Racing Green 89 Mini

[MiniDave]

The main problem with changing the diff is that you have to pull the engine - not too big a deal on an early car but more of a pain on the later cars like this one and Bruce's '88 with the brake booster on the side.

You don't have to remove the engine off the gearbox tho, you can leave it together......

We had rain last night, which turned to ice and then we got our 4" of very wet snow on top of that, but I guess the ground was warm enough that the ice melted under the snow - when I went to scrape the driveway this morning, other than being very heavy the snow pushed right off and left a clear tho wet drive underneath.

I'm glad I got the cars switched around so I can work on the Blue MINI for the next week or so till we get another break in the cold. Feb is coming and I have a feeling it's going to be miserable.....it usually is but this year I just think it will be exceptionally nasty.

[cstudep]

So speaking of diffs, is there a way to check the ratio without removing it from the car? Obviously it's pretty straight forward for a rear wheel drive vehicle but is there a way to figure it out on a front wheel drive? Just curious I guess what is in mine, I suppose you can probably take a best guess based on RPM vs speed but didn't know if there was a better way?

There's calculators that use rpm, speed, and you'll need to know your tire diamter.  I have a 3.44 but with my small diameter race tires it's more like a 3.66 equivalent.  At some point I'd like to change things around, but that also includes the turbo kit I made but have yet to find time to install.

Good to know on the calculators and the Guessworks chart. I have been all over that sight but guess I missed seeing that. Nothing about the engine in my car is "original" so I doubt any sort of engine numbers or anything like that would be helpful. I have about 4 other sets of dif gears and transmission cases that came with the car so it's hard telling what the guy actually put in it, I do know the speedo is WAY off and he used to take the car to a track some. He also mostly otherwise just drove it around the city so guessing it's got pretty low gears in it. Some day I will pull it out, tear it open a bit to seal up some of the leaks/ explore what all has been done to it but who knows when that will be. The plan is to do all that when I finally decide to tear it all down for the repaint.

It looks like it is supposed to warm up a bit again, if it does and some of this snow we got melts away I may take it out and see what I can find out. I have been itching to take out anyway.

[MPlayle]

Here is a direct link to the Guessworks final drive chart page.

http://guess-works.com/Tech/ratio.htm

[MiniDave]

I'm in a quandry on this car.....I got all the cars moved around again and the Racing Green Mini is back on the rack - it left about a shoe print sized puddle - maybe a bit smaller - of oil on the floor in the week that it sat there. That upsets me no end, but I don't know if it's enough to make me pull the motor back out.

While backing it off the rack last week it caught the pipe and broke the rubber hanger, on looking at the pipe I don't think it's the correct pipe as it doesn't have the bends in it to clear the shifter and it hits the tunnel sometimes under certain load conditions.

So......I can get a new center pipe for it and a new hanger and fit kit, that will fix that but the oil leak - I think it will have to come out of the car to fix that as it appears to be from the final drive housing.

I'll decide over the next few days and get parts on the way....

[cstudep]

It would be so frustrating to have an oil leak on a fresh engine like that so I can feel your pain there, especially if it didn't leak at all while being ran in the engine stand. Even that would be frustrating but at least it wouldn't require all the various hassles of pulling it back out of the car to fix.

[BruceK]

With that freshly painted white engine, Should be easy to see where the leak is coming from, right?

[Jimini II]

Well that sucks Dave, hopefully its a relatively easy fix.
I gave up shipping center pipes I just have a muffler shop make them up a lot easier imo.

[MiniDave]

After being gone for 2 weeks or more I was expecting a pretty good puddle under the green Mini but it was only a couple of small spots....so I've decided to leave it alone for now and concentrate on other things.

To that end I got it back on the lift and dropped the old cobbled together exhaust system off. The Play Mini SS muffler has gotten a bit louder lately so I ordered an RC 40 center pipe and resonator which finally came in just before I got home. I installed it today and the old rear box (which I cleaned up and gave a coat of high temp Rusty Oleum) that I've been using on the engine test stand. I'll either convert the Play Mini to that duty or come up with something else. The pipes were pretty poorly cobbled together.....

The one part of the equation I don't have tho are the rear bobbins that attach the muffler to the rear cross brace of the subframe.....I ordered those from McMaster Carr today and should have them in a day or two.

I also got the new choke cable to install, but I noticed the backing plate is all loose, so I'll drop the heater box down and see if I can figure out how to snug it up again. Then once the choke cable is in I can finish buttoning up the engine compartment, install the air filter and windshield washer bottle and a few other bits and then put some miles on her.

[Jimini II]

Those choke cables can be a pig to tighten up.
My Clubman Estate was constantly coming loose so I ended up slotting a deep socket with a hex head and also slotted a 12 point combination wrench to tighten it up, its never loosened up since.

[MiniDave]

This is the later style that's just held in with a clip, however it's the backing plate that's loose.....I'll put up a pic later after I figure out how to fix it.

[MiniDave]

So, I got the choke cable in finally.....and maybe cured yet another dash rattle! Whohoo!

Turns out the little bracket that was loose and flopping around was only held in with a nut and a captive bolt, so all I needed to do to fix it was tighten the nut. Of course, I didn't know that's how it went together so I wound up removing all the switches so I could get my hand in there and see how it all went together. the cover plate is held in place by the choke cable housing too, so when the bracket got loose so did the cover plate.

all back together now and works a treat. I've had the switch for the rear fog light just zip tied up under the dash, I think I'm going to replace the silly "check your brake fluid" switch and light with that switch. I may have to extend the wires for it to reach but that's easily done.

[BruceK]

I've never understood the goofy press-to-test-the-lightbulb brake warning light.  I first encountered one on my '73 MG Midget back in the 1970s and I assumed it was some half-assed solution British Leyland came up with to meet American safety regulations. The same kind of thinking that produced big ugly black rubber bumpers.  When I got my '88 Mini I was surprised to see the Mini version of this switch/warning light even existed on a car 15 years newer.

I like your idea of doing away with it and using that space for something useful.

[MiniDave]

The oil leaks were annoying me so much I decided to pull the motor back out and see if I can fix them. I used new gaskets and sealer (on one side) when I put it together but the leaks were persistent, so I bought some "right stuff" from Permatex to see if that would do better - this stuff is highly rated but it's just RTV in a cheese whiz can to me.

Took it all apart, all the gaskets looked fine to me. cleaned everything thoroughly, put the cheese whiz on both sides of the new gaskets and put it all back together again. I poured about half of the oil back in and put a white paper towel under it....if it's still clean in the AM I'll put it back in the car - if not - I may shoot it!  50.gif

[cstudep]

Supposedly the Right Stuff is a little different than the standard RTV stuff, but who knows. I do know there is no cure time required for it like regular RTV, you can slap some on an oil pan torque it down and drive off.

I have never used it myself but do know a few people who use it in their auto repair businesses and they swear by it so long as you buy it in the little caulking tube style, they say the cheese whiz cans are hit and miss on if they will actually work at about a 50/50 rate. I figured I might give it a go on mine if I ever pull it out as the the timing cover side leaks on it drive me insane.

[MiniDave]

The lip seals on these cars get stiff and brittle, that's probably what's leaking on that end.....also the axle side cover seals and the clutch end seal.....I've taken them out where they're hard as rocks.

Also, you have to watch that timing cover seal leak, the fan sucks that oil mist thru the radiator and when it gets dirt in it it clogs the radiator.

[cstudep]

The lip seals on these cars get stiff and brittle, that's probably what's leaking on that end.....also the axle side cover seals and the clutch end seal.....I've taken them out where they're hard as rocks.

Also, you have to watch that timing cover seal leak, the fan sucks that oil mist thru the radiator and when it gets dirt in it it clogs the radiator.

Good to know, I had the radiator out awhile back to put in that water pump you gave me and to swap out the alternator. I didn't notice it being oily/clogged up but honestly I was not really looking for it either so I may check that out since it does run a little warm at times.

The oil leak is somewhere below the water pump, it's really hard to tell since like you said the fan tends to move it around, the leaking water pump was adding a tremendous amount of liquid to the situation (oil spot is much smaller now that water pump isn't leaking) and there is so much RTV in the area I just get frustrated even looking at it LOL. Need to pull the motor out and just give it a little refresh I guess, new seals, gaskets, paint, etc..

[MiniDave]

Be careful going down that rabbit hole!   ;D

If you're going to do that you should pull the head and have the hardened seats put in so you can run it on modern gasoline - and do a valve job of course - new guides, new valves, stem seals, new springs, new lifters I'm sure they'll be pitted and worn, so that means a new cam. And while you have it out might as well put in new rod and main bearings and thrust washers - probably wouldn't hurt to put new cam bearings in while you have the cam out etc, etc etc.....  ::)

[MiniDave]

So there was no joy in Mudville, a couple of hours after I finished I found a big green oil stain on the paper towel, the only good news is that it really pinpointed where the leak was coming from. There is an o-ring around the detent spring and carrier for the shift rod inside the trans that mates up with the bottom of the right side cover.

I pulled that cover off, cleaned everything up and popped the o-ring out - it was hard as a rock and flat on both sides! As hard as it is for me to believe that I didn't change that - considering that I cleaned and painted all the covers - it sure looks like that is the case. Either that or I managed to re-use the old one by mistake.

Anywho, another new gasket, some more cheese whiz and a new o-ring from my spares and she's all back together again with another fresh paper towel in place. I will say this about the "Right Stuff", it's a whole lot easier to clean off than regular RTV. If only it wasn't so damn expensive.....$18 for a can of cheese whiz is a bit much.

After 3 hours it's still dryer than a popcorn fart, so I think that's the final answer.

If I don't see this or any other drips by tomorrow am, she's going back in.

[Jimini II]

Hopefully sorted this time Dave.

[MiniDave]

4 hours later, still dry as a bone, not a spec on the paper towel!  77.gif

[cstudep]

Be careful going down that rabbit hole!   ;D

If you're going to do that you should pull the head and have the hardened seats put in so you can run it on modern gasoline - and do a valve job of course - new guides, new valves, stem seals, new springs, new lifters I'm sure they'll be pitted and worn, so that means a new cam. And while you have it out might as well put in new rod and main bearings and thrust washers - probably wouldn't hurt to put new cam bearings in while you have the cam out etc, etc etc.....  ::)

That is precisely why it still resides in the car.....dripping oil out at will LOL.

Although I am interested to know if it already has hardened seats and what not. The motor was built, fast road cam, duplex timing chain, etc... (I have all the part receipts) and does not have a ton of miles on it, although it does have a lot of years on it since then. I just don't have anything on any machining that might have been done so I have no idea what pistons are in it, head work, etc... One of these days.

[MiniDave]

I didn't realize that work had been done...the only thing to check then is whether it has hardened seats, depending on when the work was done it may or may not  - you can tell easily when the head is off, so if it does all it cost you was a little extra work and a head gasket.

My good news this AM, the paper towel was still completely spot free, so I'm ready to put the motor back in and get some miles on it now.

[cstudep]

Yeah it was a complete tear down and rebuild, I had about 3 transmissions worth of extra parts come with the car.....cases and all. I guess he must have just taken all the best bits to build the trans in the car. I really don't know, I just know he bought lots of parts for it because he gave me a book with all the receipts in it. He also had a weber 45DCOE on it so either he was highly optimistic or maybe it has had some head work done on it. Biggest problem is if I ever pull the motor I am just going to strip it clean and get it fixed/repainted. Not sure I am ready for that yet.

Glad to hear you solved the oil leak problem!

[MiniDave]

This is the new arrangement for the switches with the fog light switch incorporated and the silly check to see if you have brake fluid switch removed.

Also, the motor is back in the car, now only about 1000 things to hook back up and she'll be roadwrothy again.

[MiniDave]

I had intended to simply bolt this back in the car, but it was so grotty and stiff feeling that I decided to clean it up before putting it back in. Interestingly, the only place it was rusty was where heavy greasy muck was on it.

So I wound up completely taking it apart, cleaning everything, painting a few bits, re-lubing it and reassembly - took most of the day by the time the paint was dry enough to put it back together. Shifts really light and sweet now tho.....

One more piece of metric madness on this later model "English" car, this bolt attaches the shifter assembly to the brackets under the tunnel - it's 10 mm! (14mm wrench - not 9/16")