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Apr 23, 2017 12:45:17 GMT
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Thank you! And yeah, more space is certainly on the agenda... Unloaded, checked, wiped off the dust and topped up the oil. Seems to work fine, nothing's seized up. It took me a while to figure out how to operate this one, though. It has no release-handle nor valve or knob or cam or anything like that. It's in many respects a completely different animal to all the other Steinbock jacks I own. Also has a rather unusual hydraulic cylinder arrangement. The piston rod is fixed to the chassis and the cylinder is attached to the lift-arm. And the pump rod resp. the pump runs inside the piston rod. It also has a very sturdy mechanical safety, two big ratchets lock into the cylinder to mechanically lock it into place and prevent it from droping down. The handle on the side is to release the ratchets. And it took me a while to find out that to release the hydraulic; you have to push the pump all the way in. I'm not sure I like the way this works, I'm yet to try it with a car. But I have a feeling it's going to be a bit sketchy. Anyway, two more added to the flock. But not sure if they stay. Cheers, Jan
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Hi! Big update. Literally. Yesterday I went for a drive through rural Lower Bavaria. Got really close to the Alps. But my first destination was a very small town literally in the woods. Single lane road, next best thing to a dirt road. You get the picture. The seller himself wasn't present, but his father was - very friendly guy. Told me about the Steinbock I bought. He bought a new Fend tractor which was too heavy to lift it. So this was sold on. Good for me. He also had another Steinbock which he will keep, since it's just such a handy thing. And speaking of handy - well, this thing is not. I didn't ask for a measurement when I bought it. Thinking it would be about he same size of the "regular" high lift jacks. Turns out - I was a bit wrong. That's a queen! The mother of all Steinbocks (capricorns)... Hooooly fück!! It's over TWO meters long and barely fits into the Taxi. What a monster!! So with this rearview, I continued towards the south, closer towards the Alps: The foot pedal was rubbing against my elbow.... The sat nav guided me right into the middle of nowhere, a single farm, surrounded by only forest, meadows and land. Again a very friendly seller. I had bought another specimen which was not far from where I had bought the BIG one. We loaded it into the car and I headed further into the south. Met with someone I wanted to meet for a time, we had a long-ish chat about many things and went to a overlook for a better view of the Alps. Forgot my camera, so this cräppy phone pic has got to do... I then headed back, to grab a couple of merguez on the way. With a more or less very much improvised grille... Well - and to give you a perspective; to the left is a "big" Steinbock, to the right is the mother of all Steinbocks.... Füüüüück... I literally have no space for that thing. So either i sell two of the gearbox jacks, or pass this one on. The "little" one I bought for spares, it'll get sold on. Though it's in pretty good shape, but has been painted over. It's also just a 800kg jack. and the big one - well, it can lift 1600kg, and he can lift them 1 meter high (almost 40 inches). So basically it could lift the whole car 1 meter up in the air. Nuts. This was the most stupid Steinbock purchase ever... But it's extraordinarily rare, I never saw another like it for sale. It's got a 3-digit production number, I guess it was only made in very low quantities, maybe just on special order? I'll try to find out. Cheers, Jan
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Apr 16, 2017 13:15:50 GMT
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Hi there! Since all my other little projects are in a phase of stagnation (missing tools, missing parts), I thought why not finally inspect the little one. I bought this almost two years ago. Since then I did nothing but push it from one corner to the next. A long overdue inspection was necessary. Removing the hydraulic unit is very simple; remove a big pin and slide it out. After removal of the release-valve, I knew this thing is fvcked... Sadly. Full of water, oil-water sludge and tons of rust. The plunger next to it is the pump plunger. It's stuck SOLID. Going by the original drawing, it should just slide out. Which it doesn't. The gap around it is full of rust. And the piston is also pretty badly corroded. This has a sort of strange arrangement - the piston rod is fixed to the body and the cylinder moves out. Pushing the lift arm with a sleeve that rest against the gland nut. I was not able to remove the gland nut, I don't have a pin wrench. And since it's Jesus day, I didn't fancy making a lot of noise fabricating one. I don't know what I'm going to do with this. The pump plunger is soaking in penetrating oil - I'll see. But I guess it's rustet badly to the pump cylinder, both parts are probably damaged beyond repair. As is the piston rod. The only thing that's very good is the chassis. The castor wheels freed up with a bit of oil, nothing's stuck or overly worn. Maybe I'll just wait and buy another one to donate it's hydraulics. Once I have a pin wrench, I disassemble the hydraulic cylinder and then go from there. But I fear this will require a re-manufacture of 85% of all parts of the hydraulic... It's beyond my understanding how this can get SO rusty inside. Either it's been in the rain forever or flood damaged - I don't know. But it's BAD. Though I was almost expecting this. So no real big surprise here... Cheers, Jan
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Apr 15, 2017 18:18:34 GMT
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So, since the weather seems to slowly shift towards the warmer period of year, I tackled the sunroof. Again. 2 years ago I swapped out the sliding-lift bracket-things ('Hubwinkel' in german). I replaced them with used ones, which apparently were beyond theyr service life. But I had the opportunity to grab a pair of known good 2nd hand ones. Out with the old... On closer inspection, they were bent and missing a couple of felt strips and rollers. D'oh. The key to make the sunroof work well is assembly. The lid needs to be installed with a bit of pre-tension. For which special special-tool n°0815 is required. Basically a cut-down C-clamp vise-grip. Nothing fancy. There is no specific pre-load, just whatever works. May require a few different settings. The lid needs to slide past the seal easily. And then of course the wind deflector can be adjusted, the hight of the guide rail and last but not least the motor end-position. All of which I had to do to get a good working sunroof, with the lid in a even end-position and no wind-noises... Took me a good couple of hours. And it's still not perfect. But acceptable & working OK. Without specific manual and instructions - do NOT try to adjust anything - you'll make it worse! Camera battery was flat, so I didn't do a full write-up. It's a barstuart of a sunroof that thing. Cheers, Jan
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Apr 14, 2017 18:23:29 GMT
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2 sets of wheels and a complete power unit in my Mini... Half(-ish ) a W123... I think I've hauled bigger loads in my Mini than in any of my Mercedes wagons... Well, relatively speaking. I just use what I have. Even managed to transport a complete W124 sedan interior in my Coupé. Had I had a roof rack at the time, I could have also brought the rear bench with me So yeah, whatever is road legal get's abused as a tat hauler... No matter the size.
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Hi! I can feel your anger, happened to me when Imagshack went down... After that, I bought my own webspace, payed for - mine. This also gave me the opportunity to have my own personal e-mailadresses (a lot of them), make a blog etc. etc. For uploading I simply use wordpress, which also runs my little blog-thingy. And as long as I pay my hoster - everything stays online, I have full controll over it (and the hoster runs backup servers). It's a little less convenient, it's not free - but in my opinion it's a lot better. And if I fcuk up something, at least it's my own fault and I have the luxury of being responsible all by myself Cheers, Jan
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Yesterday I continued with my little improvised wood-workshop. See that chaos to the left? That shelf had been provisional for - a long time... and it's been bugging me ever since. Yet I was in no mood to drag out all the cräp that I store there to re-arrange it. But - I finally bit the bullet and built a proper storage shelf. That's a bit better. On the bottom - it'll stay like that. There's a complete OM606 Turbo, two OM603s and a couple of gearboxes & doors. Bulky, heavy stuff. After this was done, I looked up and had an idea for another shelf, way up high. Not the perfect place to store tyres, but since I need to drag them out only 2x a year, it's OK. Anywhere else they'r just in the way. Also offers space for more cräp I'll never need to store. And that's it. Cleaned up(-ish), more storage than before and still some voids left to fill with stuff. I love hoarding stuff. Better to have things than to need things, right? Cheers, Jan
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Hi! Sort of, Offenburg. Between Karlsruhe and Freiburg. I work near Karlsruhe. If the Mini is ready, I'd be delighted to meet some RRs in person! And I don't get it on the road this year, I'd be just as delighted Cheers, Jan
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Found a little issues with the cylinder head on sunday... I cc'd the chambers, and got to about 20cc with a rough measurement using a syringe. I need to re-calculate the CR, since the last engine was a low-compression 53BHP unit. I had the head skimmed to rais compression to 9.8:1. Since I'm now using a 64BHP high-compression engine as a base, I probably going to run into compression issues. I will probably have to enlarge the chambers a bit. Which is not that bad, since it's THE opportunity to de-shroud the intake valves a bit. However, there is another issue I noticed during the process... One of the brass plugs has moved deeper into the head. This must have happened during opperation, since the had had been skimmed (as mentioned), and not just a little. Also appears to have cracked. Soo - since the head gasket runs across it, this needs replacing. There's a water jacket behind it. Maybe that's the excuse I needed to completely rebuild the head, with maybe a little porting & re-shaping of the chambers. Needs to come apart anyway... I've ordered a burette for some more better cc'ing. That's all for now. Cheers, Jan
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Payed a visit to the old girl... Fired straight up All good. Not much moisture, all dry and no damage by wildlife. Cheers, Jan
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That's also a monster of a flange! Without the horse shoe shaped plate to go under the flange, there's no way to extract the flange. It's not really possible to put the hub assembly under a hydraulic press, due to it's shape. The back plate get's damaged - and in the worst case the hub just bends and nothing else happens... I had no idea if this tool would work, since the forces involved are so incredibly high. But - it worked. Though I may add to bronze shims under the big brass nut to minimise friction on the big steel plate. Anyway, back to the Taxi. Today I finally investigated the harsh shifts of the transmission... Turns out, "out of the box" the diaphragm I replaced last year cranked the line pressure to a straight 4 bar. My trans needs 3.3 bar. At 3.3 the trans started to slip at high revs with full throttle. So I turned it to 3.5 bar. Which is a good compromise between smooth shifts and no slip. Shifts are firm, but nowhere near as banging hard as before. High load slipping seems to be a common problem with rebuilt transmissions. All rebuilt trannys we installed at work (from various suppliers) had this issue. Either have smooth low-load shifts and slipping under high load/full revs, or have firm low-load shifts and no slipping at full load... I don't know why - maybe I should rebuilt one myself Anyway, it works a lot better now. And to be perfectly honest; I don't like automatics that shift so smooth that you can't feel a shift. Spooks me the fück out Cheers, Jan
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^that's basically the only way to pull the rear drive flange on a W124/201/129/140 chassis. without stressing any other components, that is. It's missing the tool itself, I got only the counter plate - which would be the hardest part to fabricate. All it need is a beefy spindle, another plate, 6 pins and a piece that fits the rear of the flange. If you know good people, things work out. We took a lot of measurements, the good ol' eye-balling, talking and stuff. And then chips were made (not by me, my lathe is way too small). And then the tool was finally done. I present to you the "Holy Temple of the drive Flange": And after a test-run (& prayer )... Success!! Though it didn't pull the flange but rather destroyed the bearing. Which doesn't matter, since it's the bearing that needs replacing. The bearing races are so hard, you can just grind them down and split them with a chisel or punch. So not a problem. The important part is to have removed the flange without destroying it. Those drive flanges can be really, really fücking tight. In the past we had to cut them apart to remove the big C-clip that holds the bearing. And that's the whole point; the flange is pressed into the bearing. The bearing is held with a C-clip in the hub. To get to the C-clip, you need to pull the flange. And that's the problem. Well, not anymore. This was no on my car, but it was a wagon. Wagons have thicker bearings & drive flanges, they are the toughest to pull. The tool worked well, all good. From now on, this will be a job that can be done in-situ. Very nice! Cheers, Jan
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Mar 27, 2017 18:48:54 GMT
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Wow! What a haul! I hope you go into detail when you build one up I need a guide for when I do one.😀 Thanks! I can do that, yes. It's not the first gearbox I've succesfully re-built, so I think I'm qualified enough to do a little writeup. It's no rocket science but there are some little things to watch out. Like - never put it in a car without testing i learned this the hard way - gearbox out again after no single kilometer on it... basically - if it shifts smooth and all gears turn easily and you can smoothly rotate the shaft against the gears - chances are very high it'll work fine. And of course there are a few clearances to check and maybe adjust. and maybe you need different shims. And this is where a huge pile of gearbox parts comes in handy. Rebuild kits are relatively cheap - but if you need a new main shaft or gears, it can get expensive. And this is where a huge pile of gearbox parts comes in handy. So yeah, I think it's interesting enough. I'll do a little write up. Hoping my grammar is up to it Cheers, Jan
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Mar 25, 2017 21:30:53 GMT
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ever since that last repair session, I had a rattle in idle and low revs... Sounded like exhaust. adjusted the exhaust countles times, replaced all rubbers and hangers and what not - still rattling. well - it was the auxilliary water pump that was hitting the firewall It was only supported by the hoses (it's not original, but taken from a modern aux heater). And since it was resting against the firewall. I had replced the pump, but I didn't put the rubber that was wrapped around it back on. And - that was my rattling. Fixed: Also fixed: Ooops. 993.000km as of today. Cheers, Jan
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Mar 25, 2017 17:07:46 GMT
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I've also bought a job lot of many gearbox parts, due to be collected next week. Once I have gone through that pile, I will decide what parts I need to buy. About that... Well, I started early this morning - destination Bavaria. The A8 is a terribly busy bit of Autobahn, since it takes almost all traffic going from west to east in the south. If that makes sense. But since I started early, traffic was OK. It was the first time I took this route without any traffic jam. Amazing. So against my plan, I arrived almost an hour early... But the guy was allready there. We exchnaged words, money and gearbox parts. To describe it briefly. Gobsmacked from what had just happened, I left the place and headed south. Since I had more time than anticipated, I thought I take a detour via Lake Constance, it's been a long time since I was las there. Still looks the same. Seemingly endless water, glaring in the sun, with the fog blending the water into the sky. and only a faint silhouette of the opposite shore. On the parking spot I parked next to another W124 wagon. When I came back from the lake, an old lady was just taking a seat in it "ah, I see - you care about it! Have a nice day!". The way back lead me through the Black Forrest. Every other driver I met on the road was seemingly deeply relaxed, no tailgaiting, no overtaking - a perfect, sunny and warm driving day. And I had to take it slowly, due to my fragile freight. Which also weighed a ton (maybe literally). Well, so - the guy I bought those parts from rebuilt Mini gearboxes for BMW in Munich, when they bought Rover. But increasing parts prices and decreasing payment lead him to quit the gearbox rebuilding business. The parts I bought are what remained from this business. Apparently he had thoughts about just crushing all the stuff. He seemed very, very happy to have found some good hands to give all the stuff to. He refused to take more money for all this, it felt like stealing. I'm still stunned about this purchase. I'm not telling you the price I payed. It's less than what's in the box of brand new genuine parts. I can honestly and without a doubt claim that I have a life-time supply of Mini gearboxes.... Including a straight cut ST gear set. It was WAY more parts than the ad had suggested. In fact I thought I was about to buy a box of new parts and a couple of bits and 2-3 gearbox cases. Guess my surprise. Cheers, Jan
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Mar 20, 2017 19:17:46 GMT
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Hi! I ran the old engine with this mod for a long time. Advantage is a far better throttle response/faster pickup. The engine feels nippier and "lighter". Disadvantage is that economy suffers. Des Hammill goes on about it in detail in his book "SU Carburettor High-Performance Manual" (ISBN 978-1845840730). He does a better job of explaining it than I could. It's an interesting read either way, it helped me understand SU carburettors a lot better. This modification doesn't seem to always work, though. On my 998 I never got the result I got with the 1275. Pre-war SUs apparently didn't even have the oil damper... Just don't listen to the people telling you "it's not possible, you'll ruin your engine". And re: wheel whoarding; this wee collection is the result of almost 15 years of looking for wheels Cheers, Jan
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Mar 19, 2017 18:48:03 GMT
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Found a wood splitting wedge and three golf balls in a 911 convertible once... Also pain killers and a Zippo in others. And there is ALWAYS at least one coin under one of the seat rail mounts. Always. Other finds are a stiletto in an italian mercedes. Also found a japanese emergency flare and a stuffed dolphin in a japanese 911 that was rolled over. In the glovebox was also a tyre gauge. I kept the flare & gauge in my Taxi, pretty neat stuff.
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Mar 19, 2017 17:36:49 GMT
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Today I dug out all the gearbox parts... I'm missing a lot of stuff, like the sleeve 1st gear rides on. Sigh. I'm also not sure which are the new bearings I fitted when I rebuild the engine. So... I'm probably going to just re-rebuild it with all new bearings. What the heck, it's all not expensive. What I do have however, is a set of pre-A+ gears in good condition, with healthy dog teeth. With which I'm finally going to build that hybrid-gearbox the very last 1275GTs were fitted with. Large A+-type mainshaft, large layshaft and A gears with Cooper S gear ratio. It needs a special 1st motion & laygear for that. The laygear is the last ever NOS. I bought it many years ago, now it's finally time to put it to use. I've also bought a job lot of many gearbox parts, due to be collected next week. Once I have gone through that pile, I will decide what parts I need to buy. Next was installation of oil pump, back plate and timing gear. It took a lot of time, since I had to file the smashed woodruff key in the crank to fit the gear... At some point it went on smoothly (needs to to install the chain) and all was good. Went to put on the chain tensioner and - ah well... That's the part I didn't order apparently. I could re-use the old tensioner, but why? I'm in no hurry. It has to wait until I know what parts to order for the gearbox. So instead I checked the end-float of the camshaft - all within specification. Torqued down the nut and called it a day. Well, almost. i gave the HIF44 a quick check. All clean inside, no gunk or corrosion. Looks like there was no alco-fuel inside. I was a bit affraid it'd be ruined after the long storage. I'll replace all rubber seals though. Next comes an old picture, this was "as found" at the scrapyard (many, many years back they had Rover Coopers). Needless to say I was not very impressed with the factory fit. This was of course port matched. Don't know if there was a performance difference, I never ran the carb like this... It's now a bit of a special carb, since it runs without any dashpot damper! A friend of mine tuned the carb & 64D distributor to work better, which it certainly does now! Throttle response is down right aggressive without dashpot damper. And then I went - again - looking for all those fücking parts... Like a spare Rover Cooper air filter housing I'd like to experiment with. I'm sure I had it in my very hands not too long ago... And where's that barstuart of a flywheel gone? Hmpf. Cheers, Jan
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Mar 19, 2017 13:51:39 GMT
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What about a step drill?? They'r called "antenna hole drill" over here, not without reason They can do large holes, but have a pretty smal cutting face for each step. I use them a lot, and the panels never warp or bind at all. If fresh, you can also go through sheet metal without a lot of pressure on the drill. Keep on keeping on, enjoying the latest updates a LOT!! Nice to see it all finally come together... Cheers, Jan
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Mar 18, 2017 17:41:55 GMT
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Today I cleaned the oil ways again. And then knocked in the core plugs and the brass oil gallery plugs. I used a slight smear of sealant. Then gave the bores a quick re-hone and re-installed the pistons, after cleaning them. I didn't bother to scrape off all the carbon on the top, though. And the skirts were allready pretty clean. New main & big end bearings, put in a solid crank. Torqued it all up, the crank assembly rotates smoothly without binding points. Side-float is in tolerance as well. all looking good. Also put in a set of fresh lifters and put in the MG camshaft I used in the previous engine. And then... Came the part of cleaning the back plate & timing cover. Which has seen a lot of sealant and was badly painted. Gave it a re-paint with enamel spray paint and left it to dry. Rst of the day was spent trying to find all the parts of the engine I put away many years ago... That's all for this weeks Mini engine build update. I'm currently looking into buying a modified cylinder head. But I'm not yet certain if I go down this route, or stay with my tried & tested engine build. Cheers, Jan
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