I've posted separately about getting Susan's 63 ready for the big trip, today was Don's VTEC P'up's turn. He bought new tires but complained about shaking in the front end, and terrible vibrations from the engine (my opinion, Honda's don't vibrate, neither should his P'up) so first we looked at the engine steadies....the back one was clearly installed incorrectly - either by MiniTec or by Don doing some maintenance over the years, so that one was easy to straighten out. We then took a look at the front one, which is not well engineered IMHO and decided by moving a couple of washers around we might be able to remove some of the vibrations.....the spacing washers missing were allowing the brackets to contact each other.
I also noticed the radiator has no rubber grommets where the locating pins fit into the subframe, and the resulting motion could be letting the fan support bracket vibrate against the transmission. Space is at a premium even with the smaller D series he has, so he will see if he can rectify this with some properly sized grommets
Lastly, we found the upper ball joint on the left side loose as can be, and I have shimmed these tight before so I took it apart again and found a totally worn out and cracked ball joint pin.
A full set of ball joints is now on order from MiniSpares and we'll get them installed next weekend. I re-shimmed it just to take out the play in the meantime. I haven't heard yet if we improved the engine vibrations, but I'll be we did. It's important as he is driving the P'up to Texas, and it makes enough noise just being a Mini let alone adding more NVH.
Today's job was to install the trailer hitch on my Clubman... I got my Curt hitch (made in America!) on Amazon for what I consider a pretty good price, about $115 and since Don has a prime account, free shipping! Good thing too as it weighs 30lbs....but it's nicely made and powder coated.
I got it all bolted in today, next I have to pop the rear bumper cover back on then it's down to wiring up the connector. I think I'll go down to the dealer on Monday and see if they have any words of wisdom before I start chopping wires and soldering things. Maybe Bruce can chime in on how he wired his up?
Then I'll measure it out and see if the tow bar will be running uphill or not, I'm thinking it might be pretty level, if not I can get a drop bar for it. It's a bit of a compromise on the Clubby, the draw bar comes out right in the middle of the lic plate, so you make a 3" hole there and drop the lic plate down to the lower holes when you're towing, however I would think that would get in the way of the safety chains so I might look into getting one of those magnetic plate holders and just stick it on the back door when I'm towing....we'll see. When you remove the drawbar the plate covers the hole.
Nice and discreet!
What about the electrics?
I have the correct harness and relay setup, looking for input as to where to tap into the wiring harness and how to run the cable down to the drawbar area.......
It's easy to pull the tail light assemblies and tap into the wiring harness there, but I'm not sure how to get the cable down thru the body to the drawbar.
I put that same kit on the 2008 Clubman I had. Below is a picture of how I ran the 4-wire-flat cable to get it behind the bumper cover.
Great minds and all that Michael! That's exactly how I wound up doing it too.....
I put a couple of grommets in some holes that were already in the body and ran the green wire over to the other side in a depression in the sheetmetal. All I have left to do is tie all the wires together then put all the plastic bits back........
Gave up for tonight, I've had the flu all weekend and I finally ran out of steam.....a couple of shots of the wiring....
The reason I gave up last night was I ran into a weird thing on the lights......it appears the brake light and tail light are the same bulb - not unusual, except - there is only one filament. Normally you'd have two, one for the taillight and a much brighter one for the brake light. It seems they simply change the voltage to the bulb when it's a tail light to 3.5, then when you hit the brakes it goes to the full 12V and the bulb gets brighter.
Now how in the heck am I going to wire that up?
So I figured maybe I could pull the signal for brakes from that location and the tail lights from the lic plate lights instead. Getting the voltmeter on the lic plate lights does show 12V, so that should work....now my only question is whether that 3.5V from having the tail lights on going to the brake circuit is enough to trigger the brake light relay in the trailer lights, or if not whether it will cause it to fail that relay in short time.
If anyone knows, or has experience with this give me a call 913-948-3652. I'd hate to put it all together then have it not work.
Dave, as I mentioned on the phone, this is what I used on '02 MINI, powered separately from the car's 12V system. No idea if that would help your situation.
Unfortunately, Amazon shows it is not currently available.
Talked to Michael Playle, what I need is a PWM module (Pulse Width Modulation), not the one I have......
I have a way to put your plate on a spring setup with small aluminum channels. On BMW Minis.
If you are are interested I'll find the pictures. It takes maybe an hour. Then you just slide your plate down and put in your drawbar easy peasy.
Regards
towjoe 77.gif
I'm definitely going to have to fab up one of these tow rigs for my highlander to pull the mini around. Been searching for flat tow rigs, hitches and wiring for it. Probably just build a light bar for the mini and put it on the rear shelf for brake and tail lights.
Towjoe - I would definitely love to see that!
Mark, what most of us do is buy the magnetic base lights from Harbor Freight (Bruce bought the LED Versions - I was cheap and bought the regular ones) and just stick them to the parcel shelf in the rear window, then run the wires thru the car and up to the hitch.
The tow bar is $69 from HF (but you can find a 20% off on your phone and they'll give it to you), you need the lights and I buy two sets of their safety chains, then cut them in half and bingo, 4 safety chains - 2 for the Mini and two for the tow vehicle.
Then all you need to do is make the part the towbar hooks to to attach to the Mini. I only use mine if I'm going cross country, more than say 500 miles, otherwise I just drive the Mini. However we have two "iron butt" winners, both of whom did about 5500 miles going to Mini/MINI events.....both will be at this event too!
I attached these LED trailer lights http://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Lights/Optronics/STL23RB.html?feed=npn&gclid=CJywwruli9ICFZu6wAodRf8AtQ to a wood base nearly the width of my car's parcel shelf and just placed the lights there.
I think the LEDs are worth it as they seem to be much brighter than the regular incandescent lights.
Here's a photo of my Mini in tow.
When I build my Hot Rod Mini I'm going to wire it directly to the car's lights.....
Yes PWM converter will work. http://www.curtmfg.com/part/56200
Those systems get really complicated for us when we go the other way IE customer towing the car as they don't make a converter to run the car tail lights off of a standard motorhome 12volt wiring so we get creative with resistors to drop tail light voltage to the car. The newest led stuff is different voltage as well.
Yeah, I can see how that might be an issue....PWM converter works fine one way, but not so much the other.
I think it would work OK on my old Mini tho, tied directly into the old style car's wiring.
yup old mini will be easy you may need some isolation diodes at the tail lights of the old mini as sometimes the turn will back feed to both sides, also prevents any back feed to the towing vehicle should the lights accidently get turned on in the towed. But other than that old cars are easy to wire up as a towed vehicle.
The other thing we often do to simplify is if the towed car has separate amber turn we normally just use the red brake on each side for turn signal when being towed rather than extra wiring for the euro style turn. As the PWM converter likely puts out 4 wire USA style lighting (shared brake turn) it's easier to just do it that way. Even if you hooked the turn to the amber on the towed mini if equipped they would come on with braking.
http://roadmasterinc.com/products/accessories/electrical/diodes.html
The road master diodes are high quality you can get them reasonable on amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=roadmaster+diodes&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=174248112879&hvpos=1t1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10152110208469129018&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9033169&hvtargid=kwd-88752882689&ref=pd_sl_5qmpp9ow4u_e
As usual, if you want to know how to do something, ask the man that's already done it! 4.gif
Alrighty then I got my lights all wired up and they work!
After trying both sets (regular and LED) that I had in stock I have to agree with Bruce that the LEDS are MUCH brighter and will really show up better, so that's what I'ma use too. Bruce a pic of your board/bracket/light support thingy would be helpful if you get a chance.
Quote from: MiniDave on February 17, 2017, 03:07:31 PM
Alrighty then I got my lights all wired up and they work!
After trying both sets (regular and LED) that I had in stock I have to agree with Bruce that the LEDS are MUCH brighter and will really show up better, so that's what I'ma use too. Bruce a pic of your board/bracket/light support thingy would be helpful if you get a chance.
Glad to hear you got them to work.
Here you go. The base is 1X3 wood about 39 inches wide and the lights are about 29 inches on center. I put an old black towel down on the parcel shelf and sit the board on top of that which keeps it from sliding around. I used the 4" LEDs I mentioned in a post above, and eTrailer has some very nice powder-coated metal brackets to hold them for under $4 which I used too along with a rubber gasket to hold the lights in the brackets.
Thanks! Seems simple enough, but mine are actual trailer lights that I bought to build into the Clubman wagon, mine are square.....I'll have to see if they have some of those, or I can bend some up I guess.
I'm going to need a dropped drawbar too......
Quote from: MiniDave on February 17, 2017, 05:51:44 PM
I'm going to need a dropped drawbar too......
Sounds like a fun welding project.
Hi Dave
Behind the two standoff for front plate.
I have a video to move the plate out of the way on new Minis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqd4Sy-4-tA
If you need the dimension of the channel it is: 3/8 x 3/8 x 1/8 ".
Regards
Joe 77.gif
Quote from: BruceK on February 17, 2017, 08:20:57 PM
Quote from: MiniDave on February 17, 2017, 05:51:44 PM
I'm going to need a dropped drawbar too......
Sounds like a fun welding project.
Oh no, I don't have near enough welding "HP" to do that, besides they're about $15 already powder coated from Northern Tool. I just need to mate the two vehicles and see how much drop I need.....
Today I finished up my "light bar" for the back window of the RG Mini, I did something similar to Bruce's design, but my car has speakers in the rear parcel shelf so I had to add some feet so the wood wouldn't rest on them and slide around. I'm not sure what I'm going to use but I still need something non-slip for the bottom of the feet....I'll figure that out in the next few days.
We only have two more work weekends till we hit the road but I've got most everything done..... this coming Friday we'll do Don's ball joints and rear brakes, then he should be ready to hit the road too. That leaves one weekend for anything we forgot......or that shows up last minute.
Quote from: MiniDave on February 20, 2017, 08:33:30 PM
Today I finished up my "light bar" for the back window of the RG Mini, I did something similar to Bruce's design, but my car has speakers in the rear parcel shelf so I had to add some feet so the wood wouldn't rest on them and slide around. I'm not sure what I'm going to use but I still need something non-slip for the bottom of the feet....I'll figure that out in the next few days.
We only have two more work weekends till we hit the road but I've got most everything done..... this coming Friday we'll do Don's ball joints and rear brakes, then he should be ready to hit the road too. That leaves one weekend for anything we forgot......or that shows up last minute.
The lights look great!
While looking at the spares to bring I spied the new throttle cable. I figured I would put it in just to see if I could tell any difference. BOY could I. Before it felt kind of sticky and rubbing even though it had recently been cleaned and lubed. Now it is hard to tell I am even pushing the pedal down. Guess the used one will now be the spare. On to the next item on the shrinking list...
WillieB did you get your alignment done? How far off was it?
I'm going to put my car on the alignment rack again this weekend and put a little more caster in the front to see if that gives me a little more stability. It drives fine but it's a little bit twitchy on turn in.
Have not done it yet. I have taken out some caster to see if this may change things. I do not know what it was at but I figure if I am getting an alignment anyway I might as well play with it see how it responds.
One last thing I'm going to get done.....this car came with a glass pop up sunroof.....I rarely use it because it rattles like crazy when open, but it's clear glass with a white perforated coating on the inside that lets in way too much light - I have to wear a hat on a sunny day to keep the sun out of my eyes......however that white coating almost makes the sunroof disappear against the white roof of the car.....which I like. I would like to tint it much, much darker but I don't want to then have a "black hole" in the middle of the roof.
So I'll see what the tint shops think they could do with it.......otherwise I'll just wear a hat I guess.
I once welded in a panel to close off a sunroof...
Quote from: MiniDave on February 21, 2017, 11:30:30 AM
So I'll see what the tint shops think they could do with it.......otherwise I'll just wear a hat I guess.
Try a place that does vehicle wraps. They have perforated vinyl that goes over vehicle windows for the wraps that still let some light through.
That's pretty much what it has now, WillieB......
I figure the wrap place would have the white or cream colored stuff where as the tint shop will probably only have dark stuff. The tint shop may have a mirrored tint that you can do. Then you can watch yourself drive.
Today was Don's P'up turn to get the once over....we found one knackered ball joint so we're going to replace all of them. He also bought some Minifini rear drums and "while we're in there" we'll replace the rear shoes too.
It got down into the 30's last night and even tho the garage isn't too bad I cranked up the heater to take the chill off anyway.
He has new tires and is planning to get them rebalanced before we go too.....
Quote from: Willie_B on February 21, 2017, 11:51:16 AM
Quote from: MiniDave on February 21, 2017, 11:30:30 AM
So I'll see what the tint shops think they could do with it.......otherwise I'll just wear a hat I guess.
Try a place that does vehicle wraps. They have perforated vinyl that goes over vehicle windows for the wraps that still let some light through.
This is what it looks like, and today is a gloomy grey day. When the sun is bright I have to wear a hat.....
Looking good Dave!
Regards
towjoe 77.gif
If you want to use it only for venting and no sunshine through, see if an auto wrapping place can install opaque white over just the glass.
You would then still be able to open the sunroof for extra venting when desired, but no light would be coming through (especially when closed).
Snug in the shop today, 30* and snowing outside!
After we finished the ball joints, we pulled the rear drums off and we found nasty leaking rear wheel cylinders, so we went up to Victoria British and bought new cylinders, then took it all apart, repacked the rear wheel bearings, cleaned the backing plates and installed new Mintex shoes and finally the Minifin drums.
We also had to do a repair on one of the rear HiLos and the donut, the trumpet had become dislodged and was riding on the edge of the donut instead of centered, so much so that it had distorted the hole in the donut to an egg shape, I straightened it as much as I could, then used the 20 ton press to round it out the rest of the way by pressing the trumpet into it. Won't come out again now!
One more car ready for the roads of Texas!
What jack is that you are using? Beautiful truck!
That's my scissors lift, I have limited ceiling height but this will get a car up high enough to do pretty much anything I need to in my shop - about 3 ft. Found it on Craigslist about 3 years ago.
The P'up has a D series VTEC in it, goes like stink!
Did you recognize the dusty black car next to it?
Sweet. From the reflection in the truck I'm gonna guess a jaguar e-type?
yep, although I forgot it was also in my sig.... ;D
Hi Dave ,
What kind of lift is it?
Give me a full description, so I know exactly what to look for.
Thanks, it looks you are ready to go.
You sure helped Susan out.
Regards
towjoe 77.gif
Quote from: towjoe on February 25, 2017, 09:19:36 AM
Hi Dave ,
What kind of lift is it?
Give me a full description, so I know exactly what to look for.
Regards
towjoe 77.gif
Look here for some info when I got my lift. My lift was sold by Snap-On. Found it on Craigslist for $800.
http://www.restorationmini.com/forum/index.php?topic=843.msg11524#msg11524
Quote from: towjoe on February 25, 2017, 09:19:36 AM
Hi Dave ,
What kind of lift is it?
Give me a full description, so I know exactly what to look for.
Thanks, it looks you are ready to go.
You sure helped Susan out.
Regards
towjoe 77.gif
Joe , my scissor lift is a no-name brand - as in there is no manufacturer info anywhere on the lift that I can find, not on the label, none of the lift cylinder, not even a brand name in the literature that came with it!
However, you can buy new ones from places like Greg Smith equipment...mine is a "mid rise" as I am limited by ceiling height.
http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Atlas-MR-06-Portable-Midrise-Lift (http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Atlas-MR-06-Portable-Midrise-Lift)
Be warned, they are heavy - mine weighs more than 800 lbs but you can easily move them around on a good smooth floor using the pump assembly, which has a hook that fits into the rack and lifts one end just enough to roll it around. They run on 110V but you need a 20 amp circuit or it will trip the breaker, especially if it's cold in the garage overnight.
Mine has been a godsend, it really saves my back and makes working on these tiny cars much easier.
I found mine on Craigslist for $600, but I had been looking for 3 years before I found it....they do pop up from time to time. Using mine was what sent WillieB off to look for his too! ;D
Hi Dave ,
Thanks for the info. I plan to look on Craigslist. I'll have a friend keep a lookout for me.
Regards
Joe 77.gif
Joe, i found mine used (3x only) on Craigslist too for $800. It's a Bendpack with two hydraulic cylinders and weighs close to 900lbs i should have bought it years earlier it is a back saver even useful when working under the bonnet.
Bendpak is a great lift, also Rotary if you can find one.
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200102674_200102674 (http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200102674_200102674)
This one is different.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVaw72F78_8
The MaxJax 2 post is a great low rise lift too, the advantage to it is that you can remove the post and roll it away for storage.....and the entire underside of the car is wide open to work on. Of course, if you have the ceiling height a regular two post can be bought for the same money.
I have to say tho, I've been perfectly happy with my no-name lift....it does exactly what I need it to. I looked at used lifts priced anywhere from $800 to $1300 but this one worked the best for me at my budget and it's been perfect for three years now. No complaints!
Today Don and I are taking his Pup up to school to see if we can find what's making a knocking noise when the engine moves under acceleration/braking.
While we're there I'll give the RG an oil change and balance the tires again, it's been shaking just a tiny bit on the highway and since I've done a good 500 miles on my new tires, I hope I can smooth it out again. Nothing more frustrating to me than out of balance, shaking tires.
Well we sorted out Don's issue, turns out MiniTec had attached a clamp to the rear tube of their subframe and attached the engine steady to that....the clamp had worked loose, but there was no way to get at the allen bolts that held it together! Right next to this clamp assembly was a nice bracket welded to the subframe......we flipped the steady bracket over and it lined up perfectly with the welded bracket - so we bolted it up. Perfect!
Why the heck they did the mickey mouse clamp arrangement I have no idea......
Next it was the RG's turn, I changed the oil and filter, adjusted the carb a bit more and checked the tire balance. 2 of the tires were out 1/4 oz, so I balanced them up again and put the ones with the least runout on the front. Seemed pretty smooth on the drive home....
I think Don's good to go now, he might do an oil change before we leave, and he's going to take his super sticky tires off in favor of his A008's for the trip. The RG seems good to go now too, Susan's car is running well and John says his car is ready, so we should be good to go for our trip south. The last thing I want to do is hook the RG up to the Blue Clubby and take it down the road a bit, just to check out how it tows......
Got the tow bar installed on the Moke today.
I also have the jerry-can installed and the rear license plate relocated. I need to order a new rear light for the plate - the old one's mounting has seen much better days and the nuts holding the light to the mount are rusted and covered in a layer of undercoating - not likely to budge.
We made a new mount plate under the jerry-can frame for relocating the light. Had to modify the spare tire mount - the offset of the new rims did not allow the original bolt-washer-thingy to reach, so sawed the old bolt out of the washer-thingy and got a longer bolt and new nut for reusing the original mounting location.
The Moke is almost ready (or a ready as it will be for the drives). I just need to order and install a rear light, mount the front license plate and install a power port for the GPS (to act as my speedometer).
Been putting up with two pump brakes since doing the 7.5" disc brake conversion. Don't remember how many times I bled the brakes or how many different ways I tried, just could not get back to a good firm pedal. Even though the master was only a few years old I decided to swap it anyway. That did it. Now to retrain my foot away from the automatic double pump action.
Everything on my car to do list is done. Just want to clean it up, maybe even a quick coat of wax. Good to go now.
The double pedal pump sure is annoying!
It's weird how the hydraulics on these cars can act up....I had a slave cylinder on Buzz fail, didn't leak a drop but sucked air and wouldn't stay bled. New slave fixed it right up......
A trip like this seems to be good for our cars, all those 'when I get a round tuits" seem to get fixed before we go! ;D
I wish I had the time and opportunity to go through the Moke like you guys are going through your cars.
Too many catastrophes at once: apartment change, mom in hospital then rehab, mom's condo hit by tornado.
Well, you'll have plenty of help if something happens on the road..... ;D
Mplayle, speaking of cleanup, will the hotel give us a water hose, or at least access to a hose bib?
I think we may want to give her a bath after the drive down......
Dave,
I do not know. I will try to call and find out.
One more thing off the list.....my local key shop has been in business at the same location for over 60 years, with the same ownership too! Today I went in to have a couple extra sets of keys made for the RG as I only got the one set when I bought it last June....to my surprise they had the correct blanks!
So I'll have an extra set I can take with me and leave a set at home in case I somehow lose both of mine...... 77.gif
Quote from: MPlayle on February 28, 2017, 03:42:09 PM
I wish I had the time and opportunity to go through the Moke like you guys are going through your cars.
Too many catastrophes at once: apartment change, mom in hospital then rehab, mom's condo hit by tornado.
Worst case scenario - if the Moke lays down and we can't fix it you can always ride with one of us. 77.gif
So far, it is running pretty good. Drove it across town to the new apartment just fine. Lots of stares and heads snapping around to stare according to my friend that was following with the last load of tools and parts from the garage of the old apartment.
The new rear license plate light arrived today. Need to mount and wire it up, mount the front license plate, install the power port and adjust the tow bar. That is my prep list at this point.
Have to sort, organize and put stuff away in the new garage - have portions of my stuff and portions of the stuff cleared from my mom's place piled all over the new garage.