Three's Company

It's been awhile since my last post, but I've been thoroughly enjoying my cars over the summer - especially the Midget with the hotter temperatures we've been experiencing. I can't get over how great the Midget has been in recent months. It's running so smooth and it's always a blast to drive. In fact, consistent with past summers, car troubles all around have been kept to a minimum. At this time, the only problem is a malfunctioning gas gauge in the Mini. I think it's the fuel sending unit but haven't looked into what swapping in a new one all involves.

In bigger news, I purchased a third vehicle: a 2003 Mini Cooper S. I had been searching for an inexpensive "replica" of the 2002 S I sold two years ago for quite some time. It has more mileage (almost 70,000 on the clock) and more dings and scratches, but it was also half the price. It's kind of nostalgic to drive it which I think is also kind of ironic.

It really is a completely different car than my classic mini: 400% faster, 50% bigger, 70% heavier and all the modern day luxuries like leather seats, air conditioning and power steering. Still certainly not as fun as the classic but fun nonetheless.

It's crazy for one person to own three cars, I know. But I'm happy I got it. And I hope people aren't so quick to judge me on my decision. I plan on using the new car for longer, non-vacation related trips and during the winter when the salty roads would normally erode my two most loved cars.

Hellertown Car Show

Sunday I took the Mini to the 17th Annual British Motorcar Gathering in Hellertown. Friends and family visited and it was good fun. It rained some.

Nice Rack

Years ago, I had gotten a whole bunch of used Midget parts from a fellow at church. Amidst the collection was everthing from body panels to doors to seats to mechanical parts to whatever. Most of the stuff is old and rusty and unusable. But among the stuff was a luggage rack and a boot lid. The luggage rack itself would've cost me $300 from eBay, but we paid just $100 for the whole collection of stuff.

Anyway, with thoughts of getting the car painted soon, I thought it'd be neat to get both boot lids painted (one with holes for the rack and one without) so that I had the option to choose. I think I prefer the cleanliness of the car sans rack, but I like the option of being able to use the rack if I was going on a trip or needed the space.

So today I affixed the rack to the lid, and then the lid to the car - to see how it all came together. It's hard to tell with the unpainted lid, but I think it looks nice.

Back Up Lights are Back Up

Finally got the 'correct' reverse lamp switch from Moss. Not sure if they labeled it wrong, or if my transmission is actually a 60s model, but I put it in earlier this week with minor setbacks. I should be all set for inspection now!

Spring Time

The Midget is equipped with 1/2 elliptic leaf springs as part of its rear suspension. In preparation for inspection, I went about replacing all of the worn bushings on the right side. Dad and I had done the left side back in 2008, so I won't go into a lot of detail since it has been covered before. But it was certainly more difficult than I remembered. I got off to a good start with disassembly, but I eventually had to enlist Dad's help on two occasions.

The first, I was only able to remove half of the bushing on the front side. Dad helped me hammer out the rest with a chisel. The second, upon reassembly, I somehow cross-threaded one of the nuts welded to the floorboard of the car. Dad showed up tonight with his tap and die set, and we were able to clean it up. He stuck around to help me put the rest of things back together for which I was extremely thankful. Some things are so much easier to do logistically with two people. Like when screwing in the 3 bolts in the rear plate, one person had to hold the bolt steady from underneath the car while the other secures the nut from inside the boot. It was quite difficult for me to remove them by myself, and I'd imagine putting them back in by myself would have been crazy difficult. It was tricky. It went relatively smooth with Dad here.

So thanks again to my dad for his assistance. When I called him, I was so frustrated that I could never seem to finish a task (of a certain magnitude) on my own. But I just keep reminding myself that I'm slowly learning new things (which I am) and continuing to acquire a respectable tool collection (Dad is 'lending' me his tap and die set and brought me some chisels) - both of which will help me in future projects.

I still don't have a vise though. So I improvised.

Rear BEFORE

Rear AFTER

Front BEFORE

Front AFTER

Completed leaf spring.

Getting it back on the car.

Looking Back

I took a drive down to my parents today for Mother's Day. I went across the street to visit Amy, an old neighbor, who has owned two Binis. A red hardtop which, from what I understand, was quite the lemon. And more recently, a red cabriolet. An '07 I think.

We each took a turn behind the wheel of each other's cars. Although she doesn't normally drive stick, she was comfortable enough going up and down the cul-de-sac. Then I took her automatic out on the roads. One of my favorite things about my gray Mini was the interior, so it was pretty nostalgic sitting inside of her car. I felt immediately comfortable. Her interior was quite nice too - chrome trim, additional gauges, leather seats. And although hers wasn't an S (nor a manual), the experience has fueled my desire to get another one of these beasts.

Crazy Sunday

I got up this morning and headed out for a drive that ended up lasting several hours. I drove toward Zionsville in the Midget to stop at a few nurseries (I need some arborvitae for my backyard) and to try and locate some billboards I had designed at work. I only found two billboards but ended up stopping at 3 or 4 different nurseries. I definitely got some color from the sun, and the car drove great. At this point, the only thing I haven't been able to fix yet on the Midget is the reverse light switch. I've ordered two from Moss whose product descriptions fit my year/engine, but both have been much too small. So I'm not sure what now. I have a month to sort it out until inspection is up.



Then when I returned home, I changed the oil in the Mini. I waited much too long to do this...especially since the engine and transmission share the same supply. Although the manual says to get the car up in the air, it can somewhat easily be done without doing so. The drain plug is located near the front of the car and can be accessed from underneath. The filter, though also accessible from the bottom, can be reached more easily by removing the front grill. This is the approach I took.




As I was working on the car, a guy and his dog stopped at the foot of my driveway and asked if the car was a Mini (the guy did; not the dog). Turns out he's originally from Britain and guess what his first car was? He's not the first person I met that this was the case. For some reason, he didn't want to walk up the driveway and take a look at it, even though I presented the invitation. So we conveniently yelled out our conversation for the next 10 minutes at an awkward distance. He asked the usual questions and went along his way. He had a British accent, which is cool. I couldn't pick up the dog's dialect.

A Striking Trike

Since I spent some time at David's over the past few weeks, I thought I'd share with you his current project. I don't know how else to describe it other than a three-wheeled chopper with a Ford truck bed on it's back. I've been tracking its progress throughout the winter and it's pretty amazing what David's able to do. He still has to fabricate the seating and he's addressing a transmission leak, but it's neat to actually see it driven.

It's certainly not something I'd keep in my stable, but I admire it's uniqueness and ridiculousness.

Steered in the Right Direction

As you may recall, I had some issues with the Mini's steering at the beginning of the year. Recently, the symptoms returned. To reiterate, the steering column has a spline shaft (with serrations, or ridges, around the inside of the shaft) at the bottom end. This female end joins with a male spline shaft that extends from the steering rack (under the car) through the floor board. The two pieces are held together with a bolt through a clamp on the column. So I removed the column and examined the spline shaft. Once again, it was quite worn. The splines on the rack looked okay.

I mentioned it to David and he came up with a solution. I let him know the specs of the spline shaft (36 serrations, 9/16" diameter) and he was able to source a piece with which to replace the original. I forgot what this piece is called, but it's the jointed piece in the photos below. The three photos show the progress of how he welded this piece onto the steering column.





The whole ensemble simply slips onto the steering rack. It certainly looks much more durable than the original setup, and the way it clamps to the rack is much stronger. This all assures me that my steering problems are solved for good.

Changing Gears V

After the second transmission swap, the Midget was still making noise. It was making noise while pulling back into second. And after the car (and gear oil) heated up, it would make a rubbing/grinding noise every time the clutch was depressed. The former wasn't as big of an issue as I learned to adjust my driving habits to avoid it.

Then one day, I lost all resistance in my clutch pedal and I had a hard time bleeding it. So I went about replacing the whole hydraulic system for the clutch. This includes the master cylinder, the 5 feet of 'brake' line, a short hose, and the slave cylinder. The most difficult part was replacing the line. Since they don't sell the size thread I have on either side of the line, I had to buy the 5 feet of line and cut off an end. Slipped off the new, incorrectly sized threaded bits and slipped on the original ones. But now the end of the line that was cut off needed to be double flared like it was initially. I enlisted David's help for this portion since he had a double-flare tool (and I was too cheap to buy one). And then I rented a line bending tool so I didn't kink the line while bending the straight piece into the curvy snake it needed to be. It took some time and it doesn't look real great, but I got it all back in. I outright replaced the master cylinder with a new one, and I rebuilt the slave cylinder with a kit. I was now able to bleed the clutch system.

Then I called the fellow from whom I got the tranny and discussed the noise situation. He ended up sending me a new transmission neck (this time with an allotment for the reverse light switch!). Then I scheduled to take off of work on a Friday and drove the car to David's for transmission R/R round three. I also brought the Mini to fix a steering problem.

This time around I did most of the prep work myself before we removed the engine/tranny from the car. We got it out (which went very smooth) and assessed the situation. We put on a new pressure plate, disc and release bearing. Nothing looked drastically wrong with the old parts, though the pressure plate looked "burned" and I think there was minor wear on the thrust bearing. We also swapped on the new neck (seen in the last picture above).

Before dropping everything back in, I was adjusting the reverse light wiring when I snapped the head off of the bolt. Luckily, this area can be accessed with the transmission installed through the shifter hole inside the cockpit, so it didn't hold up the installation. A new switch is currently en route.

At this point, we also had to bleed the clutch system since I replaced the rubber hose during all of this. Once we had it bled, we started up the car. I tried shifting it into first and it wouldn't go. Even after a test drive, it was grinding real bad into first and reverse. And it was still making the noise in second gear.

We called it a day, and I returned later to pick up the car...not wanting to overstay its welcome at David's. Before doing so, David and I examined the linkage between the clutch pedal and the master cylinder. More specifically, the push rod. When David disconnected the linkage, and forced the push rod into the cylinder with a screwdriver, I was able to successfully shift. So this added travel distance (which was before limited) of the push rod enabled the pressure plate to fully disengage from the flywheel; and as a result, there was no grinding. To permanently remedy this, we removed the master cylinder and David welded an additional 3/4" or so to the push rod. So as of now, the car shifts smoothly. I'm still trying to adjust to the longer throw of the clutch pedal.

And after a couple days of driving it, I've yet to experience the horrible grinding noise from before. So hopefully that will remain the case. I still get the noise in second gear, but David has convinced me this will go away in time. It'll be 75° tomorrow, so I'm pretty excited about that!

Mini Inspection

I took the Mini in for inspection about two weeks ago. Everything was fine with it except the front right suspension where a rubber cone was badly worn. Instead of coil springs, my Mini has rubber cones. I think a lot of mini owners upgrade to springs, but the $770 Moss has it listed for certainly didn't seem worth it to me. I was in the middle of transmission problems with the Midget, so I told him to just replace the cone.

He didn't have the part available, so I said I would order it. I did and dropped it off at the garage. Later, I get another call. He got the old cone off, but since the new cone is much taller, he needed a special tool to compress it while installing it. Even before seeing the $130 price tag on this thing, I decided I didn't want to wait to order it from anywhere. I made some phone calls, and got a lead on a mechanic in Emmaus who has a few Minis. It turns out he had the tool but lost some parts to it. But he indicated it'd be easy to rig up the rest since the essential piece was there. He let me borrow it, and without being too technical or long-winded here, the garage was able to make it work. Since I just had the one side replaced, the right side of the car sits about 3/4" higher than the left. But it's hardly noticeable at all.

Today in the grocery store parking lot, a kid approached me as I was getting in my car (I think him and his bike-riding friends were actually waiting for me to exit the grocery). He said my car was "sick" and asked some questions about it. I'm not sure if he knew what it was or not. It's funny how some people have no idea what it is, some people know exactly what is (the other day a fellow correctly guessed its engine size by glancing at the dash), and some people don't know the difference between it and a BMW Mini.

Nonetheless, the kid didn't seem to mind that it leaned a bit to the left.

Changing Gears IV

Several weeks after installing the rebuilt transmission into the Midget, I noticed some uneasiness in the clutch pedal, and one night it started making loud noises when depressing or letting off the clutch pedal. David and Dad were up one day and David took a ride with me to check it out. He concluded it could potentially be a thrust bearing within the transmission. We experimented with different oils, and although it alleviated some of the symptoms, it wasn't a permanent fix.

I called the fellow from whom I got the transmission to explain my situation. Then I asked David to call him (as my mechanic) to better explain the symptoms. The seller agreed to send us another rebuilt transmission free of charge with the understanding that I'd return the first one once we got it out of the car. Both David and I reminded him to send us one with a reverse light switch. As you may recall, the first one he sent us didn't have one, and we had to swap the neck with that of the original transmission. He wrote this down when I was on the phone with him, and that note appears on the invoice I received with the new transmission, but of course, the transmission was without one. I didn't realize this was the case until I was able to compare the new transmission with one of the others...which was today, when we went for Round 2 of the transmission swap.

The process itself went rather smooth (aside from having to swap the necks again due to the aforementioned absent reverse light switch). I think we started at around 9am. We got the engine and transmission out within an hour, made the swap, and put it all back in. We finished up at around 1:30pm. I was really impressed that we were able to do everything in 3 1/2 hours. I think my manual says it would take a person 4 hours to simply get the thing out of the car. Because we didn't heed Dad's advice to clean up the floor when putting the block back in (see video), my hair and back were doused in gear oil for the rest of the afternoon. Nasty smelling stuff. I also like how we ran a gasoline-powered forklift in an enclosed garage.

So everything is back together now, but unfortunately, I'm still having some issues. I get a NEW noise now when shifting into second gear. And the clutch pedal still doesn't feel right. David and Dad noticed some oil coming out of the clutch slave cylinder during the festivities. So right now, I plan on ordering a rebuild kit for the clutch slave cylinder (the same thing I replaced in the Mini). Just looked it up, and it's only nine bucks.

I'll be driving the Midget all week in hopes that the second gear noise will get better as I break in the new transmission.

Little Things

Got some little things done today on the Mini.

First, for as long as I could remember, the hazard lights never worked on the Mini. After doing some snooping around, I discovered that there was a line fuse missing from one of the wires hanging by the firewall. I swapped in a spare (there are two spares inside the fuse box) and they now work! And as a bonus, my interior light (which never worked before) works as well. Which I'm equally as excited about.

Second, I needed to re-glue a piece of carpet by the footwell that came off during the steering column and master cylinder R/R. I made a trip to the auto parts store and picked up a bottle of headliner/carpet adhesive spray...the last one on the shelves. It was $11.50 and only needed a couple shots of it, but I figured I didn't have a choice. As I was checking out, two guys came in asking for the exact same thing and were bummed to find out I got the last one. On their way out, I stopped them and asked if they wanted to buy it from me after I use the little I needed. So they made a stop at Hollywood Video as I reattached the carpet in the parking lot. I asked $9 for it, which I thought was fair considering the small amount I used.

Lastly, my interior rear view mirror has never really stayed in one place due to the less-than-stellar suction cup design. I filled one of the ball joints with super glue (toward the roof) hoping that'll make it sturdy enough. Then I can still adjust the angle at the mirror end. I don't know if it'll work as well as I'm hoping though. I'll see tomorrow morning.

The Mini is up for inspection by the end of the month, so I'm glad I at least got the hazard lights fixed (though apparently that wasn't cause enough for it to fail last year.)

One Year

Today marks the one year anniversary of owning the Mini. I encountered more problems than I initially anticipated, but the damage wasn't too bad on my wallet. Here is a very rough breakdown of the problems I encountered and the cost associated with fixing them.

Fuel Leak at Carb - $100

Squeaky Brakes - $75 (this includes brake pads I ended up not installing)

Sticking Throttle Cable - $20

Heater Core Leak - $35

Bad Thermostat - $10

Steering Slippage - $0

Clutch Loss - $135 (this could've been just $25 with proper diagnosis)

This adds up to $375. Which isn't great. But that's how much people spend on cable a year (which I don't have). It's also nice to know that I never had to take it to a shop for repairs, so there were no labor costs involved.

But this wasn't meant to be a post about numbers. Just a post in celebration of my awesome Mini!

Laundry List II

It's been awhile, so let's revisit my laundry list from January 22.

Mini Clutch

A few weeks ago, I nursed the Mini to my Dad's house where we tackled the clutch and the steering problems. I had gotten a new clutch hose, which carries fluid from the master cylinder to the slave cylinder, since I was told it had probably collapsed. My Dad and I replaced it and bled the system. I once again had a firm pedal. Unfortunately, the same symptoms returned within a few days.

So I ordered a new clutch slave cylinder (pictured above with the old one). I forget why I thought this would be the next step, but after I ordered it, David took a look at the car and figured it was probably the master cylinder instead. So I ordered a master cylinder rebuild kit for $20 instead of getting a new one for $120. I got both cylinders off the car and David helped me with rebuilding the master cylinder (second picture above). It was pretty simple. Just make the new pieces fit together like the old pieces did. He also honed out the cylinder inside. This is something I think could handle by myself in the future.

Just this morning, I reinstalled both the slave and master cylinder and bled the system again (I had ordered a special bleeding hose which allowed me to bleed it by myself.) And the pedal is firmer than it has ever been since I bought the car. So hopefully that's the end of that.

The slave cylinder was in a really awkward, hard-to-get-at location. And getting at the linkage from the pedal to the master cylinder (from inside the car) was tricky maneuvering as well. I have really skinny fingers and skinny arms, and I was barely able to get at these locations. I don't know how "normal" guys are able to work on this stuff without even more difficulty. Admittedly, it was much easier putting the parts back in than it was taking them out since I learned the best place to put the wrench in each situation. The second time around is always easier than the first.

Mini Steering

The day I was down at my parent's doing the clutch hose, David visited to help with the steering problem. He had to bring a special tool to knock the steering column off since my Dad and I weren't having much luck with using just our hands. We had disconnected all the mounting screws and the plastic cover, we just couldn't get it out.

Once out, we examined the piece. The steering column (female) goes into the rack assembly (male) at the base of the footwell. There are splines (or teeth) all the way around each of them which keep them snug together. Or at least, there were. The splines on the steering column end were badly worn which allowed my steering to frequently slip, as it did. Luckily, David noticed that the splines were in good shape about 1/2" up the column. So he took it home, hacked off a 1/2" of the column, and welded on a new allotment for the bolt to go into. This saved me the cost of a new steering column, which is $350. We had to make some adjustments to how we mounted the plastic cover back on, but that's a small price to pay for the price I didn't have to. So technically, my steering wheel is now about 1/2" further away from me.

Midget Speedometer

I got my new cable and hooked it up to the car. I concluded that the previous one was severed due to an overtightened bracket that held it in place against the transmission case. I made sure I loosened it up when I rewired the new one. So my speedometer and odometer now work. And the speedometer needle isn't as 'bouncy' as it once was.

Midget Alternator Belt

The squeal had nothing to do with the stripped bolt I referred to in my last post. It seems that bolt is just there to hold things in place while the bolt on the tension slider is loosened for adjustment. In most cases, the squeal was just due to a loose belt. So I jammed a large screwdriver between the alternator and the engine block with my left hand to move the alternator as far away as possible while tightening the adjustment screw with my right hand. Now it's nice and tight and there's no more squeal.

It took me a few weeks, but I finally got to everything. Unfortunately, another problem arouse with the Midget's new transmission. But more on that later.

Laundry List

I currently have a few problems with my cars.

Mini Clutch
A few weeks back, I was experiencing a gradual decay in the clutch pedal's performance. It soon got to a point where the pedal lost all firmness. I could push the pedal all the way to the floor and would have a heck of a time getting it into any gear. After I made some phone calls, I asked my Dad to help me bleed the clutch to see if it was hydraulic-related. This was the first time I bled anything, and I think it had been quite awhile for my dad. But it was pretty easy. Though definitely a two-man job. This temporarily fixed the issue. Apparently, the rubber hose that carried the fluid partway from the master cylinder to the slave cylinder had collapsed (meaning there is build-up on the inside of the hose causing a restricted flow of the fluid). After ordering another hose and waiting for a nice enough day to bother my dad to help me again, I noticed the same symptoms returning. So I'd like to get this thing replaced as soon as possible.

Mini Steering
While making my rounds at the auto stores, I noticed some 'slippage' in the steering wheel of the Mini. Admittedly, I've been taking some pretty hard turns recently. But a car should be able to withstand such 'spirited driving.' David helped me diagnose the problem down to a pinch-bolt at the base of the steering column. We tightened this from inside the car and it certainly helped the situation. However, we need to fix it more permanently. It has already been slipping since then.

Midget Speedometer
Ever since the transmission swap, the speedometer and odometer (which share a gauge) have been non-operational. Last weekend I had the car up on ramps to assess the situation, and I found the cable itself to be severed. I'm guessing we must've cinched it with the transmission when we were putting it back in. After a 'universal' cable from Advance Auto was discovered to be too small in width, I ordered a new one (both cable and outer sheath) from Moss.

Midget Alternator Belt
A few weeks back, I fixed a squealing, loose fan belt. But the squeal has returned. I think it's due to a stripped bolt that helps hold the tension slider in place. I'm guessing the belt is gradually loosening, causing the gradual increase in squealing.

So I've got my work cut out for myself. Both cars are still driveable, but obviously I'd like to get these things fixed as soon as possible. Tomorrow morning I plan to put the new speedo cable in the Midget and to look over the fan belt. I think I need to get a 13mm tap-and-dye set to try and fix the bolt. Then I'll get over to my parent's house so Dad can help me install the clutch hose and re-bleed the clutch (I think I'll also switch to synthetic fluid to prevent this from happening again.) And David said he'll help me with the Mini's steering situation at some point. I'd love to get it all done this weekend, but we'll see how things go.

Parking Lot Pictures

When I'm out running errands and end up parking next to a cool car, for some reason, I like to take a picture. I just took these off my phone from the last few months. Sorry for the poor quality.

When I went for a haircut, I spotted this VW Bus at the Westgate Mall. I believe this style is called the T3 (or the Vanagon). It was built from 1979 to 1991. Certainly not my favorite style of the VW Bus but a VW Bus no less. Or weren't the later models called buses? I don't know.

This is a Volvo Amazon at the Lehigh Valley Mall parking lot. At first glance, I thought it was British, but quickly realized it wasn't. Wiki tells me these cars were made between 1956 to 1970, so it's certainly older than both my cars. I love seeing classic cars on the road.

And then this evening I pulled up next to a MINI Cooper with the same color scheme as mine. The blues looked closer in person. But I think BMW's paint is probably more metallic so it reflected better among the parking lot lamps.

Car Tunes

For Christmas, Steve and Greg got me a Kenwwod stereo and two 6.5" speakers for the Mini. Nice ones too. The following weekend everybody chipped in to help me out. Steve and Greg tackled the installation of the head unit and Dad and I dealt with the speakers.

The previous speakers sat on the rear shelf above the trunk. Since we were flush mounting the new ones, we had to cut two holes through the three layers (metal, particle board, carpet) of the shelf. It was difficult cutting the left hole due to the proximity of the gas tank below. I ended up using some plier cutters on part of it because we couldn't get at it with the jigsaw. And after I accidentally seared the original carpet with the shop light, we ended up replacing it with some new carpet. But at the end of the day, I think it turned out really well.

Being preoccupied with that, I didn't get to track the progress of the head unit up front. But I trusted Steve's and Greg's abilities in that area more so than my own. They did a great job putting it in and hooking it up.

Four people working on the interior of such a small car posed some logistical challenges, but things turned out great in the end. Thank you to everybody who helped out!