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Harrison's Garage - Mini City, back on the road!


rob88h

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Just now, rob88h said:

The Sierra has been out on its first decent trip in probably 20 years... It behaved well which was a relief. Now that I can drive it, it’s time to start finding out what the next layer of jobs are!

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Calendar shots!

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  • 3 weeks later...

The Sierra DieseL - Impressions

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With a few hundred miles under its belt (since 2003!), the Sierra has really been a joy to drive. Something about it feels inherently modern - the seating position, steering wheel, pedals and shifter are all in a lovely position. It is wonderfully squishy on its R13” balloons and 40 year old bushings and the interior has that unmistakable smell of hot dust. It feels reliable. It’s yet to prove that feeling is warranted, but the thrum of the naturally aspirated diesel just has that unending quality. I’m not finding it chronically slow either. It’s either geared well or the torque  that it has is all usefully usable, no Top Trump figures here but it might* be able to chirp the tyres on a spirited roundabout pull-away. 

I even took it to a little show recently.

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There are some things I don’t like though. At 70mph it’s got a bit of a wobble on, particularly on deceleration. In theory the wheels are balanced, but it might need some tracking work and said squishy bushes looking at. The rear drivers side door is a respray and is very matte despite two rounds of T-cut by hand. It probably needs wet and dry or a machine cut, but then I’m not quite brave enough or  bothered enough to go that far. The temp sender was dead (I snapped the blade connector off when doing other engine bay things) and I’ve temporarily replaced it with one pinched from the Granada. It was half the length and now reads HOT, I guess due to different resistance curves of the sender, but it plays hell with my unconscious brain!

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I also recognise it wants a bit more preservation work doing. It would be thankful of a clean up and paint underneath as it seems pretty good under there and it would be a shame to let it deteriorate any further unnecessarily. 

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8 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Bet you got 1st prize! Seriously though, they were derided at launch. Well saved.

Thanks. I put a fair bit of effort into getting it on the road again, working on it as a weekend warrior. 

Pictures really flatter it TBH, but all it’s visual “defects” are just part of the life it’s lived…

I think I’ll be moving it on soon - I’ve done what I wanted and brought it back to the road. Cars are a bit of a juggling act at Chez Harrison still and I’ve yet more projects to get stuck into. 

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Sierras always need compliance bushes, the ones in the lower suspension arms that locate the anti roll bar.  I'd recommend going for polyurethane even on a road going car.  The originals weren't very good and everyone used to fit so called solid heavy duty ones.  And they weren't very good either.

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On 7/26/2022 at 9:21 PM, rob88h said:

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A.S. Top Tip: Is your car overheating or running hot? Simply change your sender to something less sensitive and enjoy the feeling of calm when looking at the temperature gauge. 

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** Disclaimer: I’ve just changed over from the wrong one (Granada) to the correct one (Sierra), so I’m not really too hot. But a handy tip for the future lol. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

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That rear door is annoying me. It’s letting the side down, bah-dum-tish.

My least favourite job on this Sierra so far was polishing the whole car, including two rounds of T-cut on that door… I hate cleaning cars in general and the more detail you get into the more bored of it I get. But it is looking too shit.

So, after visiting the school of YouTube I took a brave pill and got the sandpaper out. 😬

Wet 1500 grit then compound then polish. The shine is returning. I wish I’d just got on with it and done it sooner.

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Mini Shcity 

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All this time while fancying around on the Sierra, the Mini has been sat as target practice. It’s not running right and twice I’ve thought I’d fixed it, just for it to conk out again. 

100% convince it’s ignition related. 1st fix was descaling the rotor arm and cap. 2nd fix was replacing the coil (secondary circuit resistant was way too low). 3rd fix will probably be a new condenser. 

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Basically it’s suffering intermittent loss of spark, which is apt because I too am suffering intermittent loss of spark for it; it’s getting on my nerves! Part of me thinks I should get electronic ignition, the other part of me thinks I should stop being a Millennial Snowflake and just deal with ropey ignition spoiling my Saturdays.

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  • rob88h changed the title to Harrison's Garage - Sierra DieseL and Mini Shcity

if you don't want to go full on electronic ignition this is what is fitted to the Panda. It keeps the points but only as a trigger and does away with the condenser. There is so little demand for condensers these days its hard to find a quality part

https://gammatronixltd.com/Gammatronix-PowerDriver-Electronic-Ignition-System-12v-volt-NEGATIVE-earth

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An intermittent spark can also be the coil suffering from breakdown. Test the coil off the car to make sure it's not on its way out.

I would vouch for an electronic dizzy. I've had one in both of my Minis. So easy to fit and removes one of the biggest fail points of the whole engine. Theyre easy to get electronic conversion kits for and they take minutes to fit. Plus most of the time they're less than £30.

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1 hour ago, Tommyboy12 said:

An intermittent spark can also be the coil suffering from breakdown. Test the coil off the car

I’m convinced this was at least part of my problem.
Off the car the secondary side resistance was like 6kOhms when it should be about 10k or something from what Mr. YouTube was telling me. I put my “spare” coil on which reads ~9kOhms and it ran like a treat - right up until it cut out and now I have zero spark... After remeasuring the coil it still suggests that’s ok. My theory is the new coil somehow messed up a fragile old condenser (condenser triggers coil via points interrupt, right?). Maybe messing with the balance tipped something else over the edge.

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I think I will go electronic ignition. My other Mini had that eventually and it was a bit of a game changer to be fair.

However, MOT is due on Friday, so I’ll limp it there on old school ignition as I’m expecting another metal work “investment” will be required. 

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Prime Shite 👌

 

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Nice little project.

You have the ballast type of ignition there, I can tell from the white/ pink wire going to the coil +.  This is very different to the earlier Minis and can cause issues with the resistance wire melting/ breaking/ making the wiring loom very, um, crispy.  This might be why you're experiencing running issues.

If you're going over to electronic ignition, I'd advise to ditch the ballast system, and run a decent, dedicated 12v feed from the ignition switch to a new 3 ohm coil.  The ballast one on your car should be 1.5 ohms.

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You can run a hybrid too. I run a ballast coil on the original wiring then run a dedicated 12V feed to my electronic dizzy.

If the coil is good it's very likely to be the condensor.

You could obviously fault find the wiring by completely bypassing the loom and just piggyback off the 12V feed to the starter solenoid.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 8/7/2022 at 11:56 AM, Tommyboy12 said:

You can run a hybrid too. I run a ballast coil on the original wiring then run a dedicated 12V feed to my electronic dizzy.

Thanks @Tommyboy12  . This is exactly the route I’ve gone. I slapped a new vac advance diaphragm on while I was at it because it was only a few quid.

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Running a treat. 
I need to make the wiring more permanent then stick it in for MOT only to fail horrifically on gratuitous excessive entrenched rot no doubt. 

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The Sun has set on my time with the Sierra DieseL. Last week it rattled off my drive for the last time.

I’m proud of what I achieved, I’ve really enjoyed working on it, chugging about with and I will surely forever regret selling it. 

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It’d been off the road since 2003 and having done all the work to it myself to get it back to roadworthy and presentable, I’ve gained more skills towards my remaining fleet and some hella satisfaction out of saving it from what could have been an uncertain fate. 

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Being of a pretty low spec AutoShite ethos I was hopeful here someone here would scoop it up (even at a loss for me) but it was not to be. 

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The new owner seemed knowledgeable on these and was looking to keep it long term for shows and alike. Maybe they’ll be along here, who knows. 

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I thought I’d missed the boat with Sierra’s in general, but it just proves that at the right place at the right time who knows what shite can enter your life! Although, You can’t keep them all etc… 

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A shame to see it go. I felt similarly about the Montego. It was a shame to see that go too and I had hoped somebody on AS would pick it up. But you kept it going when others dismissed it and unfortunately you definitely cant keep them all.

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Increasing the Utility Vehicle’s… utility. 
Somehow storage is becoming a problem in the mk2 Focus, but don’t dismay, my wife found the solution on Pin Interest. 
After much requesting*, an impending weekend away eventing with four adults up plus the dogs has shifted me into gear so that badly packed camping chairs don’t prevent me from… shifting gear. 
Behold:

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Bespoke marine-ply false floor TM. I just used the carpet as a template and jigsawed my way to brownie points. 
Utility Upgrade 2.0 is planned to have some sort of shit pullout drawer - so far it just rests on storage boxes. 
Dogs don’t seem to mind. If they can jump on the table and steal bread while we’re out they can jump in the boot to go to the park!

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  • rob88h changed the title to Harrison's Garage - Mini Shcity + Focus extension
On 8/22/2022 at 8:52 PM, rob88h said:

I need to make the wiring more permanent then stick it in for MOT only to fail horrifically on gratuitous excessive entrenched rot no doubt. 

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Good News Everyone! The Mini continues to grace the planet with it's presence.

I think I've stumbled on an approach to getting "safe" rot through an MOT without anyone at the garage sucking through their teeth and rubbing their hands together. Step 1: In the months running up to the MOT start enquiring about getting work done to repair the rust, but do it lackadaisically; don't indicate you're in a rush, just at least show intention. Then, when they don't get round to quoting you for the work, Step 2, the car arrives with them for MOT. Guilt and the  benefit-of-doubt for a pro-active responsible owner work in your favour and voila. MOT.

(The only trouble being is that when the rust is bad enough to fail the MOT, it'll no doubt be a much bigger job. Sounds like a future problem to be honest though. For now I've got another 12 months to do nothing about it)

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  • 2 weeks later...

The Mini did a meagre 1,775 miles last year. I’d like it to surpass 2000 this year, but it’s a real grotbag and sounds like shit.

Circumstance means I’m not ready to take it off the road - I know that if I start tearing into it, it’ll probably not see the road for a good long while. 

So armed with a target to stop it festering, and enough enthusiasm to keep it going in short bursts I tried to do something positive for it. 

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New plugs and an attempt on setting the valve clearances. Didn’t work. Still a rattly bastard.

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  • rob88h changed the title to Harrison's Garage - Mini Shcity

The valves have definitely worn grooves in the rockers, hence my failure to set the valve clearances nicely. I was a bit perturbed I couldn't do it as easily as YouTube had made it look. I was using a blade feeler gauge and think* I improved some of the obviously gappy ones. I opened one right up to get the gauge across sideways as a straight edge and could actually see light through what I declared the Valve Setting Doom Zone. I suppose it could do with new ones - I can't imagine they're expensive.

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But also all of the other things @Tommyboy12 mentioned are probably equally slack. The gear thrash in 4th is something to behold.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Harrison’s Garage – September 2022

Eight years in the fleet and still hanging around, the 440 is quite a grounding stalwart of the shite ethos. With both sentimental and blossoming underdog enthusiasm I intend to keep on keeping on with the Volvo, but I’ve recently started to entertain the idea that daily’d cars don’t last forever…

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Coming up on eight years of ownership is the MX4.5 (not quite a whole 5). What a crippling totem of lack of enthusiasm for bodywork repairs this car represents. The mental image of this car has been slowly shifting from “one day I’ll give it a go” to “one day I’ll get it scrapped”. Neither have occurred.

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I can’t believe it’s been five and a half years with this little Mini. That’s way more time than I had with my first one, but somehow the bond is nowhere near as strong. I guess that’s the formative nature of youth. Two things keep me holding on to this car; 1 - sunk cost, 2 - a future vision of Harrison’s Garage where a cosseted little garaged Mini enjoys Sunday drives.

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A constant 5 years and 75,000 miles of family service have been provided by the Focus. Crashed thrice yet never written off; the bond has been strengthened for its abject unwillingness to die. No picture today as it’s out being a car somewhere with the wife.

 

April will be my second anniversary of Granada ownership. It was bought as an opportunistic purchase without necessarily wanting to get stuck in immediately, a self confessed long term project. What that has actually led to is me doing very little with it and just walking past it, forgotten, most days. It will have to go back on its wheels and be woken up in the next few weeks to give access for some building work… Maybe that’s kick-start some renovation… Or maybe the impending winter weather will put all that kind of nonsense off for another season.

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And just collected yesterday, introducing…

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