It has been a long time !
Sorry for the lack of updates.
My Minor has now been finished and on the road since 2004. Since then I moved to the Midlands, bought and renovated a house, lived abroad for nearly 3 years and got married.
The Minor was on the road every year (except last year) and used for the occasional trip away and to work, plus a trip to Classic Le Mans with a few laps of the 24 hour circuit.
The only fault with the car has been the exhaust manifold cracking. I competed 3,000 miles with no issues with exhaust wrap (except every 1,000 miles I had to replace the wrap as it burnt) then had the manifold ceramic coated.
The Cracked Exhaust Manifold
Once it was ceramic coated it cracked within 500 miles and I could not stop it cracking. It even cracked length ways along the tube away from any welds. Normally cracks appear as in the photo above next to the weld (the heat affected zone). I rewelded it and rewelded and it still cracked.
So I have decided to build a new manifold. See HERE
Also while lapping Le Mans (in extreme heat) the clutch slipped. So this was stripped out.
Paddle Clutch With Heat Marks
I was expecting it to be worn but it appears that it only got too warm. So I will put it back in and see how it goes. A clutch change is quite a simple job involving removing the seats and transmission cover, then the propshaft.
Lightened Propshaft Yoke
Talking of props, when I built this prop I lightened the yokes by boring the centre out. The thinking being that the the centre of anything in torsion is redundant (think of a tube instead of a bar). I was careful to radius and smooth out any potential stress raisers though.
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