After going to RRG09 and being welcomed in my 100% not retro Lupo, (cheers guys) My life ended up being that I work from the shed at the end of the garden - I could go days without touching the car, and I thought this would be the perfect time to get myself something interesting.
First of all I wanted a Hillman Imp - and I'd sold the Lupo within 5 minutes of advertising it.
After being unable to find any imps for sale, I fell back on the old faithful Mini. Arguably less character, but 100000000% easier to find cars for sale, parts for cars and advice on said cars.
After looking at a couple and realising that a 998 was just far too slow, I ended up spending my cash dollar on a 1985 "Mayfair" with a freshly rebuilt, fairly tuned 1330 with cams, CANEMS ECU and all sorts of nonesense.. Went down with a mate to view it, then a couple of days later when down on the train to collect it (200 miles ish?)
Picked her up, set off home and all was well (after leaving the indicator on for about 40 miles - they don't self cancel or make any noise, and the dash light is barely noticable....)
Temperature issues worried me all the way home (Kept to a steady 60 with the electric fan and heater on aswell as stock fan) and I got 197 of 200 miles without issue.
Pulled off the M18, and it cut out at some traffic lights, bit upset, especially when it wouldn't start again. Pushed it out of the way, sat for about 5 mins and it started up again like a champ. The cut out about 100 yards down the road at the next lights and did the same. A couple of blokes in a shady transit pushed me out of the way (After I pushed the bloody thing over my own foot. twice) and I sat on the kerb looking at it realising I'd done the same as always, and bought myself a load of work.
After about 15 minutes I got it going again, and now I'd removed my canalphones (thing in ear headphones that go in so deep they almost touch the brain. Completely isolate any noise, I;d worn them all the way home!) to realise the thing had a bloody awful knock to it.
Nursed her the few miles home, to return with my office (shed) with all the roofing felt blown off and basically parked it on the drive and pretended it wasn't happening. Got the stepladders out to fix the shed roof, smashed myself in the hand with a hammer, then fell in the pond and just about gave up on life.
After a few runs in the mini I determined the problem to be either a shafted bearing, or a loose flywheel, and the starting problem was a curse word battery and poor feed for the ECU.
Having spent all my money (literally ALL of it) on the car, I was skint for a while, so just paid the £30 and insured myself on my mums Ka for the month - which through my italian tuneup, now goes a hell of a lot better, and I'm somehow managed to unwarp the front disks.
After a month of Ka driving, being kicked out of my dads house and converting my mums garage into a bedroom (so I have somewhere to live) I finally get on with doing the mini.
98% of my tools were metric, and I got donated a massive amount of amazing quality imperial tools by my good mate jon, who's grandad passed away years ago and left them to him. - Elora socket sets, Spanners, Taps+ dies of every imaginable obscure thread. Cheers jon!
We got the engine out in about half a day, after spending altogether too much time trying to get the driveshafts further out than they needed to be.
With the engine out, I took the flywheel cover off and set about removing the flywheel, and found the main bolt (specced to 150lf/ft) came off with on hand on a 15 inch spanner, without even straining or doing a fart - I'd say it was about 40/50lb. Pulling the flywheel off revealed signs of fretting on the taper and the keyed washer was also slightly worn.
I was pretty pleased to see this (as it means I can just put it back together properly and be on my way!)
This is where it stands. I like pics as well as anyone, but after writing all this, I realise I can't find my iPhone lead, so all I can offer is this:
![](http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs207.snc1/7421_134400802142_657732142_2988110_8028961_n.jpg)
First of all I wanted a Hillman Imp - and I'd sold the Lupo within 5 minutes of advertising it.
After being unable to find any imps for sale, I fell back on the old faithful Mini. Arguably less character, but 100000000% easier to find cars for sale, parts for cars and advice on said cars.
After looking at a couple and realising that a 998 was just far too slow, I ended up spending my cash dollar on a 1985 "Mayfair" with a freshly rebuilt, fairly tuned 1330 with cams, CANEMS ECU and all sorts of nonesense.. Went down with a mate to view it, then a couple of days later when down on the train to collect it (200 miles ish?)
Picked her up, set off home and all was well (after leaving the indicator on for about 40 miles - they don't self cancel or make any noise, and the dash light is barely noticable....)
Temperature issues worried me all the way home (Kept to a steady 60 with the electric fan and heater on aswell as stock fan) and I got 197 of 200 miles without issue.
Pulled off the M18, and it cut out at some traffic lights, bit upset, especially when it wouldn't start again. Pushed it out of the way, sat for about 5 mins and it started up again like a champ. The cut out about 100 yards down the road at the next lights and did the same. A couple of blokes in a shady transit pushed me out of the way (After I pushed the bloody thing over my own foot. twice) and I sat on the kerb looking at it realising I'd done the same as always, and bought myself a load of work.
After about 15 minutes I got it going again, and now I'd removed my canalphones (thing in ear headphones that go in so deep they almost touch the brain. Completely isolate any noise, I;d worn them all the way home!) to realise the thing had a bloody awful knock to it.
Nursed her the few miles home, to return with my office (shed) with all the roofing felt blown off and basically parked it on the drive and pretended it wasn't happening. Got the stepladders out to fix the shed roof, smashed myself in the hand with a hammer, then fell in the pond and just about gave up on life.
After a few runs in the mini I determined the problem to be either a shafted bearing, or a loose flywheel, and the starting problem was a curse word battery and poor feed for the ECU.
Having spent all my money (literally ALL of it) on the car, I was skint for a while, so just paid the £30 and insured myself on my mums Ka for the month - which through my italian tuneup, now goes a hell of a lot better, and I'm somehow managed to unwarp the front disks.
After a month of Ka driving, being kicked out of my dads house and converting my mums garage into a bedroom (so I have somewhere to live) I finally get on with doing the mini.
98% of my tools were metric, and I got donated a massive amount of amazing quality imperial tools by my good mate jon, who's grandad passed away years ago and left them to him. - Elora socket sets, Spanners, Taps+ dies of every imaginable obscure thread. Cheers jon!
We got the engine out in about half a day, after spending altogether too much time trying to get the driveshafts further out than they needed to be.
With the engine out, I took the flywheel cover off and set about removing the flywheel, and found the main bolt (specced to 150lf/ft) came off with on hand on a 15 inch spanner, without even straining or doing a fart - I'd say it was about 40/50lb. Pulling the flywheel off revealed signs of fretting on the taper and the keyed washer was also slightly worn.
I was pretty pleased to see this (as it means I can just put it back together properly and be on my way!)
This is where it stands. I like pics as well as anyone, but after writing all this, I realise I can't find my iPhone lead, so all I can offer is this:
![](http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs207.snc1/7421_134400802142_657732142_2988110_8028961_n.jpg)