Today should have been a simple case of a couple of minor jobs, fresh fluids, and a test drive. Easy peasy, right? WRONG.
Let's start with the good updates, we can get onto the frustration later. I bought a replacement air compressor since my old Italian one stopped working for reasons unknown. We thought it might be the brushes and while they're worn, they're not failing to do their job. Doesn't matter what you do with it, it's like the compressor can't put enough air out to make more than a pathetic dudududu noise and the tiniest of squeaks from the horns. Luckily, you can take the whole thing apart so I'll do a full inspection on this at some point. For now, I ordered a cheap compressor online and now have working horns again at least. Mike also redid the indicator connectors and I did a bit more wire tidying with some loom tape, so that's good too. Here's the inside of the Italian compressor from the top, there's two bolts underneath that release the base plate which should allow me to check out the motor internals/windings which I planned to do today, but the Princess had other ideas about my time management.
20180128-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr
The other small successful job was removing, cleaning and thread-locking the oil pressure switch. I still suspect this is leaking out of the plastic bit that the spade connector goes in, now everything is clean I should learn whether or not it is pretty quickly. If it does leak where I think it is, I'll try sealing it up with some suitable sealant first and if that doesn't work I'll get a replacement. It's quite difficult to remove and refit without taking belts and pulleys off, but you can do it with a little patience and an old fashioned spanner.
20180128-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr
With all the small engine bay jobs now done, attention could turn to the last really big job, which was the gearbox selector rod seal. You have to remove the lower stay bar (big black one running the width of the car in the following picture) for the best access and then undo the nut and bolt holding the gear selector stay rod.
20180128-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr
Push the little rubber caterpillar back and you've got two roll pins to knock out of the gear selector rod bush, one running horizontally that you can see here, and one running vertically that you can't. Both come out fairly easily.
20180128-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr
20180128-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr
That allows you to unbolt the gear selector box which is just two nuts on the bobbins under the gear lever, unplug the reverse light switch wires and lower the whole assembly out of the car. Pretty painless procedure really.
20180128-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr
In the gearbox side you can see the black seal that needs replacing. These are exactly the same as those available for the classic Mini, plentiful and cheap. The kits you get sometimes come with a metal bush and a rubber caterpillar but neither is suitable for the Princess, you only need the small black O seal providing your caterpillar is in reasonable condition.
20180128-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr
The old seal in mine was very hard and leaking and one of the main causes of oil drops under the car. Yet another job I've been putting off for years since it has to be done in tandem with an oil change and there's always been lots of other jobs ahead of it on the list.
20180128-08 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr
Princess caterpillar on the left and Mini on the right. The overall diameter of the Mini one is too small to go over the Princess selector rod bush.
20180128-09 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr
Normally, you'd pull the old seal out, push the new one in, bolt everything up and you're done. However, Mike was convinced we needed to inspect a bush (that doesn't actually exist, so I'm not sure what bush he was thinking of) and we ended up taking the end plate off which, normally, would be unnecessary. In this instance it highlighted a problem I never knew I had! Behind the end plate are your gear selector fingers/butterflies. Part of the assembly is a rod that the selector rod bush goes over, connecting your gearbox to your gear lever, effectively. I'm not describing this very well, I'm aware, it's been a LONG day. Anyway, that rod that operates the fingers/butterflies also keeps a top-hat shaped pin in place which is quite important and prevents the selector rod just coming out. You insert the top hat through the hole and then the rod to lock it all together. When we pulled this out, the top hat was inserted from the other side with nothing locking it in place, how it never fell out is a mystery. Luckily the manual highlighted the issue and we could rectify it and I now have a better understanding of why the gear selection makes the very specific noise it does because I've seen inside the gearbox a little more. Top hat indicated here with a blue arrow.
20180128-10 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr
From the outside you can see the round peg hole that the top hat sits in. It's now impossible to move the selector rod too far and, incidentally, the gear selection itself seems less vague... though still vague-ish because Princess. One thing I do have now is a more definite Neutral zone in the gear selection and less of a pudding stirrer.
20180128-11 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr
With all those bits sorted, gasket material cleaned off and new gunk applied you can bolt it all back together and jobs a good un.
20180128-12 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr
After that was all done we filled up with oil and water, nothing leaked out, and we fought with the exhaust for far too long. The exhaust on this car is a NIGHTMARE. It's so bad that when it starts blowing at the manifold joint I just leave it because the design is so bad it usually leaks worse when you try and fix it. Now why, you might be wondering, was the exhaust off? Well, when that little gearbox selector end plate thingy was removed, to sort out the problem we had to remove the exhaust to sort it out, because access is impossible otherwise. That meant the dreaded job of disconnecting the manifold-to-downpipe join.
The exhaust seemed, as it pretty much always does, to change shape for the brief time it was off the car and no amount of fighting, swearing or cajoling would see it sitting comfortably. We just about got it lined up and when the car was fired up found it was blowing the worst it ever has. That's because one clamp had completely missed the downpipe flange, something you can't readily see because of the unique way in which this exhaust system is arranged, and now it all has to come off again to be redone. That wasn't a problem, I have no qualms about driving the car home with only half the exhaust attached since I know this can be sorted on the drive at home at my leisure.
Fine, one problem isn't a big deal. We seem to have no leaks, electrics seem to be working, car starts and runs happily (if noisily) so let's take it for a test run into the yard once we've bled the clutch hydraulics. That went well ... a little too well perhaps... go for a gear *PAINFUL GRINDING NOISES*. curse word. Furiously pump the clutch pedal and try again *LESS PAINFUL GRINDING NOISES*. Double curse word.
At that point I was done. Because of the stupid exhaust and the extra gearbox fault to fix Mike and I were there for getting on 7 hours today and we'd both had enough. Ideally I'd like to throw a new clutch master cylinder, slave cylinder and clutch hose at this but my Google-fu is weak tonight and all I've really been able to find are rebuild kits and classic Mini slave cylinders that look similar to what's fitted. I'll try again another day.
In closing, since the MoT in April I've managed to drive a grand total of 196 miles in this car. What an almost-year it has been.
Let's start with the good updates, we can get onto the frustration later. I bought a replacement air compressor since my old Italian one stopped working for reasons unknown. We thought it might be the brushes and while they're worn, they're not failing to do their job. Doesn't matter what you do with it, it's like the compressor can't put enough air out to make more than a pathetic dudududu noise and the tiniest of squeaks from the horns. Luckily, you can take the whole thing apart so I'll do a full inspection on this at some point. For now, I ordered a cheap compressor online and now have working horns again at least. Mike also redid the indicator connectors and I did a bit more wire tidying with some loom tape, so that's good too. Here's the inside of the Italian compressor from the top, there's two bolts underneath that release the base plate which should allow me to check out the motor internals/windings which I planned to do today, but the Princess had other ideas about my time management.
20180128-01 by Angyl Roper, on FlickrThe other small successful job was removing, cleaning and thread-locking the oil pressure switch. I still suspect this is leaking out of the plastic bit that the spade connector goes in, now everything is clean I should learn whether or not it is pretty quickly. If it does leak where I think it is, I'll try sealing it up with some suitable sealant first and if that doesn't work I'll get a replacement. It's quite difficult to remove and refit without taking belts and pulleys off, but you can do it with a little patience and an old fashioned spanner.
20180128-02 by Angyl Roper, on FlickrWith all the small engine bay jobs now done, attention could turn to the last really big job, which was the gearbox selector rod seal. You have to remove the lower stay bar (big black one running the width of the car in the following picture) for the best access and then undo the nut and bolt holding the gear selector stay rod.
20180128-03 by Angyl Roper, on FlickrPush the little rubber caterpillar back and you've got two roll pins to knock out of the gear selector rod bush, one running horizontally that you can see here, and one running vertically that you can't. Both come out fairly easily.
20180128-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr20180128-05 by Angyl Roper, on FlickrThat allows you to unbolt the gear selector box which is just two nuts on the bobbins under the gear lever, unplug the reverse light switch wires and lower the whole assembly out of the car. Pretty painless procedure really.
20180128-06 by Angyl Roper, on FlickrIn the gearbox side you can see the black seal that needs replacing. These are exactly the same as those available for the classic Mini, plentiful and cheap. The kits you get sometimes come with a metal bush and a rubber caterpillar but neither is suitable for the Princess, you only need the small black O seal providing your caterpillar is in reasonable condition.
20180128-07 by Angyl Roper, on FlickrThe old seal in mine was very hard and leaking and one of the main causes of oil drops under the car. Yet another job I've been putting off for years since it has to be done in tandem with an oil change and there's always been lots of other jobs ahead of it on the list.
20180128-08 by Angyl Roper, on FlickrPrincess caterpillar on the left and Mini on the right. The overall diameter of the Mini one is too small to go over the Princess selector rod bush.
20180128-09 by Angyl Roper, on FlickrNormally, you'd pull the old seal out, push the new one in, bolt everything up and you're done. However, Mike was convinced we needed to inspect a bush (that doesn't actually exist, so I'm not sure what bush he was thinking of) and we ended up taking the end plate off which, normally, would be unnecessary. In this instance it highlighted a problem I never knew I had! Behind the end plate are your gear selector fingers/butterflies. Part of the assembly is a rod that the selector rod bush goes over, connecting your gearbox to your gear lever, effectively. I'm not describing this very well, I'm aware, it's been a LONG day. Anyway, that rod that operates the fingers/butterflies also keeps a top-hat shaped pin in place which is quite important and prevents the selector rod just coming out. You insert the top hat through the hole and then the rod to lock it all together. When we pulled this out, the top hat was inserted from the other side with nothing locking it in place, how it never fell out is a mystery. Luckily the manual highlighted the issue and we could rectify it and I now have a better understanding of why the gear selection makes the very specific noise it does because I've seen inside the gearbox a little more. Top hat indicated here with a blue arrow.
20180128-10 by Angyl Roper, on FlickrFrom the outside you can see the round peg hole that the top hat sits in. It's now impossible to move the selector rod too far and, incidentally, the gear selection itself seems less vague... though still vague-ish because Princess. One thing I do have now is a more definite Neutral zone in the gear selection and less of a pudding stirrer.
20180128-11 by Angyl Roper, on FlickrWith all those bits sorted, gasket material cleaned off and new gunk applied you can bolt it all back together and jobs a good un.
20180128-12 by Angyl Roper, on FlickrAfter that was all done we filled up with oil and water, nothing leaked out, and we fought with the exhaust for far too long. The exhaust on this car is a NIGHTMARE. It's so bad that when it starts blowing at the manifold joint I just leave it because the design is so bad it usually leaks worse when you try and fix it. Now why, you might be wondering, was the exhaust off? Well, when that little gearbox selector end plate thingy was removed, to sort out the problem we had to remove the exhaust to sort it out, because access is impossible otherwise. That meant the dreaded job of disconnecting the manifold-to-downpipe join.
The exhaust seemed, as it pretty much always does, to change shape for the brief time it was off the car and no amount of fighting, swearing or cajoling would see it sitting comfortably. We just about got it lined up and when the car was fired up found it was blowing the worst it ever has. That's because one clamp had completely missed the downpipe flange, something you can't readily see because of the unique way in which this exhaust system is arranged, and now it all has to come off again to be redone. That wasn't a problem, I have no qualms about driving the car home with only half the exhaust attached since I know this can be sorted on the drive at home at my leisure.
Fine, one problem isn't a big deal. We seem to have no leaks, electrics seem to be working, car starts and runs happily (if noisily) so let's take it for a test run into the yard once we've bled the clutch hydraulics. That went well ... a little too well perhaps... go for a gear *PAINFUL GRINDING NOISES*. curse word. Furiously pump the clutch pedal and try again *LESS PAINFUL GRINDING NOISES*. Double curse word.
At that point I was done. Because of the stupid exhaust and the extra gearbox fault to fix Mike and I were there for getting on 7 hours today and we'd both had enough. Ideally I'd like to throw a new clutch master cylinder, slave cylinder and clutch hose at this but my Google-fu is weak tonight and all I've really been able to find are rebuild kits and classic Mini slave cylinders that look similar to what's fitted. I'll try again another day.
In closing, since the MoT in April I've managed to drive a grand total of 196 miles in this car. What an almost-year it has been.
