Racing Green 89 Mini

[94touring]

Yeah that's strange with the rust look discoloration. Are they possibly burnt and have a rust appearance? 

[MiniDave]

I never felt them get hot, and I checked them every time we stopped as we drove home from South Dakota, but they def looked weird. It was odd that the pitting wasn't all the way around the rollers either - it just seemed to be on one side.

At any rate, it's fixed now.....on to the next problem - whatever that turns out to be.

I'm going to drive it later today or tomorrow morning and see if I still hear anything, if I do I'll tear down the right side too.

[MiniDave]

I decided to go ahead and tear down the right side and check the bearings - the good news is they looked fine, and I noticed I used Timken bearings and not Chinesiums......I'll repack these and put them back in - I wasn't hearing any noise but thought if the left side looked that bad I should at least check.

I also found the end of the axle all beat up - no idea how the heck that happened as like on the left side, I know I'm the last one to work on it and I could not have gotten the nut on with the end of the axle damaged like this.

On top of that, another mystery - the cup in the upper control arm is broken on this side too......what in the heck causes that?

So, I guess I'll pull the bonnet back off as it makes it much easier to work on,  plus I have to remove the wiper motor to get to the big ass bolt, and I can't get the spring compressor in there with the bonnet on either.

[MiniDave]

All better now, I did have to remove the bonnet, it just made it worlds easier to get the wiper motor out of the way so I could use the cone compressor.

I was lucky that the remains of the cup came out ok, sometimes those things are really stuck in the control arm. There was a small bit of plastic that had been beaten down thru the little hole in the control arm but I was able to get it out with a set of bent nose pliers. I also greased all the zerks before I put the wheels back on so the front end should be good to go for a long time. Looking at these pics I can see I need to put another turn on the hi low to get it where it was.

Everything went back together smoothly, so all I need to do now is give it a good bath. Our MINI club is meeting for ice cream Saturday evening so I want it looking good for that.

[94touring]

Good deal.   

[MiniDave]

My poor little green Mini has been living in the garage for the last month or two due to the typical winter weather we've been getting and the tons of salt that's been poured on our roads - I had planned to drive it to Sat's breakfast meeting of the Age and Treachery Racing group but we've been getting "wintery mix" of rain, ice and light snow today, so I'll bet the roads are coated in salt again. Too bad as we had enough rain a few days ago to really wash things down nicely.....

I noticed the last time I drove it there was a noise in the left rear on braking, so I'll need to pull that drum and see what's up - it has new shoes and only a thousand or so miles on a new set of Minifin drums but it sure sounds like metal on metal.

We may be doing a local roads run in April so I want it all spiffed up for that, we have two new classics in town that we want to get involved, that's why we're planning this run, plus we just like to get our cars out and hit the roads too!

[94touring]

That annoying squealing noise on the inno went away with the 4 pots, as did the jerky brake booster engagement.  It's like it was meant for 4 pots!  Having a squeal sure is annoying though.

[MiniDave]

I've been hearing a grinding noise in the left rear brake, especially when braking hard so I decided to check it out. I have fairly new Minifins and Mintex shoes so I wasn't expecting it to be metal on metal - and it wasn't. All I found was a ton of black brake dust, it was completely dry - no grease or brake fluid.

So I just cleaned it all out with a short brush, shot some brake clean on everything and put the drum back on - there was still plenty of shoe left and no unusual wear patterns that I could see. I also adjusted the shoes a bit, I think I got an extra 2 "clicks". I still need to adjust the brake handle end too, it's too many clicks up of the handle before anything happens and I have to really pull it up hard for it to hold on the slope of my driveway.

I'll go ahead and do the other side too just to be sure......

I'm due for an oil change, but man is this thing leaking oil now. I'll need to get it up on the rack so I can see where the heck it's all coming from and to do that I'll need to get the hot rod down on its wheels and get some help moving it about. It's not that hard to roll, but I have a pretty good slope to my driveway so controlling it could be an issue - I wouldn't want to be on one of the You tube vids of a guy chasing his car as it rolls down the block!   

[MiniDave]

Last year just before we went to Rushmore and MMEMW, I bought a nice new MiniSpares dipstick, with a T handle and a couple of O-rings where it fits into the blcok....a nice looking piece of kit.

Yesterday I went to change the oil and the T handle came right off in my hand! I don't know if it was made with a little epoxy to keep the handle on the rod or what, but I knew I could do a better repair than just stick some JB Weld in the hole - tho that probably would have worked I prefer a mechanical solution.

So I ran up to Westlake and bought an 8-32 allen set screw, drilled and tapped the T handle and it's on there solid now. I might go back and buy a shorter set screw as this one sticks out a bit.

Oh, and I machined a small flat where the screw hits the rod so it would have a good place to bite