1006 replies to this topic

[hughJ]

Graham that looks very nice. You work in a sterile environment. Should have been a surgeon.

Hugh

[grahama]

lol Hugh, it's just the conservatory tiles are light in colour and when things explode in my hands I can find the bits !! Surgery it was not this afternoon messing about in the engine, delicate it wasn't !!

[minimuk]

Graham, playing with a clock, what will be next,.....that would take me weeks fettling.......good on ye, hope it comes all toghether,...the clock that is

[grahama]

Hi all,

a momentus day fellas, engine running





Not without a couple of problems though.

Firstly, through the problems and tech section I deduced that I had two wires in the wrong place, the dizzy and coil were earthed instead of being connected together. I had in effect wired it to an imobilsed state which will help me wire one into the proper loom anyway. This is what I had, wires X and Y were replaced by the green wire.



That changed, the engine didn't seem to be spinning quickly enough for me still. When I spun it with the plugs in it stopped each time the pistons were in compression so I thought something was too tight and a stripdown was going to have to take place. Then the starter stopped spinning altogether and I thought I'd burnt out the motor, bad to worse it went.

What had happened is this



melted the leads, don't think they were up to the job. A neighbour who rebuilds cars in the States happened to be walking past at that very moment and got me his leads.



Talk about chalk and cheese, it spun like a modern car, fast and easy. Definately not enough juice getting through my emergency set and could explain the low cranking voltage from Saturday.

After that I sprayed the 'Fast Start' stuff in and loud popping and very loud banging from the exhaust. Rocky, yes that is his name, suggested it maybe 180 degrees out and did a quick test I had never seen which was to crank it with his thumb over an open no.1 spark plug hole and waiting for it to blow his thunb off the hole. It was indeed 180 deg out.

Dizzy drive swapped round wired up again and fired first time, very happy !! Just needs my mate Phil to set it up with his gun and analyzer in the future but it can now go into the mini.

Fuel pump is leaking though but I can cope with that till it goes in.

Well, after that I am having a celebration beer !!

Graham

Edited by grahama, 18 February 2013 - 07:04 PM.

[sonikk4]

Good effort there Graham.

[Andrew O]

Engines sounding great.

Andrew

[minimuk]

nice

Edited by minimuk, 18 February 2013 - 08:43 PM.

[PhilipGCaldwell]

great sounding engine graham, sounds smooth as a turd, be proud friend, there isnt anything quite like hearing something that you have spent hours fettling running so sweetly. 180 degrees out, I did exacly the same to mine when I got mine in, took me about an hour of head scratchngbefore the penny dropped. im having trouble tracking down my timning light, the person I thought I lent it to says he hasnt got it, maybe in my spares somewhere.

Edited by PhilipGCaldwell, 18 February 2013 - 08:21 PM.

[grahama]

No problem Phil, can always pick one up, your other stuff would be very gratefully accepted, compression tester, analyzer etc lol. Couldn't believe the difference the thick jump leads made, the cranking went from non existent to like a modern car, defo learnt a few lessons today.

Will get it in the car with exhaust on before doing some tuning, so if you're feeling strong in a few weeks when off weekend shifts then I may well be calling on your muscle power to lift the body over the engine and subbie!!

The fella who helped me out and found out it was 180 out, Rocky, said he thought it was running very well given it has just had a refresh really. When I bought the mini it had 10k on the clock so along with other things it may well have only had light mileage hence the nice running. Either that or I should have been a mechanic not a fireman lol.

Graham

[hughJ]

Graham, great to see you at this stage. Is there a video that I'm not seeing? I get a "There was a problem playing your video. Video not found." I would love to see it run. Your engine looks just fantastic. I notice that for the first time in a while our posts are together. We used to almost be competing every night and it happened often. All the best.

Hugh

[grahama]

Hugh,

The link is working here, not sure that you have video capabilities up in Scotland yet, will send you a Cine 8 copy lol

Going to be on a roll now hopefully!!

Graham

Edited by grahama, 18 February 2013 - 08:49 PM.

[Minidarren83]

Get in there graham I feel like this is a momentous occasion and I should embrace you and jump around (like a man of course) well done sir awesome work

[F1L8EY]

very happy!! me too!!! get it in there!!! :)

[grahama]

Hi all,

decided to do a bit today as we are away for the weekend and didn't want to waste the sun. Firstly I connected up my oil pressure gauge up with a pipe connected to a brass boss that the oil switch goes into aswell, sorry no pic of that but the gauge is here



When running it shows just below the white dot between 50 and 100 and when revved it goes to the dot so quite pleased, firstly as it has some and second that it looks a good pressure.

On to a job I left last year as I was frustated and annoyed with the doors' fit especially the passenger side, and the skins needed welding on, so off I went. I thought I was done with the welder !







Attached the skin tops, probably with far too much weld, and ground them down. A bit dissapointed with the standard of them, but I have had a break from welding so I have lost the knack a bit. The seal I rescued from the strip down was a tight fit and all hung the door wanted to spring out



forced in where the lock goes it did close but pretty firmly. I attached up the locks etc and slammed it shut and the profile was like this





I knocked the lip the seal sits on in a bit to which released the pressure somewhat so it has a nice slam to it now, nice and tight, pressing the seal in all round.




It took me an hour or so putting the door opening stuff in as I forgot how it all went in but it opens, locks and works from inside just fine.

Next the poor fitting passenger side, a second hand fleabay door which didn't open as the hinges were in the way. I got round this by shimming inbetween the hinge and door to open up the gap there





It all seems secure with these here and gets round the problem, a few more shims in the correrct place and the passenger fit was like this





The rear door gap is a couple of mm wider than I would have liked but if it really annoys me when I am up and running I will add weld to it, but for now I can't be mithered to do it as I want it running. The lock mechanisms in the profile was thus



It goes in at the bottom which is probably my poor fabrication skills when fitting the doorstep but it is done now. It does bow out a tad !!



Not perfect by all means, but they are welded, shimmed and closing which will do me for now.

The Winter has not been kind to my poor mini and surface rust has got through the primer like I thought it would but a sand down wont take as long this time as it's just etch primer.





Off out all weekend so engine in next weekend and if we get some nice weather inbetween I will sand down the etch and redo !

Plodding on

Graham

Edited by grahama, 01 March 2013 - 07:15 PM.

[Andrew O]

Some good door gaps there. Really difficult to get right.
I've still got a fair bit to do as my drivers door is not sitting right at all.

Andrew.