40 replies to this topic

[CharlieNZ]

What a nice story and what a lovely Mk1. It seems to be fallen in good hands Could it be that your spare engine is the one that originally was in your car when it left the factory? In other words is it ''matching numbers'' now?

 
No, I'm supposed to have an 850, and this engine is a 1000.
 
Hasn't been too much to update, mostly I've just been driving the car and only doing small, tinkering-style jobs. Doesn't help that it has been so cold and wet here, and my garage is a 250m trudge from my house...
 
I wasn't happy with how the car was starting. It would always go, but cold it always took a protracted sequence of attempts before it would slowly chug into life. After finding the butterfly valve in backwards, I was suspicious of the carb and whoever did the last rebuild on it. The newly aquired spare engine came with an hs2, that the guy said was the one that originally was on the car, so I thought I'd give that a go instead. After all, it's so quick to swap them over that there really wasn't anything to lose.
 
With the "new" carb it started a lot more readily and seemed to have a bit more go, but flubbed badly as you got on the accelerator. I'd started with 10w40 in the dashpot, then went to 20w50, but wasn't much improved. I also found that the suspect carb had a bigger spring in it, so I put that in as well, to no great effect. As a bit of an experiemnt I then tried some SAE80 gear oil from my Suzuki, and that seemed to do the trick! I know it's the wrong oil, but I'm no purist and it goes pretty well, so that will do for now. It isn't quite perfect - for the first half a second after you get on the throttle it's a touch flat before she picks up her skirts and goes. Good enough though.
 
Looking at the suspect carb, I found the needle was significantly bent, so that may have been the cause of the poor starting. Perhaps it was causing enough drag that the piston was reluctant to rise? Dunno, definitely not ideal though.


Popped along to Auckalnd's "Caffeine and cars" today, many gorgeous minis to be seen. Good inspiring stuff.

[CharlieNZ]

She's been running well recently, and although the doors aren't yet watertight enough to be fully a daily driver (not in an Auckland Spring anyway), I've been driving her every opportunity I get.

I'm deliberately leaving any jobs that might lead to her being off the road, but picked away at a few little things. For example, there was still an intermittent smell of fuel in the cabin - some days no smell, other days pretty bad. Investigating further on a smelly day, I found that the bottom of the main jet was wet, but nowhere else. It looked ok to me but I took it along to Lee at Minibitz and he spotted a crack - presumably the carb had been roughly handled at some point. So that was an easy fix and the smell of fuel is completely gone.


I've been living with a non-functioning fuel gauge, and it was becoming increasingly an irritation. I'd had a couple of half-hearted attempts to diagnose, but decided it was time to get serious and fix it. Turned out to be the wrong wire connected at the binnacle end - the correct wire was actually taped up as an unused wire. When I got the car the binnacle was completely loose and the screws were missing - I think the previous owner had had it out to try to get the odometer working, but not really bothered putting it all back in correctly. Anyway,another problem solved and nice to actually know how much fuel is left in the tank.

Another minor detail that was not helping the "daily driver" idea was that the driver's door wouldn't lock. I'd had a lock and the problem was wear where the lock part turns - the shiny bit in the attached photo. Seems like you can only get these as part of a complete set, many dollars, so I'd been putting it off. After some thought I decided to try putting on a blob of weld and filing it down - after all, it's stuffed anyway so nothing to lose. Surprisingly this actually worked. Not a great repair, but it seems to be doing the job so far.


While I was doing this I found this scrap of paper in the door bin. Lucky Victor?


My last remaining problem is that with Spring here, I've put the GS850G back on the road, and on a sunny day I'm torn as to which one to take! I love driving the mini, but then I love riding my Suzuki too. Still, it's a nice problem to have.

[CharlieNZ]

Much as I love the spartan Mk 1 feel, it was time for some In Car Entertainment.

I have a decent Alpine head unit salvaged from the last-mini-but-one after it got written off  . The challenge was to mount it as discretely as possible, so with a bracket made from an old electric radiator, I mounted it as far back as possible.




Happy that it tucks away quite nicely.


Discrete speakers was anther challenge. I basically wanted a pair of cruddy box speakers like you used to get back in the eighties, but everything out there seemed huge. I eventually found a pair that should do the job at the local marina. The price was right at $90NZD and when I hooked them up for a test they sounded fine. Not that sound quality is particularly important in this mini anyway - there's so much engine and road noise. The speakers tuck away nicely and I think the white means they fit in quite well.


Now the problems start though, as she is still a positive earth car. Dang.

I followed the guide here http://www.theminifo...tive/?p=2543334 to convert to negative earth. But when I tried to "Flash" the dynamo, it didn't spark when I put the jumper on the terminal. And then it just wouldn't start.

I changed it back and it runs fine again. Is it the electronic ignition that is likely to be at fault here, or is it a problem with the dynamo? I'm pretty ignorant about electrics, so would be grateful for any guidance. I've just remembered that I didn't check whether the fuel pump needed to change polarity, but I'm sure it would have started on what was in the float bowl, so that isn't likely to be the problem.

Couple of photos of electronic ignition pick-up and dynamo connections. Can I swap the wires around on the electronic ignition? I was trying to "Flash" on the top connection here - is that correct?

[Bat]

Hi,

I'd say the electronic ignition is almost certainly the problem. You can start the car with the dynamo on the bench so that shouldn't make a difference.

You'll need to find some instructions or speak to the manufacturer.

Cheers 

[CharlieNZ]

Hi,
I'd say the electronic ignition is almost certainly the problem. You can start the car with the dynamo on the bench so that shouldn't make a difference.
You'll need to find some instructions or speak to the manufacturer.
Cheers 

Thanks for that. Just had a look and Powerspark do different negative and positive earth versions, so yeah...

I've probably got some points somewhere. I think I'll throw those on tomorrow and see how that goes.

Any thoughts about the lack of spark from the jumper when I flash the dynamo?

[Bat]

Hi,

I learnt about it at college but never done one.

As far as I remember you disconnect both wires and then flash the battery positive on to the smaller terminal.

Cheers 

[CharlieNZ]

The electronic ignition was indeed the problem. Back to points now, and after a bit of a faff with the wiring it all seems to be working well. Really happy with the install - you have to really be looking to spot the head unit and speakers. It just about goes loud enough to be listenable at 60mph, but good enough is good enough. And for the first time, this sticker is actually telling the truth.


I need a boot board - might still buy one, but I though I'd have a go at cutting one out of an old bit of ply in the garage. It's not too badbut the ply is a bit thin, so I may just use this one as a template for some thicker mdf, and then stick carpet on.


I needed to prop it up in front of the battery, and was going to just stick a lump of wood there. But I had a wooden box in the garage that I've been keeping soldering stuff in - I think it was originally a wine box, or possibly an old set of boules. Anyway, trimmed down slightly it has made a handy little container for a "get you home" set of tools.


Still got a few tinkering jobs to do, but mostly at the moment I'm just enjoying driving it.

[Vinay-RS]

Oooh, I like that hidden toolbox idea. Fills the space nicely, and there's still space in the boot. My set of spares takes up more than half the boot at the moment. This might be something to copy :) 

[Bat]

Hi,

I'd always stick to plywood in vehicles, MDF doesn't seem to like the changes in humidity!

Cheers 

[CharlieNZ]

Did a nice little trip to Tauranga at the end of last yeear - 200km each way and the only issue was when the clutch pedal clevis pin fell out. Fun job putting that back in at the side of the road. The mini went pretty well, although the noise levels are a bit wearing, what with the terrible door fit and complete lack of sound insulation.

 

Had another breakdown on my way to play football, which resulted in a trip on the back of an AA truck. The driver was super-excited to be picking up a mini, and talked my ear off about them. Problem was lack of fuel pump, and solved by jiggling the fuse.

 

The mini shares its birthday with Ruskin, our bearded dragon. Min was first registered Jan 1st 1962, and Ruskin was born on Jan 1st 2017. So I took a few birthday pics of them together.

 

The big news is that due to our tenants moving out 3 months early, we ended up moving back into the house we own, rather than the living in the house we've had for my wife's work. Which means that the mini is now fully a daily driver, and I've finally got a decent garage, that isn't a 250m walk from home! It has been an absolute joy to have a decent space to work, with a proper workbench, and the full knowledge that I'm setting up my tools and storage permanently. 

 

Because my wife is coming back from work quite late at night sometimes, and because she does not trust the reliability of this mini, I've been the one daily driving it - no complaints on my part! So far it has been pretty good. Current issue is that while it runs cleanly on the road, it runs very rich at tickover. I've improved matters slightly, but it's still not right. Apart from that, it has been great, and gives me something to look forward to every day.

 

The true test will come once the weather turns. We shall see...

[CharlieNZ]

The thing about having a mini as your daily driver is that it isn't entirely a "project". The priority is to keep it on the road, so that restricts how deep I'm prepared to go in at the weekends, especially as our local mini parts place is only open on a Saturday morning. Anyway, even though there isn't a massive amount to report, it's update time.
 
The good news is that the mini has been an entirely reliable daily driver all the way through a rather wet NZ Winter. I was worried about the lack of water-tightness, but it hasn't been much of an issue. I get some dampness through the sliding windows, the boot gets pretty wet sometimes, but as it is parked in a nice warm dry garage overnight, I haven't had any real concerns. I would love to make it properly watertight but that means taking it off the road for bodywork intervention, which I just don't want to do... This is a pretty standard looking day in the carpark at work

 
There is a significant oil leak. I thought it was the seal in the timing chain cover, so in the last school holidays replaced it, but no improvement. Will need to look harder.
 
It hasn't been fueling right all this time. Fine most of the time, but an extended stop at the traffic lights and it starts to foul the plugs. And fuel consumption is poor. I got tired of mucking around with worn-out 40 year old carbs, so I sent two away to a refurbishers and asked them to make one good one. 6 months later (!) I got my carb back, but when I put it on it will only start on full choke, when it races madly but as soon as you push it in even a little bit it dies. Again, no time to much around on a daily driver so I slapped the old carb back on and will sort it out in the school holidays coming up soon.


As well as the daily commute we've done a few trips further afield. Came across a few other classics, but had a bit of an easier job fitting into our parking space.

 

Not a particularly exciting update, but I do love driving my mini every day, and that's been the point of this project. Even when it's dark and raining, the screen is fogging up and I'm having to battle with fouled-up plugs in traffic, at least I'm out there!