Mini back on the road

Finally, I got my a into g and did some work on the mini. A year or so ago, I put a spare steering rack onto the car which I had acquired from a scrapyard (along with both subframes and some other stuff). It felt really good around the trackrod inner joints, which was the problem I was trying to fix. However, when it was on the car it was obviously very faulty, as there was very little steering ability at all. A bit dispirited, I took the car off the road and abandoned it in the garage, where it has been getting in the way ever since! As we sold the Honda Odyssey at Christmas, and I may be getting a new job soon, I need some transport.

So last week I dropped the front subframe and removed the rack, and stripped it down to find the fault. The track rod joints were excellent, and everything else looked good, the rack and the pinion and all bearing surfaces looking very good. A bit stuck, I stripped down the old rack for comparison, and the new one still  looked better! Looking a bit closer, I saw that whoever had rebuilt the new rack had missed out a small spacer washer that goes on the pinion gear. It doesn't look important until you realise that 3 mil of end float is not going to make a steering rack very accurate, translating to probably 15-25mm of movement in the rack, completely removing the ability to steer! I quickly transferred the washer from the old rack, and reset all the end float and damper shims, and put the rack back in the car.
Next job was to put in a new battery (11 volts after 16 hours of charging is not healthy!), and start the car up. Some adjustments to the carburettor, and it was ready for the WOF. It failed on the brake balance on the front brakes which is par for the course, and sailed through its retest!

So the mini is now road legal and insured again, and on Monday it will be licenced! It will get used for to from polytechnic for a while, and if I get the local job I have applied for, for travelling the 10km a day for that. Any Signs of Success house calls will also be done in it. Next job is some sign writing possibly!

If I do get the new job, I am feeling a little more inspired to get on with Minimal!