evening ...


... especially when the snow kept blowing in ...


... but at least the new hanger did the job, although Dougie couldn't get the D-clamp to fit
sideways to keep the bolts ends out of the way


Posh new bracket didn't fit our old cobbled-together rear hanger ...


... so we spurned the new one ...


... and adapted our own for now.

[Teapot]

And then I checked the oil
and poured in some water and a couple of bottles of antifreeze
and put it in neutral and opened the choke
and turned on the ignition and waited for the electric fuel pump to prime the carb
and took a deep breath
and turned the ignition key all the way

By Jiminy it runs!

Started strongly, good steady pulse, we can hear the tappets need adjusting but very responsive to throttle and much, much quieter with the twin box exhaust.
The fan runs clear of the timing cover breather and the radiator itself, but it's brushing the top of the shroud. So it's not the spacing of the fan that's wrong but the height of the rad. Not a problem.

So the plan is to get the offside inner gaiter replaced and everything tightened up, and as soon as the ice & snow allow we'll do some road testing, and then put the Colortune on it, and then it's off to the rolling road.

So thanks for looking and for all your comments and maybe I'll start another thread when it's time for the next stage. I'll add one more pic when the engine detailing is tidied up

[Tupers]

It's alive.

Edited by Tupers, 22 January 2013 - 11:10 PM.

[freshairmini]

Your engine looks amazing. Loving the polished bits.
Would love to do it to my carb/inlet bits!

What tools did you use to get them so shiny?

[Teapot]

What tools did you use to get them so shiny?

Thank you. Yes, I love the bling, not least because Dougie takes the usable grotty bits away and brings them back all done. There's a pic on this forum somewhere of the kind of machine he uses at work (Google polishing machine), and I've also been reading other threads about refurbishing using various methods. Tmf-ers are an ingenious lot!

*edit* Here you go
http://www.theminifo...ld/page__st__75

and some homework for us
http://www.bilthambe...sion-treatments

(I've just noticed there's a variants section for pickups etc. Doh. But then this is about the front end so I suppose there's no difference.)

Edited by Teapot, 10 March 2013 - 04:49 PM.

[freshairmini]

What tools did you use to get them so shiny?

Thank you. Yes, I love the bling, not least because Dougie takes the usable grotty bits away and brings them back all done. There's a pic on this forum somewhere of the kind of machine he uses at work (Google polishing machine), and I've also been reading other threads about refurbishing using various methods. Tmf-ers are an ingenious lot!

*edit* Here you go
http://www.theminifo...ld/page__st__75

and some homework for us
http://www.bilthambe...sion-treatments

I thought he might have used one of those machines... And thanks for the link. That rust treatment looks pretty good, with some very useful information!

Edited by freshairmini, 25 January 2013 - 12:06 PM.