"BMC's New Baby" sees the light of day

[Gary Schulz]

First time out of the garage. Basically complete now except for little details like the washer bottle and the rubber battery strap etc etc...

Was able to drive it around the block and it seems to drive very well except the clutch is engaging pretty close to the floor. It has been around 25 years since I last drove a Mini so I don't recall if that is normal.

Wanted to check a few things out and do a better tune on the carbs before putting the bonnet and grille back on...

Also my cell phone seems to be rendering the color of the car a bit off on at least one picture!

20200520_142557.jpg

20200520_131006.jpg

[WesleyB]

This is a lovely car !! great job you did!!
Congratulations

[AndyPen]

Looking lovely Gary.

Do you have everything you need now?

[5portsrock]

Well done. Looks lovely. Very inspiring

[jay weinstein]

Very nice!!

[surfblue63]

Look nice, sits right.

Phones are crap at taking consistent pictures by the way, all that auto exposure stuff is easily fooled.

[mk1]

Well done Gary. Your car looks stunning. Not far to go now.

[Gary Schulz]

I guess I will be looking for those little clips that the battery strap attaches to, a white strap, the correct washer bottle, one of those wire clips for the fresh air heater hose and probably several other items. Once I figure it out I will probably post in the wanted section.

I really need to figure out if the clutch engagement is normal or not first...

[iain1967s]

I guess I will be looking for those little clips that the battery strap attaches to, a white strap, the correct washer bottle, one of those wire clips for the fresh air heater hose and probably several other items. Once I figure it out I will probably post in the wanted section.

I really need to figure out if the clutch engagement is normal or not first...

How did you set the clearance on the clutch?

Take the spring off the slave cylinder then back off the big nut and its retainer lock nut. Pull the clutch arm away from the engine as best you can by hand, and screw the little bolt out from the wok cover until it just before it touches the arm. Do its locking nut up.

Now release your tension on the clutch arm, there should be small gap, around 20 thou is good, just enough that the release bearing doesn’t ride on the diaphragm.

Reattach the return spring (I find a length of thin rope with a loop in the end, using the #4 exhaust manifold as a pivot is easiest) and get someone to pump the clutch pedal then hold the clutch down.

Bring the large nut up the pinion until it stops against the wok, continue turning one more flat, and tighten its lock nut against it. Release the clutch pedal, the gap between the wok and the nut should be about 1/8” roughly.

By ‘feel’ the clutch should be fairly high up when the release bearing engages, not more than a half inch or so of pedal travel.

Hope that helps.

[Gary Schulz]

Thanks Iain. I took the spring off (seems a little heavy for the job!) and then I pulled the clutch arm out and adjusted the clutch pushrod (I have one of those fancy Fortech adjustable jobs) until the pushrod took up all the slack between the fully depressed (relaxed-home position, not pushed out) clutch slave cylinder and the clutch arm whilst maintaining around 20 thou clearance. Is that description clear as mud?

There is considerable hysteresis in the slave cylinder rubber so it seemed to be wise to ensure it was in the fully home position while doing this adjustment that way it would seem that I am getting maximum possible travel out of the system..

Did I screw this up?

Also those clutch overthrow nuts really seem puzzling to me. Under what condition would the clutch want to over-throw the motion? Not sure if I get the reasoning behind those but they are already adjusted as described.

[iain1967s]

The clutch return stop (20 thou clearance on the top thin bolt) is there to prevent the slave cylinder relaxing against the spring. That way, when you next push the pedal, the slave piston doesn't have to travel very far before the release bearing engages. The throw-out stop is there to prevent you pushing the clutch diaphragm in too far, which would basically shift the flywheel inward toward the engine and wear out the crankshaft front thrust bearings in quick order. That's why it gets set to 'max deflection' minus one flat of the nut, so that the clutch can't actually be pushed to full deflection.

[Gary Schulz]

It would seem that the "max deflection" point is not really precisely defined on every setup so assuming that one flat of that nut will produce the perfect end-throw is a bit variable...

Do you think I have the adjustable length rod set up correctly? As near as I can tell as I lift my foot from the floor, the clutch is just starting to bite at around 1/2" into the travel.