Blue 1983 "Window" Van

Started by MPlayle, March 26, 2022, 04:39:44 PM

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BruceK

And don't totally rule out the possibility of a bad battery.
1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

MPlayle

Quote from: MiniDave on September 23, 2022, 02:26:51 PM
I think I have a spare new solenoid - it's the one on the fender, right?

Make sure you have a good ground connection between the block and body.

Yes, it is the 3-terminal style mounted on the inner fender.  I will check the grounding of the of the solenoid to the fender. 

I know the engine block to the body has a good ground: I reinstalled the original ground strap in the same manner as it was when I removed it and added a second ground strap from the flywheel housing to the fender (scraped the paint to bare metal under the strap mounting to the fender).

Quote from: BruceK on September 23, 2022, 04:00:52 PM
And don't totally rule out the possibility of a bad battery.

I have been keeping the battery on a tender, but will take it to the nearby Autozone and get it tested.


MPlayle

Progress today:

Got the battery checked and it is okay.

I took the solenoid off the fender and found fully painted metal underneath (with a tiny bit of corrosion appearing), so the gounding was just the self-tapping screws mounting it to the fneder.

I took a wire-wheel to the fender and removed the paint to bare metal under the solenoid back plate to give it more grounding surface and remounted the solenoid.  I will test it tomorrow or Wednesday.

I also cleaned up the inner pot joints, replacing the boot on one and got the axels and hubs fully back in the car and the brake calipers remounted as well.  I put the front wheels back on and snugged them up ready for putting the car down off the jack stands.

Tomorrow or Wednesday will be the "off the stands", recheck the valve clearances, and retest the solenoid.  Then it will be reinstall the grill and bonnet, and test drive!


MPlayle

More "two steps forward, one step backward" action today.

Got it down off the stands, the valves rechecked, the front wheels torqued, and all ready for testing.

It fired right up on the first try.  I was running it on choke and warming it up and the sounds in the garage seemed a bit off.  Then it started sputtering and died.  The "sound of silence" had returned - this time the new electric fuel pump had quit.  It still cranks over, so the solenoid issue seems fixed for now.  Still thankful Dave had one to send me for a spare it case the current one acts up again.

I pulled the fuel pump to try to return it and order another.  The one that quit is an Edelbrock 17303 (30 GPH at 2-3.5 PSI).  I tried it because it was in stock.  I'll try to order a Mr. Gasket 42S as I had had good success with those.


MiniDave

#54
I returned three of those Mr. Gasket pumps to Oreily's before I got one that worked......good luck on that.

I like the idea of an electric pump, but I have a mechanical on my green car and it's never failed. The only advantage of these small electrics is that you can find them everywhere

It's funny......the one on Buzz used to quit working as I drove, give it a little tap and it would happily pump away - till it stopped again. I replaced it with the above problem pumps and finally got one to work. Since then the pump off of Buzz has been on my engine stand and it works perfectly!
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MPlayle

Dave,

I still have the mechanical pump, although it would be a chore to put it back on the engine and plumb the hoses again.

I have not had issues with the 42S pumps I used in the past, though I have heard of others that did (like you).  This Edelbrock lasted maybe 10 minutes total time between Friday's startup and today's effort.


94touring

I have both the 42s and Eddlebrock on the minis and bus.  I had an older 42s stop working on the bus and was replaced with the edlebrock.  Otherwise no failures to speak of.

BruceK

Quote from: MiniDave on September 27, 2022, 12:12:06 PM


I like the idea of an electric pump, but I have a mechanical on my green car and it's never failed. The only advantage of these small electrics is that you can find them everywhere


Well, another advantage is that an electric pump can't develop a leaky diaphragm and let fuel run into the sump diluting the oil causing engine wear like a mechanical pump can do. Not sure how often that happens but it seems possible. 
1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

MiniDave

#58
Possible, but seems unlikely......seems like if it gets a split that would let it leak into the sump, it wouldn't be able to develop any pressure?

I've had a couple fail on other cars, but never had one fill the sump with gas, the car just quit running.

YMMV
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

94touring

Quote from: BruceK on September 27, 2022, 04:10:13 PM
Quote from: MiniDave on September 27, 2022, 12:12:06 PM


I like the idea of an electric pump, but I have a mechanical on my green car and it's never failed. The only advantage of these small electrics is that you can find them everywhere


Well, another advantage is that an electric pump can't develop a leaky diaphragm and let fuel run into the sump diluting the oil causing engine wear like a mechanical pump can do. Not sure how often that happens but it seems possible.

Rare but the vdub guys bring that up in fuel pump discussions.

MPlayle

#60
And the next wave of the saga hits.

Got the replacement fuel pump installed and plumbed in.  Turned the car on to hear if the new pump runs and heard it pull its prime and fill the line and carb.  Pulled the choke and the car fired right up.

Turned it off and installed the grill and bonnet.

Fired it back up to see about a quick run around the apartment parking lot, and ...

No clutch action!  Pedal has no resistance all the way to the floor and back up.

Set about bleeding the clutch system using my "mini-vac" bleeder kit.  Pulled lots of air and dirty fluid out.  Used up all the spare fluid I had on hand and need to get some more and continue bleeding the system.  I did get some clutch action back, but it is all low, near the floor.

I do have a replacement braided clutch line (for from the master all the way to the slave) and an extra slave I can try if more bleeding does not do the trick.

Edit:
I just did a quick check as the two slave cylinders I have are slightly different.  It turns out the one already on the car is a Verto slave on a pre-Verto clutch arm arrangement.  The spare I have is a pre-verto slave.  It looks like I will be changing it over to the spare and new line.


MiniDave

#61
I find these clutches really easy to bleed, I put a hose off the bleeder into a small water bottle with an inch of fluid in the bottom, fill the master, go into the car and push the pedal down three times, close off the bleeder and she's done.

Once in a while I have to pump the pedal a few times quickly to get the fluid moving but that's about all it takes.

If you're getting lots of blackish fluid, that means the seals are failing in either the slave, master, rubber hose or all of the above. Changing the slave is smart...do that first always. If you need a master I have an order going in this weekend to Spares. I can easily add it in....
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MPlayle

Had it out for its first "shake down" drive today.  Took it to fill the tank, then a car wash to clean it.  It ran well.  After washing it, I did a short drive further out from my apartment to run it up a bit and verify the results of the final drive change.

Seat of pants evealuation: acceleration performance is about the same as before, which I expected with the taller final drive offset by the performance boost of the performance head & rockers.  There were no apparent leaks or other issues.

When I pulled the old final drive out, it turned out to be a 3.44 gear set, but the calculated performance (per the Guessworks site) was as though it had a 3.64 set.  This leads me to conclude that I have non-standard drop gears. 

The result of the change to a 3.1 final drive gear set with the non-standard drop gears is as though it has a 3.2 final drive: 4K rpm = 70 mph.

I am happy with that.  Now to start enjoying it again.


BruceK

Success!   I'm sure it's great to have it back on the road.   are you going to C&C on Saturday?
1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

MPlayle

Quote from: BruceK on October 04, 2022, 05:33:53 PM
Are you going to C&C on Saturday?

That is the plan if there will be other Minis going as well.  Meet at the usual place & time before the C&C?


BruceK

Yes. Let's meet up at 6:30 AM at Whataburger. Some people, such as Brad, are going to the British car show in Houston. Not sure how many.
1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

MPlayle

From some of my most recent posts, the solenoid issue had seemed to go away.  That was until Thursday.  I took the Mini Van out to go get lunch and do some errands.  Stopped one place and when I went to leave, ... nothing from the solenoid.  It had died for good apparently.

I was able to push start the car and get home.

This morning I changed out the old solenoid for the one I got from Dave and all seems right again.


MPlayle

Some validation that my work on the Mini Van has been worth it:

It took second place in its class (Classic Minis) out of 11 Minis present at the Boerne All British Car Day car show today!  A lot of people made comments of being impressed by it as well as comments about not seeing one like it before (meaning the Van version as there was a very nice 1980 Estate with a round-nose and VTEC conversion among the Minis present).

First place was Jim Davidson's 1966 Maroon MK-I Cooper-S and third was Tiffany Holt's blue VTEC Saloon (Super-Cooper conversion).

BruceK

1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

Brit_in_TX

Congrats Michael!  Wish I had been able to make it to Boerne for the show.