Here's the 2000 lifted nice and high on axles stands so I could get under to get the propshaft attached.
At this point you can see the propshaft still hanging down loose at the front and also at the side of the car is the centre section of the exhaust which still needed fixing too.
With the propshaft bolted up though I pumped up the tyres and got the car back down on the ground so that at last I could get it moved out of the bus garage where it has really been taking space up and isn't the easiest location for the next part.
Mind you, it was tricky to get it out but manage it we did thanks to help from Bryce and a fork lift to tow it.
Here it is, seeing the light of day for the first time in more than 2 years.
From here we towed it round the block and into a workshop where I could get it onto a lift.
That's where I got the exhaust back on and fitted up properly. Along with getting the accelerator linkage sorted and then the air filter housing back on yet again it was time to start the car and see how it all is.
Well, it starts very very well now, almost as if it's now remembered how to run and shrugs it off in a "of course I'll start, no problemo way".
Even better though was that now there's an exhaust on it I could rev the engine a little and by eck I now remember how gorgeous it sounds.
On that note (!) time to quit whilst ahead and come back next week for the bleeding of brakes and the clutch.
Last time I updated the blog I wasn't counting any chickens.
Well since then PMW has been running more than once so that's good.
Latest is that I have checked and adjusted the tappets as well as draining the oil and replacing it with fresh 20/50 whilst swapping for a new filter of course.
The good news is that this time the oil coming out the sump looked much more like oil with only a slight trace of emusification from water contamination. I think the flushing oil has done it's job and now it's onto normal running in when I aim to swap the oil and filter after about 100 miles of driving the car.
Starts to sound like I am getting close doesn't it?
Still a bit to do yet though including fixing the exhaust, reconnecting the propshaft, bleeding the brakes and clutch so that I have them working and wiring up that electric fan. That's what I know about of course.
There will be the small matter of extricating the car from the big shed it's in hemmed in by buses and trucks. One step at a time.
I do need to get under the car though and it's not pleasant jacking the car up and getting it on to axle stand so I can grub around under it on a dirty concrete floor. Not so good when I can't find the propshaft nuts and bolts either. These are the kinds of things that happen when a car is stripped over so many months (years even), things go missing and then hold you up putting it all back together.
I have learned patience though so a few more bits and pieces have been ordered from Chris Witor and I can come back to the car next weekend.
I must be prepared to be disappointed as bleed nipples break off no doubt too!
On balance though, progress continues to be made and PMW starts now easily enough without Easy Start. I think is very smooth too which I should be able to confirm when I have the exhaust all coupled up.
Last week the haad was back on and the manifolds fitted.Well there was still some awkward buggers of nuts to fit on the inlet manifold baulked by the manifold itself so I had to loosen the studs and nuts I had struggled with last week before I could get access to finish fitting all of them. What joy.
Next was fitting all the hoses again and filling up with water.
Connecting up the fuel line. Easy enough as I have now done this several times. Erm, no! I can't describe how much of a sod this was to work out where the brackets went, not to mention then trying to fit the alternator back on and finding that combinations of the fuel pipe, alternator bracket and fan belt all caught up on each other in one combination or another!
Oh well, patience won through and all of that was put back together OK.
By now I was on the ignition side of the engine bay. Now where do these wires go? And what's the firing order again? Which one of the 2 dizzy cap and plug lead combinations is the right one? Got it right in the end though and fitted the freshly charged battery.
Remembered to leave the king lead off though when I spun the engine over hoping to get oil pressure. Crikey it took a long time again but eventually the oil light went out around the time the battery was starting to slow down.
All of a sudden I was in a position to try and start the old git. Well it was reluctant again and then coughed a couple of times when I more or less poured Easy Start down it's throat.
I know when to call it quits though so I decided to pack things away and come back next week but first I checked the dipstick and it did seem like it was oil rather than mayonnaisse on it. OK I thought, why not take the rocker cover off and see what it's like under there.
No immediate horrors so I decided to turn the engine over to make sure it wasn't throwing water all over the rocker covers again! You know what? It very nearly started.
OK, more Easy Start and let's see what happens.
I tell you what happened - it only went and started and kept running. I kept it running for about 3 minutes and then switched off to check things over.
All appeared OK so I started it again and this time it ran by itself even without choke or throttle - here's the proof
I am not counting any chickens though. There does appear to be some "milky oil" but then that's quite possible as I couldn't clear all the water out from before.
Also there is some water loss down the front offside of the block which I dread to think is a head gasket issue - it's more likely to be a leak at the water pump or thermostat housing so I'll be checking that out next.
Good news is that the oil on the dipstick looks like oil (which is another reason to think the water leak isn't a head gasket problem).
I think I'll retorque the head, check the tappets and investigate that water leak next.
If all is OK then I'll change the flushing oil and the oil filter when it's been run for about an hour in total.
Defintiely not counting any chickens though - did I say that already?
Back to PMW and the unfortunate incident of fitting the wrong head gasket! This meant the mixing of oil and water so that had to be got rid of - see the evidence below as it drained from the sump, looks more like milk than oil doesn't it.
Once that was out of the way then a general clean up and I replaced the oil filter which was contaminated as well of course.
OK, then it was put it all back together and here's a picture of what I sincerely hope is the right gasket fitted the right way up!
From that point I refitted the head and torqued it down, hopefully correctly as I am getting really paranoid now. Once the pushrods were back in I fitted the valve gear and rocker cover before putting in flushing oil. The plan is to run the car for about an hour with flushing oil then drain that, replace the oil filter with another fresh one and refill with new 20/50.
The rest of today's action was refitting the inlet and exhaust manifolds which is much easier to say than do. I actually called it a day about 5PM after struggling with a particularly difficult fixing but it gave in in the end.
Next weekend should see it all back together and an attempt made to get it running again.
Mrs R's Mini had refused to start last week but I wasn't concerned as it was down to the fact that it hadn't run for a while and being also cold the battery didn't have enough life in it to turn the engine over fast enough (come to think of it this reminds me of PMW).
One week later though with the battery having been on a trickle charge Lil Min sprang into life when I refitted the battery and turned the key.
So next was UNJ our TR7 convertible. The repairs to the starter motor connections and the replacement second hand starter motor are still doing the trick as it fired up no problem either - I am getting to like this!
I suspected the clutch would be stuck though as it has been months since the car has moved and I was right. Having moved Lil Min well out the way I started UNJ in gear with the clutch depressed to free of the clutch which it eventually did. Now I will be starting and moving both cars every two weeks so hopefully that will keep them both OK through the winter.
Now on a roll I moved on to the problem with the interior lights and rear sidelights not working as helpfully pointed out by the French Police back in September (oops).
I checked for poor earths but then moved on to removing the light switch from the dashboard. I had done this in a car park in a small French town in the early hours back in September to try and clean it up but hadn't fixed the problem.
This time I could take my time in my garage and stripped the switch down, cleaned the contacts and then used switch cleaner, re-assembled the switch, put it back in the car and success :-)
Retrunmed to the attack on mission PMW with two mates of mine, Paul Darbyshire and Andy Flexney.
Here they are taking a moment to consider the next move!
Well the main problem was getting the engine to turn over anything like quick enough even with another battery to jump start it and then with a fully charged booster pack. Taking much longer to get to than it does to type we sorted this out by using a jump lead to go from one of the starter motor bolts to the battery earth lead and then with battery booster in place it was much better.
OK - no sign of it firing though. So we took the rocker cover off so that we could make sure the timing was right at top dead centre and that we had the plug leads the right way round (well one of the two dizzy lay outs we had put together before was right so we put that one on).
We also took out the carb dampers so the pistons would lift easier ready for Easy Start. Then with cranking the engine over, full throttle and the aforementioned Easy Start in use PMW actually fired up to much cheering from me!
Sounded pretty good to me too but it wouldn't keep running on anything other than Easy Start so next was to take 5 gallons of 3 year old fuel out of the car and put fresh SuperUnleaded back in.
Now PMW ran happily on petrol rather than Easy Start.
So, as Andy said, if this was a football match we were going in to half time winning!
Coming back out for the second half though we had been concerned that the top end was dry with little oil there but with the rocker cover off of course when the car was now running we saw what looked like water instead of oil being sprayed on the rockers. Checking the dipstick showed an oil/water mix from the sump.
Not what was wanted at all! I was/am fairly sure that there's more than one cylinder head gasket so it was possible I had the wrong one and this was allowing the fluids to mix. Only thing for it was to remove the cylinder head which we got stuck into.
My goodness there was alot of water about including in the cam followers etc.
Water can be seen in the picture above of the block after we removed the cylinder head.
It also shows though that the cylinderhead gasket is the right one in that the holes line up with the holes in the block - at least that's what logic says to me.
First conclusion is that the head wasn't torqued down correctly so I'll be getting all the oil/water mix out of the sump then taking it off to clean it all out. After that another cylinder head gasket can be fitted and we try again.
I have received lots of advice on how to get PMW started so thanks to everyone who has helped. I will get back on that particular case in a couple of weeks (after the Pendle and Pennine Not the Christmas Meal).
Correspondence with "Mad Uncle Ted" though has confirmed PMW is a very early Mk2 2000 and quite possibly the second earliest still in existence so it is actually of historic significance which means I'll be keeping it as original as possible.
Today though I returned to UNJ, the TR7 convertible. Lying under the car messing about with swapping over a second hand starter motor isn't the most enjoyable way of spending time but I did try and do everything correctly with all the connections, repositioning the heat shield whilst making sure none of the cables were trapped etc.
Then refitting the battery and time to turn the key, not expecting any response of course. Amazingly the starter turned over and after a few attempts the car sprang back into life - hurragh! Feeling rash I even turned the lights on and they all worked, even the rear number plate and sidelights which had gone on strike in France in September.
Just a case then of tidying up and not leaving the car running too long as it now has no fan fitted and I don't want overheating probelms. The other thing is that there is hardly any fuel in the car and I definitely don't want the dregs from the fuel tank being pulled through the fuel lines and into the carbs.
Next things UNJ needs are some petrol and an electric fan kit.
