Although I spent a few hours in the garage yesterday, I did not really achieve as much as I wanted. Partly because I was still exhausted from a quick trip to Austria. Before leaving on Thursday to Friday night I picked up the freshly painted Mini front subframe. An irresistible opportunity to get two Mazda MX5 NB leather seats on the way back also came up. They certainly need new leather – but the frame and the plastic part are in good condition.
Miffi’s parts are somehow all over the garage. After some clean up I had the space for the subframe on the workbench. Due to me just saying it should be painted black it now has a glossy instead of Matte finish. My fault – should have been more precise. But it certainly looks quite good. This however stopped me assembiling everything.
When I took Miffi apart I had the impression that the upper control arms were good enough and would not need new paint. Powder-coating wasn’t an option as the needle bearings were in good shape. But seeing them now beside the shiny frame – it wasn’t an option to leave them like this.
To protect the bearings I used a piece of threaded rod and large washers before the trusty wire-wheel got rid of the old paint. These were just two coats for Hammerit paint back in 2019- there was hardly any rust – so it did work well in the end. After a quick clean I applied four thin layers of Brunox Epoxy this afternoon.
While those were drying I thought that I quickly finish the few things required on the gearbox. Mainly the oil seal on the shaft of the gear selector and new diff covers need attention. Even though the gearbox was rebuilt (not by me) in 2021 the right side leaked quite a bit. One closer inspection now, I doubt that the bushings in the diff covers have been replaced back then. When I discovered the leak back a year ago, I ordered new MED Diff covers, but never got around installing them. The one on the passager side also covers the “locking bush” (not sure what it is actually called) for the gear selector. This in turn should have a spring and a ball inside – but I the spring is missing. Now it could be that I lost it while taking the cover off on the workbench. But I didn’t notice anything. Even after an extensive search on the floor the only option was to order a new one.
While trying to figue this out, I caused a major screw-up that cost me more than an hour. While trying to better understand the gear selector mechansim, I tilted the gearbix upside (without the locking thingy in place)
The caused the gear selector housing to slip and rotate. Cole’s videos from Classic Mini DIY saved me in the end. I watched him assemble the rod-selector in part 4 over and over, until I understood how it all fits together. This helped me to a) bring the selector back into positon and b) manually test all gears and watch the selector slide in place.
Frustrated about this time waste, I started putting back some of the powder-coated brackets into the engine bay. But as it was getting cold and late – I decided to leave the brake servo out for now. It is a bit easier to get the engine in without it.
Leave a Reply