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I purchased the car as a non-runner, with the mechanicals already fitted, albeit needing a few tweaks here and there to make it all work.
The conversion is pretty straightforward, in fact, you can buy a kit comprising of new front crossmember, gearbox crossmember and engine mounts which makes it easier than fabricating your own.
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75nut
Part of things
Posts: 512
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I think my next project is looming!!
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90 Alfa 75 3.0 V6 Cloverleaf
79 MGB Roadster
88 Saab 900i Convertible
94 MK1 MX5 1.6
05 Volvo V70
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Following a month and 500 miles or so of use, I'm just dealing with a few small issues, such as fitting a new magnet to keep the glovebox shut (amazingly, medium cupboard magnets from the likes of Homebase are an almost perfect match for the originals!), and fine-tuning the engine.
Remarkably for an old car, it doesn't use oil or water, nor leak any - a testament to the previous owner's rebuild.
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Feb 12, 2011 22:51:57 GMT
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I went to drive the twin cam one wet and windy night this week, only to get a quarter of the way round the block for the engine to conk out and not restart; odd, as I'd used it that day and all had been well.
Lifted the bonnet, and soon found the cause to be a split fuel hose going into the fuel pump. So, I had to cut a length off and reattach it to get going again. Today, I replaced the hose with new, as I suspect the original wasn't proper fuel hose, or if it was, it was perishing.
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Mar 24, 2011 22:02:57 GMT
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This week, I have raised the front suspension by one spline (1.5") back to standard ride height, which levels out the car nicely, and looks more like a standard Minor. Also, I previously had problems with the lower sump of the Fiat twin cam grounding on our 'finely maintained' British roads, so this gives some useful extra ground-clearance. Also fitted a peep mirror in place of the spacky old Radyot plastic effort;    |
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Lacy
Part of things
Posts: 247
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Mar 24, 2011 23:57:15 GMT
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I just love this car....a real wolf in sheeps clothing. Possibly my favourite minor of all time.....
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2007 Porsche 987 Boxster S 'Percy'
1994 Landrover 300tdi 90 CSW 'Connie'
2001 Buell M2 'Bertie'
1976 Kawasaki Z1000 A1 'Nobby'
....and my wife has some nondescript modern box of some sort
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Went out for a spin in her today, and had to take the obligatory photo beside an appropriate road name:  I lost one of the plain chrome hubcaps one rainy night last week, despite going back to look for where it came off  , so put a set of standard Minor ones on. I've been fine-tuning the Spax damper settings - seems it quite likes 8 clicks on the front and softest setting on the rear, and also the Weber carb's idle speed, which was too low leading to annoying cutting out when coming to a stop. I reckon the carb may need a rebuild, as it fluffs and backfires on motorway usage, as the second choke kicks in, but once it's cleared itself, it goes very well.  |
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Apr 10, 2011 20:57:36 GMT
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Today, I decided to spruce up the engine bay a little, respraying the oil filler cap in bright silver and adding a touch of black around the master cylinder fluid reservoir, and cleaning its cap:   |
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Apr 11, 2011 11:28:19 GMT
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This is such a cool car! I love it.
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Apr 23, 2011 21:23:24 GMT
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Thanks, waveman! Took advantage of the nice weather the last couple of days to sand down and repaint the wheels in graphite silver, as the white was looking a bit patchy in places, and I prefer the silver look:   |
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Apr 23, 2011 22:48:04 GMT
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Lovely couple of Minors you have there, both very tidy condition.
That green one is a real sleeper - I love that.
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Jun 10, 2011 12:49:27 GMT
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Got the Traveller though another MOT yesterday. It failed on rear service brakes and handbrake not being strong enough at 32% efficiency, so I whipped off the drums and cleaned them inside and also the linings with white spirit, reassembled and adjusted them to the maximum setting on the cams, and lo and behold, they then passed. ;D The MOT tester checked the exhaust emissions, not actually required for the test on a vehicle of this age but out of curiosity, and they weren't too bad.  |
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Jun 18, 2011 21:29:42 GMT
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The Fiat twin cam has been proving somewhat temperamental and difficult to start, so I bit the bullet and splashed out 50 Euros on a rebuild kit, and stripped the carb (which had quite alot of silt/rust in the float chamber and varnish build-up), boiled the body parts in lemon juice, cleaned it all up and rebuilt it with new jets, float valve, O-rings, diaphragms and gaskets, etc. Sod's Law applied, of course; as soon as I received the service kit from France, an identical one turns up on E-bay in the Netherlands for just £18 delivered!  Oh well, the new bits should improve things, in particular the diaphragms which were well past their best, and one of the pump jets into the primary barrel was blocked, so I cleaned it out with a strand of wire from a wire brush and blew it through with WD40.    |
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Jun 19, 2011 21:11:29 GMT
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Today, I refitted the rebuilt Weber to the car;    Just waiting now on an in-line fuel filter to put in the fuel hose leading to the carb, to hopefully keep it nice and clean. |
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Jun 24, 2011 22:04:49 GMT
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I bought and fitted a new in-line fuel filter from E-bay a few days ago, but when I tried to start the car this afternoon, discovered fuel was leaking out of the side of it! When I tried to move it slightly, the whole thing split in two! Evidently, the fuel had deteriorated the plastic housing, which had gone cloudy and developed cracks.  To his credit, the E-bay seller has refunded me. So, I fitted an old spare in the garage and it's now back in use. The car performs noticeably better, particularly on dual carriageways, etc. where previously it would struggle to hit 70mph due to the carb issues! |
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Jul 10, 2011 23:14:05 GMT
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Removed the Lucas 2CE ignition module and coil today to clean the contacts, which were somewhat oxidised:  I'm not sure why it has this fitted - Fiat twin cams normally have Magnetti Marelli ignition parts, although it is similar to the Magnetti Marelli AEI 200A system fitted as OEM to Fiat Mirafioris. |
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Jul 12, 2011 20:40:55 GMT
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The Traveller suffered an apparently common problem with the wheel bearing coming loose in the front alloy hub (Ford-based disc brake conversion kit fitted 5 years ago), so I took the hub to a local engineering firm to have it bored out and sleeved, and the bearing shell Loctited in, all for a reasonable £40. Before:  After:  Refitted it all today and all seems well again, so should hopefully be good for some time to come... |
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Jul 14, 2011 12:27:07 GMT
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Years ago l worked for a boss in a small engineering company and he drove several of these one was a stretch one to carry steel sheet and extrusion, they all had fiat twin cams but he was forever blowing head gaskets or breaking gearbox's think he just drove them too hard. I use to turn up the parts to fit marina disc's to them which he sold to a minor garage then he started making stuff for newton commercial and l built all the tooling for that  Nowadays l design parts for cars currently bumpers for focus st  looks a bit pants to me too much Audi copy and paste but thats german stylists for you, but it helps to fund my herald project ;D. Fiat trivia, they added a small metal guard under the thermostat housing this was to stop any leaking water dripping onto the cam belt freezing over night, you come out in the morning turn the engine over the cam belt slips on the ice piston meets valve destroyed engine all from a drip |
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Jul 14, 2011 17:34:07 GMT
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Interesting stuff, Rob. Do you mean you modified the Minor hubs to take Marina discs?
Your boss must have been going some to destroy a Fiat twin-cam gearbox - they're pretty heftily built things!
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, so put a set of standard Minor ones on.
looks a bit pants to me too much Audi copy and paste but thats german stylists for you, but it helps to fund my herald project ;D.