Caesar the 1275 E - Diary of minor changes

[Vinay-RS]

So it turns out changing the clutch release bearing with the motor still inside the car isn't too easy... doesn't help when the previous owner had over tightened all the bolts on the flywheel housing :\ Anyway, started the job on Monday morning and tried to follow the instructions in a video and from the various manuals. After much strife I got 5 of the 8 bolts out and couldn't get the remaining 3 out (too tight to loosen on my own).

On the verge of giving up, I turned to a friend, Les Irwin. He is a true legend, mini expert and all round fantastic person. He told me not to quit and came to the rescue and helped me remove the housing. One of us held the spanner on the bolt head, while the other turned the spanner.

We changed the parts, which was definitely necessary as the plunger was worn and the bearing was extremely noisy. Additionally the clutch arm had been bent and the clevis pins had suffered a decent amount of plastic deformation.

Then on Tuesday morning, I took some time to reattach all the components which I had removed/disconnected.

Best part, the noise from pressing the clutch is now gone











And today a friend came to visit in his lovely Series 3 Land Rover. Such an honest and simple car, with brilliant engineering solutions. I absolutely love that car

[gweir]

Love the red paint with the black interior.

[Enzio]

Glad you got it sorted Vinay - and good to have some good guys on the forum like Les

[Vinay-RS]

Love the red paint with the black interior.

Glad you got it sorted Vinay - and good to have some good guys on the forum like Les

Thanks guys. Yeah I completely agree, they are the kind of people that make our mini club great.

---

So I've been feeling a little down when looking at the mini everyday because it was really dirty, the paint was flat and it just made me feel really sad. So I decided to give it a wash and detail and it definitely made me happy to see a shiny mini

Anyway, I realised that If you ever lose your love for your classic car, give it a good clean and polish. It just lifts your mood and spirit about it.

[Jared Mk3]

Those wheels really do suit the car

[Quinny1293]

Well Done Vinay, good wash and polish makes it look brand new again! Now to start putting all the awesome goodies on you have in store

[Vinay-RS]

Those wheels really do suit the car

Cheers Jared. There should be a few minis rolling around on D1s soon. Your 1380 clubman and Alec's Traveller.

Well Done Vinay, good wash and polish makes it look brand new again! Now to start putting all the awesome goodies on you have in store

Thanks Quinton. Now to refurbish the lovely goodies

[abri]

Glad to see you got the release bearing, plunger and arm sorted. Can't argue with new parts

[Vinay-RS]

Glad to see you got the release bearing, plunger and arm sorted. Can't argue with new parts

Cheers dude. Yeah, plus it's made a nice difference to the feel of the car when driving.

[Vinay-RS]

So I decided to use CAD to make drawings of the parts I was hoping to manufacture. The first was the booster bracket.

These are the original parts:


And these are the CAD models of the two brackets:




Then I decided to mock up the wheel centre cap, since the cap got hit and broken:


I'll try and get this 3D printed if I can.

Finally I decided to get a proper locking petrol cap that seals properly and hopefully doesn't leak.