H reg Project

[Matt~Attude]

if there 10 inch mb split rims you can sell them to me

[Stephen]

The 13s might work better, not sure what the Micra gear ratios are like?

[monkeyjim]

They are indeed new MB 6x10s with Yoko A032r but I am not going to sell them .
Although with the price increases since I bought them I reckon I could get my money back.

Put a 10inch with a 165 tyre next to a 13 with a 175/50 and the differance is marginal .
Micra's ran 13's , cant say I am to bothered to be honest , it wont live on the motorway and cannot be worse than a Mini can it .
Always bung a pair of steels on the front to get me to
Cornwall and fit the tens down there ;D

[MiniGT5]

Dave

Fit the MBs you won't regret it... I finally fitted my group II arches last week so mine are all legal and they look fab! Drive is fantastic too.

N.

[monkeyjim]

Whats not legal about not having wheel arches on ?

It will NOT fail a MOT and therefore there is no reason for a Policeman to pick you up on it .

[MiniGT5]

True it won't fail the MOT but it does Fail against the construction and use or something like that. I did know the exact law but these days I just comply as its not worth the fine.

N

[MiniGT5]

Here are the propper words stolen from another mini forum: -

Council Directive 78/549/EEC of 12 June 1978 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the wheel guards of motor vehicles

Article 6

This Directive is addressed to the Member States.

Done at Luxembourg, 12 June 1978.

For the Council

The President

K. OLESEN

ANNEX I

1. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS 1.1. The motor vehicle must be provided with wheel guards (parts of the bodywork, mudguards, etc.).

1.2. The wheel guards must be so designed as to protect other road users, as far as possible, against thrown-up stones, mud, ice, snow and water and to reduce for those users the dangers due to contact with the moving wheels.

2. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS 2.1. The wheel guards must meet the following requirements when the vehicle is in running order (see section 2.6 of Annex I to Directive 70/156/EEC) and the wheels are in the dead ahead position: 2.1.1. In the part formed by radial planes at an angle of 30º to the front and 50º to the rear of the centre of the wheels (see figure 1), the overall width (q) of the wheel guards must be at least sufficient to cover the total tyre width (b) taking into account the extremes of tyre/wheel combination as specified by the manufacturer and as indicated in section 5.2 of the certificate set out in Annex II. In the case of twin wheels, the total width over the two tyres (t) shall be taken into account. 2.1.1.1. For the purposes of determining the widths referred to in 2.1.1, the labelling (marking) and decorations, protective bands or ribs on tyre walls are not taken into account.

2.1.2. The rear of the wheel guards must not terminate above a horizontal plane 150 mm above the axis of rotation of the wheels (as measured at the wheel centres) and furthermore the intersection of the edge of the wheel guard with this plane (point A, figure 1) must lie outside the median longitudinal plane of the tyre, or in the case of twin wheels the median longitudinal plane of the outermost tyre.

2.1.3. The contour and location of the wheel guards shall be such that they are as close to the tyre as possible ; and in particular within the part formed by the radial planes referred to in 2.1.1, they shall satisfy the following requirements: 2.1.3.1. the projection - situated in the vertical plane of the tyre axis - of the depth (p) of the outer edge of the wheel guards, measured in the vertical longitudinal plane passing through the centre of the tyre, must be at least 30 mm. This depth (p) may be reduced progressively to zero at the radial planes specified in 2.1.1;

2.1.3.2. the distance © between the lower edges of the wheel guards and the axis passing through the centre of the wheels must not exceed 2r, "r" being the static radius of the tyre.

2.1.4. In the case of vehicles having adjustable suspension height, the abovementioned requirements must be met when the vehicle is in the normal running position specified by the vehicle manufacturer.

2.2. The wheel guards may consist of several components, provided no gaps exist between or within the individual parts when assembled.

2.3. The wheel guards must be firmly attached. However, they may be detachable either as a unit or in parts.


Basically it means:-

Tyres must be fully covered by the wheel arches, excluding any side wall raised lettering or protective ribbing on the side walls of the tyres, or wheel hubs

This may not be a MOT issue but would be an issue under The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986, this is what the Bizzies would be able to pull you under if they felt that way inclined.

N.

[Stephen]

A friend of mine got pulled and fined £60 for this recently on his Fiesta

[monkeyjim]

Finally finished the rear engine/gearbox mount , this has taken forever . Bad weather and Christmas meant I did not go near garage , plus my welder was uselesss which was a real pain .

However . got a welder for Christmas , no it was not Dean in a Santa suit ! With help from Dean, Joise and her Mum bought me a good one .

Back on track and been able to finish the rear mount . The engine is now fully supported on its mounts for the first time .

I repaired modified and strengthened the mini pedal box and added the hook on the clutch pedal to take the Micra clutch cable .

Today I did a bit to the gear change . I mounted it in the car and cut it into two sections , one end is mounted to the gearbox so all I need to do is cut the rods to the correct lengths and weld them back together .

These are the sort of bits that make it much easier if you have a complete donor car to take all the bits off . You see how the Micra componants work and come apart . . Without the entire gear change , its mounts and its mounting plate I would not have been able to put it together as I did today and would have been going round the scrap yards because I needed much more than just the gearlever and rods.

[monkeyjim]

Gear change cut down , modified to suit Mini and welded back together , gearlever mounting fitted . It feels like it engages in all 6 gears ok .

Modified the master cylinder mounting plate , beefed right up and welded a clutch cable mount bracket onto it .
That is a good fit and I am really pleased with that .

I have temporarily tack welded a additional bar underneath the dash that sits on top of the pedal box . Nice sturdy box tube with a 3mm wall . Will strenghthen bulkhead . Bulkhead has a couple of boxes in it now and I just wanted to make sure any strength lost by cutting the crossmember for the box's will be retained with the box section across the car .
The lower dash rail has also gone and will be replaced with tubing that will also strengthen car .

Should have both those jobs done Monday night . Josie is away on business Monday so I have all evening to work on car .

[Stephen]

Pictures....!

[monkeyjim]

Computer is a bit slow with pictures . Reckon Josie has filled it up with wedding dress pic's , lol .

Will get some up soon .

The inch box tube is welded up under the dash at the front bulkhead and the original lower mini dash rail has also gone in favour of a section of tubing .
To the tubing I have welded the steering column bracket in such a position the steering column does now not need a lowering bracket . The whole dash area is now much stronger than original . Until it is out on the floor you do not realise how thin that curved section of lower dash rail is. It resembles a mini bumper .

I fitted the new Mpi carpet again today (a bargain from playmini 3 or 4 years @£50 ) to offer up the fuse box position . The Mpi Minis have a fuse box just under the drivers side end of dash and the carpet has a rectangular piece missing as a result . This is a pain but luckily the Micra fuse box will fit in the same position and fill the gap .
I then removed the carpet and welded some metal tags to the inner drivers wheel arch before putting some plastic shieving around the tags , I then put the wiring in the correct position before bending the metal tags round to keep it in place .
The rest of the wiring loom is now out of site under the dash cable tied to some bars I welded in that act as attachment for the loom and also act as a base to take the lower dashboard liner once I have made it. No bendy bits of cardboard in this one

I am have cut the Micra switch console up . It originally has 4 switch holes ,rear fog, hazards , heated screen and a blank switch on my Micra that may be a front fog switch on the 'S' model . There are now 3 switch holes and I am fibreglassing 2 new ends on the switch panel to finish it off .

Next is the steering column switch . The original Micra switch mount slides over the steering column just like the Mini one but the Micra's has a larger hole in the middle . So I need to sleeve the top of the steering column with a thicker bit of tube . I will dril 4 holes around the tube push it over the last few inches of the Mini outer column and spot some weld through the holes onto the Mini column . Much easier than trying to mate Mini switch wiring to Micra wiring loom . Anyway thats a job during the week now.

Still got loads to do . Got to take engine and frame out one more time yet .

[monkeyjim]

Just about had time monday evening before going out to dinner to weld the seat brackets on the rear side of the seat crossmember and modify the seat .

Very happy that the seat misses the companion box as it is nearer the middle of the car and back far enough to work well with the lowered steering column.

Sleeved the top of the steering column to take the Micra steering column switch gear .

Tonight (tuesday) I only plastic welded a couple of repairs to the Micra steering column shroud . Been ill all day so did not go to work and done nothing in garage all day or during the evening.

Will be in garage again on thursday . Plan on mounting the ECU under the dash , having a clearout of the car interior , a tidy up of the garage and get the shell back on the dolly to move it around garage so I can get under the passenger front wing and measure up for the rad lower mount .

[monkeyjim]

Ecu mounting bracket now fitted ...... I welded some bolts to the bulkhead up under the dash and fitted the bracket onto those . The bracket comes with pre-drilled holes .

All fitted quite well as I was concerned that 3 large block connectors were in a vulnerable place under the carpet and likely to have feet put on them but they handily fit behind the ecu bracket up out of the way .

I am building up the front hubs with bearings and ball joints during lunch at work today .

Hope to get pics up soon .

[monkeyjim]

Really not had chance to work on this . I have been ill again (havent we all ) and had to visit family up country over one of my free weekends I have not got Meg and Jim . So no progress .
Yesterday I finally got the custom made side mounted radiator fitted .
The old Mini rad surround fits perfectly on the new rad . The new rad is wider than it is tall and therefore opposite to a Mini one . This means the rad surround is also on its side . I had a bulkhead bracket from a old engine steady bar I bought from Minimail 10 years ago knocking around my tool box at work .

I cut off the lower mounting from the rad surround , turned the surround on its side and welded on the bracket . It handily fits in the area of spare bolt holes in the end of the Micra gearbox . Once bolted up its in the correct position .
Now I have that positioned I am going to take the engine out again to make it easier to fabricate the right adjusters for the alternator belt tensioners . Its easier to see if the belts are running true with the engine out .

I need to take the engine out anyway because with it in I am not able to fit the top suspension arms because the engine and box are to close to the subframe to push the top arm pivot pins through the frame and arm.