[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by vaasu

I also happened to get a few drops of polish on my glasses. Turtle Wax Hybrid Solutions Ceramic Spray Coating was what I was using.

It took me some time to realize that the usual mild soapy solution does not affect these 'spots'. It has been a few weeks now and it still has not gone off completely!
.

Yes, it can be very difficult. Especially if your glasses are made of plastic lenses rather than real glass. I left mine overnight in a solution of water/washing-up soap. Even then it took me several hours of cleaning.


Yesterday I decided to investigate what is commonly known as the "whistling" problem. It is caused by the vacuum sensor. Ore more precisely the barometric capsule that splits. The other side of the sensor is connected via a long hose to the air intake manifold. So the whistling is air being drawn in by the engine vacuum. The whistling is a function of the engine loading, and thus vacuum in or decreasing.



Just a quick overview of the Spider Electronics. This Spider makes use of the Bosch L-Jetronic system. it was one of the first electrical injection systems on the market. There had been mechanical injection systems, such as Spica, as you might find on American Alfa's.

The L-Jetronic was fitted on many cars from its era. You can find them on BMWs, Mercedes etc. Although known as the L-Jetronic and working roughly the same on different cars, you will find that many of the components might be specific to a certain brand and model. E.g. the Air flow sensor on my Alfa is different from the one used on a BMW etc.

It is a completely analogue system. So it has a computer it has two, but it's analogue. All signal processing is fully analogue. The successor to the L-Jetronic was the Motronic, which had only one computer and was fully digital. You will find the Motronic system on the Spider Series 4 and many other brands/types.

One computer and its various sensor deal with fuel ignition as shown here



The other computer and its sensors deal with air monitoring (and a few other engine parameters). It is commonly known as the injection computer.



Both computer and some sensor and electrical bits are hidden behind various bits of trim. The fuel injection computer and the vacuum sensor sit inside the passenger B-pillar. The air computer sits underneath the parcel shelf behind the two seats.



Removing the trim is very easy. Just a couple of screws. I also undid the speaker wires so I could remove the parcel shelf completely. When removing speaker wire make sure you mark the plus/minus. On mine, they were already marked. The red wire on the pin with the red dot!





With all the trim removed, easy access to all components



Yes, it is very dirty in there. And no, I won't be doing much cleaning. This Spider had a very thorough anti-rust treatment many years ago. It also means that many surfaces have a very thin layer of anti-rust coating. As the coating is essentially an oil, it is also very sticky. So that is what you see here. The good news is no rust. Don't remove the dust, because it means removing the coating and thus introducing potential rust!!

A close-up look at the injection computer and the vacuum sensor in the B-pillar.



And a close-up look at the air computer and various other bits, under the parcel shelf.



Mounted next to the computer is another sensor, the altitude sensor. Note all the wires, a couple of relais and if you look well some inline fuses. Pretty important because one of the relais and fuse are the main components in the ignition circuitry. Without them, your Spider will not start!







The altitude sensor does what its name says. It measures altitude using atmospheric pressure and the computer will adjust injection and ignition accordingly.

Here is a close-up of the offending part, the vacuum sensor.





During the first ten years of Spider ownership, I bought a lot of spare parts from Ebay. Just to build my stock. Luckily I did have a vacuum sensor in stock as well.

So I just hooked it up to the vacuum line and the electrical connection.



Started the engine and no more whistling! I did check with various people about the need for this vacuum sensor. Everybody agrees it does very little in terms of engine performance. So if push comes to shove and this one breaks as well I might just plug off that vacuum line.

I am looking for a replacement, but so far no luck. For now, I am leaving the trim off. This Saturday spanner mate Peter is helping me replace the trailing arms. Once that is done we will be taking the Spider for a test run. I want the trim off, so we can listen carefully for any vacuum leaks and or whistling.

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Earlier this week I picked up two exhaust dampers for Peter's Jaguar XJ6. They are tough to source. You can still get them made from stainless steel. But apart from the price, which is quite ridiculous, they also give a very different sound.

Peter eventually found two second-hand ones at a place very near to us. So I drove over to pick them up. This was quite the workshop!! It's owned and run by a guy, probably about my age, with his two sons. They deal only in Jaguars and Jaguar parts. It had a lot of stuff for my Jaguar too.







All ready for Peter, including the tools he left last time so I could finish up the Jeep and his change.



A small, but very important, repair job popped up. Our grandson's favourite talking/singing book stopped singing!! Opa to the rescue. The batteries needed replacing, but then it still would not sing! So I took the little electronic music box apart, checked and cleaned it, popped it back in and now it works fine again!



Spanner mate Peter came around yesterday to help me change out the trailing arm and Diabolo rubber on the Spider.

Let's have a look at the rear suspension of this Spider. Pretty rudimentary. A fixed axle/differential. Two trailing arms and a reaction triangle. The reaction triangle is fixed to the chassis on the far sides and the middle holds on the differential using these buffer rubbers. Because these rubbers look like a Diabolo they are commonly referred to as Diabolo rubbers.





Peter and I replaced the trailing arms and the Diabolos' on both our Spiders about 25 years ago. Took us the whole afternoon. So we thought we should be able to do better now. Ideally, you need to have the Spider on a lift. Makes a big difference, but I don't have one, so we make do with some improvisations.

Moved the Jaguar out of the way and positioned the Spider so we could easily work and walk around it.



First thing. With two jacks we raise the rear of the Spider quite high and put the chassis on axle stands.



First, we undid the large nut holding the Diabolo in place.





Peter fighting with the cotter pin!



Next, we undid the bolt retaining the shock absorber to the trailing arm.



Next, we place a jack underneath the trailing arm (Because it is still compressing the spring!) and undo the large bolt holding it and the stabiliser bar in place.



Next lower the jack carefully, so the spring unloads and then remove the forward bolt holding the trailing arm to the chassis.



All went pretty smoothly.

With the trailing arm removed, the rear axle and differential hang in the rebound strap. We thought we could just push the whole axle to the right to get the second part of the Diabolo out. We put a jack under the differential for easy manoeuvring, but eventually found we also had to loosen the prop shaft. Always make sure to mark the flanges, because they need to go back together in an identical orientation!!







With the prop shaft disconnected we could easily manipulate the whole rear axle and push it so far to the right we could extract the other Diabolo half.

Here you see that huge bolt on which the diabolos sit held in place the reaction triangle, you see just above.



Peter doing some technical!! At our age, this sort of work is not impossible, but we are not as agile as we used to be. So it does take a bit longer!!



Putting the new trailing arms and the diabolo in is simply a matter of doing all of the above but in reverse order. The trickiest thing is to push the trailing arm back against the spring. We used a few different techniques. You also need to ensure that the spring sits correctly both on the top and bottom parts. It will only fit correctly in one specific orientation.



With everything bolted back on we took the Spider for a quick test drive. Handles a bit tighter and less pulling to the right under heavy braking.

It took us about five hours, start to finish, including two coffee and a lunch break. So we consider that pretty good going for two old gits!

As I showed in an earlier post, the parcel shelf was still removed. We listened very carefully, but no whistling from the new vacuum sensor, so that problem is solved as well!

Peter and I spend some more time going through the various tools and parts we will be taking with us.

I received this set of decals for my Jeep. These are all the original decals as could be found on a factory-new Jeep. Mine still has a few, in various states of readability. I came across a guy who sells these on Facebook. Ordered them and they look pretty cool!! I will install them in the coming week.



I also picked up this heat gun. I did not have one. This one cost Euro 12 only! Which here in the Netherlands is unbelievably cheap.



This coming week I will start cleaning and preparing the Spider for our Scotland trip!

Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

This was quite the workshop!!

Wow. That's very much my kind of neat and tidy!

[Jeroen]

When I got my Mini and posted about it on the forum I had loads of very encouraging responses. Also, several members, including GTO, requested me to provide an update on my whole fleet.

Like I need encouragement to show off??

Happy to oblige of course. So here we are:



From left to right:

My latest acquisition. My Mini One, 2010 one owner, dealer maintained. I have had it for two weeks. Love it. This thing is a hoot to drive. On top of that, I am getting great fuel efficiency, 1;17. Compared to my Jeep and Jaguar that is more than double. Also, the Mini just eats Euro 95 E10. Whereas my other cars all require Euro 98 euro 5, with no ethanol.

Next, my 2002 Jaguar XJR (308). Bought it, second-hand from eBay whilst I worked and lived in the USA from 2009-2012. It was my daily drive in the USA and I brought it back to the Netherlands.

Well over twenty years old, but goes like stink. Nothing beats a 4.0L supercharged V8. I leave Tesla owners completely shattered and frustrated in my wake.

When all is said and done, this is just the ultimate highway cruiser. Nothing beats British wafting along!!

Next, my 1998 Jeep. Also 4.0l, but 6 cylinders in line. Only 180HP. You wonder how the Jeep engineers managed to extract so little power out of such a huge lump of iron!! Love my Jeep. It's my second one. We had an identical Jeep whilst living in Kansas City, USA.

My first and only true love (apart from Mrs. D obviously). My 1986 Alfa Romeo Spider. I bought it in 1995, fully restored. So hardly a classic at the time. This Spider has taken us all over Europe year in and year out. Stay tuned for more updates. Early September I am on a trip to Scotland in my Spider with my best friend and spanner mate Peter and his Spider Coda Tronca

Next, My 1982 Mercedes W123. Lover this car. Bought it in 2006 or thereabouts from Nico Aaldering. The guy who got hold of the Palmen Barn Collection. The W123 was the last of the properly well-engineered cars. The only car I can take a door card off and put it back on within 2 minutes, without breaking some clips and it won't rattle either. Love driving it, looking over that huge bonnet with the three-pointed star up there

Fantastic engineering, but very very prone to rust!!

Lastly, Mrs D's daily drive. Our 2015 Ford Fiesta. We bought it in 2016 with only about 12000 km on the clock. Today it stands at almost 100K. Great little car, this one has the NA smallest engine of the lot. Still drives well. Never had any issues with it.

When I bought my Mini, I also posted about it on Facebook. Mrs D. had to point out to a friend of ours, Ann, I had bought another car. A sixth car!!

So Ann, replied: "He needs some adult supervision". Well, I got this T-shirt, enough said!!



Jeroen

[livezero]

What a lovely collection you have Sir! Especially the Jaguar and Spyder. Is there a day in a year when you open your Garage for the public? :-D

[BhayanaV]

WOW! What a superb collection. Its a dream collection for people like us.

[dragracer567]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

When I got my Mini and posted about it on the forum I had loads of very encouraging responses. Also, several members, including GTO, requested me to provide an update on my whole fleet.

I have to say I'm a bit jealous - mainly because by the time I'm your age, cars would be more like vacuum cleaners or iPhones, unlikely we'd have a fleet of classic cars like you do

Speaking of which, I remember from an old Clarkson review that the Mini One had a power limiter (or is it detuned?) to differentiate it from the bigger Minis with the same engine since they couldn't be bothered to develop a less powerful engine - is that true? (or is it even a thing, I'm not an engineer ).

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by livezero

What a lovely collection you have Sir! Especially the Jaguar and Spyder. Is there a day in a year when you open your Garage for the public? :-D

Thank you. My garage is always open for folks who are genuinely interested in cars

Originally Posted by dragracer567

Speaking of which, I remember from an old Clarkson review that the Mini One had a power limiter (or is it detuned?) to differentiate it from the bigger Minis with the same engine since they couldn't be bothered to develop a less powerful engine - is that true? (or is it even a thing, I'm not an engineer ).

I am still struggling with the various Mini versions. Mine has the N16 NA engine, which is a 1600 cc engine producing just under 100 HP.

Mini Coopers, all versions, tend to have turbo charged engines. My engine came as a turbo version too, and I think with different power bands as well.

Most people prefer the Cooper version because of the improved performance and they also have aggressive looking (but totally fake) air scoops. Coopers cost a lot more, and the turbo engine appears to have some problems the NA version doesn’t have.

98HP from a NA 1600cc engine is not unusual. With a six speed manual it still feels pretty zippy and I get great fuel economy. (1:17).

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Time for the first real repair job on the Mini! If there was one thing that is driving me nuts on this otherwise lovely car, it is the terrible squeaky noise the windows make when going up or down. As the Mini has frameless windows, it also has this system whereby the window drops about 4-5mm when you open the door and goes up automatically 4-5mm when you close the door. And it gives a terrible squeak too!

This is a very common problem on all modern Mini's. I did some searching on various forums and YouTube. Most people point towards the sliders inside the door frame that move the window up and down. They dry out, paint flakes off get caught between the runners and so on.

Several YT videos showed guys taking the complete inner parts of the door apart. I was not sure that was required.

So I moved my Mini into my garage for the very first time!



When removing trim always check the manual. You will always manage to get the trim off, but getting it off without damaging anything you need to understand how the trim is held in place. My Mini Manual to the rescue!!





With the trim removed, there is still a lot of stuff that remains in place!!



Very pleased I managed to pry this apart (with my special trim removal tool obviously). Note that none of the clips broke!! This is probably giving some indication of pretty good materials used! The older plastic gets, the more brittle it becomes. Cheap plastic ages quicker and gets brittle quicker than high-quality plastic.



There are also two large rubber stoppers at the bottom of the door frame. I pried them out and stuck my little flexible camera into the door. Difficult to see, but here I am looking at the runner of the window up/down mechanism.



I did not fancy taking the rest of the internal parts out of the door. It means removing the glass window and everything else. Quite a job and Putting it back together is quite a job too and you need to align and reset the door mechanism too. So after a bit of thought I just removed the door speaker!



With the window in the lowest position, you have access to the slider/runner that moves the window up and down.



The first thing I did was to blow a lot of compressed (non-oily) air across the runners.
next, I sprayed some silicone grease on it.



Worked a treat!! No more squeaky windows. The same procedure is on the right-hand door.



Very happy with this small repair. Now I know how to do it, I figure next time I could probably just get inside with some special attachments on my air gun and silicone grease gun from underneath the door, through the rubber stopper hole.

Meaning I have shorted the official BMW/Mini procedure from 3 hours to about 3 minutes! You're welcome BMW!

Also a little trim repair job on the Jeep. One of the pieces of trim on the passenger door had come loose. I pulled it off, rather than running the risk of it coming apart somewhere on the road.



Got myself some double-sided trim tape. Essentially a very simple job. But it is very important to clean both the car and the trim very very very thoroughly.

My new heat gun came in handy!!



It still took me about 2.5 hours working with the heat gun, pneumatic sanders, sandpaper and my polishing machine to get both parts adequately clean.





The results look good!



I showed these decals I managed to source earlier:



Time to put them in place:

Warning for the electric fan starting! And how to route the V-belt



Don't put your fingers in here!



Everything you need to know about the AC system and the engine oil filter



This massive sticker was still there, factory-installed!!



How to operate the four-wheel drive levers



How to store the jack and assorted tools properly. Very useful, because these things are like one of those tricky Chinese puzzles. Once taken apart you will never get it to fit together again!



I like these decals, a bit of a finishing touch!!

I showed the installation of the trailing arms on my Spider earlier. These trailing arms are always refurbished. You can't get new ones. So when you buy a set, you will have to return your old ones. So I took the old ones back to Marc.

As we were discussing a few things, Marc also suggested making sure the trailing arms should be tightened with the Spider resting on its wheels/springs. Otherwise, you introduce a pre-load on the rubber bushings inside the trailing arms. Funnily enough, the official Alfa Romeo workshop manual does not mention this. But I thought it made sense.

So I moved the Spider into a spot where I would have good access to the rear.



You can lift the Spider with a jack underneath the differential, and lower the rear axles subsequently on two axle stands. Loosened up the four bolts on the two trailing arms and retightened and retorqued them. For good measure, did the same with the Diabolo rubbers too.



I have washed, polished, and waxed the Spider. All shiny and ready for Scotland!!







I took a photograph of all my cars earlier. It got very enthusiastic replies. It was a bit of a logistical challenge and puzzle how I would position all cars on our drive.

Just a few pictures, of me shuffling all the cars onto the dike, back onto our drive etc. Great fun!!







With all cars out of the garage, it also gave me a good opportunity to scrub the garage floor properly.

Next job: taking the electrical antenna of the Jaguar apart. I have already ordered the parts

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Yesterday I worked on the electrical antenna of the Jaguar. Just about all modern cars have a built-in audio system. These days the antenna's are built into the window, or carefully hidden as shark fins, or at worst a little stub on your car roof.

But there was a time when cars had proper antennas that had to be extended. The plebs did this manually. You had to get out of your car and pull the antenna out. Us Jaaaag owners have an electric antenna, so you don't need to get out of your car and mingle with the plebs. You just stay in the comfort of your car. When you switch on the audio system the antenna will extend itself and when you switch the audio system off, it will retract.

Joking aside, I think electrical antennas are one of the coolest gadgets on a car. I also installed one on my Mercedes W123. Many of our younger members will never have done this, but in the olden days, installing a radio, speakers and antenna was par for the course for any car owner. Cars did not have built-in radios, let alone audio systems in those days. You had to visit specialised Car Radio Shops. They would have hundreds of different radios, speakers and accessories on display. Very few of these shops exist today.

When you sold your car, it was not uncommon to remove your radio and build it back into the next car you bought!! How times have changed?

So working on antennae and antenna wiring is something from the past for most! But I enjoy it.

When you have a car with an electric antenna at some point in time it will fail. The antenna mast is moved utilizing a plastic/nylon-toothed belt that is driven by a little motor and some clever gears. Replacing the mast is usually very easy. But in my case, I could not extract the antenna at all, so I took the whole antenna motor assembly out of the Jag. Very easy, two little bolts, two connectors.



Let's open it up and see what's causing the problems. cover removed. You can see the little electric motor that drives several gears and you can see the spool into which the toothed belt is wound.



I took things apart a little further and the problem became obvious. The toothed belt had snapped! Usually the tooth, over time, gets stripped and the mast won't extend anymore. This is a little more severe. But the solution is still the same, replace the antenna mast.



Everything apart is ready to be cleaned.





I called my Jaguar specialist friend Raymond and he had antenna masts in stock. I called him at 15.00 hours and asked him to send me one. Ten minutes later his wife Joke called me back, to confirm our address. The next morning I had a new Antenna mast!! Excellent service. Here you see the new antenna mast with a few other parts you will see me use later on as well.



As so often with these little jobs, cleaning everything is the most labour-intensive. It took me about an hour to get rid of all the old grease. I used different de-greasers, soapy water and lots of paper towels. All ready for re-assembly



I packed all the gear with my usual, general-purpose, white lithium grease. I find this stuff works great on many different applications.





Putting it all back together is very straightforward







All done, ready to go back into the Jaaag.



Mounted back into the boot. To get access to the antenna motor assembly you just need to remove some trim. Very easy.



To get the new antenna mast installed, I used the same procedure as always. You let the antenna motor pull in the toothed belt. So you just feed the belt into the top of the antenna tube. You do need to ensure you have the belt in the correction orientation. It can only go in one way. In the case of the Jaaag, that means the tooth needs to face outward. (Look closely at the previous image and you can see how this is the correct orientation as the toothed belt comes down the antenna tube and is fed into the storage spool and gear naturally.



All you do is switch on the audio system, which means it signals to the antenna motor to extend fully. So you hear the motor whirring, but nothing happens as there is no antenna yet. Next, you switch off the audio and push the toothed belt into the antenna tube, once the gear engages the toothed belt it will pull in the complete antenna mast! Very easy, very simple. However, the base of the antenna mast would not go in. It appeared too big. Very strange, so I took the antenna motor out once again and did some measurements on the old and the new antenna. This little flange at the bottom of the antenna is pretty crucial. There is a locking nut on top of the antenna tube that holds the mast in place. So the flange needs to be small enough to slide up and down the tube, but also large enough to catch on the locking nut.

The flange on the old antenna: is 9,63mm



The flange on the new antenna: is 9,84mm



The inside diameter of the tube: is 9,67mm



So this was never going to fit. Only 0,2mm but still! I took the antenna to my grinding wheel and ever so slightly took off a tiny bit till it just fitted into the tube.

Working!!



As I was working on this antenna job I decided to tackle another little job I had wanted to do ever since I got this car, but somehow never got around to it.

The electric antenna extends as soon as you switch on the audio system. But the audio system has also a multi-CD player attached, it has a cassette deck and I have installed an FM modulator so I can stream my music from an iPod and or iPhone. Only the radio requires the antenna to be extended. But it is always extended as soon as you switch on the Audio system. Very annoying, so I decided I wanted to have a manual override. Which means installing a simple on/off switch between the audio system and the antenna motor.

Time to break out the electrical diagrams:





I wanted to install a little switch in a very unobtrusive way. Because I like to keep my cars as original as I can. So when I do the odd little modification, it has to be out of sight and very easy to put back to the original as well.

Based on the diagram I figured the easiest way was to pick up the signal wire from the connector against the left heelboard. That would also be close to the centre console. So I could run a wire from that connector back into the centre console storage compartment and into the ashtray, where I could mount a little switch.

See from above. The ashtray is just in front of the centre console storage compartment.



This Jaaag is chock full of electrical and electronic stuff. Under the left and right heel boards are a bunch of fuse boxes, relays and a massive amount of wiring. I lifted the rear seat to get better access.



The first thing was to run a new cable from underneath the ashtray to the connector on the left heel board. Of course, that cable needs to be out of the side, so it has to go underneath the carpet. I tried several devices to get the cable through.





Part of the challenge is that Jaguar installs the carpet and the wire looms very tightly. There is little room to start with. Also, you want to be a little careful poking around 20-year-old wiring. These Jaaags are known for having poor-quality wiring, it gets very brittle over time.

In the end, I got myself a one-meter long, 15mm wide very flat piece of plastic. Rounded off one side and drilled a hole into it. Works very well getting it underneath carpets and past wire looms.

Goes in here



Wiggle, wiggle, push a bit, some more wiggling and out it comes on the other end!!



Attach the cable



Pull back and voila: one new cable installed out of sight!!

[Jeroen]

With the new cable in place, all I had to do was split the signal cable and splice it in and add the switch.

The antenna signal cable was the green/black wire on the connector. I just cut it on both sides of the connector. I just jumpered it to verify I had cut the correct cable. With the jumper attached the antenna motor would work, with the jumper disconnected it would not. Got the correct wire!!




Although I thought I stock just about all types of electrical connectors and crimp fittings I did not have anything that would fit these wires well enough.



I know, I know, you should not solder individual wires on a car. Vibration and all of that. In my defence, this is a Jaaaag. It does not vibrate, it does not rattle, it just wafts along. I think some decent soldering will do!!



Ready for some soldering. The trick with all soldering (and brazing) is to heat the material (wire) and have the solder melt on the material (wire). I made good use of my brand-new heat gun to apply the heat shrink.





With one end of the cable done, time to figure out how to install the switch.

My little switch had a rectangular shape so that meant some drilling, milling and filing. The ashtray is made of bakelite I think. Which is a pretty hard, but also brittle material.

Marked and the first bit of drilling is done.



I could have done this differently, but I have all these fancy machines, so why not use them!!



With the rectangular hole cut, I also needed to flatten the ribs on the ashtray and cut out a little groove so the switch would be mounted flush.







Transferred the outline of the hole in the ashtray on the piece of trim underneath it and cut that out too. This is just plastic, so very easy to drill/cut.



Run the cable underneath the trim into the ashtray and attach it to the switch. Made myself a little tray so I could solder all of this, sitting in the passenger seat.





Looks good!!!!



Putting everything back together again, notice the cable with the (iPod) connector. That is from my FM modulator. I wrote about it some time ago:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/diy-d...ml#post5382556 (My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One)



I have had this car since 2009, but I never noticed this diagram on the back of the centre console armrest!



All in all, very pleased with this tiny modification. Works well. Just a few tips when you attempt a similar little job. Although the process of pulling the new cable, cutting the signal wires and so on I kept testing each connection. You don't want to install everything, put all the trim back on to find something is not working. So after each step, I did a bit of testing, just to be on the safe side. These are old cars, with brittle wires, so there is always a chance you mess up something unintentionally

Also, I always disconnect the battery when working on my cars. All my cars have one of these quick master disconnects. Very handy, but it also means you will need to have your radio security code handy!!

I considered different types of switches and I bought two.



The switch I used I was given by Richard, the Jaguar parts guy, from whom I picked up spanner mate Peters XJ exhaust pieces.

The location of the switch in the ashtray was perfect I think:



For reference; very similar to how I did on my Mercedes W123. There the inside of the ashtray was chrome, so I found myself a chrome push-button!



Jeroen

[Jeroen]

I picked up another few pieces of exhaust for spanner mate Peter's Jaguar XJ.

We will need to install all of this to replace the bits that exploded earlier!

The Jeep comes in very handy for these very long pieces of equipment



I finally got around to making a small modification to one of my part racks.



I had these nifty little metal tubs with a magnet on the back. However, they are designed to stick to flat metal surfaces. I kept tipping them over. So I got myself a meter-long strip of L-shaped material and riveted it to the part rack.



Got to use my new riveting tool. Works well!



finally managed to trace the air leak on my compressor. The O-ring on the water separator has gone bad and needs replacing! Now to find this exact dimension of O-ring.



Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

... The O-ring on the water separator has gone bad and needs replacing! Now to find this exact dimension of O-ring.

Buy one of those make-you-own O-ring kits?

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Buy one of those make-you-own O-ring kits?

We used these in the Merchant Navy. My experience with them is, they work well for large O-rings / Rubber seals. Not so good on small-diameter rings. The problem is you need to cut precisely and get the two pieces perfectly aligned. On small-diameter rings, the O-ring won't seal properly.

I had one of these boxes with all kinds of sizes:



Bought myself another box with many many more sizes.



Unfortunately, still not the correct size. For now, I have just used some Teflon tape on the threads in combination with the old O-ring and that is doing a pretty decent job so far!

I have also "fixed" the plastic window in the Spider, I hope. Had to make some sort of makeshift fixing and pressure apparatus to hold it all in place. Three days curing time.





Forgot to take an image of how it looks. It certainly looks better than tape across the tear. Now let's see how long it lasts.

Update on my Mini One. So far the Mini has turned out to be an excellent buy!! I am very happy with it. It is a hoot to drive. Everything works, everything is tight. I am getting great fuel efficiency too. I have filled up twice now and both times I was getting 1:17.

Yesterday I took it to my local BMW/Mini dealer to get it checked out. With a new and different car from what I have, I need to build a network of people and places that can help me out from time to time. I have not found a real non-dealer specialist for the Mini. Ideally, I would like to find somebody, such as I have Marc for my Spider, and Raymond for my Jaguars. Guys who know these cars inside and out. So I just started with my local BMW/Mini dealer. A 10-minute drive from our home. Very pleasant, very knowledgeable. The mechanic and I spent about an hour and a half going over my Mini.



As you would expect from a 13-year-old car, the underpinnings have a bit of surface rust, nothing to worry about. We checked all the various rubber bits, all of the ball joints for play, all bearings etc.



I learned a lot of new stuff. (And was able to teach the Mini Mechanic a couple of new things too)

This is an image from the water pump. I need to look into how this works, some sort of friction pulley. Looks brand new these wear out over time.



We checked out all the known issues on these little cars but found none. The timing chain/tensioners are fine too. He advised me not to do anything about it, till it started to become noisy. At present, the engine runs very smoothly, with no peculiar noises. I have found in the ISTA Mini workshop manual the official limit on the tensioners and chain is 200K km. But if the Mini forums are to be believed, very few engines make it that far. Mind you, 90% of the folks on the Mini forums are Cooper owners. And the Cooper turbo version engine had more issues than my NA engine.

We had another look at the brakes, pads and discs. He told me that when the disc goes below minimum specification you are allowed to use, one more time, a new set of pads. So that means I won't be doing any brake work any time soon!

We also hooked it up to his OBD analyser. Got the exact same results and views as on my Autel scanner!

I also got a complete printout of the service history from BMW! And it shows this little car was always dealer maintained, never any issues, other than regular service. It also shows the mileage is genuine and the last service was done in May this year!!

I have driven almost 1300 km since I bought it, but the service indicator is still saying service due in 10000km. With only 107000 km in 13 years, this car was used, most likely for short city drives. My drives tend to be 85% motorway. So I am likely to go further between recommended services. The Mini Mechanic told me he has seen the indicated service interval go up when the car is being used very differently before. He also showed me how to reset the various service interval indicators on the dash!

So I am really happy with this little car! I will probably get the few little dents fixed soon. They can just pull them out, no re-spray necessary.

But first I am going on my annual Spider drive with my best friend and spanner mate Peter. This afternoon we meet up at the DFDS Ferry terminal in IJmuiden. We are taking the ferry to Newcastle, UK. It is the most northern UK crossing. From Newcastle, we will be in Scotland within a few hours.

We have not got any specific destination in mind. We might make it up north to John O Groats. We will see, the weather looks great as well!

Jeroen

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

This is an image from the water pump. I need to look into how this works, some sort of friction pulley. Looks brand new these wear out over time.

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Water pump can fail if overfilled with Coolant by mistake. Too much pressure and it gives up and starts leaking. The OEM ones are all made of hard plastic. The later ones had some bits of metal.
Mine was approx 7.5 years old when I had to change it in Jan 2020. Had to bring the part in from Dubai because the wait period in India from BMW was 3 months! And owing to the sudden onslaught of Covid I would simply have never got the pump. In hindsight I was lucky the need arose around the time I was anyway going to Dubai on work and luckily also that part was available there at the Mini dealership.