Racing Green 89 Mini

[BruceK]

I'm sure it is nice to work on your own car for a change!  ;D

[MiniDave]

Yep.....for a change.

Just like Dan getting to work on his blue Mini for a change.

[gasmini]

Or lets not mention his PUP. :-[

[MiniDave]

I have high hopes that he may get the Pup back on the road this year!  62.gif

[94touring]

It may actually happen too.  I have a list of things I  intend to modify on it I don't like, and piles of parts to clean up to slap it together. Of course I have 3 other cars to build in the meantime.

[MiniDave]

Got a few more things done on the RG, got the oil and filter changed but forgot to change the shift shaft seal....oh well.

I also changed the thermostat to see if I can get a little more heat into the engine on cold days - the thermostat was an 88* so it seems like it should have gotten it up to temp even on the coldest days but it sure didn't. The spare I had was an 82*C which should be a year round good temp - 180*F. I thought I had a 65*C in there so I was surprised to see the 88, I must be remembering a different car.......

I reset the ride height in the front as it had settled a bit and was rubbing when I had a passenger and/or took a sharp turn.

I also reinstalled the buttons that hold the grill - I had to make a stud for one of them as the old ones were 1/4 unf and the new ones are 5/16 unf....took me a bit to find some UNF allthread to make the stud, everybody has UNC but UNF seems to be a bit rare. Fastenal had it....

I also adjusted the valves, one exhaust was a little tight and a couple of intakes were a tad loose, not bad tho. I could not get the old valve cover gasket off the head, I don't know what kid of industrial strength glue they used on it but man was it stuck down. I may take another run at it tomorrow after I get the engine warmed up - that's why I always glue it to the valve cover rather than the head. I have one of those neoprene seals I'd like to try, but I'm not sure if it will work with the aluminum cover, if not I have a regular cork gasket.

Lastly I installed the adjustable oil pressure controller and the ball style relief valve. When I tried it once before it showed over 100psi at idle, so I cut one coil off the spring. I didn't get to start it to see how it works yet......

More tomorrow......

[94touring]

No test runs with the sway bar yet?

[MiniDave]

Not yet, I also forgot to install the steering rack boot, so I'ma do that, then start it and see where the oil pressure and water temp fall - THEN time for a drive.

I thought I might replace the firing pins and maybe change the needle in the carb, but the plug's color looks so good I decided to leave them both alone.

[94touring]

That reminds me...need to order my wideband to tune.  If you decide to weld in a bung we could dial you right in.

[MiniDave]

Well, took the RG for a spin around the block and two things became immediately apparent - the old thermostat was not working correctly as the temp came up much more quickly with the new T-Stat. Second, I like the feel of the new sway bar, even on it's least stiff setting. It definitely makes the car turn in better and hold the line more easily - it feels very good and well worth the work to install it.

Not so impressive - the adjustable oil pressure device - it's very cheaply made and while I think it will work, it will require some modifications for it to work correctly. Namely, it's simply a knob attached to a 1/4-20 thread that passes thru the nut - the problem is there was a small flat washer that the threaded part is supposed to push against to adjust the spring tension. Not a good design as the hole in the washer promptly distorted and allowed the thread to walk right thru. So to make it work I'll need to come up with a solid piece to replace the washer.....having a short lug to center it on the spring would help too.

I was trying to use it with the ball bearing style instead of a plunger, but no matter how I modify it, it wants to put out too much pressure when cold - it pegs the gauge at 100 psi. I even shortened the spring 2 coils - hence the adjustable part - thinking if I went too far I could bring it back with the adjuster. No such luck, I had the adjuster out all the way and it still showed 100+ psi.

So for now I have a new stock style plunger and spring with the standard cap on it. I show a solid 75 psi cold, but it drops off a bit as the engine warms up and the oil thins out - I didn't think multi-grades were supposed to do that, but this one does.

Raising the hi-lows up a bit took care of the rubbing issue and makes the car ride a little easier too. I also changed out the torn right side steering rack boot.

I think I'm ready for CMU in April now......

[94touring]

Your oil pressure probably settles down to 60psi I would imagine.  Perfectly normal imo as oils heat up.

[MiniDave]

Well, I have to say I'm happy so far with a couple of things.....the water temp had me concerned at first, the temp kept going up and up, just past the halfway mark , then the thremostat opened and it dropped like a rock! It settled down at the low end of normal tho, and the heater made plenty of heat which it had not been doing before. We'll see how it does on a warm day, as today was 40*

The oil pressure OTOH, I'm totally stoked about! It had been running 75 or so when cold, but even on the highway it would drop alarmingly down to about 40 or even less once fully warmed up. I put a stock plunger and spring in - the old one looked OK and came out easily but did have a couple of gouges on it - and today the pressure acted exactly as it's supposed to. Warmed up it idles about 30 psi, but by 2500K RPM it's at 60 and stays there or a little higher, even on the highway. Whew! Bullet dodged.....I was worried that it might have worn bearings, but it never ran that way or made any untoward noises. Glad to see it was just the plunger.....

All in all I'm a happy camper, the new seatbelts work perfectly and so far I'm liking the sway bar, tho I think I might tighten it up a bit more and see what happens. It has about 6 or 7 notches for adjustment and I have it set on the softest right now.

[MiniDave]

Anyone have a new ignition switch for a 76-96 car lying about?

Yesterday the RG wouldn't start - mind it's been raining buckets all night and blowing like crazy, when I opened the hood everything was pretty wet. I ran the air hose out and blew everything dry but it would not go, so I pulled the plugs - they looked dry enough but I blew some carb cleaner on them and dried them of. This time it would hit on one or two cylinders, and after a lot of cranking it finally started.

I don't know if I just need a new set of firing pins or if the switch isn't getting the juice to the ignition circuit.

I'm going to replace the plugs just because but I might need a switch too.....

I have a winch mounted to the bottom of my work bench that I use to drag cars onto the lift when they don't run, I tried to use it yesterday to bring the green car in out of the rain so I could work on it and of course it failed too. So, I took it apart - it's an old 120V powered boat winch that's probably 50 years old or more so you can't buy parts for it, but I took it apart anyway just to see what was wrong. Anyone who's ever used a boat winch knows that the crank handle fits over a couple of flats on the shaft and is held on with a nut. To electrify this one all they did was add a motor and a few reduction gears, the last of which fit over those flats. Over the years of use they had worn to the point that the gear was simply turning on the shaft.

Since there was no hope of buying a new one, I got my welder out and welded the worn part back up, then carefully ground it back down with the bench grinder to the right shape - it was a bit crude but it seems to have worked. I won't know for sure till I try to pull another car in, but it has to be better than it was! The bench is steel and bolted to the floor.

[MPlayle]

Did you check and dry under the dizzy cap as well?

If it was cranking and trying to fire (and eventually did), then I would be less inclined to suspect the ignition switch and more likely wet dizzy.

[MiniDave]

No, but I will before I'm done with it....there's nothing in there but the rotor.

One thing I need to do is design and build a reaction arm, when the winch gets to pulling hard it twists that cross leg a bit.

[Rosebud]

I thought I might replace the firing pins and maybe change the needle in the carb, but the plug's color looks so good I decided to leave them both alone.

That reminds me...need to order my wideband to tune.  If you decide to weld in a bung we could dial you right in.

Yeah, those plugs DO look good. Funny thing about widebands... I usually checked my plugs ever 300-500 miles or so and they always looked fine. Then I got a wideband and found I couldn't take my eyes off of it; I've become obsessed. Watching the gauge constantly, I think I'm going too rich at WOT and too lean at neutral throttle. So now I'm pulling my plugs after each outing and fiddling with the mixture and sync. And sure enough, now my plugs are either too sooty or too light.

Maybe I should put black tape over the gauge and get my mixture dialed in based on the plugs and stop obsessing on the wideband.

[94touring]

I thought I might replace the firing pins and maybe change the needle in the carb, but the plug's color looks so good I decided to leave them both alone.

That reminds me...need to order my wideband to tune.  If you decide to weld in a bung we could dial you right in.

Yeah, those plugs DO look good. Funny thing about widebands... I usually checked my plugs ever 300-500 miles or so and they always looked fine. Then I got a wideband and found I couldn't take my eyes off of it; I've become obsessed. Watching the gauge constantly, I think I'm going too rich at WOT and too lean at neutral throttle. So now I'm pulling my plugs after each outing and fiddling with the mixture and sync. And sure enough, now my plugs are either too sooty or too light.

Maybe I should put black tape over the gauge and get my mixture dialed in based on the plugs and stop obsessing on the wideband.

What is it at cruise and wot?

[MiniDave]

May 4th I'm taking the Racing Green car up to the Prather Racing shop along with a couple other guys and put it on the chassis dyno - I expect the numbers to be pretty pitiful but it will be good to see what the A/F ratios look like under load like this. I think it goes a bit rich under full throttle so I'll have a couple of spare needles on hand to experiment with if the readings are what I think they'll be.

Should be fun

Don is planning on bringing the Pup too, I know it can benefit from some tuning as I've run behind him and he's definitely rich.

[Rosebud]

What is it at cruise and wot?

It varies from 11.0 to 11.5 @ WOT and then spikes momentarily to 19.5 after I take my foot off the throttle. It settles around 14.0 to 15.0 at cruise. Seems to me the numbers were closer together a couple of months ago when I first got my wideband. I'm adjusting the carbs lean/rich about ⅛th of a flat each time but keep missing the sweet spot.

[94touring]

14-15 at cruise is what you want.  Spikes off throttle really mean nothing. I'd swap needles to get wot down to 12-12.5 but keep cruise in the 14.7 area.

[Rosebud]

14-15 at cruise is what you want.  Spikes off throttle really mean nothing. I'd swap needles to get wot down to 12-12.5 but keep cruise in the 14.7 area.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I had, until I started fiddling with it.  :-[

[MiniDave]

The Audi is no longer a low-rider.....another new airbag did the trick. I'm surprised and a little disappointed I had to change it again as it was new just last August, but I'm happy that the vendor is standing behind his product....they even pay return shipping. The OEM's lasted till 2012, and I've changed 5 airbags since......I'm thinking if another one fails I'll put springs in instead.

It's good having all three cars operational again!

[MiniDave]

Since I'm finally almost caught up in the shop, I'm going to go ahead and rebuild the calipers on the Racing Green, I also got a new clock for it as the one I have seems to work only when it feels like it.....who knows I might even take the heater apart and fix the rattling heater door.

I also need to do a couple things to the Blue Clubby before I use it to tow the green one to Tenn next month, I need to do an oil change and tire roatation on it.

[MiniDave]

If it ain't one damn thing it's another..............

I drove the Mini about 30 miles across town  to a friends place, then later we went to lunch. When we came out there was a nice big puddle of green under the front of the car.....I went in to the restaurant and got a quart of water and it took most of it, so we drove back about 3 miles to his place and I left it in his shop. Today I hitched up the Mini to the MINI and towed it home, at first I thought it was the water pump but on second look I think it might be just the bypass hose - I bought a new water pump anyway under the "while you're in there" theory and I'll change them both.....

Actually I'd rather it happen here than on the road or on one of the CMU runs in Tenn later in the month. I'm also going to rebuild the front calipers, put in new brake hoses, flush the brake system and turn the rotors - I put new ones on only a few thousand miles ago but they're pulsating a little, so I'll take them up to school and give them a light skim on the brake lathe.

[joakwin]

one of my neighbors has a friend with a audi and hes always dropping big bucks on that thing to fix the air ride

he told me he spent $4k getting the rear bags fixed at the dealer last summer,
and then before that the dealer charged him $3k to fix the front bags

i told him i can build a custom air ride set up for his car and he wont have to deal with the bags going out anymore