152 replies to this topic

[rodandtom]

I do like those D1's and the body coloured arches look good too, nice touch! have you got a full side picture?

 

Out of interest, what front brakes do you have, I'm really torn on wheels and if I do go down the 10" route would like to fit 7.9 discs with 4 pot callipers but I'm not sure they fit all 10's.

I will sort out a full side pic tomorrow although it won't have the door fitted yet.

 

I put the Minispares kit for converting from 12's to 10's and they are just 2 pot calipers. The are 7.5's and the fit the D1's but I very much doubt a 7.9" disc would do.

 

Rod

[alchall]

 

I do like those D1's and the body coloured arches look good too, nice touch! have you got a full side picture?

 

Out of interest, what front brakes do you have, I'm really torn on wheels and if I do go down the 10" route would like to fit 7.9 discs with 4 pot callipers but I'm not sure they fit all 10's.

I will sort out a full side pic tomorrow although it won't have the door fitted yet.

 

I put the Minispares kit for converting from 12's to 10's and they are just 2 pot calipers. The are 7.5's and the fit the D1's but I very much doubt a 7.9" disc would do.

 

Rod

 

Thanks Rod, that's useful info, I don't need to make a decision yet but once I've bought the brakes then I don't want to be changing my mind and changing them so if I want to go with D1's then I guess it'll have to be 7.5's...

[rodandtom]

I fitted the front and rear inertia seat belts today. I don't think the 94 Sprite had inertia belts in the back but I've fitted them as all the mounting point holes were there. I bought these ones from Minispares: - http://www.minispare...|Back to search

 

 

I've had to mount the reel on the C Pillar. I don't think it looks the best but its safer so thats the important thing. They are a bit fiddly to adjust. You can mount them at any angle and just turn this knob on one side to allow the pendulum inside to hang straight. It's dead easy on the off side but a bit fiddly on the near side trying to do it with it facing away from you.

 

Still, it's done now. 

 

On the front ones I'm not too happy with the rewind strength. It seems a bit slack to me. As you can see in the pictures, the front belts are not pulled taught which they should be. I'm going to post a question on here but I'll ring Minispares tomorrow as well.

 

Fitted the rear seats as well so that's looking good. Before I did though I stuck three sheets of SilentCoat on the seat and three on the back panel.

 

I then tried to connect up the fuse box. I am a few wires different on this loom to the old one so I'm going to sit with the wiring diagram and see if I can work out what's what tonight.

 

 

Rod

 

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[Ben_O]

I have been waiting to see how those back seats look.

 

I like them a lot.

 

Ben

[rodandtom]

I have been waiting to see how those back seats look.

 

I like them a lot.

 

Ben

Thanks. I may add another bolt on bracket to help hold the bottom seats on but I am very pleased with it.

[rodandtom]

Right - today was the day to start getting to grips with the electrics.

 

I had raised a question about two different colour wires I have for the fuse box versus a couple missing from what I took out. 

 

KernowCooper (Mr Electricity) said to download the colour chart for wiring to help me understand what they are. That's all good but I now need to match inputs and outputs across the right fuse. They seem to be Green & Orange which is low voltage fuel I think. 

 

The haynes manual is very confusing on the wiring. I had to go with section 10.43 Clubman, Estate and 1275GT as being the closest to mine (page 225) but I am also thinking there could be overlays with one in the later additions section on page 335 (all 1984 onwards carb models) so I am checking back and forth between them to see what is different and what matches.

 

Anyway, I started with the battery and worked back to the starter solenoid, the alternator and then the coil and that took me up to the fuse box. I matched inputs and outputs across the 25A fuse 1 and 2. The white wire from the coil goes to connector 1. The other coil wires lead me up to the ignition switch so I managed to match up the wire colours in the connectors and got them hooked up. The one that caused some problem was the washer bottle motor funnily enough. In the front half of the loom the wire is green from the switch in to the front and back loom connector. In the rear half of the loom we have an orange and green (I think it was from memory). There are 2 wires that go in to the motor - black and orange & green. None of the wiring diagrams showed that. So I had to match pin positions in the connector and test for continuity with a meter to make sure the right wire went to that connection. Anyway in the end I got it done.

 

Tomorrow I shall carry on working on the other connections in the fuse box so I can a) verify they are connected as expected and b) make sure I know just which Haynes wiring diagram is right for my car.

 

Cheers,

 

Rod

[rodandtom]

Hi

 

More electrical fun today.

 

Well I say fun - more confused scratching of head and questions.

 

On the positive side, I got the headlight wires identified and the side repeaters. I got the different coloured wires sorted for the fuse box and looked at where to position the uprated wiring loom I bought from Wired By Wilson for the headlights.

 

On the negative side, the new loom has spade connectors or bullet connectors in opposite places that have to the spades and bullets in various places. A pain but solveable.

 

My big problem is with the 5 switches for lights, rear  window heater, fogs and so on, on the dash.

 

4 out of 5 have differences in the wiring when compared to whats on the loom versus what's in the wiring diagram AND the pins that are in the switches. I'm going to raise a question about it but it doesn't look right if the wiring diagram is to be believed. I won't go in to it all here but here's and example. If you look at the that the Hazard Switch then the wiring diagram says there are 6 connections. They are 

 

1. light green/ brown

2. light green/ brown

3. green/ light green

4. green/ red

5. green/ light green

6. light green/ K

 

The switch itself has only 4 pins and they have 1x green/ blue, 1 x green/ white, 1 x green, and 1 green/ purple connected, but there are 2 wires (1 x green/ light green and 1 x black) unconnected. You can see all of this in the photos attached.

 

So what's right? Why does the wiring diagram have the extra wires but they are not used in the switch? The extra wires are clearly connected up to something else in the diagram so do those connections suddenly become unnecessary?

 

Giving that up for a bit I moved on to something else. I had been wire brushing and de-greasing the manifold.

 

I bought some high-temp paint and gave it a try. You can see the how it looks after one coat here. 

 

Does anyone know if 800 degrees C is ok for a manifold? I was hoping to use it on the exhaust as well. How hot does that get?

 

Rod

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited by rodandtom, 13 August 2015 - 07:45 PM.

[Ben_O]

I can't help with the wiring but the manifold looks superb.

 

What paint did you use?

[rodandtom]

I can't help with the wiring but the manifold looks superb.

 

What paint did you use?

I used Vitas High Temperature Heat Resistant Paint. It claims 1470 degrees F / 800 degrees C.

 

Rod

[rodandtom]

I put the master cylinder on the Servo - then took it off again when I realised I had put it on in the wrong position. I adjusted it so that the brake pedal was at its top position to trigger the brake light switch.

 

I'm putting in a wiring loom from Wired By Wilson for the uprated headlights so I had a chat with Dave Wilson about the connections. He was very helpful.

 

I put the Osram Nightbreaker bulbs I bought in to the Angel Eye headlights and also put the wiring for the side repeaters in.

 

I still have a  thread going to try and sort out the wiring for the switches. I'm not clear on whether the additional wires are needed or not and where they connect. The difference with the wiring diagram is confusing for me.

 

Hopefully that can be sorted soon so I can get all the wiring done.

 

Rod

[rodandtom]

Finally got some time and energy to have another go at the Sprite today.

 

After realising that I had the rear seat belts mounted in the wrong place, I bought the brackets and welded them in the rear bins. The o/s belt is now fitted but the n/w belt won't pull out. I need to have a fiddle and make sure its all aligned to see if I can get it sorted so I can fit it.

 

Got the rear seats back in with the belt brackets and 1 belt in the correctly.

 

I greased the gear linkage and fitted the gear lever. I also screwed in the rear light sensor but I'm not at all sure how to fix it and how far to screw it in. I shall post a question or two in the other threads.

 

I rubbed down the sections of exhaust as it was starting to get some light surface corrosion and spray painted it with 800 degree silver paint but not the CAT because they get too hot I believe. It all looks very smart.

 

I sprayed Dynax S50 in to the A Pillar spaces and in the cross member sections as well as in to the bottom of the doors to try and head off corrosion.

 

I cut the water hose from the washer bottle to the T piece and to the washer jets. Need to just check I've got the right ones. They are black plastic and seem to be too big for the holes in the scuttle. I'll check before I use brute force and ignorance and try and push them in.

 

Lastly, I started fitting the cables for the handbrake. Got the front section in although I realised I don't have the tension spring for the front, and connected it to the rear section BUT I realise I haven't mounted the brackets on the subframe to keep the tension springs in place - DOH!

 

I need to check out where they fit and then get the wheels off to get that done. They are all prepped and painted ready to go - just forgot to do it.

 

That will do for today but I expect delivery of parts for the doors today so may get back out later.

 

Rod

[rodandtom]

So, got my delivery of parts - totally forgot to order the bolts/ screws to mount the door handles so another order going in from me.

 

However, got my handbrake on properly today and it works No more large piece of wood behind the rear wheels.

 

I had bought a new rear number plate light cover which gets delivered now in a lovely blue - which is nice. Not what I needed though so I had it and the boot hinges sprayed to match the body. Picked those up over the weekend and they look lovely.

 

I finished spraying the exhaust sections and I sprayed the thermostat housing silver as well.

 

I cleaned up the window winder mechanisms ready to go back on the doors. One of them is incredibly notch if that makes sense. It doesn't run smoothly when compared to the other one so I will get a new one. I did try to clean it but its not getting better I took the winder section off the back but even when I have flushed it out it's a very gritty action - not smooth at all so I am binning it.

 

I also realised that I had only bought 2 of the glass rail supports because I thought the other two were ok but that's not the case so I need to order another two with rubbers.

 

Rod

[rodandtom]

Started to try and re-fit all the bits for the doors. The old door handles were marked so I bought new ones from good old Minispares. The problem is that I had black ones but you can't get them now. So I bought chrome ones and they do look nice.

 

As i wrote previously, I had sprayed the inside of the bottom f the doors with Dynax S50 and I had to buy a new window regulator so I should have had all the bits I needed.

 

Got the handles on after trimming the length of the 3/8" screws. Before fitting all the other door lock controls I had to get the windows in. I've bought new glass rail supports as all my old ones were rusted up. Had to squeeze them a bit to get a tight fit and it took me a while to work out that they best way of doing it was to put the regulator in, fit the rails to the glass, and then slide the glass with rails in through the top of the door down on to the regulator. After some adjusting I got the glass in, and hooked up to the rails. I fitted some putty like substance around the regulator and screwed it down.

 

All good I thought. The window went up and down nicely. However there may be an issue!

 

I tried to fit the new window seal but I think the glass may need to come out to get that in. I've asked a few questions in another thread to see which way I do it but I fear the worst. 

 

Once that's done I can fit the rest of the furniture and have that door ready to hang on the car. Then it's on to the second door BUT Minispares sent me to of the same glass rails so I need to send one back and get it changed.

 

Rod

[rodandtom]

Got the new window seals fitted. Had to take the window I had already fitted out but hey-ho. The glass didn't line up with the front of the door seal so I had to do some brute force adjustment to twist the door so the glass fits - all good.

 

Tonight I attempted to do the second glass using new door glass rails and a new regulator and it all went horribly wrong. The door rails were so tight that when I tried to wind the window up and down again one of the arms of the regulator jumped its cogs. 

 

Don't know if I can reset it but thats where I am as of this evening. Bit hacked off really :-(

 

Rod

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Edited by rodandtom, 12 November 2015 - 08:24 PM.

[rodandtom]

Hi,

 

I re-fitted the fuel tank and the rubber around the neck to fit right and put some SilentCoat on the wheel arches and the fuel tank itself.

 

I fitted the boot lid with its nice new shiny painted hinges and attached it to the car. I put the restraining strap in and then I fitted the boot seal. Boy that is a tight fight. I hope it doesn't take too long to compress.

 

I then tried to fit the boot handle and lock. Now this is something I don't understand. Both the old and the shiny new chrome handle I want to fit turn anti-clockwise but as far as I can tell the bonnet lock only moves in to the lock position by turning clockwise. Really not sure how to do this so I shall post another question in the forum. As usual I am probably being stupid by there you go. I've got to get it done so I will ask.

 

I then fitted the bonnet release mechanism and the strike panel. In testing the bonnet close I can see there a big alignment problems and in closing it I've managed to kink the bonnet. Gutted! I think it's curable but I just don't need it. I've asked questions about how to do this because I think the problem lies with the hinges.

 

Lastly, I wanted to fit the new switches and fix the switch panel. The problem here is that because I don't want to fit the lower dash cover I need to do something else to hold the switch panel in place. I think I need a larger switch panel.  I think I saw that you can use a switch panel from an early van as they are supposed to be bigger but not sure about that and I can't tell which is which on Minispares yet.

 

Cheers,

 

Rod

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