374 replies to this topic

[Pandarex]

So being in California, can I come by and see this amazing piece of machinery?!

ha, you do amazing work.

[Joe250]

Here's what I had to do to get the car ready for its first drive under R1 power:


Out with the old cunifer brake lines and in with steel ones.




Since I would be driving the car shortly I tightened down the rear hub nuts to spec and fitted the dust caps.


As I said earlier the nice hidden location I had before for the rear proportioning valve just wasn't working anymore. Here is its new home.


Out with the steel driveshafts and in with the titanium ones.


Same thing with the upper suspension arms.


With the brakes, suspension, and drive shafts sorted, the engine could finally drop back into the engine bay. I'm getting pretty good at it.


I knew the brake lines would have to be trimmed but I'd put it off until now. Doing the work in the engine bay was not exactly fun.


Unlike the Stabli quick-release connectors for the brake lines, these Jiffy-Tite fittings on the fuel lines leak fluid when disconnected. Not much but when you are expecting zero, any is a surprise.


I haven't tried disconnecting the clutch line quick-release fitting but I'm hoping it is like the brake fittings.


Here are the brake lines run to the master cylinders. I filled and bled the clutch and I'm happy to report it works quite well.


This shot was meant to show the routing of the brake lines but I think it better illustrates what a mess the car is at the moment.


The advice I received was to leave the inner pot joints attached to the differential when installing/removing the engine from the car, but to remove the band clamp on it and remove the entire drive shaft with the outer section of the pot joint still attached. This was made even easier by just removing the from hubs from the car. A little bit of extra work up front but it saves a lot of trouble later.


Just before re-installing the engine I made a template for the throttle body spacing. This would help me cut the holes into the airbox accurately.



I was shocked at how well this worked. The holes were easy to cut and the airbox fits the throttle bodies perfectly. Some test fitting of the airbox to the engine revealed there is some serious trimming required to get it to fit. I'll return to this later. I want to drive this thing!


And in order to do so all of these items will have to be re-installed.


I dreaded re-installing the oil filter takeoff just because there is no room to get tools in to access it. I finally broke down and did what I should have done earlier - I sliced this 1&5/16" wrench in half. It fits now.


Mark at MINIeXvo already has a procedure outlined for setting the oil level within the power transfer box but my adding additional lines, pump, and cooler meant that wouldn't work. After some discussion I came up with priming the pump to fill the entire system, then draining off the excess from the top filler in the system.


For the cost of the Silkolene gearbox oil, I didn't waste a drop. All the excess that drained out went right back into the bottle.

[Joe250]

Here you can see the fittings that connect to the radiator. AN fittings are good. I like AN fittings.


A shot of the fuel supply and return lines, now cut to the proper length and with quick-release connectors fitted.


And now time for the wiring harness.



With everything back in place and the sun quickly setting I tried to fire the car up. It ran for a few minutes then died abruptly. I proceeded to waste several hours over the next three days before realizing that one of the R1's fail-safe mechanisms had been triggered, allowing the starter motor to turn over indefinitely while keeping the fuel injectors off. Removing the tip-over sensor and replacing it with a 470 Ohm resistor did the trick. The engine fired immediately, meaning it was finally time to drive!

[Joe250]

Edited by Joe250, 29 August 2011 - 04:10 AM.

[Joe250]

So being in California, can I come by and see this amazing piece of machinery?!

ha, you do amazing work.

Thank you. And yes, if you're in the SF Bay Area feel free to stop by. Email me here: joe at joe250 dot com

[Chris C]

If I update my build thread will you update yours?

You're killing me Joe!

[Stevee]

OMG!! i want one

this project is amazing can't wait to see it done now! well done

[panelbeaterpeter]

Very impressive work. When you come to the body and painting stages, will you be taking all the mechanical components off/out?

[tedmcedd]

Om nom nom!

but you knew that!

keep it up! im simply in awe!

Ed

[ministar]

Loved the permanent grin on your face in the video! And I would too if I was driving a car like that! Simply awesome build.

[Joe250]

If I update my build thread will you update yours?

You're killing me Joe!

Ok, Chris. Since you asked...

Now that we know she drives, time to turn our attention to the electric system. There are 3 basic phases here:

1. Designing the entire electrical system

2. Obtaining all the necessary components and tools

3. Building the bloody thing

Considering I know even less about electricity than I do about restoring old cars I decided to take a much-needed break from the garage and spend some time researching. I read a few books on the topic of vehicle electrical systems as well as a few insightful web pages. All of them proved informative and gave me enough false confidence to proceed with the wiring harness design. Here is the end result:

Wiring harness design (JPEG) I used the 2003 Yamaha R1 Haynes manual wiring diagram as a starting point to create the harness in Microsoft Visio. I then removed most items I didn't need and added all the various subsystems and compenents (marked in green) that I did need.

Electrical System Layout (JPEG) This diagram shows the rough location of each electical component within the car.


I am still calculating the total amperage of each circuit and double-checking my work for mistakes but the basic design is now complete. Complete enough at least to allow me to start ordering parts. I am using a company out of Michigan that specializes in race car wiring harnesses. Most of the parts and tools I will need are on the way. In the meantime I focused on various sub-systems:

I purchased these nice glass headlights and an HID kit go with them. It took a bit of fiddling and testing to get them working properly. Once I got them working I caught one of the wires on my shoe while walking past, dragging both headlights to the ground, shattering them. I think the HID bulbs are intact. I was too disgusted with myself to check but I will shortly. by the way, I went with HID primarily since the electrical draw is so much lower than conventional incandescent headlights. The R1's alternator has good power output but I wanted to be on the safe side. Combined with HID's excellent light output, this seemed like a good choice.


I purchased a variety of sizes and colors of Tefzel wiring for the car. I'll be working with this stuff very soon.


And while I'm waiting for the remaining electrical components to arrive, I've decided to knock out another area of the car. Every time I've had to jack this car up I've had issues. The floor is just not strong enough to support a hydraulic jack, nor jack stands. I've used wide boards to spread the load out but I've still managed to mangle the floors a bit in places. I decided the best thing to do is to take advantage of the roll cage's strength. My first thought was to weld in dedicated jacking plates at all four corners of the car. While perusing the Internet for further ideas I came across photos of rally cars that were jacked via the rollcage:





This seemed an ideal solution and after a little bit of planning, I ordered a small lightweight jack and a set of stands.






And here I am installing receptacles to accept the jack stands. I ordered some 1.50" x 0.12" DOM steel tubing to fabricate the jacking points and to tie into the rollcage. I thought it would simplify things to match the size of the existing rollcage and I figured this would be plenty strong enough to support the weight of the car.








Here I am test fitting the connecting pieces/braces that will tie the jacking point into the cage.


Please ignore the ugly welds. They didn't turn out nearly as nicely as I wanted but I think they are strong enough for the task at-hand.




This is the beginning of the front jacking point. Notice the cardboard template I used to ensure the holes ended up in the same location on both sides of the car.


And here are the supporting pieces for the front jacking point.


I hope to have the jacking system finished up this week.

[Joe250]

OMG!! i want one

this project is amazing can't wait to see it done now! well done

Thanks Stevee. You and me both. Just a few more months I hope....

Very impressive work. When you come to the body and painting stages, will you be taking all the mechanical components off/out?

Absolutely. I will have the car driveable and just about finished before I strip her down completely and send her off for bodywork and paint.

Om nom nom!

but you knew that!

keep it up! im simply in awe!

Ed

Thank you Ed. I'm trying.

Loved the permanent grin on your face in the video! And I would too if I was driving a car like that! Simply awesome build.

I shouldn't have been smiling! I had no brakes, no license plates, and all 4 wheels pointing in different directions. No more test drives until I get the car a lot more sorted.

[analogue_radio]

That's a beautiful idea! brilliant! I've never ever seen that done before on a mini

[Joe250]

Time to finish the jacking system for the car...



Another shot of the tube notcher at work.




Here is the finished product.




Tacked into place.




And welded into place.







Here I am beginning the lefthand side jacking points.



With the 6 jacking points installed (1 at each corner to hold a jack stand and 1
in the middle of each side for the jack itself), I was ready to test everything.
Here is the Bilstein jack. Inexpensive, light, and proven. Perfect for carrying
in the car for emergency use.






No big surprise - the jack is fully extended and the car still isn't high enough to
insert the jack stand pins. I knew I would be trimming the jacks down before
this but now I could determine exactly how much I would trim off.



And here are the new, much shorter jacks. They are now smaller and
significantly lighter, making them much easier to transport in the car. Getting
to this point proved more work than I would have liked. That golden hue on
the jacks in the previous photos comes from a protective zinc coating.
Welding zinc releases toxic fumes so all the jacks were soaked in sodium
hydroxide (lye) for a few days before I got down to bare steel, allowing me
to continue my work.





Here is the car on the new jacks. The small trays on each jack are meant to
hold the wheel lugnuts.




The car is plenty high enough for any work I can imagine doing on the side of
the road.



I grabbed hold of the roll cage and started trying to move the car around. I
put a considerable amount of force into the car and was pleased to find that
it is absolutely stable. No movement at all! I will have no reservations about
working under the car, provided she's on solid, level ground.



After I clean up my welds both in the car and on the jacks themselves and
spray paint everything the jacking system will be 100% complete. Then on
to fixing the lower dash...

Edited by Joe250, 10 July 2014 - 05:23 AM.

[Tupers]

That's awesome Joe, I've always wanted to see a Mini on WRC stands.