1980 Clubman Estate

Started by MiniDave, January 03, 2015, 01:51:07 PM

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94touring

Only 9 months huh?  That's discouraging.   

Mudhen

Ya, imagine if you were racing it?  Just plan on swapping them out every couple of weeks... :(

MiniDave

I'm told the poly ones hold up well....we'll see. I'm going to be driving about 1,000 miles next week, that should be a good test.

I think the racers change them out for rod ends instead.
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

#53
After our Fun Run in Arkansas I decided to pull the dash and upgrade a few things and make some changes, also to look for those last few rattles and buzzes still in the dash, much to my frustration.

First thing I did was replace the two switches on the steering column - I did this for two reasons, first so I could fix the self cancelling problem and second so I could change sides and have the signals on the left instead of the right. That was fairly straightforward, two new switches and some longer screws on the back to activate the self cancelling mechanism was all it took.



Next I pulled the main dash panel - I have several things to do here - I'm going to move the tach to the right side of the dash so it will be easier to see when driving, consequently the temp gauge will get moved over to the main panel. All that moving required a new wiring harness for the tach, and while I was making that I decided to upgrade the connector so it's easy to disconnect and remove that side of the dash. I also had to make a bracket to attach the tach, before it was just a press fit in the wood dash. I was surprised that my local Ace hardware had the 4mm nuts and washers that were missing too.

Here's the tach, bracket and wiring connector I made installed in the wood panel.



I also had no dash lights and pulled the instrument cluster to find the reason, which was pretty obvious once I got it out - there was a burned spot in the circuit board - it probably happened when I last had it out, I probably touched something and grounded it out. I found a guy nearby that has a video repair shop and he soldered it up for me - he also put some JBWeld over the top to protect it - I wouldn't have done that but whatever....



Lastly, swapping the tach and temp gauges means a new harness for those gauges too, for the lights and also I swapped the amp gauge for a volt gauge -the amp gauge was woefully inaccurate. Now all three gauges match too...





Now, all I have left is to make the car side of the harness for the tach and then re-install everything. I'm hoping to get it all done today so I can take Buzz to the KC version of Cars and Coffee tomorrow morning - it's moved from the previous location at the Roasterie to the KC Auto Museum, but it's a mere shadow of the events in Dallas and Charlotte, let alone California.....with more late model stuff than classic. But I'm hopeful that as the weather improves maybe more cool cars will start to show.....
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

The KC Cars & Coffee show was really well attended, tho there were way too many late model Porsches and BMWs and not enough cool, classic cars. Still, even tho it was cold (38° !) there were a lot of people there - so many that the venue was over crowded, I wonder what they'll do when the weather gets nice?

So today I finally found my dash rattle.....after taking out the steering column, instruments, the wood dash itself and the covering behind the dash, I'm left with this rubbery sort of insulation that's next to the firewall - when I tap it with my hand I get that obnoxious noise I've been hearing. Now, how to fix it....

Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

94touring

If it's foam, I remove it.  Holds water especially on the ends and will rot the bulkhead. 

MiniDave

No, it's not that, it sounds like there's something metal behind it that's causing the noise......Ima hafta take it out and see what's in there.....
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

#57
Good point, it shouldn't hurt anything since he only put it over the solder repair he did to that one strip, but I'll need to be careful not to contact it with a ground when it's live.  I learned my lesson tho, I only work on electrical stuff with the battery disconnected! It is really close to that other circuit tho, isn't it? I'll have to look at it really closely and see if it touches, although there's a clear coating over all of the circuit board that should insulate it from the JB weld.

Today, I finished the instrument wiring harness and connector - now all I need to do is figure out how I'm going to secure that loose insulation and I can start putting Buzz back together again - assuming everything works of course!  I snuck a borescope down behind the insulation and didn't see anything loose that could rattle, I'm wondering if it was just hitting the sheet metal? Something made a racket when I first patted on it, that has now stopped. I might just put some good old duct tape on the top edge to secure it and call it good.   



Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

Today I made one of these, the old cardboard that formed the floor of the glovebox was tired, bent, dirty and nasty - someone had made another out of a for sale sign, but it wasn't any better and looked like shite from under the dash - not that anyone looks under the dash -  so I cut and bent a new one out of shiny new steel.



And here's where it goes, the old one hung down thru that large hole......



And here it is in situ, I'll put a few screws in it to keep from introducing a new rattle, and there's a mat that goes over it to become the inside of the glovebox....then it's time to start putting Buzz back together again. The club has a run scheduled down to southern Mo next weekend and I want him ready for it. The guy who owns the 13" wheels said I could use them on that run, so it will be a chance for me to see what they're like in all driving conditions, town and country. Our route will take us down Rt 66 from Joplin and thru all 13 miles of the mother road in Kansas!



A few of our stops along the way......







These pics were from the route planner's pre-run last weekend, we have reservations for lunch Sunday  at this Cafe on the Route, it was formerly a bank, and in it's previous life it was robbed by Jesse James...



If the weather co-operates we're gonna have a great run. Right now it looks like about 20 cars will be participating, 3-5 classics!
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

I got Buzz all re-assembled this afternoon and took him for a quick spin around the block - he started right up and ran perfectly and all the electrical stuff worked just as it should have done. It's a little disheartening to work so hard for so many weeks and when it's all back together it doesn't look, run or drive any differently - but at least everything worked!

So  took him around the block and when I got back I got a nasty surprise, a big ol puddle of brake fluid under the left rear wheel. I haven't done anything to the rear of the car since I got it, although I did pull the drums right before our Arkansas run last month and everything looked fine then.



I made a quick sprint up to Victoria's British Secret (well sorta, the road destruction around here this year is terrible, I wasn't sure if I could get there from here - or back!) and bought two wheel cylinders and incase those didn't fit, two wheel cylinder repair kits - I'll tackle this later tonight. Tomorrow I'm meeting John at school to align both cars to get ready for our Rt 66 trip this Saturday and Sunday.......it's always sumthin with these old cars.   :roll:

Oh, and now it looks like it's gonna rain all weekend around Joplin.....
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

Mudhen

I forget which thread I was in on [I think] northamericanmotoring.com - paging through I see, 'MiniDave' - hey, I think I know that guy!

Contributing all over the place.    4.gif

MiniDave

That's me, I sprinkle my little bon mots everywhere!

Turned out the Victoria British parts were correct - exactly the same as on a Spridget - and I got everything cleaned up and put back together tonight - last thing I have to do is install the clip that holds the wheel cylinder in, and it is being a be-otch! Of course there's a special tool to do this job that I can buy from any of the usual suspects, but that's not gonna help me tonight at 9 pm....I'm sure I'll figure it out....

Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

jeff10049

Those clips are a bitch after ruining/bending one on my 60 trying to install. I looked up he cone shaped tool and decided to just go back to the wavy washer snap ring combo that was original to the 60. I don't know where one could find the wavy washers to use that setup on the newer cars but its quick and easy.

I suppose one could buzz out a cone on the grinder and use a socket and c clamp to push the ring on. I found trying to push it on like a c clip will only ruin it.

Jeff

MiniDave

After looking around I found a guy who told how he does it, and I used his trick and it worked. You bend one tang end, wedge the cylinder so it won't push back out, then slip it over the end, engage the two tangs first, then take a drift and tap the last one straight again. It pops right into place. Done deal.

Right after I got it on, one of my local Mini buddies said he has the tool......oh well......
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

One of the last things I've wanted to do on Buzz is the rear subframe and all the associated parts. Plans are to have the subframe powder coated, rebuild the brakes with new shoes, hydraulics and paint everything. I'm also going to drop the fuel tank and have it cleaned and redcoated inside, then move the fuel pump back to the rear where it belongs. I also have an idea on a rear sway bar that I'm going to try and engineer.....so, stay tuned to this channel!

I may have found one of the few remaining rattles too - the check straps for the rear doors. They pass thru a small guide loop and I think it used to be coated with something, I wrapped a couple layers of tape around it just to see if it makes a difference, if not then it could be the check strap itself, the rubber stopper on mine is shrunken and pretty hard, but I can't find anyone who sells them - they're easily found for the front doors, but the back ones are made differently. The quest goes on.....
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

#65
Having gotten thru our Donut Run weekend, I need to get ready for our next fun run, the KC Mini Club and the Iowa Mini club do a joint event every May on some great roads in northern Missouri/southern Iowa. The fellow who organizes and runs the event is the guy who bought my '03 JCW from me - he traded it in a year later for a new JCW but I think he sold that when it ran out of warranty and is Mini-less right now, but he wanted to do the event anyway.

So, after I had a wheel cylinder start leaking on me I decided to replace all the brakes, the rears shoes are not worn out - in fact they look almost new - but after doing the repairs the left rear was still grabbing, as I cleaned up the shoes but didn't have time to replace them, and they were contaminated with brake fluid.

My front pads are also like new, but when you see the old rotors you'll laugh -  they look like they've been lying in a puddle of water for a couple of years and have some deep pits - I just looked at it like they were "drilled" or "slotted".......but I decided to replace them too as Moss had them on sale for only $40 ea.

I took the rear drums up to school today and turned them on the brake lather - they had worn typically out of round, so it took a bit to get them rounded out again, and as you can image such tiny drums are difficult to machine. I took me a while to get the lathe set up to where everything fit and worked, then a lot of passes to get them cleaned up and smooth, but in the end I only took off about 25 thou and they turned out great. While I was there I put them in the bead blaster and cleaned off all the old rust and paint. The right side drum had either been doing all the work or grabbing as the paint was burned brown on that side compared to the yellow paint on the left side.





Tomorrow if it ever stops raining I'll get some paint on them, then Sat I'll get everything cleaned up, installed and adjusted correctly.....I'll also get to try out the fancy schmancy e-clip installer, as one of the club members has one to loan. I also have new rear brake hoses to install, mine are fine, but they're pretty hard and stiff.

Sat also I'm going to put the almond green car in the post above back on the alignment rack, the camber adjusters somehow worked loose (not my fault, my back was hurting the day we aligned it so he was under the car making all the adjustments) so this time I'll do the alignment and set it up the way I like it. Don is really happy with his P'up now that I aligned it - I don't know why it took so long for him to let me get it on the machine - but he's been fighting the poor alignment done by another shop for more than 5 years now. Bottom line, it drives great now! I'm going to see if John will let me set his up the same way - he currently runs a lot of camber front and rear (1.5 degrees), I'd like to see him reduce that to .5 degrees - I'm confident he'll like it better.

Oh, and all the electrical stuff I wrote about before our Donut Run trip worked perfectly!
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

#66
Well, Sat we got John's almond green S on the alignment rack and straightened out -  it didn't take a lot either.....turns out the left rear camber adjuster had slipped - again, he tightened them the last time - I tightened them this time, I don't think they'll move again. Between that and front tires down to the wearbars, he felt pretty unsettled driving home on our donut run - and no wonder, the storm we drove thru was huge, super high winds that constantly changed directions, rain bucketing down....Buzz was moving around quite a bit too.

However with the rain and family requirements I didn't get much done on Buzz. In between thunderstorms I did get outside and get some paint on my drums, so they're at least ready to install. Also, I picked up the new shoes and hardware from the local Brit Car Parts supplier - it sure is handy to have these guys in town - while they don't carry any Mini parts, many Sprite/Midget parts are identical, like these brake shoes and the wheel cylinders I bought a week ago, and their prices are pretty good - plus no shipping!



Our joint run with the Iowa club will happen rain or shine, and right now the forecast for Sat is 90% chance of rain and thunderstorms, if it stays this way (it's the midwest, the forecast can reverse in the same day) then I'll leave Buzz home and drive the Blue Max instead.
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

Buzz is alive!

(again)

When we came home from the Donut Run the weather was really bad, storms, wind, rain bucketing down - so when it got close to town even tho I was well down into the red on the fuel gauge, rather than stop I pressed on and just made it home.

A few days later Don and I were going to do a quick check ride to Lawrence after getting his alignment straightened out and I started Buzz and let him idle in the drive - just in case I had added a gallon of gas I had in the garage so I knew could make it to the gas station just a few blocks down the street - he ran for a minute or two and then died and would not restart. I could hear the pump running but the carb was drier than a popcorn fart.

I went ahead and finished my brake job this week and today went back down to the shop to see if I had a bad pump or a clogged fuel line or what was going on. I blew the line back to the tank and it seemed clear. The pump filter was clear. I ran down to the gas station and got another 4 gallons of gas and added that to what was already in the tank but it still wouldn't work. So I got a short length of hose and a one gallon gas can and hooked it to the pump - it took a bit before it pulled the fuel, but once it got liquid into the pump it worked like mad! I hooked the car's fuel line up and bingo - gas to the carb. Once it was full I cranked him over and he started right up and ran normally.

Tomorrow is the annual Westwood Micro Car Show (one of the few times when my Mini looks like a big car!) and I had entered Buzz along with Don's P'up so I really wanted to get him running again so I could make the show. It's going to be hot and muggy, typical Kansas summer weather, so I'm going to get there early and get one of the few spots in the shade! Pics tomorrow afternoon when I get home......
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

94touring

When your drums were out of round did you get vibrations or a wobble when braking?   I thought I was going to be able to reuse mine but they don't seem right.  Stops but shaky if I get on them.

MiniDave

#69
Yes, some shaking on hard braking, and most noticeable at very light braking when coming to a stop.

But mine cleaned up easily at only 20 thou or so.....

I think most of mine was due to contamination of the shoes with brake fluid from the leaky left wheel cylinder.

I also found the backing plate loose on the right wheel, I imagine tightening that up will help immensely!
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

94touring

Considering all the cylinders on mine were leaking, I'm sure that hasn't helped.  I have a set of new shoes and some mini fins I can throw on an end for now.

MiniDave

Short report on the braking since I did the rears, substantial improvement - no shaking or pulsating at low speeds and it almost feels like the back squats a bit under harder braking. You can even feel the difference on light braking - how there's considerably more effort in the rear but no lockup.

Overall, I'm pleased.

I did not get the rear subframe pulled tho, I still have that to do but first I need to get my shop back in order - it's a mess!   

My wife bought me some clear container tubs so I'm going to put together my travel tubs - with various parts, electrical bits and tools, so when I take Buzz on a long trip I can just load the tubs and go.
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

Today I took Buzz up to school to relocate the fuel pump back near the gas tank, I never wanted it up under the hood, but that's where I was when I got him and I just hadn't engineered a solution to move it yet - today was the day.

It's hot here, about 100* this afternoon and the fact that I needed to have the underside clear meant driving up to school to use one of the two post lifts. On the ride up I kept an eye on the temp gauge and it seemed to run about 195* or so, but after pulling off the highway while siting at a light it went way over 200. When the light changed and I got rolling it came down a bit......

I got the pump relocated and a new wiring harness made up, so for the ride home I decide to open my aux cooler to see what impact it had - it never got over 180 - which is the thermostat setting.....so I'm thinking that's gonna do the trick. I need to take a longer run but I'm encouraged....

A local classic Mini friend took my 10" wheels up to his local Wal Mart where his buddy works and had him balance them for me - I have to say he did a great job, they're the smoothest they've ever been since I owned the car! One more tick off the to-do list......

I really want to do Minis in the Mountains the first week of August in Aspen and take Buzz but I'm not sure I can do the state of Kansas and eastern Colorado in 100* + temps - OTOH, if I use the tow bar I can cruise in comfort in the Audi, and I'm pretty sure it won't be that hot at 10,000 feet!
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

#73
On my last little drive in the superhot weather I noticed my electric radiator fan wasn't working, so I decided to dig into that and find out why....I added an aux fuse panel when I rebuilt the engine and ran the fan thru that so it could get it's own fuse..... without giving all the boring details, I had attached one of the wires to the wrong side of the main fuse, so everything was actually running thru that one fuse - when I hit both the high beams and the driving lights it was more than the fuse was rated for, so it blew.

Moving one wire solved that, and a new fuse had everything up and running again.
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

94touring

I like how you have things labled.