1983 Mini City

[colinf1]

Hopefully get back in the mini soon, lean-to/pergola is almost finished so that means I can get the patio furniture out of the shed and get some working space back!

Main roof...total size 7.5M X 4.2m



Side covering....total size 1.8M X 10M..

[colinf1]

Finally back on it, got the exhaust all fitted and tightened up. Couldn't get the longer brass manifold nuts tightened on the inner studs with the alloy inlet, so had to cut one in half to make 2 normal size ones, thankfully there only brass...

Then made a start on fitting the new water pump... forgotten how much has to be removed to change it...



Plenty of gusty winds to test the lean-to... thankfully it all looks good.

[colinf1]

And reassembled...

[colinf1]

And reassembled...

[colinf1]

Another step closer, got oil drained and front of engine cleaned off, new gasket on heater tap, new silicone rocker cover gasket, new oil filter filled and on, not too many things to do before I can get it out of the shed...



Just letting the remainder of the oil drip out overnight, then get sump plug back on and oil filled....

[colinf1]

Oil filled and adjusted the door striker plates, passenger side was always worse than drivers, both nice and flush now when shut.

Made a start on rerouting the heater hoses to go through the inlet manifold, then decided to swap the hose entry to the passenger side. Side of heater removed and drilled, existing holes blanked with grommets. Just need to drill a hole in the bulkhead blanking plate to accept a 2nd hose.



Also got the drivers door card back on, took that off in November to sort the stiff window!

[colinf1]

And it's out...



Got the last few bits done, bit of a tidy up of tools inside then pushed it round and out of the shed onto the lawn. Filled the float with fresh petrol and it started first turn of the key.

Need to get some wire for the tacho but have the pod bolted to the dash shelf/pedal box.

Got the bonnet, grille and mirrors all back on then gave it a quick wash to get rid of the dust, then took it for a quick spin, everything seems to be working as it should! Have a small bit of water coming in along passenger footwell from the garden hose, so will need to figure out where it's getting in...

[colinf1]

Drove the car to work today, it was a bit sluggish at starting, so think it may need a new battery. The battery that's in it came out of my daily driver Nissan Leaf, so may be on its last legs at 10 years old.

An uneventful drive to work, temp gauge went up a shade, but was going up a long steep hill on the back roads, coming home motorway is a long 5km uphill section and again temp rose slightly.

Got the rev counter wired up today,



Suspect fuelling is slightly off now with new exhaust and inlet manifold, so will check sparkplugs at the weekend see if it's running rich or lean.

[colinf1]

Picked up a clock with USB output to take the place of the missing ashtray.

Works quiet nicely, has interior/exterior temp sensors, voltage reading and date. It also keeps its memory, so no need to set it again if the battery is isolated.

Hard to get a picture of the clock illuminated...



Also hooked up an additional engine to body earth strap, from main earth on bulkhead to the bolt on the clutch inspection cover on the wok.

[colinf1]

Cleaned and polished, ready for it's first cars and coffee outing of the year!



Also got the fuel gauge working, had knocked out the power from the voltage stabiliser.

Added a high-level brake light, 3d printed a segmented holder that slips up underneath the window seal, wrapped in loom fabric tape to allow it to retain some flexibility.

[colinf1]

And a picture of it lit up...



Hadn't noticed the 2 missing bits earlier, I hadn't been overly cautious with trial fitting it previously, so may have over-flexed it at those points...

[colinf1]

Some dash liners made up today, had found a template online, printed and offered up on masking tape reinforced paper, wasn't too bad of a fit shape wise, but it definitely wouldn't fit if made from fibreboard so tried with mounting card. Wrapped with self adhesive vinyl leatherette...

Template, card, wrapped...





And fitted. Not too bad, can't see how actual bought ones would fit any better without destroying them during fitting....

[woody]

I never got the hang of fitting thoes dash liners, look well.
I like the slim brake light.

[colinf1]

Took it to cars and coffee yesterday morning, good turnout as usual and plenty of people appreciating the car, so makes it worth all the effort!

Some photos from John Boland and Ben J Myers...







Then we went for a nice Sunday drive, about 150km in total, only hiccups were it got a bit hot as we pulled in to stop for food after a long climb up a steep hill, and got a noise coming from right rear wheel, sounds like a noisy tyre or possibly a wheel bearing...no sign of anything getting hot though...

[colinf1]

Seem to be chasing my tail with my temperature gauge, still reading above 90, about 105c ish.

Changed out the sender GTR101 for a TT6811-01, as that's the one that's recommended by Merlin Motorsport where I bought the gauge (Smiths BT2240-00 with 50-90-140 markings)

Still reading higher than what it should be, when testing against 2 different temperature guns - both laser and infrared types

Onto the rumbling noise that appeared a few weeks ago. Checked rear wheel bearings for play, all seemed fine, then decided to whip off the passenger side one to check, clean and repack with fresh grease.

Cleaned them all down and noticed some minor scoring on the outer roller bearings, then cleaned outer races in the hub and felt a small imperfection, then seen the scoring around inside of it.



Knocked them out and put in a ball type bearing I picked up last week to have on hand, not ideal but it allows me to see if it resolves the noise while waiting for some genuine timkens as minispares no longer sell these non-genuine rear bearings...

[colinf1]

Ordered new timken bearings for front and rear, also ordered a new alternator as the current one is extremely noisy - even though I'm getting 13.5 - 13.8, at times it's louder than the engine idling.

Also ordered another temp gauge and anti squeal shims to stop the brakes chirpping...

[colinf1]

Got my rear bearings replaced on Saturday, all sorted and no more noise.

Also added the anti squeak shims to the brake pads.

Fitted new alternator, much harder than I anticipated. New one hasn't got a threaded hole for the bolt near the tensioner, so had to rummage to find one!

Took it out for a spin, forgot about pushing the brake pistons back slightly, gave myself a brown trousers moment!

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Took it for a longer spin yesterday, 115km/71miles total journey, taking a small car ferry on part of the route.



Anti squeek shims....it was like a bird tweeting most of the trip, must be a slight warp in the disc.

Temp gauge up at H at one point, a long climb uphill, most of the time it sat half way between N and H.

Its annoying because its taking some of the fun out of driving it, no cooland loss, no mayo under filler cap, no bubbling when cap is off radiatior.

Everything on the cooling side is new - apart from top and bottom hoses and thermostat (74c), it think I'll flush it all out again at the weekend.

[colinf1]

Checking over car in preparation for the Kilbroney Vintage show next weekend...

Started to adjust the valve clearance, then noticed some of the rocker arms have worn a circular dip into the surface...Not going to be able to fix it before next weekend, so I've adjusted them as best I can. Seems to be running alright, but obviously can't leave it like that.

Probably need to replace them all, plus head gasket would need doing at the same time...

On a more positive note, I tidied up the split I put in the carpet next to the gearstick, been meaning to get to that since last year...

[keith]

nice work.. good encourgement to those looking to bring their car back on the road... (looking in mirror)

[colinf1]

Made the show...



Mid-week seen the top half engine off and new rockers on, head gasket renewed, swapped to 82c thermostat, oil and coolant change (10% coolant mix)

New issue now is hard to start when cold, almost like it's flooding itself, so planning on swapping sparkplugs. Bit of a misfire when holding it at steady revs, you can see the RPM needle fluctuations as it misses.

Timing set to 8 BTDC on crank pulley with timing light.

Engine temperature seems to be nice and steady at N.

Also fixed the indicator self cancelling, the stalks were too far down for it engage. But...there's always a but...now the stalk can't be pulled forward enough to allow the headlights to flash....ughh....

[woody]

Car is looking great. you may find the outer part of the steering column is too low. refit the stalks in there proper position on the outer column , loosen the column mounting bolt and slide the outer column up to engage the cancel pin.

[colinf1]

Car is looking great. you may find the outer part of the steering column is too low. refit the stalks in there proper position on the outer column , loosen the column mounting bolt and slide the outer column up to engage the cancel pin.

Yup, spot on there Woody! Got it all lined up in the correct position now. Flash working and self cancelling engages as it should.

Checked oil and water today, all seemed fine, until I looked closely at the exposed section of the head gasket.

Started it up and a few bubbles started to appear...

Click here to play PXL_20240623_140222410 by Colin Doherty, on Flickr

[colinf1]

Head taken off today, not under as much pressure to get it off and on as quickly, so took my time.



Checked over head surface with a straight edge of my vernier calipers, no sign of warping across multiple points checked. The only thing that I did notice was none of the holes had any chamfered edges, and waterway hole edges had a slight bit of corrosion, so maybe that was the root cause?

I'll get it skimmed clean and rebuilt with the victor reinz type gasket...

[ctwomey]

Hi Colin,

Have you considered switching to a composite head gasket like the Victor Reinz one for the small bore blocks? I know Chris at Crafted Classic Tuning sells them - https://www.craftedclassics.co.uk/compo ... ead-gasket

Alternatively, If you are stuck I have a spare one I could drop in the post to you.

[ctwomey]

Sorry just saw you mentioned the Victor Reinz one in your post ... doh!