Project Trig - After 18 Months Away, Is Back In Town! by Mini 360

7 minute(s) of a 461 minute read

6 months after we moved in, the Mini has moved in too :)  Not MOT or tax on it so got it dropped off this morning.  Garage is a bit tight as theres too much **** kicking about (boxes of spares mainly) which will get chucked out to the shed for storage.   Happy chappy and can't wait to get stuck into it again for the first time in 18months.

2-18-2016

Done nothing to this but i did acquire some adjustable lower arms and tie bars from a TMFer.  Need a blast to get rid of the corrosion but they are fine underneath :)

2-19-2016

And after 15mins in the blast cabinet...

Best tool I've ever bought!

4-24-2016

Long overdue update!

 Well, I've still got a job somehow (oil industry sucks!) but with the R53 needing discs/pads/callipers all round, funds are lower than your grannies nipples and Trig isn't seeing any of them! However, I gave the old boy a wash today to get rid of storage dust etc. Cleans up ok but looks terrible in the metal. Needs a decent machine polish to get him right again. Sitting in storage with dust/hands/fingers being drawn all over him hasn't been kind to the paint.... Got a set of split rims I need to sell to make space for a gearbox rebuild to start. Got the original 998cc box with daft final drive in it, so rather than when the engine any box out and take up precious floor space, I am planning on ripping apart the spare box, seeing what needs replaced, then rebuilding it to my ideal spec. No straight cut gears as the car is used for long distance to shows up and down the country but looking at 3.44 final drives for a mix of acceleration and cruising at reasonable revs. When the engine comes out, I'm redoing the engine bay top to bottom as the paintwork on the ancillaries hasn't lasted any length of time and really lets the whole car down. Im sure it would be passable but its not to my standard... But anyhow, hers the beastie after a quick wash   MASSIVE list of bits I want for the car but they will have to wait until i know for definite my job is secure for the long term. If the oil price jumped up by 2-300% that would be great....!

5-13-2016

Well I still have no spare money buuuut I felt sorry for the car sitting there unloved and unused and as its till insured I want to get it back on the road.... The main thing keeping it off the road is the gearbox. It jumps out of 2nd (common fault) struggles to go into third and jumps out of 4th (which isn't fun when you're cruising at 80mph and the revs suddenly start screaming!).

Thankfully I have the original box that was attached to the 1275 (using the box from the 998cc engine at the moment) which has a fault where it wont select 1st or 2nd, which I think is down to a selctor fork/shaft issue.

So last night I started stripping the spare box to see whats going on inside and to get a list of parts to replace, as I want this to be an 'as new' build.

Looks pretty ropey having sat in a plastic bag round the back of my parents shed for about 3yrs, however all the oily bits are rust free which is surprising!



Diff housing looks like moisture has crept in between the metal and the paint, hence the bubbling.







Drop gears are in good condition with no signs of wear so these can be reused. Did consider switching to straight cut drops for all of two seconds. The use the car gets is mainly long drives to shows etc so noise being reduced rather than increased is a nicer idea. Although straight cut drops do sound epic....



Pretty sure these markings refer to the box casing rather than whats inside it but you never know. Im going to clean up the cast marks on this as well as it looks rough as *******.



Speedo drive full of crap. Thankfully the gear that connects with this is plastic so this crap wouldnt have been crushed too badly or caused much damage but still...pretty bad.

Bottom of the casing/sump. Lots of debris in it.



This was rattling around in the sump...hence why I couldnt select 1st or 2nd.





I guess a 25yr old cast metal part is allowed to fatigue over time. Pretty clean shear as well. Hopefully a cheap part new or second hand if not.



The end bearing on the drop gear side was broken although still spun freely, the plastic had cracked for reasons unknown.



Speedo drive housing was a state so I set about blasting it clean again. Just need to scrape off the remaining gaskets and then reblast it.









Removed the diff as well but hands were oily so didnt get any pics of that. Need to count the teeth to confirm what ratio of final drive it is.

Enjoyed getting back into Mini stuff for a change.  Hoping to get the box fully stripped over the weekend for inspection and then get the casings off for powdercoating. :)