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Part 3
Most Mini owners, along with anyone who has done much work on Minis, have quite a lot to say about the mounting bolts at the forward end of the rear sub frame, sadly most of it is unprintable! My plan on any Mini I am asked to look after, is to remove these bolts in turn, if humanly possible, inject loads of waxoyl through the threaded part in the heel board / sill, make sure that each corner is well ‘pickled’ (old engine oil will work almost as well if you don’t have waxoyl), coat the threads of the bolts generously with copper grease & re-fit them. When, or if the day comes that you have to change the back frame, the bolts will release easily & if there is any rectification work to be carried out on the area of the heel- board, the corners with the threaded holes are significant reference points for the rear of the car. I carried out this procedure on my own Mini when I bought it at 5 years old, in 1986. When I came to change the rear frame 14 years later, all four of these bolts released without any trouble. There’s nothing worse than applying a socket to these bolts & hearing a crunching sound as part of the back corner of the sill rotates with them. Not insurmountable, but fitting a new heel board is a bit of a challenge, especially when the vital sill-ends have disappeared.
So, what happens if you buy a nice structurally sound Mini & the bolts won’t release? Unless you have a vital reason for removing them, leave them in place & soak the rear corners in releasing oil, followed by waxoyl or old engine oil, from above, by removing the trim from the rear pockets. When the day comes that you really have to remove them, they may well release.
The front suspension of the Mini is notoriously simple to work on, but care must be taken if using the tool to compress the rubber spring. While it is compressed, try to work on the strut & knuckle joint areas with a pair of pliers or mole grips. If the threads into which the compressor fits let go, they don’t give any warning & can cause serious injury to your hands. Always ensure that the threads in the centre of the rubber spring are coated in copper (or any) grease. The other main requirement for working on the front suspension, is a good quality ball – joint splitter. I prefer the scissor action type. I have encountered a lot of seriously over tightened ball joint nuts, which is unnecessary, stick to the torque settings in the manual, & they normally release easily. This particular car has fixed 1.5 degree negative bottom arms & adjustable tie rods. When doing a restoration of this magnitude, a new set of ball joints & track rod ends is advisable & not too expensive.
I learned many years ago that Mini left hand radius arms have a left-hand thread for the big hub retaining nut, I only ever found one that didn’t, but always proceed with caution, it’s easy to end up with a nut with no thread in it. In this case I am removing the hub to fit new bearings & Cooper ‘S’ wheel studs
The holes have now been cut in the bulkhead sealing plate, for the wiring harness & speedo cable. The wiring harness has to be pulled through the bulkhead, via a hole in the parcel shelf, starting with it inside the car. It is not possible to start from the engine compartment & work back to the interior of the car. Wiring up a car from scratch can seem a daunting task, but it is a lot easier with a good wiring diagram which shows all the components & colour codes. I was lucky with this car, because having fitted & connected the loom, everything worked apart from the headlamp flasher, which turned out to be a problem in the switch. If you are not experienced or confident with this kind of electrical work, I would suggest seeking some help from a professional, the time saved can be well worth it.
I made a bracket to secure the spot & fog light relays to the inner wing & an auxiliary harness running alongside the original. Neat wiring not only looks better, but is much safer than the often seen ‘Christmas tree’ method, which can cause electrical unreliability, or at worst, a fire. Note the battery cable now runs inside the car & enters the engine bay through holes in the bulkhead & inner wing stiffener. Always use cable grommets or at least some kind of protective sleeve in this kind of situation. Most important, when replacing or troubleshooting wiring, always make sure that all earth connections are sound, electricity takes the line of least resistance, & a poor earth will cause the current to back feed through other components, a typical example of that is when you see rear indicators glowing dimly when the brake lights come on.
With all wiring in place, the engine can be fitted, it takes only about 20 minutes to lower it into place, connect the drive shafts & engine mounts, it’s fitting & connecting everything else which takes all the time.
If using a long centre branch exhaust manifold, as I always do, it is best to leave the upper engine stabiliser off so you can rock the engine & fiddle the pipes down the back of the block & past the sub frame. If the Mini in question has a rod change gearbox, the static gear change locating rod must be secured to the diff casing before the L.C.B. manifold is fitted. The bolt will not go in with the manifold in place.