Next project - ‘62 997 Austin Cooper

[kevs 1961 mk1]

wow what an experience you had ,glad you managed to nurse her to the motorway services as it could have been quite a different story ,20 mins late is nothing after all that drama ,and now shes producing very healthy figures ,and driving well ,enjoy it now mate you deserve it well done

[roger mcnab]

hi d
a simular thing happened to me way back in the early 70s when i was driving to sydney at about 100k when the oil cooler hose burst what a mess
i cut the ignition as no following cars coasted to stop lucky that the pipe was in the boot with a few gallons of oil so hoses off pipe back on oil in and off to work arrived in time for change of shift phew
just after that the o rings on the valve stems went south into the sump and it burned oil at a n alarming rate
minis are great fun but moved it on and got a fully worked v8 falcon ute that was faster in first than the mini was flat out in top heady days
cheers roger

[1071bob]

You got lucky there David, I was worried about reusing my 56 year old rubber hose and capillary tubing so I mounted the 25 psi oil light to the back of the oil gauge so that if anything breaks the light comes on immediately. Bit of a tight fit but worth doing.................. All I need now is a motor!

[Andrew1967]

At least you saw it David.

The mother of an ex girlfriend of mine used the girlfriends Mini 1000 for work whilst we were on holiday. She drove to work not noticing zero oil pressure and the line of oil most of the way from home to work … 7 miles … from a fractured pressure gauge pipe. Result one shot crankshaft with several severely hammered big end shells !

What more can your car throw at you David ??!!

[Dearg1275]

What more can your car throw at you David ??!!

Don’t even think such thoughts. The prospect alarms me. I’m sure this will be the most spannered car on the planet and even then throw a trick or two. It is, however, great fun to drive.

With fingers crossed,

D

[Andrew1967]

The last sentence in that paragraph is the most important by far .. Minis are such great fun to drive when they’re on form

[Peter Laidler]

Broken oil pipe....... Happened to me too. Saw oily smoke coming up through the edges of the bonnet. Flexi pipe between steel engine oil pressure pipe and rear of gauge had split and was spilling onto exhaust. Stemmed split as best I could, chanced it and drove last 2 miles home. Phew......, heart stopping or what!

[Dearg1275]

That is precisely the problem I was seeking to avoid. I routed a continuous length of narrow bore copper pipe from oil gauge forward along the inner wing next to the wiring loom thence to the oil gauge port on the block. I created a final coil of the copper pipe, as I thought, to absorb any engine movement or vibration. It obviously did not absorb enough to stop the soldered joint at the block end failing. In curing one issue I created another. I had intended to have a section of small bore braided hose with BSPp unions in the last run to the block but could not source the necessary adapters. 1/8 NP (PARALLEL) to 1/4 BSP eluded me. I just have a section of small bore hose there now with clips. Not elegant but it functions.

D

[Costafortune]

I just fitted an electric gauge and a sender unit in the block. That's after the clear plastic pipe decided to leak about 2 litres of oil onto the manifold.

[Dearg1275]

I’m beginning to think that sticking with old technology is a bit of a mugs game. As an instance Stack do a fuel gauge that you can program so that full is full half full is half full and empty is however much you want left in the tank. None of this ‘it’s sort of nearly empty-ish’ you get with standard gauges. It’s more a matter of accepting the look of the things that puts me off. An oil gauge that lights up below a set pressure also seems a good shout.

It may be time to put the standard gauges in a display case.

D

[Old English White]

No no no David!
Where would we be if we knew where we were??

[Dearg1275]

No no no David!
Where would we be if we knew where we were??

Not stuck at the side of a busy road in the pouring rain mayhap? Yes it would spoil the fun a tad and what would we have to talk about?

D

[Peter Laidler]

I'd usually trust a well soft-soldered joint in this sort of application as a rule but based on your experience, maybe hard or silver soldering is the way to go. (It is a timely reminder too as a few of us local classic car fiends are about to look into a few things relating to oil pressure and cooling while we've got access to the empty uni engineering workshops. So we'll be silver soldering!)

[Dearg1275]

Am I ever going to get some peace from this car.? You might recall I had issues with the Rose Petal wheels a while back and sorted the problem to my satisfaction by dispensing withe the supplied “spacers” and adjusting the interference on the brake calliper instead. This worked fine and I had, as far as suspension is concerned, a completely un eventful 1500 miles on the car.

I was not totally happy with the front right wheel hub. I had had to reduce the thickness of the bearing spacer substantially to eliminate play and play was beginning to return. Time to ditch the original hub and fit a new one together with a Timken bearing set ( SKF boxed but Timken inside).

All sorted, torqued up both hub and wheel nuts. Spin the wheel, moves freely job done. Happy.

No. Drove the car out of the workshop today and thought I had a sticking back brake. Managed 25 yards called a halt as it was clearly not right at the front. Reversed back to the shed by which time it was obviously the front right.

Wheel off revealed this.

5E970978-5E79-419E-ACCF-841859BD4E54.jpeg

C351552F-A505-4BE0-9FF3-4F6679B19270.jpeg

Changing the hub had been enough to move the calliper further out towards the wheel rim so re-establishing the interference I thought I had eliminated. It was a much warmer day today than when I fitted the hub. I can only think that this was enough to expand the rim and so close what clearance I had. I had not even thought that the machining tolerances on the hubs would be so wide as to need consideration. I am now loath to take more from the calliper and I am being pushed back towards re-fitting the alignment spacers that I wanted to be rid of. It’s either that or give up on the Rose Petals or have five of them machined back on the rim. It has sort of tried to do that itself anyway.

I do like the way they compliment the car but I’m beginning to loose my rag with them. I would keep your eyes on the for sale section.

D

[Costafortune]

give up on the Rose Petals

Indeed. They appear to be more trouble than they are worth. The car will look equally good on standard 'S' steels.

[SMOKE GREY]

give up on the Rose Petals

Indeed. They appear to be more trouble than they are worth. The car will look equally good on standard 'S' steels.

Must admit, it would be on S rims for me

[Dearg1275]

give up on the Rose Petals

Indeed. They appear to be more trouble than they are worth. The car will look equally good on standard 'S' steels.

I think you are definitely onto something there. Why do we get sucked into cosmetics when function is what matters? Yes for a race car or rally car unsprung weight is a major factor in performance, but,honestly, am I every really going to notice the difference on UK roads? However quickly I might try to drive. Anyway, for the sporty look I can leave the hub caps off!

D

[SMOKE GREY]

In all seriousness, other than Paddy’s 6 EMO I have always used steel rims on my cars , been drawn to Rose Petals a few times. I always remember aback in the early 90s they were the holy grail, and the new Minilites were on everything now it seems Petals are on everything. Then again I prefer std steel rims on Coopers, bog standard

[Polarsilver]

David.. me-thinks your not the type to give in to such Rosepetal defeat .. ok so you dont want to fit spacers .. well the race boys cannot fit spacers when using Rosepetals ..so what do they do to the brake caliper to allow Rosepetal clearance ?.. i dont know but someone on here does

[kevs 1961 mk1]

this may help david,https://www.theminiforum.co.uk/forums/t ... and-4pots/