Hit the road this morning.
Good luck, see you tomorrow!
Cool beans!! May you have a safe and uneventful trip.
Look forward to seeing you in T-Town.
Good luck, we'll be watching and listening for you....all the bad weather is going north and east as you're going north and west - it should be clear sailing for you except for the heat.....
No problems today. My seat cooler was great for half the day. 98 degrees in the car and did not even break a sweat. Then it started blowing it's fuse this afternoon. Of course by then it is 102 in the car and I am driving into the sun. Ran into a couple of guys that had flown from southern California to Asheville to buy a BMW M3. No ac for them either. They are headed to Tulsa to pick up a Porsche 930 they also just bought. Them drive both back to Cali.
Tulsa must be popular these days.
And everyone says Florida is unbearably hot.
No fun, hope you can get the fuse sorted out for tomorrow.
I personally prefer to drive at night, it is cooler and there is a lot less traffic.
Be careful, oh a pic of the M3 possibly?
-signed
BMW Brand whore.
Roadside repair in the Harbor Freight parking lot in Muskogee Ok. Swap out the seat cooler pump. Got two just in case. Then up the road to Tulsa. Was going to meet Dan this afternoon but ended up having to work late. Guess I be a tourist.
Scheduling was kind enough to keep my stuck in Cincinnati all day on my day off. Full throttle back to Dca shortly then try to catch my flights home.
Great news that your idea on the cooler worked so well, you're gonna need it the rest of the trip!
We're all watching and standing by if you need help!
I should have stopped but I could not bring myself to do it. What am I talking about. When I saw a sign today for Toad Suck Park.
You know you are in the country when you see someone driving their riding mower to the Dollar Tree store, like I did today.
Averaged 33mpg today at 70mph.
Did you and Dan meet up last night?
This morning. Coffee and an oil change.
Oh good, so Salina tonight then- that's about 500 miles from Tulsa....wish you guys would post more pics along the way.....
Yes he needs to get on the pics! His cooler setup was pretty slick. Here's where he changed his oil lol.
Watching the progress-- Keep Motoring on Willie!
Tulsa to Abbotsford BC - only 2100 More miles- In 4 days to accomplish! by Monday the 29th!
= When you Get to BC - take a day trip of your own or something - Head to the true west coast- Vancouver- proper- and check out Highway 99 North... Breathtaking and spectacular- worth it in every way!
Reccomend Squamish BC
or about 45 - 1 hour further north- Whistler BC- Mountains get big there! Big Country!
So after driving 2400 miles to get there, driving each day during the event (trips into the mountains are part of the event) and facing another 2400 miles to get home, you want him to take a side trip of unknown miles? ;D
Actually I agree with you - he's gone that far already, and the BC coast is so pretty and cool compared to the heat he'll be facing, it would be a welcome respite.....
I LOVE road trip threads. I hope we can get some updates and pics too.
I love road trips, the one we were just on last weekend was fantastic. We never drove longer than 1 hour and we were all over the place exploring. the best part was we had no place to be no distance goal to meet and no idea where we would end up.
Here is to problem free motoring and a cool ass.
North Platte Nebraska for the night. 585 miles for day, whew. It was 100 degrees when I passed thru Salina Kansas. Hot in the car too but the seat cooler kept me motoring. Highlights for the day. First gas stop put 6.8 gallons in my 7 gallon tank, that was close. Several turnpikes on this route. One had un-manned ticket booth, not a big deal unless like me your car is RHD. Stop the car, get out and go around the car to get the tickrt. Car dies whe I am out, traffic is backing up as I try to get in, seat belt on and car started. At least by the time I got in Nebraska it has cooled down to 85. Now let me look at my photos.
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Not much out there!
Yep that's Nebraska!
Glad to hear you're still motoring along OK and your cool suit is doing what it was built to do!
Epic trip! Keep the pics coming. 4.gif
Two Lane highway most of the way ? or doing the Interstate shuffle? This and that on and off?
He's on I-80 to Salt Lake, speed limit is 75 on that highway!
Made it to Rock Springs WY. Was looking iffy for a bit. Car has been sounding off and getting hard to start. When I stuck my head under the bonnet the rockers sounded noisy. Of course I did NOT pack a feeler gauge. Nurse the car to Laramie, find a parts store to buy one and check the valves. One exhaust was way too tight, no idea how. Got them all checked and adjusted and Bob yer uncle.
GPS was fun. A few miles after I got the freeway it showed I had 402 miles till my next turn.
The cool weather was nice. Till I crossed the continental divide. There is desert scrub land on the other side, that means more heat.
No pics tonight as I have no data service here. Did not take many as I was concerned that the car might not start if I turned it off.
Yesterdays pics.
Today I got an early start at 6am to beat some of the heat. It was 67 when I left, 100 in Boise when I passed thru. Looks like I will do the same tomorrow as well. No car issues today but as the day got hotter my grade climbing speed slowed. When it is less than 80 I can cruise up most at 75 but when it got HOT my best speed was 65 to not get too hot. I usually gain 30 degrees in most climbs. If I run the heater also it takes a wee bit longer to gain it but it still gets there. A few photos of todays roadside near the start.
Years ago I got my SaddleSore1k...got on the NY state throughway and my GPS said about the same thing - 400 miles to the next turn...I had to turn the thing off. Mile after mile of looking down...no radio, no passenger, just me, alone in my head. And I'm not that interesting!
I've never been out to that area of the globe so thanks for the pics - can't imagine being in that car at 105 - you da' man!
Wifi at the hotel is terrible.
Made it to Abbotsford a day early. Got an early start on the final day at 5:30. Several of the places on my route were looking for a high of 110, so if I can get by those places before then I am good with leaving early. I still had to slow to 55 on several of the uphill climbs to ensure the engine did not gain too much heat. The extra heater core under the hood it's job to keep that under control. Sure can tell the roads that the truckers have to use theirs chains on, the surface is chewed up and noisy. Also the main lane used by the trucks has a center ridge that is just wider than the mini track. The first time I got into one I thought something on the car was way bad the way I was weaving all over the lane. If the highway patrol was looking I just knew I was going to pulled over.
Today I need to find a car wash and then check the valves just to feel good about them. Car did good. Most of my time I was cruising at 72-74 mph. Car seems to like that speed, engine and ride. Average of 33 mpg for the trip so far. I use a bag of ice every 2 hours or so as the seat cooler is running all the time I am driving. I can feel the heat and know that it's hot but I am not sweating at all.
No pics unless the hotel wifi gets better.
Plus kinda hard to tell what temp you're running when your temp gauge is jacked up!
Loving the cool seat, fantastic idea. I could have used that on some of my road trips minus Ac to the Dragon and back.
Hope it's just the lack of wifi that's keeping Willie B from posting......
Yeah, I was hoping the same, I keep checking for progress and updates.
Here I am. Yesterday was a long day (570 miles, 13 hours). Drug into the hotel, shower, dinner then bed. WIFI in Canada and here is not good so no photos yet. Part of yesterdays route was a state highway across the mountains, great ride but that added several hours but worth it. After that part is was just hot, dry and brown. Car is running great, I did stop and adjust the valves about 30 minutes after I hit the road while it was still coolish out. Got that down to just under 20 minutes stop to going again.
Todays drive was not quite as hot, although it was 100 when I was passing thru Haridan Montana. I found that if I close the window on the side of the car that the side wind is blowing in the car stays much cooler, of course tbe side I need to close keeps changing. Another sign I saw but could not stop for a photo was advertising for a "Testicle Festival" in Montana. Another one I not sure I wanna know about. Speed limits so far have been 75, with no traffic most folks seem to be staying close to that. My crusing speed has been a few under 75 even in the heat the car seems to do ok. The longer inclines drop me to just under 70. Guess I feel good enough about the engine to push ot a bit more. Will post photos when I can find some good wifi.
Event pics.
Willie, good to hear you're on the road again, give me a head's up when you think you'll hit KC, OK?
Yesterday.
Today. I have been leaving the bonnet open when I stop or I get vapor lock.
Love the Mini cabin to go with the Mini. Great trip glad you are still trucking along. You are a very brave man to make such a huge trip in that little car.
Thanks for the updates.
571 miles today. Not as hot as it has been, I'll take that. Got another early start while still cool and just at dawn. Decided that the speed limit was 80 I would go 80. Went just over an hour without seeing a car in my direction front or rear, and not much going the other direction either. Car was just fine cruising at that speed but it did suffer in the miles per gallon, only 28 at that speed. Normal while crusing in the 71-73 range I get 34mpg. The other problem with that speed is I have to focus more on driving with less time to look, so enough of the 80mph now.
One of the new things to deal with are cattle crossing. Rough and noisy in a small wheeled car.
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I really enjoyed the view this morning just after sun up but before the sunlight was shining on the ground, everything looks so soft and relaxing. A good way to start the day.
Took a side loop thru part of the Badlands National Park. Wow.
That's great you're getting to see so much 4.gif
I LOVE empty roads, when driving through rural Georgia we did not see another car in our direction for a long time either, the most startling event was deer on the side of the road in the middle of the day.
I need to get out into that part of the country for sure. Plus Badlands looks badass!!
Great update keep motoring!!
Spectacular ! Keep Truckin! uhh umm Mining'!
Great faith for those that are afraid to leave their own City - County or State in a Little Mini!
I can hear the WHHHHHHHHHH of the A series in my head!
Ru-roh........I'll let WillieB fill in the details......
Too late to type with small phone keypad. Big Thanks to Minidave for driving 175 miles to rescue me. More details when I use a real keyboard.
Ut oh...
Yesterday started out wet, first rain on the trip so guess that's good. First gas stop for the day after cleaning the windshield so I can apply Rainx I see a large empty tent just across the parking lot. The car fit with room to spare.
All was going well till the car would not restart after a rest area visit. Tracked it down to no spark. Then I discovered I had taken my multimeter out of my toolbag and not replaced it. Decided the coil must be bad. Got a taxi service to come pick me up, take me to NAPA then back to rest area. It was not the coil. Without a meter could not really check anything. So, called Dave. He drove close to 400 miles round trip to come get me. He brought his newly built but un-tried flat tow setup. Towed us back to his place in the rain. This was his first time flat towing a car.
Will check it out this morning to find out what's going on. Still wet out there so will wait till mid-morning.
Room to spare.
MiniDave - support crew member of the year! :-\ 4.gif
(actually, I know he was secretly praying you'd break down so he could try his tow setup on someone else's car first - I question that guys motives ;D )
Good luck on the diagnosis!
Pat
That was awfully nice of him 4.gif. Time to dig into the dizzy perhaps.
The car started for about 10 seconds this morning. Long enought to pull it to the garage door then it died and would not restart. Went to a local british car place but they did not have any distributors that would fit, so ordered a new 59D with electronics from Seven with overnight delivery. My car has a MG Metro A+ engine. Car is in Daves garage at the moment with the soaked carpet out trying to dry out some. As luck would have it tonight is the local british car guys meeting so Dave and I will be headed that way later.
Pics of Willie B drying out.....
Was your old one electric or no? Sounds like what I just went through. Would start briefly the next day.
The dist. that is acting up now is a 123. I drove 2 hours in pouring rain when I went to mini56 without any issues.
Oh that's right. Interesting.
Crazy that a 123 crapped the bed. I am curious what did it in? Do you think it shorted out? I remember you put a dish or something over it to keep water from hitting it, I wonder if it got too hot? I also wonder if the cap cracked from getting wet when being hot.
Kudo's to Dave for making the drive to rescue a stranded member here. Oh and I am jealous of the lift you have in the garage, the guy I bought my E30 from had one like that too, he had the garage floor recessed so it was flush with the floor. Nice digs Dave.
Good luck Willie, I hope you get back on the road today.
Fed X said the part was on a truck for local delivery at 6:57 this AM, but they all they said about delivery is that it would happen before 8 pm, whatever that means!
So, I'm going to pick Brad up at his hotel in a bit and we'll spend the time getting the car arranged and put back together, so when the part gets here hopefully we can just toss the dist in, set the timing and off he goes.
Very good. Yeah I'm curious what happened to the 123.
I may have missed your posts about this. Is that little radiator an extra cooling radiator or an oil cooler? It is obvious by your interior temp pics while driving it is not AC. ;D
(http://www.restorationmini.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=760.0;attach=2966;image)
Aux radiator cooler Jim.
Quote from: 94touring on July 08, 2015, 07:50:43 AM
Aux radiator cooler Jim.
Ah yes, I just went back to his mods thread.
Great idea.
Well, not a happy ending, unfortunately......we spent the morning waiting for the part by getting the car all organized and ready to travel, but the part didn't get here until well after noon. We got it installed but could not seem to get it timed to where it would start.
Finally Brad decided discretion being the better part and all that and he HAD to be home by tomorrow night, so off to Uhaul we went, rented a truck and trailer and he's on his way home now. I'm sad that we didn't have time to puzzle it out but we just ran out of time...
Note to WillieB, I can't think of any reason why it would, but double check to make sure the timing chain didn't jump a tooth or anything.....
Well dang man. I wish there was more time to fiddle with it. Brad you definitely have a great story and have had one heck of an adventurous trip.
Well that does indeed stink.
Odd, I imagine you tried desperate measures like re-indexing the dizzy until you could get a green light? Did you spin the engine with the dizzy cap off to make sure it was functioning?
The crazy part is that it ran for a few minutes the day before.
I am really curious to hear what caused this.
It ran that morning......sort of. It was maybe hitting on 3 cylinders and didn't have enough power to move itself, and it ran for about 20 seconds, then died and would not restart....that was with the 123 dizzy.
The new electronic 54D4E doesn't have the light to set TDC so we "guestimated" where it should go, then cranked the engine with a timing light on the marks and tried to get it close enough to run. Even tho Brad could see the marks and it was clearly moving in the right direction we were not successful and simply ran out of time. It never hit once with the new dizzy, which was puzzling to me - seems like it should have at least backfired or something....but it was making plenty of fire - so it definitely was working.
The 123 dizzy made so little spark - I've seen hotter sparks from static electricity!
Once he gets it home and isn't pressed for time he'll get it sorted. I'll be interested to hear what finally makes it go.....
We did check everything else, valve adjustment, compression, fuel etc.....all were good.
So you had spark and fuel but wouldn't fire? Maybe blew the head gasket.
I suppose that's possible, but I didn't see any indication of it on the plugs and the compression was fine.....
Did you happen to try using starter fluid directly into the intake while cranking it?
No, we talked about it but simply ran out of time.....
Brad texted me from south of Nashville at 9 this am, so he's probably pretty close to home by now.
Long overnight rainy drive but made it home.
Glad you made it safe n sound. Keep us posted on what fixes it.
I got spark, fuel and compression but it still won't run. I have chased down a few small issues but it still is not running. Thought I found the problem when I had 13.4 at the battery but only 12.6 at the coil. Went back thru all the connections cleaning and re-seating. Even took the ignition switch apart to clean it. That got the voltage loss down to only .2 volts. The timing light flashes strange when using it, one or two good flashes then it stutter flashes a few times.
Just remembered I have a neighbor from the UK that is a mechanic. I will talk to him Friday for input.
I think the dist drive gear from the cam is off a tooth or two.....
Quote from: MiniDave on July 16, 2015, 07:06:24 PM
I think the dist drive gear from the cam is off a tooth or two.....
Does that really matter as long as you have the timing set? It should not matter where the drive is positioned. Or am I all wrong on this?
So as a whole Was it worth it? DO the MMWesties do it better than CMU? MM E? Thoughts on the whole trip
Bummer for the final days- Thanks to MINIDAVE for the rescue- Wagon Tow for the win!
Have you replaced the "basic Stuff: Cap . Rotor and Wires?
Compresson for sure plus 100's ?
Re time - TDC / with Timing gear in the right direction - Rotor spins when cranking? Valves go up and down?
CHeck fuel supply - Complete and enough?
sorry- just throwing the basics out there.
Yes, we did pretty much all that when it was at my house.
Here's my thinking - it has to do with the rotor......
If the rotor looked like tis, I think it would work....
(http://distributordoctor.com/images/418726-2b.jpg)
You could rotate the dist till everything lined up an it would still be close enough for the spark to jump to the right terminal, but his rotor looks sorta like this.....
(http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/BR4AAOxy0w5Tlehn/$_1.JPG?set_id=880000500F)
and with the drive off a tooth, by the time you get the rotor where the electronics will fire, it's too far away from the post.
That's my thinking, anyway.....
So Willie B, anything new to report?
Did you send the 123 off to be repaired/checked out?
The 123 seems ok now, but car still not running.Installed the original coil back in too. Have spark from it but I need to check another car to see if it is enough spark. Timing light says the timing is spot on for it at TDC. I have done lots of little stuff just to eliminate things so when I figure it out it should run better than ever.
Not sure what I want next in the garage. A lift like you have or AC. I will go look at a lift next week to see if I can use it and get a price I am willing to pay.
I vote AC first!
A/C has saved my butt many times, but the lift is what I really use - I think you need both, actually! ;D
OK, just for the heck of it, squirt some ether or something down it and make sure it's not a fuel issue.....the filter can be full but if the seat is stuck not letting gas into the carb it won't run.....
A couple portable ac units aren't that pricey. The kind that roll on wheels. With a long enough vent hose you can take it anywhere with you in the shop. Maybe you could do both.
He'd be smarter in the long run to just go with a good window unit, since he doesn't need heat like I do he can get up to 25K BTUs and that will really make it pleasant to work in the shop.....
But I think I spoiled him with my lift, not having to sit on the ground or be bent like a pretzel to reach stuff is nice on our old backs.
So Willie B, tell me the car is running now? 8.gif
Any luck yet?
It started and ran on 3 cylinder for about 15 seconds Tuesday. Just pulled the carb to give it a quick going over just to eliminate it. Between all the other stuff i have going i only have a few hours a week to work on it.
Pretty much what it did at my house too......be sure to look at the O-ring for the choke - it does have an HIF carb, right?
IT LIVES! 50.gif
Have the dist., coil, wires and all that I had the problem with. I could finally get spark but it would not start. So I was still just eliminating things I decided to drain the gas tank and lines and add fresh gas. The day the car died was the only day that I had rain and the area I was in had been having a good bit of rain before. I thought maybe wet gas. Car fired right up with the new gas. Still no idea on why the no spark that was the original issue. Next I will install the other dist. (elec. 59D) and set it up for use as a spare.
Now to clean the car up for a local car show Saturday.
Just bad gas? 8.gif
Yep, they won't run on water......
Congrats on getting it going! I know we weren't mistaken about the no spark or very weak spark we had in the garage. I'm hoping the 123 just got wet too, and when it dried out it was good again...
Spare dizzy is a great idea.....
Perhaps the plugs were about shot if they were being flooded with watered down fuel, hence the poor looking spark. Best thing about those electric 59d's is they're not even expensive!