Hi all,

For various reasons I haven’t taken my mini to Rylstone since 2019 and my goal this year is to make it with no problems. I’ve got a few months left to prepare, what’s your thoughts for maintenance/spares/tools for the trip and what’s ended your trip on the side of the road?

Cheers

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Check the CV hub nuts are tight.
Check all the hose clamps are tight and no leaks.
Carry a spare radiator cap.
Carry some oil.
If you have a fuel pump kill switch, don't forget to turn it on, Sunday morning..

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

I think the best thing to do is to drive it regularly before hand - give yourself a chance to find and sort issues well and truely before hand.

The ignition is the most likely thing to let you down, most other faults can be overcome or driven around. The other best thing to carry is a roadside recovery membership card.

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Cheers Dave.

Timmy
We have done Rylstone eight or nine times and have never had a serious issue (just a few gauges reading oddly). The car is full of spares, tools, water, oil, fire extinguisher and a manual. It's also nice knowing that a hundred or so mini experts are nearby. (And the NRMA card).
Barkfast is right, take it out on a number of longer runs to let faults show when it is not "mission critical". Take it out in the rain and also at night as you can't "choose" the weather at Rylstone. Lights, heating and defogging do matter for safety.
Get it serviced by a mini expert or at least get a couple of experienced mini people to drive it as they will recognise possible faults that you think are characteristics of your car. A mini racer friend found a cracked booster vacuum pipe in ours by hitting the brakes much harder than I do.
Rylstone is fantastic each year; we try to book a house and make it a family weekend, with two new minis and our old one. Evan is a brilliant organiser and his team are always so helpful. They cope with the boy racers all the way to the geriatrics like me, who potter along slowly at the tail. I hope you don't get to meet their "mop up team".

Thanks Kev. I'll check the CV joints & hose clamps. I have got a spare rad cap in the boot & normally have oil & coolant too. Hopefully it'll be obvious if I don't turn the main battery switch on!

I had been trying to drive it a bit more often this year, but the weather hasn't been great - but as Dave says it's possible it'll rain on the trip so good to rule out any issues with wet weather

I've been carrying a spare distributor for a while & recently bought a matching electronic module so I'll have a complete back up ignition system. I've also got roadside assistance, but it works best when you're in an area with phone reception

Thanks Dave. I have been along every year since 2015 and so far we haven't had any major issues on the drive, my mini tends to go bad in the couple of weeks beforehand
My fire extinguisher is probably pretty old at this point so a new one is a good idea
I haven't had it serviced by a "mini expert" before, so that's another good idea. As you say, when you only drive your mini and do the servicing yourself you can miss things that you just think are normal.

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What's the condition of your bottom radiator hose and your bypass hose, I'd rather do those 2 jobs in the shed than on the side of the road
If you have mags on your car and run a steel spare rim, make sure you carry some standard wheel nuts .

In 2019 I had the misfortune of killing a big end bearing near Lithgow, so out with the phone and found a Tilt-Tray company to come and pick it up and baby sit it for a week till i could come out and collect it, I jumped in Slacko's car , my wife jumped his mate Matts mini and we threw our bags in another mates Moke, so there's always someone to help out .

Funny story actually, the radiator hoses both got changed before Rylstone last year, and then they leaked so bad from all the connections that I wasn't happy to drive it to Rylstone. I've managed to reduce the leak, but it's still leaking somewhere

I've got a new new set of Mackay brand radiator hoses last week and will install them soon and hopefully this will sort it out.

The spare wheel nuts for the steel wheel are in my box in the boot, but I have also planned to get a new tyre for it, as it's a 50+ year old Michelin

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Goodie
I just checked and there are 4 wheel nuts with the spare; a good one to think of.
Timmy. A 50 year old spare is definitely a NO-NO, but any tyre more than about 10 years old is suspect. We rarely where out tyres in our hobby cars but they age whether they are used or not.
I am also dusting off an old satnav as there is no phone coverage for much of the northern route and we won't be able to use it for navigation.
Good luck; hope to see you at Rylstone. Dave D

You can download maps into your phone which allows you to use satnav without the internet. Or there is tbis really cool thing called a paper map which doesnt need internet or even a device to operate.

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Cheers Dave.

Interesting you say that Timmy. I went through all sorts of crap with bottom hoses last year. I thought I'd better swap out my 20y/o Gates hose just because.

The first new Mackay I put in leaked like a sieve from all ends. I found that some of the reinforcement was dangling into the hose at the heater take-off, so the coolant wicked through to the ends.

I put old faithful Gates back in until a warranty exchange happened and tried again. On inspection of the replacement hose there was a tiny bit of reinforcement visible at the take-off, but I put it in anyway.

Leaked again!!!

Put old faithful Gates back in yet again, got my money back and sourced a new Gates. Put in in - good as gold - happy days! At least someone still makes-em-like-they-used-to...

Have a really good look through the hose for any visible reinforcement mate. If you can see any the bugger will leak from the ends...

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Cheers,
Rod.
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'63 Morris 850 (Old Secondhand CAR)

Thanks for that, I've had a look and found a pair of Gates hoses on eBay which were on sale for $30 delivered. Once they turn up I'll see which ones look best. If only the lower hose wasn't such a pain to change!

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Someone recommended to me, to use a long 600mm flexible screwdriver with a 1/4 socket driver for undoing the bottom rad hose clamp... it was an absolute godsend.. the socket rather than flathead screw driver made the job much easier - particularly for tightening

I thought I got mine from SuperCheap or Repco but the only one I could find online is from Sydney Tools

https://sydneytools.com.au/product/dayt ... driver-set

I do have a medium length flexible screwdriver like that - unfortunately I can't find the adapter to get 1/4 sockets on there!

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There are also ones sold with two sizes of hex specifically for hose clamps.

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1986 Mayfair (998 auto), 1974 S, 1974 Van, 1972 PMG Van

Too many minis