Tommy's A-series Misery - Road Trip Part Deux - Made it back to Blighty!

[Tommyboy12]

In other news an absolute disaster has befallen the Montego! The starter motor has broken. Woe, woe and thrice woe! I went to go and pick my daughter up at lunch and it wouldnt start and sounded like a flat battery but a jump pack wouldnt do anything.

Took off the starter motor to find the following:

It should look like this:

The starter has no bearing supporting the motor on that end so the nose slides into a bronze bush and acts as the bearing. Thus I believe the motor is just shorting on the body of the starter. Any sensible man would replace the starter. I am not a sensible man. I own a welder. You can see where this is going.

 

[yes oui si]

9 minutes ago, Tommyboy12 said:

Im missing the inner wings and I have no grille so airflow is probably a mess in the engine bay anyway. That being said air passing over the top of the bonnet at high speed/high pressure should draw air out the gap not suck air into it. Same principle as an aeroplane wing creating lift.

Air flows from high pressure areas such as the base of the windscreen to low pressure areas such as under the bonnet. 

Nice mini-specific example here but it is true of all vehicles with bonnets and windscreens, which is why cowl induction works so well. 

[Tommyboy12]

Fair enough. Ill give it a go regardless and see what it does for temps. It was only an adjustment of existing mounts so hasnt cost me anything. If I get cooler temps I will have done what I set out to do. If it makes no difference then I can reverse it.

[yes oui si]

Forgot the link: https://www.carbonweezel.co.uk/testing/testing_mini.html

[Tommyboy12]

Legit repair innit. Even managed to get it straight thanks to the uneven break in the shaft.

[Tommyboy12]

My legit starter motor repair worked so have some revs from the old girl in celebration. I filmed this for a tiktok video so ten internet points if you can be bothered to hunt it down. Shouldn't be too hard being about the only lunatic posting Montego content on tiktok 😅

[Tommyboy12]

Bought some parts. My starter repair didn't last and I'm sorting a radiator leak. Starter is a rebuild unit stamped Lucas. Radiator came from Rimmerbros. Their Montego/Maestro pages are a bit disorganised but this was advertised as a Maestro 1.3 radiator but it has the dimensions of the 1.6 radiator.

[Tommyboy12]

Set about the task of replacing the starter and radiator this morning. Should have been simple. Turned into a slog which I can demonstrate with a single picture

The starter motor at least slotted straight in place.

I don't particularly advocate bodgery but it seemed a waste of a new radiator that nearly fit so...

[Dick Longbridge]

I've done some interesting bodges on cars over the years, but that's up there with the best!

[grogee]

6 minutes ago, Tommyboy12 said:

Set about the task of replacing the starter and radiator this morning. Should have been simple. Turned into a slog which I can demonstrate with a single picture

The starter motor at least slotted straight in place.

I don't particularly advocate bodgery but it seemed a waste of a new radiator that nearly fit so...

Factory spec m9. Excellent work

[Tommyboy12]

I did at least go to the effort of drilling holes in the wood so it doesn't break loose... 😅

[Lacquer Peel]

What a great car, good to see your perseverance with it.

[Tommyboy12]

Today I turned the Montego into a twin engine 2.6L yet managed to make it even slower in the process? 🤔 A casual 400 miles to collect this lump...

[Noel Tidybeard]

early 1.3 radiator was longerer than later 1.3 versions so might be same as 1.6 & iirc the tuw litter* had a biggerer one still

 

 

* must be pronounced in geordie accent

[Tommyboy12]

Words cannot begin to describe how heavy these engines are even with an engine crane...

I now make that seven A-series engines in my possession for the three cars I have powered by them 😅

[hairnet]

nutter

hey but its more interesting than listening to bekos french cars

 

[Talbot]

20 hours ago, hairnet said:

 its more interesting than listening to bekos french cars

[hairnet]

You' no  beko you no dis me

[Talbot]

I sold him one of those french cars thankyouverymuch.  So it's sortof maybe ok.  ish.

[Tommyboy12]

I finally have my 998 back from the machine shop too. Gearbox was collected over the weekend as well. I'm ready to build up the engine for my white Mini now.

[ProgRocker]

@Tommyboy12 you have been spotted.

 

[beko1987]

On 26/01/2022 at 17:18, hairnet said:

nutter

hey but its more interesting than listening to bekos french cars

 

I rarely go on about my French car. Partly because its boring, partly because it just isn't going wrong atm 😲

your mum letting you borrow her car again this year or you going to get the bike back out? 

[Tommyboy12]

1 hour ago, ProgRocker said:

@Tommyboy12 you have been spotted.

 

What a proud and noble thing! She is looking a bit heavily laden with the extra engine I was carrying at this point 😂

[tooSavvy]

1 hour ago, ProgRocker said:

@Tommyboy12 you have been spotted.

 

God.... Have I worn a groove along that M62 😱... Gateshead depot/JLR Speke*/Ghd

*twice in a week, food vending s/w upgrades (by USB stick = machines not networked).

[beko1987]

Your rear lights are brighter and more visible than that black thing in L3😂

[High Jetter]

1 minute ago, beko1987 said:

Your rear lights are brighter and more visible than that black thing in L3😂

I bet that's because he's on the brakes in case there are speed cameras on the gantry!

[Tommyboy12]

I need a bit more warning to slam the anchors on when fully laden if I can even get to excessive speed in the first place! Were only talking piddly solid discs and skinny Chinese tyres!

[Tommyboy12]

So I have taken the decision to put the Montego up for sale. Exclusively to AS at the moment. I dont really have a need for it any more and I have a few other projects/cars I want to work my way through:

 

[sharley17194]

On 10/2/2021 at 11:08 PM, sharley17194 said:

All isn't well in the AX world, due to the extra weight we are now massively down on power, we already know the cooling isn't the best and it tends to throw steam clouds about.

I've also been hiding a seriously noisy CV joint since before i left because i didn't want to worry people.

So who knows how this story will end..... we are currently staying an hour and a half from John'o.

If the AX does make it, it will roll over 100k on the way home.

 funny when i think about how worried i was about the cv joint, I've just hit 102k and its still knocking. Maybe it just likes to be heard! 

[hairnet]

has six cyl bl apologist been sniffing yet