A40 - stage one f@#kin finally

[Tommyboy12]

I do like those Smith's rev counters. With the cost of the pod it's definitely not worth making your own

[JMotor]

I really like that.

Looks proper and fits with the rest of the car's look your going with.

[Matty]

Evening/morning all.

You join me part way through a 14hr night shift warming this big bearing up ready to fit at 7am.

So this leaves me alone with not much else to do, no one else here and an unfinished engine that's been kicking me in the cods recently.

As some will be aware, the original conrod bolts failed whilst torquing up. Which wouldn't have been an expensive problem if I had standard conrods. But I have AEG521 conrods. Which are magic, highly sought after conrods. Which also don't take standard rod bolts. And no one sells the ones I need.

Enter MED Engineering who kindly relieved me of £150 (still hurts) for these beautiful magical things. Which are made of gold 😆. Sexy though

Assume the position

Hello darkness my old friend

All done. Sexy ARP goodness for 8000 RPM and big power!

Also removing household funds was the crank pulley which also acts as a harmonic balancer. Mine was cracked through the boss and had chunks missing from the flange so i couldnt in good faith reuse it.

Just time to splash a bit of cam lube about

And button the sump up finally

Right. Better do some actual work seeing as I'm getting paid. Hope you all have a restful nights sleep you lucky bastards 😭

[N Dentressangle]

Loving the way that workshop is clearly used for stuff which makes the A series look like it came out of a cracker 🤣

[Matty]

1 hour ago, N Dentressangle said:

Loving the way that workshop is clearly used for stuff which makes the A series look like it came out of a cracker 🤣

The same is also true for the owner who at times struggles to recalibrate to smaller things if he's honest 🤣

[Matty]

And who has managed to wake up an hour into his day's sleep 😮‍💨

[MiniMinorMk3]

8 hours ago, Matty said:

 

Also removing household funds was the crank pulley which also acts as a harmonic balancer. Mine was cracked through the boss and had chunks missing from the flange so i couldnt in good faith reuse it.

I hope the new crank pulley does no cause problems. On one of my Minis I had the synchros replaced in the gearbox. Unfortunately the flywheel had spun up on the crank and had to be cut off. The replacement flywheel caused some horrible vibrations as the assembly had not been balanced as they did in the factory. It was a 1275, which are a bit more vibey than the small bore cars, but it was not a smooth as it was before the gearbox work.

Good work so far, and yes, those ARP bolts are big money, but then you wouldn't want a bolt dropping and making a mess of everything.

[Matty]

2 hours ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

I hope the new crank pulley does no cause problems. On one of my Minis I had the synchros replaced in the gearbox. Unfortunately the flywheel had spun up on the crank and had to be cut off. The replacement flywheel caused some horrible vibrations as the assembly had not been balanced as they did in the factory. It was a 1275, which are a bit more vibey than the small bore cars, but it was not a smooth as it was before the gearbox work.

Good work so far, and yes, those ARP bolts are big money, but then you wouldn't want a bolt dropping and making a mess of everything.

I'll be honest and admit that I didn't buy the dearest. They're surprisingly expensive for what they are. This one came from MGOC spares on line operation.

[Matty]

On 11/11/2023 at 20:08, MiniMinorMk3 said:

Also, what have you got between the carb and manifold. Some advise that you should put sandwich plates in to help with the damping vibrations that can cause problems in the float chambers.

Misab Plates Weber and Dellorto Manifold to Carb Mounting (weber-carbs.co.uk)

Sandwich plates, Misab, 40/45/48DCOE x 2 (set of 4) (burtonpower.com)

@MiniMinorMk3. Git. Again. 🤣

[Matty]

Small job today. The way the driver and passenger seats were in was a right lashup. Not me this time honest!

I have the seats that @SiCdonated but they are next winters project as there's a bit of fettling needed and I'm busy enough at the moment. However, I wanted to make some proper subframes which would suit the current seats and any future ones. So I did a bit of drawing and my mate made me these.

I did a trail fit with the passenger seat, a bit of cutting and welding to change a few bits then he made me another set as copies and powder coated them!

So today I put it all in proper.

Carpets out and look at those lovely solid floors!

Drilling and fitting.

Swarf cleaned out and a bit of paint chucked about. Obvs that was just the primer but then i got carried away and forgot to take photos!

Clean my tools and shit up whilst the paint dries.

Even time for a quick brew!

And done.

Whilst i appreciate it doesnt look any differant, there are two major improvements. One being that the seats are now properly secured to the car and properly safe.

More importantly (🤣) i drew the subframes to sit as low in the car as it is possible to go. As a result the seats are now a good 2 inch lower. So where as before you sat "on" the car with your head near touching the headlining, now you sit well "in". The driving position is massively better! Lovely to drive home. Well pleased.

(As a bonus, aside from a couple of 8mm holes, the new subframes involved no alterations to the floor pan. So if anyone wanted to put the car back to original, the frames unbolt and all the original captive nuts and the rear seat cups are still there.)

Cheers all.