Seemingly obvious stuff / tips that not everyone seems to know...
Turbo Mini Forums

Ok, so you've been working on minis for years - and you suddenly find something new out, tell someone, and they already knew about it and assumed everyone else in the world did, hence why they never told you....

I'll start.

1) You can pull a 'pot jointed' mini engine out without splitting your hub ball joints, you just lift the engine 2" or so, push to the left, then pop and slide the opposited side pot out, and drop down, then push to the right and pop&drop the other pot joint, then lift the engine.
I assumed everyone knew this - I know it was (is?) written in the haynes manual that you had to split the BJ's, but I found out when I was 18 or 19 that this wasn't neccesary - and assumed everyone else did, until I was giving a stateside enthusiast some guidance over the phone today.

2) You can leave the turbo in place when lifting the engine in and out. Yes - seemingly obvious - I always used to remove my turbo (again - this is over a decade ago) until I realised it could be left in place on the outer two studs (the inlet manifold/carb/plenum - or just the plenum needs to be removed though) which makes things a lot easier.

3) A Metro front RH engine steady wedges nicey into the starter hole and locks up the flywheel a treat.

etc, etc, etc...
What you got?

I always use an old bearing shell to lock the flywheel has always worked well for me :)

4) When removing a steering wheel, do not take the boss nut or steering wheel retaining nut compleatly off or you may hurt your self with a steering wheel in the face.

5) when re-fitting your engine. make sure your pot joints are in properly before driving down the road and loosing all of your oil on ollie's driveway...

Drives
-Ford S-max Mk2 Ecoboost
-Rover 100 VVC #2 - track project

Searching is all you need on TurboMinis

Use WD40 when putting window rubbers in, instead of washing up liquid. This was you dont get bubbles when it rains!

I once stuck a 3m dia "garden umbrella" in the engine bay, hanged a garage light in it and actually felt real cozy working outside in the rain

internationally known as "big" swede

Don't clamp you're wiring loom to the shell with a toight ratchet strap and a massivly too big fuse at the other end....

sure it was on here i read this one

1. next time the wok is off, put a cut where the hole is for the hardest to reach bolt, so next time you only need to back off the bolt a little and you can remove the wok, makes reinsertion easier too. (apologies i canny mind who to give credit too!)

2.the "rule of 9" for ajusting tappets. when the first valve is fully open, ajsut 8, when the second is open, ajust 7.
1+8=9, 2+7=9 and so on.

Edited by evolotion on 5th Feb, 2009.

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

no longer a series, but still 1.3 turbo.

Well, I'd like to see you do the "swing left" with the rad still on :)

I knew it would be contentious when I said it but I seriously find it easier to spend less than 5 minutes splitting two ball joints than removing half the paint in the engine bay by swinging the engine against it.....

Maybe I'm just showing my age.....

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

I've got fed up of swinging the engine and split the ball joint now!

good thread, i do often think of this when i am working on the car, unfortuanatly (sp) my memory is so poor that the only one i can think of is...

to get the clamp on the down pipe (t3) weld the bolts onto one side and to tighten the nuts (excuse me for not knowing the real name!) one of them ring spanners that thats bent on both ends..

sorry if it makes no sense i tried hard! lol

http://turbominis.co.uk/car/105/

Fitting rear wheel cylinders- push the new cylinder into place, get a pair of mole grips, turn them round so the handle that is usually nearest you faces away from you. Clamp them onto the hub flange. If you do it right, clamping them on will force the wheel cylinder hard up against the backplate, leaving you with 2 hands to fit the clip.

or...

http://www.minispares.com/Product.aspx?ty=...inder%20Circl...

easy.

I'm willing to bet that 99% of people have got mole grips though, and probably not many have one of those.

3) A Metro front RH engine steady wedges nicey into the starter hole and locks up the flywheel a treat.

good one

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

Got mine from a show for a couple of quid after spending ages trying to get one on without knowing the mall grip trick....

as mentioned, slotting the bottom 2 wok holes as a top idea

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

When removing the flywheel, loosen off the crank bolt but do not remove, do the bolt back up until there is only a few mm between the the flywheel and bolt, then use the puller, this will prevent the flywheel launching itself into your shins!

alternatively use some strong wire to tie the thing down.

RUBBER GLOVES!

Cut the 5 tops off, not much though. Place over dizzy with leads going through fingers and use the small zip ties to secure the fingertips when weathers grim/wet for a while, and hey presto water proof dizzy!

Lightweight racer coming soon.