Caesar the 1275 E - Diary of minor changes

[Vinay-RS]

Bit of an update. The car lost all its brakes on Monday evening. So, I chatted to a friend and took the car to him on Tuesday morning as I figured I'd not bled the brakes correctly. After a terrifying trip (given the fact that there are lots of hills and the stopping capacity of the Mini was non-existent), I got the car there and he found the source inside of a minute. No fluid in the master cylinder as it had all leaked out of the nearside front brake line fixture.

Anyway, after hearing the car run, we jacked up the car and started removing the brake components to check them. Like I'd mentioned before, the offside front flange refused to slide out. Turns out that was a blessing in disguise as the front bearing has disintegrated...


So we took it all apart and also found that the inner CV joint boot on the nearside was missing and the balls had fallen out. His advice was to drain the oil, pull out the pot joints and service the whole assembly on the bench. It was good timing anyway as the Mini is yet to be serviced this year.

I needed to get new inner CV joint gaiters and was waiting on the brake lines and other bits I'd order. Well, the gaiters arrived on Thursday afternoon and the box of bits arrived on Friday morning. It's nice when new shiny parts arrive from across the world


I'm hoping to go to his factory early next week and under his watch, clean and assemble all the components. I will do the work, so I learn, but at least someone with experience will be on hand to tell me when I'm not doing the job correctly.