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Post by monkeyjim on Mar 8, 2011 22:24:03 GMT
Here is another addition to the Monkeyjim fleet I have been looking out for any old banger for a while as it was getting plainly obvious the Micramini would not be finished before I loose my garage when we move in June . I did not expect to buy this ........ 1993 1275cc carb'd Mayfair. Some of you long standing members may recognise it . Its a car I originally bought in January 2006 for a bargain price with just 19,000 miles on it . It was mint . I sold it to Karen another club member in October 2006 with about 22thousand on it . Karen has driven it for work and been all round the country in it to such places as Liverpool and Newcastle . It has now done 75 thousand miles , is not so mint, needs a rad and a headgasket . Karen gave me a call last week and reminded me that when she bought it from me I asked for first refusal if she were to sell . Well .. I could not resist . Its got a months tax, Mot till December 2011, loads of bills and a service a couple of thousand miles ago . Never been welded . Got the usual rust around the wing/front panel seams and some scabs under that stupid rust trap of a wide front windscreen seal . The interior is still in excellent condition.. On Sunday my son James and I made the trip from Buxted to Hove on the train and bus to collect the car . I signed the paperwork and attempted to drive off ........ nothing . It had sat there for a couple of weeks and the battery was flat . We attempted to bump it but no joy . Karen flagged down a chap withh a van and he agreed to Jump start it . Away it went . We planned to stop at the marina on our way to drop Jim home at Peacehaven to let it cool down and top it up with water . It just about made it to the marina , coasting to a halt with a overheated engine . After a long lunch Jim and i topped it up with water and just about made it to Peacehaven before it got back in the red . No way it would do 25 miles to Buxted from Peacehaven so I organised the breakdown company to recover it home Monday morning .     |
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Post by Rachel on Mar 8, 2011 22:28:35 GMT
You jammie wotsit ;D ;D ;D ;D
I'm sure you will get it fixed up and running properly again soon ;D
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Post by MiniGT5 on Mar 9, 2011 4:25:11 GMT
Thats quite a lot of car for £400!
N.
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Post by Stephen on Mar 9, 2011 12:03:52 GMT
Yea, well worth that
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Post by Bean Machine!!! on Mar 10, 2011 13:31:12 GMT
you couls always stick some wings on it and see if you can get some more air in newquay lol
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Post by monkeyjim on Mar 10, 2011 15:48:25 GMT
Was that the one we jumped in at Trencreek Alan ?  |
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Post by Bean Machine!!! on Mar 11, 2011 11:49:39 GMT
Yeah after the trip to morisons
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Post by monkeyjim on Mar 11, 2011 20:04:09 GMT
Ah yes ........ almost 2 dents from the top of our heads hitting the inside of the roof That was May 2006 Riv Run . Last night when I got home I took the knackered rad out and took the head off . I have not tested for head gasket but I have got it too hot twice and I am sure the previous owner did too. As its a easy and cheap job, at 75thousand miles I thought it wise . The rad was in a shocking condition , the side plate fell off it when I was taking it out . The head is with a old codger who does bits of engineering . He is going to re-face it and remove the 3 snapped off thermostat bolts . When I get the head back on monday I will clean up the ports , take out the valves , check them and lap them back in again . Will give me something to do during lunchtimes next week . Tonight I just flushed out the block and then flushed and back flushed out the heater with a hose . I got no debris out and water pressure comming out of the heater pipe was as high as water pressure going in so I would assume the heater is clear . I am enjoying playing about with the old A series again . I still dont like 12inch wheels much though. |
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Post by monkeyjim on Mar 15, 2011 22:48:12 GMT
  I got the head back from the old Codger today . I asked him to reface it and remove the 3 snapped thermostat housing and sandwich plate bolts . Which he did. He also cleaned up the combustion chambers and all the ports , which I did not ask him to do . All for the rediculous price of .....£15 ;D Actually, before I sent it over to him he said £15 so he obviously felt like playing about with the head a bit . Shame he did not whizz the valves out , clean them up and re-lap them .  Sorry about the poor picture . As you can see there is quite a lot of crud on the valve in the background compared tothe one I have cleaned up on the wire wheel at work. |
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Post by monkeyjim on Apr 8, 2011 20:49:43 GMT
So much for the head gasket being a simple job , I had a bit of a mare with this . I fitted a British Gaskets head gasket and it leaked . I know I should practice what i preach regarding genuine and Minispares etc but I thought as I use these for customers cars it would be ok for the Mayfair . All the factors seem to sell them and not the payen sets without having to order in . I have always used Payen head sets but I was pushed for time and the Bg set was readily available from Autolec . Anyway it was no good , I am sure some of you may have used this make or others in the past without trouble which is fair enough but in this case a non original/non payen gasket was no good . I double checked the head and block were flat with a engineers straight edge , both ok . So i ordered a Payen AF460 with Cpa . It did not arrive on the Thursday and it was still lost between London , Southampton and the CPA branch in Portslade late friday . No good to me , tossers . I ordered a Payen from Minispares North last Saturday and received it on the Tuesday . All went well, I also replaced the plug leads , dizzy cap , rad cap and the seal , electric rad fan sensor and sensor retaing clip in the radiator . I have had a sensor come out when I re-used the seal so I was not going to do that again . Mini is now up and running ok , I sorted the classic car insurance out, £126 ;D fully comp with 5000miles allowed ( all I need) . I drove it 50 miles today . Incidentally Keith Calver , racer , guru from calverst.com (or uk) and Minimag contributor only recommends the use of Original Rover or Payen headgaskets due to failures of alternatives . I have had a play with the suspension by fitting a pair of front height adjusters I had knocking around my tool box and I got Josies mums other half Brian to machine down the rear cones by 5/8 of a inch which lowers the car 1.5inches . Well.... it had to be done , just look at the gap between the rear wheel and arch in the first pictures . Whilst I had the front tower bolts out I replaced the floppy genuine rubber front subframe top mounts with Powerflex alternatives , again something new I have had knocking around for years , probably got them from Mini Mine . I have a pair of front tear drops to go in too . Shocks to work with the lowered height will appear eventually as will uprated bushings. On the other hand I will never put a used set of standard shocks from this onto the mk1 so I may just leave the standard shocks on until I need to replace them , again , I realise I am not practicing what I preach I have given a used ally interior door handle and pull set from Rach a make over and fitted those and also made a quick release grille using a pair of 'T' Bar quick release rocker cover bolts picked up by Dean for me a Brooklands . It seems to be comming along ok , got another couple of things up my sleeve ready for Riv Run I am working on as well as needing to give the thing a really good clean up inside and out . Pics of head etc to follow. |
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Post by coleman262 on Apr 16, 2011 10:36:38 GMT
Glad you got the HG sorted finally! quick question the minispares Payen gasket, is that the copper one they sell? as i couldnt see payen written on any of them  |
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Post by AntMan on Apr 16, 2011 10:43:56 GMT
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Post by monkeyjim on Apr 17, 2011 18:14:17 GMT
Actually I use the Payen AF460, Minispares part number GEG300.
I did not have the downpipe joint sealed as well I hoped when I put it all back together , light was fading quickly at the time and as I need car for the following day I was only really concerned that the exhaust was secure .
Last week the exhaust was getting noisier , eventually on friday the MOT pit was free at lunchtime and I was able to get under the car for the first time .
The rear frame is in fantastic condition considering it is 18 years old , the sills did not look great but that I was aware of . I had a good look at the exhaust , looks like a new section of downpipe has been welded in . Unfortunately it is to long and the exhaust sits a bit low under the car . As it is a carburettored car with a cat there should be a sample pipe in the downpipe to take exhaust emissions from because putting the emissions machine pipe up the tailpipe will not give true reading to allow carb tuning because of the catalytic convertor. Anyway the sample pipe has also been removed , in theory there is no point trying to adjust the carb as the reading will be wrong .
I disconnected the downpipe and mounting bracket on the gearbox allowing lowering down of the exhaust so I could clean up mating faces and re-seal the manifold joint . So its nice and quiet now .
While I was under there I looked at the bump stops , I was sure the lowered suspension had settled on the bump stops by the way it felt over bumps, true enough it was on the stops meaning the front shocks are doing nothing really . This could be a issue with Project Low. As far as the MOT is concerned a car sitting on the bump stops is a reason for refusal . However having no bump stops is not .
Today I cut the bump stop down to the start of a grooved line that is moulded into the rubber . I then re-set the front suspension heights . Roadtested and checked for clearance , all ok . I will check the tracking during the week .
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Post by monkeyjim on Apr 17, 2011 20:14:21 GMT
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Post by monkeyjim on Sept 11, 2011 21:09:16 GMT
The old red thing has been going well . Gets a good thrash up the A22 regularly at some insane speeds I cannot put on here for obvious reasons . People dont expect to be overtaken by a old mini with a roof rack on top. The crappy cork thermostat gasket weeps nicely and I have had to raise the suspension slightly due to the low exhaust and the weight of the kids in it . However the wipers lost slow speed on friday . They have not parked since I took charge of it again but having no park, flick wipe or slow was enough , especially with winter on the way. I had a look at lunchtime and took it all to bits . The wiper linkage and wheel boxes were lovely and free, upon removal of the motor I found 1 wire had come out of the wiring plug connector onto the park switch located on the motor . I managed to get the block connector off the motor and found all the male connectors had come off and were stuck in the female terminals on the loom . Luckily a new loom section with the correct wiring connector is about £6 and the park switch the loom clips onto is £12 . Luckily a good friend  gave me a Minispares voucher for my birthday that will be put to good use plus I had to order a part for a customer so I added my bits to that and will half the postage. A nice cheap repair . Next job is to replace that badly welded/ lowered exhaust someone has put back on it . I have had the RC40 bits for ages but not got round to digging out the spare Minispares inlet and fitting it all on . I will lower it again after that and cut the arches to suit . |
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I always remove the head studs to clean up the block. Clean out and rectify any iffy threaded holes and fit the gasket before the studs , checking for hole alignment as I go. 
cone compressor fitted.
removing the top arm rebound buffer (empty fixing screw hole on left)allows for more clearance when dismantling.
gave me a Minispares voucher for my birthday that will be put to good use plus I had to order a part for a customer so I added my bits to that and will half the postage.