That's shocking!

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In the pursuit of more control, I purchased a set of shocks that are standard on the "dry" Minis.  The "wet"  Minis with the hydrolastic suspension were dampened internally and there were no shocks added.  Over the years as people have been upgrading their engines to make more power they have found an added need for more dampening control than the hydrolastic displacers could provide.  When it stops raining and I have some time to finish the other side I'll report back with the results.  As far as I know, this is the only HYDRO VTEC mini in existence so I don't have anyone to compare notes with.

Crappy photo of the driver's side shock setup at full droop.

List is getting shorter.

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Last weekend I drove the car to Redmond Town Center for a car show, had to get some things done!

Front valance is attached and coated with undercoating.

The throttle cam is the new butchered one but it's painted and works well; I have two more from the junk yard I can cut and make nice and pretty later.

I cleaned up the old sound deadening mat and tossed it on.  It doesn't look bad but it doesn't look good either.  Looking for a solution, probably just one piece of similar or better material if I can find it.

At the car show, this tach turned into a 4" sign to the passers by that said, "check out the engine!"

So after a day of great cars, click here It was time to drive home.  I put the key in and heard the sickening sound of nothing.  I ripped open the dash to expose the rat nest of wires with the help of my college roommate Dave, who was there to lend a hand... again, and who has been there through most of my better (aka worst) moments.
We took his car to the auto parts store to buy a test light.  I found out his Audi TT Turbo is quite a comfortable rescue vehicle if you ever get stranded.  All wheel drive, spunky turbo, big brakes, great handling, what else do you need in the northwest where it rains all the time?

Anyway, I found the ignition switch had melted and wasn't working any longer.  So we hot wired the car (notice white wires hanging in the photo) and I was off to my 6 year old daughters first t-ball practice 46 miles and one gallon of gas away.  Boom, done!

A Touchy Situation

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The throttle body cam from a Honda plus the gas pedal throw of the mini equals a very touchy throttle!  Just the smallest amount of right foot movement will spin the tires in first gear.  As a result I have been using the clutch quite a bit to smooth things out, but there is a fix.  Either modify throttle pedal arm or modify the Honda throttle body cam.  The cam is an easier approach so off it came and out came the saw and welder.  After modification, the throttle is not nearly as touchy which makes the car easier to drive.  It's ugly right now because I have cut and welded it a few times, getting the new cam profile correct.  I think I'll snag a new one from the junk yard and make it pretty.

First cut.

Second cut.

Pull it open.

New profile.

How Tachy

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I finally wired up the tach and I'm blown away at how this engine revs.  Not much else to report.

Sheet-metal and Carpet

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This last weekend I did a few things I was putting off, nothing exciting but checked a few things off the list.

The hole was for the old classic mini shifter.

This frame was used to hold down the shift boot over the hole, it made a nice template.

Shape transferred to heavy paper.

Cut out some sheet metal.

"Cold formed" to new shape.

Gooped up with RTV and riveted in place, carpet will go over it all.

New carpet kit for the "boot" lid.

Boom! Attached.

Winding down

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The last few days have been dry here in the NW and I have been driving the car to work.  I have been trying to drive the car every chance I get to put some miles on it before the big trip in June to Mini Meet West in Bend Or.  So far the starter solenoid has been acting a bit strange.  Most of the time it works fine, but sometimes it won’t stop even if the key is off (need to pull the battery cable).  One other time it wouldn’t engage at all and I had to push start the car, thanks Tom!  So off the car it came and I tore it apart.  It looks good inside and I didn’t find any problems, granted I couldn’t pull the solenoid apart.  I cleaned it up and tossed it back in and so far so good, time will tell. 

I received a new radiator catch can and need to fab up a bracket to mount it, other than that it’s been rather slow (well 1^st and 2^nd gear are quick ).

 

On the road

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This week I have done very little as far as wrenching, but I did put a few miles on the car.  I'm very pleased with the acceleration and I now have the toe adjusted to a more stable setting.
Last night I took the sending unit/fuel pic up out of the fuel tank because of a fuel leak on one of the fittings.  That mess started out as a simple turn of the wrench to add some Teflon tape but I ended up removing the entire thing due to over stressing the tube where it was sealed to the flange.  It's not so sealed any more...  so out it had to come.  At least now I can adjust the float level so when the gas tank is almost empty the fuel gauge will agree.  As it is, the gauge reads empty at about 1/4 tank.

Just a fun picture.

Gas tank flange.

A widow maker no longer.

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After Jason (the alignment wizard) was done with the car at T&T Tire Factory, it drove 80% better.  It was the fourth trip to an alignment shop but it was worth it to have a car that won't burn up tires just driving down the road.
After doing some reading on the MiniVtec forum, I found out front wheel drive cars are to have 1/8 inch toe out, my car was set up with 1/8 inch toe in.  The reason for the toe out is due to the front wheels pulling themselves in under acceleration.
 Sunday my dad and I took a drive with some heavy right foot action and the car still wasn’t right, it was much better but still required lots of steering to keep it pointed in a straight line.
Also this week I cut off the old failing studs that were on the hood mounting brackets and welded on some slightly larger ones then slapped the hood on.

In this picture Jason is fitting the "thing" on the rims.

The pressed in studs on the hood "bonnet" mounting brackets had worn threads.

I cut them off.

Here you can see I welded on new bolts through the holes.  Jerry rig specialists may notice some fine handwork elsewhere in this picture.

Studs painted and ready for the hood, now I can keep the road grime off my firewall, air filter, etc. as seen here.

Hood is on and the car looks done from the outside.  Carpet, and minor tweaks are next.

Alignment Woes

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Finding an alignment shop to work on this car is difficult. The first place I stopped at took one look and said no way, car's too narrow for their rack. So armed with some measurements, I started making some calls.

Second shop, sure we can do those old minis... turns out only if they don't have the 10 inch rims.
Third place, yup we can go that narrow and 10's are OK... well they could get their device on the rims but then the thing was hitting the rack because the tire was too small and the rim was too close to the rack.  We ended up driving the car onto 1 inch blocks to solve that.  The next hurdle was removing the tracking bar that sets caster, couldn't do it on the rack.  I used a bolt that was too long to remove because the CV joints were in the way so off the rack it came.  I drove it home, modified the bolt on each side and threw everything back together.  I think the latest shop can do it now, almost there!

I also decided to take a cable containing 13 wires and re-route it so it can't be seen.  That was "fun".   Next I’ll mount the horn and hood.

First shop to try.

Second shop to try, getting closer.

Track rod removed (here I was adjusting the length).

Before wire tuck.

After tuck.  A fresh air duct will go in the big hole.