11th June 2016
It all gets done in a jumble but I'll deal with it in sections.
Wiring
This has been developing into a plan as I have worked along.
The car originally had two batteries and no alternator. I have fitted an alternator and taken one battery off. This means the wiring to the mandatory cut-out switch is more complex. It needs to kill the ignition feed as well as isolating the battery, or the car will keep running on the alternator output.
So when I fitted the new conduit for the battery cable through the cockpit I put in two extra cables to take power from the ignition switch to the cut-out switch on the back panel and then back to the coil.
This meant a new FIA cut-out switch and wiring a resistor in-between it and the earth, to protect the alternator when the cut-out switch is operated.
This is the new battery tray and the battery cables ready for the switch to be connected.
You can also see a new fuel filter I have put in. I should replace the fuel pipes as well as modern petrol has ethanols which attack the older rubber in these old pipes. (see how you just can't deal with one subject at a time).
This is the battery fixed with a new battery clamp and the cut-out switch wired in.
The white thing above the battery clamp is the resistor cable-tied to a chassis member. The blue battery clamp cap needs to be painted yellow yet.
Moving forwards to the engine and cockpit, I had placed some cables from and to various components to get an idea how much there was to combine into a loom. I do have loom tape, but the draw-back is that having wrapped the cables, any changes mean re-doing it. I decided to use some split flexible conduit to make life easier.
This shot shows the conduit carrying the alternator cables around the front of the engine.
It drops down to the starter, which is where the output from the alternator joins the battery cable and then the other cables join that bunch running up alongside the new HT lead. It's pretty simple.
In the cockpit I made a new tray to hold the electrics. The old coil can be see top left. I didn't want it there as I am making a full bulkhead and the coil is in the way. So I am fitting it to the tray and also moving the temperature capillary tube over that chassis frame rail as well as the cables. I have made a panel to hold the gauges and switches.
This is with the (new) coil fitted and generally tidied-up.
Distributor
You may remember the manky old distributor.
I decided that as it is mounted low down and a bit tricky to get to, and points and a condenser wouldn't be that cheap I would get a new electronic distributor from PowerSpark, and new HT leads and coil whilst I was at it. The old coil showed no resistance through the low tension circuit and the electronic ignition deserved a decent coil.
So they arrived.
Complete with instructions they were easy enough to fit. However setting the timing needed a strobe light as I couldn't see how to use a bulb to get the static timing set. I borrowed a Snap-On light from a mate and used that. Easy-peasy. You dial-in the advance you need at particular revs and just use the TDC mark and pulley notch. You can do it the other way around and turn the advance knob on the light until the marks line up and read off what the setting is.
I then connected the vacuum advance and ..... then I disconnected it. It occurred to me that I didn't want the timing being advanced at low revs, low throttle openings. That's the very situation when a slight rise in incline will put the motor under load and if the timings has been advanced, it won't cope as well. So I am running without vacuum advance.
Wheels
In the meantime I have been scraping yellow paint from the alloy front wheels and one is sort of OK but the other had other coats of paint beneath.
It was easier just to paint it. (That's tape on the tyre)
It was easier just to paint it. (That's tape on the tyre)
The rear wheels were a complete pain. I had decided I may get them sandblasted, but ran out of enthusiasm for that as there isn't anyone nearby. So I spent noisy hours stripping them myself. I wish I had had them blasted now. They aren't perfect, and never will be, but look a but smarter. The insides are red because I had some red Rustoleum spray paint. No other reason.
Whilst I was at this I found the 3rd (spare) spoked wheel has a different offset and is too close to the springs on the coilovers.
It's going to be the spare and will probably never be used, but in the interest of uniformity I decided to get a spacer to get it right. Before I ordered anything I had a brainwave. The old discs have a hub-shaped front flange which 5 minutes with an angle grinder released and hey-presto. Free spacer, perfect fit. It's about 7mm thick which moves the wheel out just enough. I have used the small grub screw threads to fit screws so that it is permanently fitted to the wheel flange.
Of course, things are never that simple. The wheel studs were not long enough now for the thicker wheel flange. To be honest they never were long enough. So I ordered some longer ones and some new wheel nuts as the existing ones are a dubious fit anyway. Pretty easy to fit the studs. I did take the half shafts out.
This on-line buying is amazing. All this would have been difficult/expensive in the bad old days of catalogues and mail order.
Cooling update
Having moved the water pump and got the engine running smoothly (carb clean and adjustment)
I discovered the cooling still wasn't happening. The rad was stone cold. It's a Mini rad on it's side, so working as a crossflow and the top will air-lock above the top hose inlet anyway. But I was having difficulty priming the system to fill it. Taking the water pump outlet hose off and filling through that nearly worked but I needed to be able to let air out at the other side of the rad.
On-line (again) I found an in-line water filler neck, which I fitted into the top hose.
It worked! Now I have a warm rad.
Not quite right yet though. I knew there was no thermostat fitted so decided to put one in. Got one and fitted it. Now the motor warms up quickly, and then controls itself properly. There is a theory that says that certain cylinder heads get hot spots if you don't run a thermostat, as they rely on the back pressure to scavenge the hot water from hot pockets in the casting.
We'll see.
Brake pedal
When I got the car the front brake pedal was canted over to the right.
This makes it a bit close to the throttle pedal, if you wear big boots. So I decided to alter it.
The clutch pedal was also too high so I made a new shorter pushrod for the master cylinder.
Gear Lever
Getting quite picky now. The gear lever was open to the elements and as I had a spare Mini steering rack boot.........
Do you know? I think that's enough for this post.
So the trailer and bonnet can wait 'till the next.
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