409 replies to this topic

[1984mini25]

Those cannon reversible mats are the originals for the rear originally

Look to be in good condition!

 

If they are the rears, it probably explains why they are in good condition (although not perfect) and have survived. As going by the state of the original beige, supposedly grey threadbare front carpets that were only fit for the bin. The front rubber mats must have come to a similar fate and possibly hence the state of the carpets when I bought it. Although I did have second thoughts with the modelling paint and paint brush when the edging needed 2 coats.

[1984mini25]

Just a small update. I've recently made the decision to break up my other mini (the green Mayfair) witch I have owned for the last 10 years, haven't done anything to it for the last 5 and has never been on the road/driven in my ownership. I'm keeping any parts that will be of use on the 25, any unwanted parts of worth while of value sold on and the stripped shell (zero rust) sold on with the V5 for a new owner to do as they please with.

 

So apart from having a garage full of mini parts to trip over, I now have a load of usable parts (witch are basically new) I can swap over onto the 25 and as a further bonus the sale of some parts has temporarily helped out my financial situation.

 

I've already swapped over from the green one to the 25 the front dampers, I still need to do the rears as I need to buy the 4 rubbers for the top. I've started to clean and tart up the heater witch was fitted with a brand new heater matrix and is unused. As the heater in the 25 just isn't getting as hot anymore and rather than mess around I'll just swap the heater unit completely. Although in order to swap over the heaters/matrix, the 89 had 5/8" heater hoses and the 25 uses 1/2" heater hoses, so I've got that little issue to work round. Although form a quick look round, if I was to buy a new matrix (same matrix/heater boxes) for the 25, the only ones available now use 5/8" outlets anyways.

 

And finally one thing I had been meaning to fit to the 25, but could never justify the extra expense of buying another one is an oil pressure gauge. But as I now had a fully working one with all the fittings going spare it was just a simples swap over with help from megamini_jb who popped over for a few bits.

 

 

And to save drilling to the upper dash rail (I did try but later got frustrated that I couldn't get a good enough fixing) I came up with a u clap from an offcut of 1" box section (left over from my brace bars) and a few welded m6 nuts and bolts.

 

 

 

 

 

And after a quick spin out trying to ovoid all the local road works, (so I couldn't use the fun twisty b roads) and apart from a slightly slipping clutch (the oil seals weeping) my warm oil pressure seams to be a constant 60psi above 2.5k and doesn't drop below 35psi at idle. Witch I'm pretty pleased with for an asthmatic 70k 988.

Edited by 1984mini25, 15 February 2017 - 03:44 PM.

[GraemeC]

5/8"-1/2" hose adapters are easy to get and only pennies

[1984mini25]

Yep, but the hoses on the car are all the originals. So what I'm planning on doing is replacing the top and bottom radiator hoses and converting the heater ones over to 5/8". Witch does also mean drilling out the holes in the bulkhead for the larger hoses and grommets, but no biggie. The only issue I have is the heater tap on the head being 1/2" still, so I'll have to have a short section of 1/2" hose just for that witch is a bit annoying.

[1984mini25]

Something I've noticed today while swapping over the front heater panel from the 25, so I can paint it up and fit it to the refurbished heater as its in better condition. Is when I come to swap over the heater units I'll unfortunately lose the paper sticker that's on the side of the heater. Its little things like this that me being a sad people like to keep, even if the car isn't exactly concourse standard.

 

 

 

So does anyone have any ideas on how to carefully remove it? Its only paper, so I'll only get one go. Or alternately where I could get a reproduction made up to stick to the new heater.

[Ben_O]

Warm the panel up from the back where the sticker is and then carefully peel it off.

 

Don't get it too hot or it will just blacken

[MacGyver]

Take a few high quality and nicely square pictures just in case, so you can always print it out on sticker-paper if something goes wrong...

Ben

Edited by MacGyver, 17 February 2017 - 05:33 PM.

[1984mini25]

I might even just leave it but keep the side panel off the heater to add to the collection.

 

I've also got a bit more done. The replacement heater unit is all painted, I'm just waiting on the paint to harden before I reassemble it all. I've also painted the yellow rear gmax dampers off the green one black, so they are ready to be swapped over. And while I'm doing that I'll remove the fronts again to paint those black to.

[1984mini25]

I spent most of last week shopping around for replacement clutch parts, As since around Christmas there has been a steady trickle of fresh oil from the flywheel housing split pin. So it’s a given that the primary oil seal would have to be replaced along with at least the centre plate.

 

But for the last few years at least, the clutch in the 25 has always felt to me a bit on the soft side, lacked bite, gear changes being slightly crunchy and an annoying rattle on idle. So with the other mini now being broken up and me wanting to save spending as much as possible, the other mini just so happened to have a decent slightly used clutch fitted. So the plan was to change the primary seal and swap the clutches over, well sort of.

 

Once I’d remove the clutch and flywheel for the other mini, the centre plate was a funny brown looking colour. Witch was odd as it hasn’t been driven on the road, but thought best not to use it.

 

So I went on the hunt for a verto centre plate, shouldn’t be too hard. But all I could find locally was a complete unbranded clutch kit for £140, Minispares were handily out of stock of the verto centre plates. None of the previously decent mini suppliers (mini-its, mini speed etc. are no longer around) and I don’t trust minisport. And the £60 ones on eBay’s being listened as genuine AP plates handily had ‘box not included’ in the descriptions. But I could find plenty of the cheaper pre-verto centre plates and was considering using one until I fired and message off to guesswork’s asking if the pedal would then be too hard. Amongst some confusion on my part it turned out John had a surplus stock of Verto clutch plates and kindly posted one off for £38.

 

 

So that was the new primary seal and clutch plate sorted, leaving a quick walk into town for a few cans of brake cleaner. Then over the weekend under some shelter from the garage door I set about removing the clutch from the 25. Luckily everything on the 25 came apart easily, even if some of the extra bits like the air horns, headlamp replays and stuff in engine bay had to be worked around first.

 

 

 

 

The only tricky bits were fitting the new primary seal, as I don’t have the tool and the last one I did with the engine in the car (on the 25) was 11 years ago and even then I didn’t use the tool back then.

And trying to work out a way of removing and re-torqueing the 6 bolts for the centre boss to pressure plate to swap those over with the pressure plates. The 3 centre punch marks are for future reference so the next time the flywheels off I can be sure the c washer is the correct way up.

 

 

[1984mini25]

Now I have a chance to finish my update.

 

Also another trick learned over the years regarding fitting the bolts for the engine mounts. After lining up the holes in the mounts with the subframe using a flat bladed screwdriver or spike. The bolts can be easily dropped into place the correct way (bolt in from above with the nut on the bottom, so if the nut were to ever vibrate lose and fall off, the bolt stays In place) with the help of some masking tape and the bolt pushed into the spanner.

 

 

 

 

But now everything is back together, I now have a nice feeling clutch pedal, no annoying rattle when idling, no crunching in the gears (unless I'm being a tit) and seems to be nippier than before. I still need to take it for a proper run and I’ve still got more things on the list of parts to replace or upgrade.

Edited by 1984mini25, 01 March 2017 - 06:42 PM.

[MrBounce]

Good work - it's always so satisfying when something goes well 

[1984mini25]

Much more satisfying than one of these days where things don't go to plan, break or don't fit.

 

Although I have got a growing list of jobs. I've finished refurbishing the other heater and collecting the various parts I'll need, so all I have to do now is swap the units over, enlarge the holes in the bulkhead, fit new grommets, route the new hosing and connect it all up.

 

But I also have....

 

Fit the now painted black dampers on the rear (need new top bushes), replace the fuel tank/body seal while the tank is moved out of the way and remove and paint the front dampers black to match. (they just don't look right being yellow)

 

While I had my head under the front drivers arch the other weekend doing the engine mount bolts, I noticed the ends of the front brake hoses don't look too cleaver along with the hoses themselves. Witch at the moment probably aren't anything to worry about mot wise, but not something I want to leave too long.

 

As I believe the front brake hoses at least (I know the rears have been replaced a while back) to be the originals. But my very friendly mot tester gave me an advisory a few years back (never recorded) that the brake pipe union under the radiator was a bit on the rusty side, but not leaking and to give it a good wire brushing and some paint, witch I've done. But as I'll have to replace both front hoses, I might as well replace the front copper brake pipe as well. And although the rear hoses have been replaced I can't remember when, So I'll do those at the same time along with the rear wheel cylinders witch are miss matched age wise.  

 

Also while doing the clutch I had to disturb the extra wiring on the starter solenoid, as such one or two of the ring terminals broke. So what I plan on doing is to redo as much of my auxiliary relay wiring and tidy it up a bit, rather than the mess of wires added/cable tied to wires that I have now.

 

Along with the heater swap, I've also got plans on changing the top and bottom radiator hoes. As both are the 32 year old originals, are getting a bit leaky round the ends (especially the water pump end) and you can only ever tighten a jubilee clip so far (even new ones) before they give.

 

I've also go a slight issue with the temp gauge under reading/being lazy, I'm going to try a new sender in the head first. But it might require me to remove and replace the gauge in the dials. Luckily I just so happen to have a spare set of clubman and gt clock I've been using for parts over the years otherwise that one could be expensive.

 

And if that wasn't enough, I've also got some fresh rust patches to deal with. I've already made a start on the one appearing under the o/s front headlamp seam. But I also have both door bottoms, o/s quarter window sill and under the rear window seal along the bottom n/s corner causing it to leak.

Edited by 1984mini25, 04 March 2017 - 08:12 PM.

[1984mini25]

Made a start of swapping over the heaters and upgrading to the larger pipework, rather than dong what Austin/rover did and just stretch the ends of 1/2 heater hoses.

 

One removed manky heater...

 

 

Although the heater matrix externally doesn't look too bad, apart from all the dead insects stuck to it and inside the heater box.

 

 

 

The coolant that was drained from it wasn't a lot and full of rust, so the matrix is more than like blocked up internally.

 

 

 

Although none of that really matters, as I have one freshly refurbished heater with nearly new matrix. And after a scroll through eBay and a trip off to Halfords, also all the various bits needed to swap it over.

 

 

 

But, in order for the new grommets to fit along with the larger hoes, the holes in the bulkhead and crossmemebr both needed drilling out to 32mm with the aid of my step drill. And after a quick spray of paint, that's as far as I got for today what with doing other stuff and paint drying.

 

 

Edited by 1984mini25, 06 March 2017 - 08:46 PM.

[1984mini25]

I got the heater swap finished up the other day. The pipe work on the heater is a bit tight and wanted to kink. But hopefully in a few weeks time after the hoses have started to settle a bit I'll be able to fiddle them a bit more. I'll need to drain the system again anyway when I do the radiator hoses.

 

 

 

This is also the best solution I could come up with for the 1/2" heater tap to 5/8" hoes issue. Although it does also give me the option of swapping out the stubby take off on the head and the later plastic inline heater valve, using the shorter mpi heater cable. Something I might do in future (have all the bits) as the current heater tap is weeping a bit.

 

 

 

And 2 more bits I've bought arrived this morning.

 

A new sticker for the refurbished heater, £4.75 off eBay (half the price of the gel covered ones from sticky fingers) and a new temp sender.

 

 

 

Heater sticker fitted.

 

 

 

And the temp sender swapped over. Luckily after a quick spin out, the temp gauge is working again, witch is lucky as I really wasn't looking forward to taking out the dials again.

 

Edited by 1984mini25, 08 March 2017 - 04:48 PM.

[1984mini25]

I’ve since replaced the rear dampers and repainted the fronts black to batch, as the standard yellow of the Gmax dampers just wasn’t working with the standard look of the 25. The rides improved, or least I could at least feel the difference with just the new front with the back end being a lot softer than the front. Now I’ve replaced all four corners its firm, but not harsh.

 

I’ve also just finished replacing the top and bottom radiator hoses I picked up at Brooklands, although not in the 25, I thought I arrive in something a little less subtle, 2 extra doors and bright red.

 

 

I originally planned on just pulling out the rad swapping the hoses and dropping the rad back in. But where the original hoses had swelled up at the ends (need to get pics of) and the water pump end had been leaking for quite a while it was a bit too corroded to do just that. So in the end I ended up pull the out the rad, surround, fan and water pump pulley off for better access to clean up the pump.

 

 

While the rad was out it was given a flush through, the surround was given a quick rub down and lick of paint, and as the accesses was good I checked over the gearbox end of the speedo cable. Although now everything is back together the speedo needle still bounces a little when traveling at a constant speed, but I’ve done all the simple things so I’ll live with it.

 

And now it’s all back together, it seems to be running and driving better than it has done for a long while. I also noticed that while running at idle my extra cooling fan (currently doesn’t work as I need to fix the wiring) doesn’t spin, but as soon as the revs are picked up the standard plastic fan is pushing enough air through the rad and out the wheel arch to also spin up the extra electric fan.