84 replies to this topic

[lsto]

As long as it builds and holds pressure I wouldn't worry. If I spin my car on just the starter it takes an age but if I start the car normally it's only a few seconds. The engine idles a lot quicker than the starter turns the engine.

[Hexxeh]

So fired it up with the gauge connected, 80psi at idle cold. Left it running for 20 minutes to let it warm up and the lowest I was was 45psi. Guessing after a good long run it'll get lower still.

I replaced the relief valve spring with a new one, kept the old shuttle since it wasn't seized and ran up and down ok.

Seems like it's maybe ok?

I've still got a problem with the temp and fuel gauges flickering wildly with revs though. I replaced the voltage stabilizer with a modern type hoping that'd fix it but it hasn't, bit stumped with that one...

[Hexxeh]

Fired it up yesterday after leaving it for a couple weeks, straight up to ~85psi within a second or so of turning the key. Guess it's okay and about what you'd expect from an old engine.

Still trying to figure out the gauge needles swinging. Tried unplugging the alternator, no difference. Tried another set of clocks, those seemed okay. But then while testing, I looked across to the clocks bolted in but unplugged and saw the needles bouncing around. Seems like a problem with the cluster itself...

I've emailed SpeedyCables to see if it's something they can sort. I want to keep those clocks to keep the same speedo ratio (because sod replacing the drive pinion again...) and odometer reading.

Trying to arrange to get it over to RE Performance for a tune at the moment, I don't trust driving it over in the bad state of tune so gotta sort a trailer to get it over.

[Hexxeh]

Playing around a bit more with the mixture/idle today, what I'm finding is I can set it to like 900rpm but then periodically it suddenly drops to like 300-400rpm and dies off or gets very close to.

It seems to do this regardless of mixture setting.

What is this likely to be?

I've tried capping off the crankcase port instead of connecting it to the breather, gaskets on the carb and manifold are fresh and look right/flat.

I'm trying to make sure everything's right before it goes over to RE.

[sonscar]

Float valve sticking? Fuel pump failing to deliver? Rubbish in the fuel lines? Tank vent? Rubbish in the tank? Fuel vaporisation? Just random thoughts.Steve..

[Hexxeh]

Thanks for the suggestions!

Float valve I'd have to take off to check, should I just get the carb rebuild/refurbished to rule it out? Or is that a pretty simple thing to do? Refurbs on exchange are £225 so if it saves me wasting a day at the rolling road it'd be worth it.

Fuel pump if I take the hose off and crank into a bottle I should get a steady stream of fuel?

Tank was brand new last year (I switched to a 5.5 gallon one and couldn't find a good used one). Looks nice and clean inside when looking through the filler.

Tank vent is connected to a hose through the boot floor, and I believe the cap is vented too.

The fuel hose does get quite close to the manifold, so I guess fuel vaporisation is possible. Other than just getting a longer hose to route it further away, anything else that you can do about this?

[Hexxeh]

Haven't had chance to look at the fuel issue above yet, got some fresh longer hose and some fiberglass sheathing to insulate it, and I'll try to get it as far away from the exhaust manifold as possible. It's going for the carb to be setup next Friday so I'll have to get it sorted before then.

The same place is going to set the tracking for me too. Not a proper full alignment, just to get the wheels pointed in the right direction and make it safe enough to drive. It'll go to a local place for full four wheel alignment but I can't get it in until September.

I've set the camber roughly using one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M4K461M

 

-1.5 deg at the front and -1deg at the back (the circular bit fits perfectly into the center of the wheel and sits flat which is handy).

One thing I wasn't able to check was caster. The driver side wheel gave me problems rubbing on the arch at the front, even at standard height (or a little higher, it's approx 9.75" sill lip to floor at the front) with my 10"s on 165s. I wound the tie rod longer to try to push the wheel back temporarily just so I could drive up and down the street and get it to the MOT without it rubbing constantly.

 

Stumbled across this thread, where somebody has a 3D printed jig you can print that locates on the brake caliper bolts and then use an angle gauge to get a rough idea of the caster: https://www.theminif...e-castor-angle/

 

I'm sure this isn't mega precise but as a simple check I can do at home in barely any time at all, I'm super impressed. It took about an hour to print out and literally a few minutes to fit it up and check. Massive thanks to alpder for the idea and design!

 

Printed it out, popped it on and checked and I'm seeing approx 9 degrees positive on the driver side and 14 degrees on the passenger side. MiniSpares quote that one turn is 1/16" or just over 0.5 degrees. This suggests to get 3 degrees I'd need to lengthen it 12 turns (3/4") on the driver side and 22 turns (1 3/8" on the passenger side). That said, I expect it'll be a bit more because they also say: "the shorter the tie rod is made, the less amount of alteration is achieved".

 

I think this should give me plenty of clearance to the arch, and also hopefully make the steering lighter because right now it does feel really heavy but I'd thought that was the brand new balljoints...

Edit: Looking at how much thread is actually on the block the rod threads into, this seems like a lot and makes me wonder if something else is wrong...

Edited by Hexxeh, 31 July 2025 - 08:30 PM.

[GraemeC]

Were the tie bars set to the same length as standard/fixed ones?  Should be 14.25" from the centre of the bolt hol at the bottom arm to the bush side of the big welded washer at the front of the subframe.

 

To get more clearacnce you'll be lengthening the tie rod, so opposite of  "the shorter the tie rod is made, the less amount of alteration is achieved"

[Hexxeh]

Were the tie bars set to the same length as standard/fixed ones?  Should be 14.25" from the centre of the bolt hol at the bottom arm to the bush side of the big welded washer at the front of the subframe.

 

To get more clearacnce you'll be lengthening the tie rod, so opposite of  "the shorter the tie rod is made, the less amount of alteration is achieved"

 

I thought I had done, but I had things on and off a couple times due to problems with bad quality lower pins and I can't remember if I've adjusted them in the process to be able to get them fitted in place and forgot to set them back as they were. It's a bit difficult to take them off to measure since I fitted the bolt at the hub end from the top and so I think I'd have to split the ball joint again to remove. Probably I could find someone with the same ones and get a measurement at the minimum length, and then measure the thread exposed on mine fitted (since measuring the entire length in the way described in situ is a bit tricky.

 

I did find a YouTube video where somebody had the same part and showed them set to the standard length, and you can see a fair bit more thread exposed than I have:

 

Ah, I see what you mean about the way that wording is written, I've misinterpreted it.

 

It seems like there's about 65mm of thread in the block on the passenger side the way it's currently adjusted, so even if it has to go out 1 3/8" or ~35mm (and based on the above, probably less), I'd still have 30mm of engagement. The rule of thumb I've read is 1-1.5 times the diameter as a minimum engagement, and the diameter for these is listed as 16mm, so that'd be 16-24mm. Seems like I'm okay even if they do need to be lengthened that much?

Also, had another look at the fuel pipe. I realised even if I route the hose itself away from the exhaust as much as possible, the actual outlet on the fuel pump is very close to the manifold, perhaps only an inch away at most. The pump has the plastic spacer fitted, based on the photos on Mini Spares it looks like a non-genuine pump (this one: https://www.minispar...998-non-genuine).

There's a spare hole on the side of the carb above the pump, so I'll route it up towards that, use a hose clip on this hole to hold the hose in place and as far away from the exhaust as possible and hopefully that's enough. I imagine if this is vapor lock that fitting an electric pump at the rear would fix it, but I really don't want the faff of running an ignition live back there now the carpets are all fitted.

Edited by Hexxeh, 01 August 2025 - 11:17 AM.

[GraemeC]

You should be able to measure the length reasonably accurately with taking anything apart. To within 1/4" or so which will at least let you know if you're inthe right ball park

[Hexxeh]

You should be able to measure the length reasonably accurately with taking anything apart. To within 1/4" or so which will at least let you know if you're inthe right ball park

 

It's approx 347mm on the passenger side, so yeah, I've shortened it to get it off at some point and forgot to reset it back to the correct length. 14.25" would be 362mm, so it's 15mm short vs standard length.

 

If 1/16" is a little more than half a degree, then 1/8" is a bit more than a degree, 15mm / 1/8" would give 4.72 degrees. Even if I round that up to account for the "little more" and variable effect, that'd give me approx 9 degrees at the standard length which seems like a lot?

 

Possibly the ride height being a little high is giving it a bit more caster too, but this still seems a lot?

Edited by Hexxeh, 01 August 2025 - 11:52 AM.

[GraemeC]

Your -1.5 degree camber will give more caster.  The end of the tiebar has moved outwards, so therefore it has pulled the bottom arm forwards.

Standard cars had +ve camber so your change to -1.5 is quite a change. 

 

At the ride height you're at, that much negative camber is also quite agressive. I'd be bringing that down to -0.5 to -0.75 for a road car.

 

Ride height, camber, caster and tracking all affect each other - it can be quite a game trying to get it dialled in:
1) Set ride height and class that as fixed - with reference points so you can bring it back to the same place as/when things settle.

2) Set camber

3) Set caster

4) go back to 2) then 3) and repeast until sorted

5) set tracking

[Hexxeh]

Ah yes, that makes sense, I hadn't considered the factory camber range and the effect that would have vs what I have it set to.

 

Do you have recommendations for the other settings too for a road car? I'd been aiming for what MED recommend previously: https://www.med-engi...try-setup-guide

 

Looks like Calver ST suggests 3.5-4 deg caster and -1 deg camber, which is a bit closer to your suggestion.

 

I don't really care much about tyre wear, since the car will do so few miles the tyres will probably need replacing through age rather than wear, so if this is a trade-off of improving handling vs increasing tyre wear/evenness I'm fine with wearing the tyres more.

 

I'd had problems getting the ride height low enough to hit even the MED road settings (9.25" sill lip to floor from MED's guide), but then I did raise it back up a bit when I started having problems with it rubbing the arch. I'll drop it down as low as I can get it towards the 9.25" again (with a ballast in the driver seat), set the rear to 10.25". Hopefully I can hit those figures and then if things do settle further, bring it back up to that point again.

 

Then I'll try get the camber/caster as close to -0.75deg and 3deg respectively in an iterative fashion like you suggest.

Is it okay to do this with the wheels on the ground as I've seen in some YouTube videos, as long as I roll it back and forth between checking adjustments to lower arm/tie rod? Whenever I've jacked it up to make adjustments, it seems to take a bit to settle back to the same height again. I have read that you should jack it up for HiLo adjustment, just not sure about those.

By the way, thank you for all the advice on this, much appreciated!

Edited by Hexxeh, 01 August 2025 - 12:31 PM.

[GraemeC]

I’d go with Calver’s figures.

For alignment always do it on the ground, but yes you need to roll it back and forth to allow the tyres to assume their natural position each time. I do this for any adjustment I make, even ride height - although appreciate this is much harder to adjust without jacking up.

And don’t forget, road holding and handling are two very different things. The car will be more fun to drive with good handling, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it grips like s*** to a blanket.

Edited by GraemeC, 01 August 2025 - 03:30 PM.

[sonscar]

Agree with rolling it but always check on the forward stroke.Steve.