697 replies to this topic

[Pie]

Bloody hell jammy, you have been busy!!

On the subject of the washer bottle, mines been "modifeid" and put indie the passenger footwell. Can get a picture for you if you want.
Is MOT tomorrow? lol

[Jammy]

Yea. I'll be moving mine too!

Yes, MOT tomorrow...

[Pie]

cool. do you want a pic of how mines been done? might be of some help, unless you know what your going to do with it.

[CharlieBrown]

Holy mother of God, that’s some impressive progress!

Well done Jamster!!!

Good luck with the MOT!!!

[millsminis]

[Pie]

He obviously doesnt love you then mills.
Or your mini would have been welded up years ago.

[Jammy]

Engine running, still needs tuning a bit. Cooling system totally plumbed in now! An afternoon trip to CBS helped A LOT! Dash switches fixed in, along with choke.

Still need to:
Attach fan
Plumb in overflow tank
Attach door
Fit speedo sensor
Finish wiring megajolt
Finish wiring ETB
Bolt in seat

[Jammy]

Pretty much everything is working and done in the engine bay, will get pics up in a bit.

Still need to:
Plumb in overflow tank
Attach door
Fit speedo sensor
Finish wiring megajolt
Finish wiring ETB
Bolt in seat

Things to buy:
Colourtune for Mini
Heater hose

[Jammy]

What went down yesterday....

I got the afternoon off work, which allowed me to head over to Car Builder Solutions over in Staplehurst (about 45 minute drive). On the way I stopped over in Maidstone at Maplin and picked up an extension cable for the speedo sensor wire. The extension is no where near long enough, but I can chop the wire and splice in some more. Whilst at CBS I picked up a choke cable, an inline radiator filler neck (see picture below), an overflow/expansion tank, and some washer fluid tubing.

With this, it allows me to run a vented radiator cap. This takes care of venting any pressure build up within the system. Once pressure builds up, the vented rad cap opens, and any excess fluid can then travel down the take off into my overflow tank. The beauty of this system is that I can place the overflow tank anywhere I like, it doesn't have to be higher than the engine/radiator because the expansion tank is fully closed. Once the coolant then cools down, the radiator cap closes, causing a vacuum in the system which then draws the coolant back from the expansion tank.

So first job was to finish fitting the cooling system, which I did. All the jubilee clips were put on, and I made a couple of extra bracket to hold the radiator.The fan is then wedged a bit next to the starter motor, and held next to the radiator by one cable tie! Currently I don't have a fan controller unit, so I've just powered the fan off fuse 1, which means it comes on whenever the ignition key is at position II. Once that was done I wired in the horn again. I didn't think I was going to have room for it on the one of the clutch housing bolts, but I managed to squeeze it in down there (ooo err misses!). One thing I am worried about is the fact that a good half of the radiator is blocked by the front panel, and even more of it blocked by the bonnet. Whether the fan will draw air through it regardless I'm not sure, but I think I'll be drilling some holes soon..

After that I popped down to Halfords to pick up a colourtune, some more cable ties, a C spanner and some duct tape. When I asked the guy whether they sold C spanners he looked at me a bit dumbfounded, but he still looked through the tool section with me, despite not knowing what to look for! Got the Colourtune, which I think is a rip off at £35 (even though I got it for less). And it was the wrong one anyway, so needs going back today.

After that I finished the wiring to the Megajolt and the ETB dash, so everything is now wired in properly except for the speedo sensor.

Jobs left to do:
Fit seat
Fit door
Fit speedo sensor
Offside sidelight has dodgy connection
Heater return not plumbed in to anything
Could do with putting the fan on a switch
If I get time make the steering column more sturdy
Fit the arches (before or after MOT)

Things to buy:
Colourtune
C spanner
Wire for dash switches

Current view of the engine bay:

(Click to enlarge)

[Jammy]

Oh yea, and the MOT is now rebooked for Thursday. I wanted to rebook it for tomorrow, but they are full both tomorrow and Friday. So now I have to make sure it will pass on Thursday, as there is no room for a retest!

[Juju]

Oh yea, and the MOT is now rebooked for Thursday. I wanted to rebook it for tomorrow, but they are full both tomorrow and Friday. So now I have to make sure it will pass on Thursday, as there is no room for a retest!

Waaaaaaaaah! Good luck Jamster. Nowt like a bit of pressure to get things done. I'll keep me bits crossed.

[alexcrosse]

yer goodluck for thursday mate, let us no how it goes! and get some videos on the go

[Jammy]

Well I've got mainly three/four things left to do:

Wire in Speedo sensor - ordered an extension cable direct from ETB, but its going to be sent out tomorrow
Fit seat
Fit door
Fit arches

Then theres move the dash switches to next to the handbrake - Ordered the wiring today
Need to look at the steering column mount, tis a bit flimsy
Couple of minor things with the headlights - dodgy sidelight wiring and both lights rattle in their fixing rings
General mixture/ignition map tuning and suspension geometry improvements

Found out today that I definitely don't need a working speedo/Odometer, so I don't need to worry about the speedo wiring until after the MOT. The seat, door and headlight wiring won't take me more than an hour! Want to do my own MOT pre-test tonight or tomorrow night though!

[Bungle]

good luck


how about a bini cooper s type bonnet to help cooling ?

[Jammy]

One more evening to work on this!!!

Hmmm, for the moment I'm just going to cut a couple of round holes in the front of the bonnet, offset. If I manage to do it right I think I'll quite like it!

Got the seat bolted in last night, its much lower down than what it was (the headrest is no longer touching the headlining! ), and a bit further forward, perfect position for me. I can just about get the gear lever into 1st and 3rd without leaning forward. Dash switches are still miles out front, but that should be solved when I move them to beside the handbrake, hopefully tonight.

The door is back on too! Must have taken me about 30-45 minutes just to do those four nuts up. They are in such a difficult little cubby hole. Even with ratchet spanners I still could get the full ring around the spanner, so it was down to turn it about 1/4, lift off, move round, turn again....

Did a couple of misc. wiring jobs. Wired up the coolant temperature sender, was a little surprised that the normal Mini sender worked fine with the ETB! Then scared myself silly... I was reving the engine a little to get it up to temperature, then all of a sudden it dies (over about 10 seconds) and won't restart! Immediately I thought the worst, that I'd broken the Megajolt unit and that it was game over. I double checked the 12V and earth to both the MJ unit and the EDIS stuff - fine. I wouldn't if the trigger wheel had come lose, so got the engine to TDC and checked that, but it was fine! Checked spark on number 1 - none. Went and got my laptop to see if I could still connect to the MJ unit, which I could... Then checked spark at number 3 (EDIS fires 1 and 2, and 3 and 4 at the same time) and it was sparking. In fact with two spark plugs out, the engine was trying to start! So it appears the coil pack stopped sparking on half its banks, so I might see if I can get a spare coil pack from the scrappy on Friday, just to take with me on L2B!

Tried to make a really comprehensive list of things left to do:
1. Test drive
2. Adjust mixture and suspension geometry
3. Repeat 1 and 2 as necessary!
4. Plumb in overflow tank
5. Move dash switches and make bracket for choke cable
6. Duck tape passenger door
7. Adjust mirrors
8. Check how warning lights must operate for MOT
9. Which pedals need to be non-slip for MOT?
10. Cut holes in bonnet
11. Change inline fuse for MJ from 20A to 15A
12. Install inline fuse for EDIS
13. Ring MLM about a possible tune up on way to Crystal Palace
14. Order BBA needle
15. Perform pre-MOT test
16. Nut and bolt check
17. Find out minimum ride height for MOT
18. Fit arches