so the blue arrows on my two thumbnail pictures?

Yes, that is them

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Starlet Conversion:
http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15484

thanks for your help guys, got the old rack out today and managed (after alot of swearing) to get the replacement rack in. the frame needed to drop completely off its bolts at the tower and ended up actually needing to be lowered (engine and all) about 2 inches to be able to firstly get the rack in and then align the pinion gear into the steering column.

so on the cards tomorrow is making sure the column is clamped securely to the pinion gear, and then bolting it all back up and bleeding the brakes. hopefully tomorrow arvo we will be able to drive it around the block, and see if anything is a-miss.

the old rack seemed fine, but what can you tell. It should fix the loose steering we had...

i might have more questions yet, but thanks so much for all your help so far, its been invaluable!

cheers

can i just say i dont even own a mini but i know that pictures can speak better than most people so maybe try and get your hands on a workshop manual. there only $50 and they are so incredibly helpful (especially when your trying to do it the right way)

good luck with all the work
Eddy

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Eddy

Yes - Ausmini is good for helping others out.

Glad you got it replaced successfully, now feel proud because there probably isn't a harder job than replacing a rack that you can do on a mini. Other jobs may seem difficult until you have done them a couple of times but it never gets easier doing a rack with the engine and subframe in place.

You were very lucky actually. Quite often you find that the body has taken a hit and although repaired, its just not quite square. When the subframe is dropped, it springs back into its normal shape and its a torrid job getting it back into place and tightened.

To do this, you should have the rack centred but loose off the U clamps so that you can turn the rack slightly to get exactly the right angle for the pinion spline to slide up into the column. Make sure the pinch bolt can clamp the splines effectively (some don't).

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"Show me the Mini!"

hey guys!

well today was an overall success. the rack is secured properly and the frame lined straight back up into its original position - which we were very relieved about because the tower bolts were all completely removed, and infact the only thing holding the engine/frame up at one point was my trolley jack! so lining it all up again was threatening to be a real issue (thankfully it wasnt!). that may or may not have been the "right" way to do it with the jack, but it worked fine and it was the safest way I could think to drop the whole package while still leaving the car raised enough to fit underneath with a crawler.

Getting those U-bolts back in was a bit of a nightmare, but a bit of patience mixed with a bit of the old hammer and screwdriver got them lined up properly and its all good. As far as i can tell the pinion meshed perfectly well with the steering column, and it seems so far that the transplant was a success. but we of course will know when we get the car going again.

we hoped to get it going today with only the final bleeding of the brakes left to do (and handbrake adjustment, and a final adjustment of the brakes themselves) but we ran into some problems with the bleeding process. I've only ever bled the brakes on my valiants, and even then i've done it a handful of times and would not call myself a "seasoned bleeder", so I don't profess to knowing/understanding all that there is to know about the process.

the problem we are having is this. The reservoirs are both filled about 3/4 full of fluid. I leave the caps off, and attach a hose to the passengers side front nipple. then i crack the nipple, and the brake pedal is pushed to the floor.

air bubbles. good! then i close the nipple off, and release the pedal. then open it, depress the pedal, air bubbles, close, release pedal. Repeated this process what would have been about 200 times over the space of say 30 minutes, and nothing was actually being achieved. the levels in the reservoirs were not going down, and the only thing that was actually happening was air was being expelled from the line but no fresh fluid was being pushed into it from the reservoirs.

i then thought to test if releasing the pedal with the nipple open would suck fluid out of the jar and up the hose, and it did. so it doesnt seem like there is much of a blockage, but maybe that sort of test doesn't really indicate anything at all?

can someone please instruct me as to what i can do? is there some issue around the master cylinder that i need to address? if it means anything, the rear brakes actually didnt even emit any air bubbles when this same process was done. is this to be expected if the fronts haven't been done yet?

any help much appreciated.

cheers

p.s. I've been shouting at the owner of the car (i dont own it, i'm just working on it) to buy a manual, but what can you do hopefully one day soon!

There is a couple of tricks to bleeding brakes. However, one of the best tools I ever bought was a vaccuum bleeder. Basically you hook it up to a compressor and them onto the bleed nipple. Then squeeze the trigger and it sucks out of the bleed nipple. You do this until you have fresh clean fluid with no bubbles. The fluid is of course sucked into a glass resevoir. When its clear and good you shut off the nipple and you go to the next bleed nipple etc etc.
No pumping and no frustration like you are having.

Now it may well be that you have an air block in the line and are simply compressing the air. Try bleeding it in sections. That is; slacken off the pipe into the master cylinder. Get your mate to press down on the pedal. It should pump out fluid, lock it tight while the pedal is still down. Depending on your setup - dual system or single - go down to the splitter block and slacken the inline and have your mate push down on the pedal. Again it should pump fluid. Lock it off while the pedal is still held down. Do this all the way to where the rubber hose connects to the subframe. If you have fluid to there then it should also pump into the wheel cylinder and bleed properly. If a line fails this sytematic approach then take it of and blow it clean or pass a very fine wire through it to dislodge the blockage.

Now - bleeding. Brake fluid is a viscous liquid. When you pump a pedal it should be a slow and deliberate pump and held on the floor or the bottom of the travel for a couple of seconds before the next pump to allow the piston to push the fluid along the line. Furious fast pumping is not helping.

Once you have the wheel cylinder moving - you have hear it in drum brakes and see it on discs, then get your mate to do two or three slow patient pumps and hold the pedal down. Open the nipple and let the fluid and air out. Close the nipple and then have the mate lift up the pedal repeat the process until clean fluid and no more air.

See if that works.