Well, it's slowly coming along, I now have the dead engine/gearbox sitting on the floor of the garage, the new 'good' engine is split from the dead gearbox, and sitting on a milk crate, and my 'good' gearbox is on one of the workbenches.. While pulling the old engine out, I discovered that the uni-joint yokes were VERY badly worn from rubbing on the U-bolts that bolt the rubber thingies into the yokes opposite them, so rather than going and finding new lots of yokes, I figured it's easier to just use some of our spare drive shafts, and replace the yokes on the output of the diff with the CV-style pots that the later clubbies use..

Only problem is, the manual says use tool xxyyzz and hit with hammer.. I don't have that tool, don't really want to go and try and buy one, and figure there must be 'another' way to get the pots off the diff output shafts. Prising with a screwdriver between the pot and the diff doesn't seem to work - can anyone enlighten me please?

Thanks,

Damien

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_-DG-_
'73 Mini Clubman S

I made this tool `xyz' from a thin Gedore 1" A/F spanner. I opened it out to a 1-1/4" wide slot, then ground the faces to a chisel point at front.
So it looks like a wide cold chisel with a 1-1/4" slot in it.
I sit it in behind pot joint from above, hit other end smartly with BFH.

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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.

Ahh cool, so it's just a matter of getting something in there and whacking that thing hard enough to force the pot off the shaft? Sweet, thanks - didn't want to go trying to force it off if that wasn't what I was supposed to be doing..

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_-DG-_
'73 Mini Clubman S

Its easy with the egine/box out of the car. Use a nice bit of hardwood as a drift and bash (tap??) the CV away from the diff. The diff with the CV will also supply the required side plates and diff output shafts.

You can just bung the Cvs on the yoke type output shafts but its a reall bodge and not to be advocated on anything other than a budget banger. (CV outputs have a groove for the the C clip, yoke types have threads for retaining bolt).

Cheers, Ian

Ahhh! Ok in that case, I'll do the extra bit of work to put my 2.9 gears into the diff with the CV outputs, so it's not the dodgy way

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_-DG-_
'73 Mini Clubman S

So much for that idea, with the diff housing held firmly in the bench vice, no amount of force on the mounting bolts of the big gear will make them come loose.. Looks like I'm just putting pot joints onto the output shafts for my yokes..

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_-DG-_
'73 Mini Clubman S

Ok, next stupid question - how do I undo the nut that holds the smaller of the two diff ratio gears onto the end of the shaft inside the gearbox? with the gearbox locked into two gears, the gearbox sitting upsidedown on the floor, my 130kg housemate standing on it, and a ratchet with a 3 foot long handle (aka lump of pipe over the top) on the nut, we couldn't even remotely budge it

Any thoughts? (I *really* want my 2.9:1 ratio on the new gearbox )

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_-DG-_
'73 Mini Clubman S

Ahhh, seems you've discovered the joys of diff pinion gear removal. Those buggers can be tight!!!!

I used to take mine outside and wedge under the chassis of the commodore, 6ft breaker bar and my 150kg's bouncing on the end. COuple of bounces, and CRACK! it would let go, and I'd end up on my arse in the dirt...

Moral of the story - get a heavier mate(s) and a longer bar....

Cheers, didn't want to put too much pressure on it incase I broke something.. I'll shove it under my housemate's corollacoaster tomorrow night and get a longer bar

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_-DG-_
'73 Mini Clubman S

Thanks for the help guys, managed to swap the main gear on the diff (discovered you can just pop the bearing shell off, and then get a socket onto the bolts), swapped the diffs over, the new engine is now sitting on top of the new gearbox, just have to drill out one of the locator pin holes on the flywheel housing, as the locator pin coming out of the new gearbox is larger than the original one on the old engine, then put the clutch and flywheel back in, and she's ready to go back in the car!!

God I'll be glad when it's finished.

Weird side note - the diff I just pulled out of my old engine/gearbox (which did 100k/h (gps confirmed, i haven't had a working speedo since I did 5km in reverse a few months back and didn't realise that'd kill the speedo..) at 3krpm - assuming tacho is right), according to the stamping on the larger of the two gears is a 17/62.. which seems impossible - unless I have an insanely incorrect tacho, in which case I can understand why I was getting valve bounce starting at 3500rpm on the tacho, as it would have been a LOT higher..

OH, sorry, another question - the old engine, I have double valve springs in (which stopped the valve bounce in the old engine completely) - should I take the extra hour's effort to swap them to the new head while I'm messing with things? or should a 'good' standard 1100 engine rev out to its redline without needing them?

Thanks,

Damien

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_-DG-_
'73 Mini Clubman S

Been a long time since I looked at those things, but the size of the locater dowel has got me worried - you sure this doesn't mean it's the housing with the larger idler bearing?? Anyone else? If it is it means one end of your idler gear is flopping about unsupported....

Yeah, turned out it wasn't the dowel causing the problem

Turned out the new gearbox had a larger idler bearing.. Had to go buy a bearing puller, do some work on it, and then swap the bearing from the gearbox the housing came off, as the new one was too big.. BUT THE CAR IS FINALLY IN!!

now to sort out why it's not starting - I skipped the 'static timing' bit, and did it by eye-sight, guessing that didn't quite work, so out there with the multimeter this morning, then hopefully it's all done

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_-DG-_
'73 Mini Clubman S

Well, the gearbox is beautiful - very short changes, nice and smooth, basically fantastic..

The engine's blowing a bucketload of smoke.. Since the compressions are all 190ish, I'm guessing the rings are ok, so it's a head problem.. So looks like it needs (something) done to the head..

Oh plus I need two new studs for one side front wheel.. Damo's hint for the day - when taking car for test drive, remember to do up wheel nuts.. there's nothing worse than hearing a clunk tinkle tinkle, clunk tinkle tink, having just enough time to thinks 'oh god what was that?' and then having the passenger front of the car dig into the ground and grind for 10 metres.. and then watching the wheel go bouncing away down the road at 50k/h.. Thankfully there was a fellow on the other side of the t intersection I was about to pull up to, who caught the wheel mid-bounce, as it was going for a shop window!.. Quick walk home (only 4 blocks), grab a spare one of the thingies that the CV's go into, and the wheel studs come out of (it's screwed, but it was enough to get me home), grab the four lock nuts (yep, gotta buy four new nuts as well), the socket i bought to get them off with orignally, and a 10lb hammer to get the socket on and off each nut, and a trolley jack, and head back down with my housemates to quickly swap things over..

The car has a distinct lean to the left now - is it likely that the extra weight on the drum would have put too much pressure on the hydro and a valve somewhere has let go, and I need to get that side re-pumped? Or should I be looking for something bent badly?

Sigh

Thanks,

Damien

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_-DG-_
'73 Mini Clubman S

Dammit,

Realised i had some spare studs from a previous stepped-hub conversion on one of our other minis, so quickly (sic) tapped the snapped ones out, put the new ones in, and took the car for a test drive.. While the compressions may be great, looks like the head is worse than my original one - a whole LOT more.. - get it to 4krpm, let go the throttle, put the throttle back down, a lot of struggling, then a whole lot of smoke comes outta the exhaust, and it starts accelerating again..

Oh, plus the clutch is completely shot..

Think I'll just leave the car parked in the back yard for a few months until either a) I buy a commodore or something that while nowhere near as cool, is much more work-practical, and doesn't need constant attention. amd then transfer my stereo, gps, etc over, or b) I feel like spending a week covered in grease again, and pull the engine out, get the head rebuilt, and get a new clutch..

My bets are on A

Ahh well

Thanks for all the help along the way guys

Regards,

Damien

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_-DG-_
'73 Mini Clubman S

Holy crap you don't do things by halves! Never had a wheel let go on me....but then again I do the nuts up

Still not 100% sure about what you're saying about the idler - did some work on it?? I don't get whether the idler in your gear box was large, or the one in your cover? Either way, you can't just mix and match. It might work to start with, but not for long.

Shouldn't take long to figure out where the lean is coming from, just keep measuring/comparing side to side until you find what's different.

Pick-up problem sounds like carb and/or timing, not head.