Afternoon everyone,
Been chipping away at the Mini recently, I currently have a birds nest of a wiring loom whilst I test the new electronic ignition setup. MOT expires on that in the middle of May and it needs to be ready for London to Brighton a couple of weeks later - a few late nights coming up I think.
Anyway, the MOT for the 75 expires a couple of days before the Mini and as usual I've left things to the last minute so needed a weekend to sort a few things. The handbrake has been terrible for ages, so I had bought a compensator from an R53 Mini to cure the issue. I also got some new shoes as one side had been sticking on so figured I may as well strip and clean everything.
The day started well, once I had cunningly removed all the skin from my knuckles to allow extra clearance to get my hand behind the calliper everything came apart nicely. I even remembered to snap a quick photo so I could refer to where everything should go when I inevitably forgot....
Apparently the back plates rust away on these so I was expecting some horrors, but not a sign of rust, they look like new
Whilst I was under there I gave the upper arms a quick glance, these also rust away but mine looked pretty good (on a roll today) gave them a quick wire brush and some rust converter.
Adjuster and handbrake levers weren't seized so everything was cleaned up and reassembled - one side done!
Drivers side next, all went well, other than forgetting which direction the adjuster went in - did I take a photo of this side....? Thankfully HBOL showed the O/S so all went back together.
Things were going well, I stopped for lunch and to watch the Grand Prix - very exciting
Back outside and it was time to change the compensator. After fighting for some time with carpets and centre consoles, I got the old cable and compensator mech out. I grabbed the new one but it didn't look quite right....
So, the R53 part I bought off eBay (and checked the images) wasn't sent, I in fact got one off an R56, great.
I was close to losing my temper, so refitted the door seals so I could close the rear doors, wedged the old compensator back in place and left everything else loose. At least I can at least apply the handbrake for a few days until I can have another go.
Arctic still has one of these left over and is kindly sending me it - I have Wednesday off work to replace the lower arm bush at the front, so if Royal Mail are on the ball I might be able to get this done and save next weekend for the Mini!
New tyres are going on on Thursday and then my wife will drop it in somewhere for an MOT next week.