Mechanical Moz

Do you know what year the 1275GT engine & box are? Is it pre A plus engine & rod change box and has the engine ever been rebored? Thanks.

The original (same as the late 80's Mini) matrix can often leak from the pipe flange joint. The plastic flange warps and the o-rings can also leak, the core may be OK.

ZapMap is the best I know of. I think it's complicated by the price structures that can exist around various subscription services offering discounts on the pence per kWh for a fixed monthly fee. I'm fortunate that in 18 months of EV ownership I've had to use public charging less than a dozen times. My car has just hit 29k miles today and the cost to fuel it in that time is pretty much exactly 3p per mile.

Beware the cheap aftermarket caps do not have a great reputation. Many reports across different applications of them leaking/not holding pressure. https://www.dmgrs.co.uk/products/expansion-tank-cap-rover-200-400-600-25-45-zr-zs-premium-quality-oem-available

Also used on the 1st gen BMW Minis, their part number is 17107515499.

I had a Quaife ATB fitted and diff rebuild by Alan Voights. Very happy with their service.

The spherical bearings are PTFE fabric lined and are self lubricating. Some manufacturers advise against lubricating these type of bearings as it can shorten the life. Although in this application they should probably be sealed given the bombardment of water and dirt they get. I guess the improvement seen with adding oil is to do with contaminants clogging it up. https://product.minebeamitsumi.com/en/technology/bearing/rodend_sphericalbearings_cat-2_003.html The ABWT10 has the standard X-1118 glass fibre liner as far as I can tell and isn't offered with the X-1276 polyester lining "suitable for racing cars". https://www.skf.com/uk/products/plain-bearings/spherical-plain-bearings-rod-ends/principles/lubrication/maintenance-free-bearings

You can buy complete generic wire feed assemblies to replace the one in your SIP set. I looked at this for my Cebora 130 set as spares are hard to come by, although I haven't actually replaced it yet as it seemed to work OK having given everything a good clean. Any rust on the wire spool from long term storage will soon cause trouble with the wire feed & liner. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404072369123 was the first one I found.

Is the distance from the motor mounting flange to the end of the pinion the same on the WOSP as it is on the old starter?

Mine has the cap from an E38 7 series, it's parting gift to me when I was trading it in.

Noisy to the point of being unsuitable for road/touring use in my opinion, 2nd and 3rd especially. It's the dominant noise in the cockpit by a margin. I'm going to try some normal GL4 semi synth oil in it instead of MTL to see if that helps at all.

A reverse light is only an MOT requirement on cars first used after 1st September 2009.

The box with the stainless steel cover will likely be the immobiliser. https://www.toadalarm.com/product/sterling-excel-immobiliser/

My 1998 car.

https://www.demon-tweeks.com/uk/mocal-replacement-seal-for-sandwich-plate-moc569a/ I used this one, been on there 6 years so far.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393427128685 You can buy the genuine Ford diff oil from Ford on eBay or your local dealer.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001hfqq?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile Recent episode of the BBC show Sliced Bread about this very question.

@ECR Was the YT vid the V12 rebuild on M539 Restorations by any chance? I was thinking the same when he was tapping the pistons in with a hammer handle as has been mentioned already.

20 minutes of toe angle is approximately 1/16" or 1.6mm for a 13" wheel.

I went through 3 Banners and an Ultramax in 10 years, generally 2 hours a day on a CTEK conditioner, battery disconnected during winter lay up. Ended up fitting an isolator switch a few years ago as I too think it's much better than a conditioner. Last spring I fitted a Skyrich HJT12B-FP LiFePo battery (a lucky £44 Amazon deal). It sat unused all winter in an unheated garage and the battery lost none of it's charge, started straight away. According to the instructions that came with it, the only limitation on charger type is the charging voltage must not exceed 14.5v and the spec of my CTEK 0.8S seems to meet this. Although I've never needed to put it on charge so it's not been a problem so far. Obviously too early to comment on the longevity beyond the 18 months it's been fitted, but so far I'm impressed. Weighs a smidge under a kilo as well.

It's not pipe lagging, it's a thin, sticky rubber foam type. It's likely this has twisted/slipped around on the frame. Easy to reinstate with the cover off.

My 1998 car has a single wire gauge sender, both senders in the water rail above the exhaust primaries.

I had my early 90's rev counter refurbished and calibrated and it still under reads. The ECU will show 7200 via the OBD port and the rev counter reads ~6500. If touring comfort is your priority I would avoid the Tracsport semi helical kit. The racket out of it in 2nd and 3rd is enough to drown out both the exhaust and diff chatter in mine, to the extent it's tiresome. Stu, you're welcome to experience it for yourself next time I see you. The full helical kit linked above wasn't available when I had mine done, I'd like to know how quiet it is.

I have a Gunsons Gastester, it measures % CO and is useful for setting the idle mixture on engines with a single carb. I've never tried to use it for anything else, it's working range makes it unsuitable for anything I've had with electronic injection.

The Lidl 12V oil pumps that have been mentioned on previous threads do a great job of extracting the old oil and pumping in fresh through the fill hole. Not sure if they're available at the moment but this is the same thing. https://www.amazon.co.uk/KingSaid-Transfer-Electric-Extractor-Motorbike/dp/B07V9R2Q6D/