1960 Austin 850 Project

Started by tsumini, May 22, 2014, 06:45:40 PM

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MiniDave

Yeah, the only time I've seen a float cause trouble is when it fills with gas and sinks, flooding the engine. You can tell by holding it near your ear and shaking it - you'll hear the liquid if it's in there.

I wonder if it's just the needle - the ones with the rubber tips sometimes react to ethanol fuel and swell up - sticking closed usually.
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

tmsmini

I think you meant Joe Curto, he has been very helpful.

http://joecurto.com/

tsumini

#252
Quote from: Jimini II on January 12, 2020, 09:11:57 AM
That is the wrong float for your float lid.
Get in touch with Joe Virgo in New York he has the right part and is very knowledgeable regarding SU's.
I am not sure the float is the problem though.
Have you tried running the car with the float lid removed and just topping the float bowl off to see how long it runs?
Just ran without float; have to coax it to start full choke pump accel pedal. Dies when it goes down to idle.
Looks like resetting the carb.
Yeah float looks wrong.

tsumini

looks like i need to re-set carb. Check timing etc. Start all over again. Fuel supply ok.

Jimini II

Yes I did mean Joe Curto stupid spell check on this tablet.
I would remove the jet and see if it is kinked or the o ring is damaged or distorted due to ethanol.

BruceK

Quote from: Jimini II on January 12, 2020, 01:22:18 PM
Yes I did mean Joe Curto stupid spell check on this tablet.
I would remove the jet and see if it is kinked or the o ring is damaged or distorted due to ethanol.

Oh that's a thing?  I hadn't heard that.  I will need to check my carb. 
1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

tsumini

Quote from: tmsmini on January 12, 2020, 11:17:54 AM
I think you meant Joe Curto, he has been very helpful.

http://joecurto.com/
Just watched his video on covers. Confirmed I got the wrong float. Again I think the float i have is OK . The carb itself is the problem.

Jimini II

The SU is simple in design of you have fuel pressure only the jet, bottom of the float bowl or the needle and seat can stop the flow.
When you replaced the jet did you get the old o ring out as they usually get stuck in the float bowl.
Also did you center the jet? Sometimes it is not necessary if it is centered correctly you can lift the piston and when it drops it should hit the bridge with a nice clunk sound.
Sorry if some of this is repeated.

tsumini

Thought I had mentioned it before but see that I haven't. I suspected the jet tube may be off so I removed the dashpot housing and cleaned it with carb cleanre. It dropped into the jet tube and showed no signs of being off center. I also blew air back into the bowl and showed the jet tube to be clear. I had rerplaced the jet tube earlier due to a leak at the bowl connector(bad gasket).
I cvould get it started but had to pump the accelerator furiously to get it to run. Then it would sputter a while die when it went back to idle.

tsumini

Well after several days of checking this and that I decided to take the carb off and see if there was anything wrong. Couldn't reealy find anything that would affect fuel delivery. I found the choke return spring mis-installed. It didn't return the choke lever all the way back.
Jet tube was free to move. Piston was free. I expected maybe to see the throttle shaft worn but .010 total play in the shaft didn't seem enough to affect operation. I ran it later and moved the shaft  back and forth with no change in operation.
Re-installed the carb and didn't see any improvement. I did note that the SU FP stopped running when it was stalling. I thought it should keep running   since the engin exhibited fuel starvation symptoms. So I hooked up the new electric Fuel pump drawing from a tank sitting on the floor. The car ran muck better and started  cold much better.
I decided to install the new FP. While removing it I found that one hose was bent 90 degrees without aaan elbow effectively interfering with the flow. By this time I was committed to the new FP rather than correct the old FP installation. Comleted the install and took a spin. It started cold fine with little choke. It runs well even cold and better at operating temp although i noticed a couple of stumbles where the high idle stumble briefly back to sub idle.
https://youtu.be/2JMvkaTKNRQ

tsumini


MiniDave

Wow! This car is fantastic!

Look how far you've come with it, for a while there I wasn't sure you'd finish it, but I bet you're glad now that you stuck with it.

Now to get some miles on it so you can join us in San Antonio for our Texas run in late April.
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

Jimini II

Looks great.
Since you did a gravity test and the results were similar I would not have guessed a fuel pump or kinked line, glad you have it somewhat sorted.
If you have not already done so remember to set and check everything else before setting the carb up, points, spark plugs, vacuum advance, distributor advance weights and springs, valve clearances, timing, maximum timing advance, then set the carburetor.

Also regarding the bumpers can you tell me the length of the longer early ones as I may have access to a decent early one on an early 62 Mini, not sure if they went to the later shorter ones by then.

BruceK

Nice car!  I love the very early seat cover material - I've seen an ancient Mini seat beat the hell with that unusual material (a seat with the little 'feet' at the back rather than the bent tubing).  But your seats look fantastic.
1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

tsumini

Quote from: MiniDave on January 20, 2020, 09:35:24 AM
Wow! This car is fantastic!

Look how far you've come with it, for a while there I wasn't sure you'd finish it, but I bet you're glad now that you stuck with it.

Now to get some miles on it so you can join us in San Antonio for our Texas run in late April.
Thanks for the kind words. It was a struggle staying motivated but got down to it the last couple months. It will certtainly be the last. The old bones wont take much more especially crawling under the car to change a FP. At least my last house had a lift. I'll work on April. Hope I can get the stumble out by then.

tsumini

Quote from: BruceK on January 20, 2020, 04:47:21 PM
Nice car!  I love the very early seat cover material - I've seen an ancient Mini seat beat the hell with that unusual material (a seat with the little 'feet' at the back rather than the bent tubing).  But your seats look fantastic.
Thanks for the kind words. It is much appreciated.
The seat material is a reproducction of the original material and sold by 1959 Register. It was original to this car (Basic Model) so opted for this. Overall the upholster did a good job on the seats but was a little disappointed in the back Seat back. He didn't make it wide enough and I had bought the original cover to him but couldn't bring the car. But it turned out OK I made the door cards and fillets and rear panel cards.
i look at it now and think the pattern is rather overwhelming  and should have been  moditied. I think it would look great as an insert such as jeff10049 did on his 60 interior. In fact I may have some extra pieces that could work but don't know if there's enough.

tsumini

Quote from: Jimini II on January 20, 2020, 10:14:13 AM
Looks great.
Since you did a gravity test and the results were similar I would not have guessed a fuel pump or kinked line, glad you have it somewhat sorted.
If you have not already done so remember to set and check everything else before setting the carb up, points, spark plugs, vacuum advance, distributor advance weights and springs, valve clearances, timing, maximum timing advance, then set the carburetor.

Also regarding the bumpers can you tell me the length of the longer early ones as I may have access to a decent early one on an early 62 Mini, not sure if they went to the later shorter ones by then.
Thanks, I think the car is running much better although It stumbles at idle for no apparent reason almost like a momentary glitch is fuel. I may crawl into my trailer and retreive a carb from the 60 Morris and see if that helps.
The long bumpers were designated "long' because they extended back a little. It would be difficult to measure the length. I think they were only about an inch longer and was difficult to identify.  The 59 Registry shows the difference. It also says that they were installed only until April 1960 so this January 60 has the orignal bumpers.I verified long with Bill Bell back in 2016. I have parts of a July 1960 Morris and it had the third bumper in the photo and is a "short" bumper and also with five mount holes. Notice that the bolt holes are square holes as opposed to the slots in the long bumper. The lip with the holes is slightly wider also.
I've also attached a photo of three together.  I exchanged emails and photos with a guy from Canada that had an NOS long bumper that we compared to mine. Regarding your lead on a bumper; a picture of the end should tell if it's long or short.
Thanks again for your help.

jeff10049

Nice  4.gif. My back seat came out a little too wide I guess they really need the car to get it perfect.


tsumini

Quote from: tsumini on January 11, 2020, 08:12:16 PM
Thanks for the tips Jeff. I was wondering about filler for flaws. I found that my welding leaves some surface inclusions that would show in chrome plating so have reservations there. I'll give d and r a call.
Called D & R this PM. You're right is expensive $250 just to rechrome. each. I asked about filler for weld repair. They said they would have to do the weld themselves so that would be extra to re-do after they looked at them. Transportation to and from adds.
So this ain't happening. Probably leave them for next owner.

tsumini


jeff10049

I have a cosmichrome set up we use for interior parts and to redo chromed plastic it's ok. The bumpers will need to be absolutely flawless. But you just use reglaur fillers and primers for this.   Sand to 800-1000  then apply the silver you will want to clear coat it on bumpers. Any chips through the clear will oxidize the silver under it so you may want to put the clear rock chip film on the front bumper.

Absolutely clean spray area as well any dirt shows bad maybe make a temporary bumper sized booth out of an old box or something.

It will work and look good but it won't be as easy or durable or shiny as any of the spray chrome places make it sound.

I would give it a try they can still always be chromed later on you got through painting the car you can do this.


tsumini

I bought this car as a project from my brother who has acquired it years ealier without title, bill of sale only.
S last week I did the necessary paperwork and inspections to get a Bonded Title. Everything came together and I now have a bonded title and registered and insured so I can legally drive it on public roads. It was rather painless ( need to cross your i's and dot your tees) until the final hurdle which was paying for the tiels which maens sales tax. Wasn't sure what it would be based on original cost to me or ??.
Found out it was the value of the bond which was $6000. oops.
To get a Texas Bonded title you must have car valued except that for a car over 25 years old the DMV assigns a value. The minimum acceptable value is $4000 but the value of the bond has to be  1.5 times assigned car value ($6000). With tax, bond and insurance it approached $750.
Well it's done now.

BruceK

So is a bonded title a sort of non-permanent thing?  Meaning if the bonded title is not challenged by anybody over some period of time it reverts to a normal title? 
1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

tsumini

Quote from: BruceK on March 08, 2020, 07:14:42 AM
So is a bonded title a sort of non-permanent thing?  Meaning if the bonded title is not challenged by anybody over some period of time it reverts to a normal title?
Yes, good for three years at which time the owner can apply for a regular title with no encumbrances. It stays with the car meaning that the bond is transferred any owner of the car within the three year period so the car is saleable without the new owner re-applying for a bonded title.

BruceK

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