Baby's First Mini

Sweet. Thanks for the info, pimp.

Got the water pump. Such a simple part, such a pain in the ass to install.

The replacement water pump did not have the same style heater hose outlet as the original.





I decided to cut the pipe off the original and then use a hose to join the pipe from the original (that goes around the side of the engine) to the new water pump by attaching a brass fitting in the outlet. The guy at Home Depot suggested getting a pipe nipple to thread the water pump because the brass would be destroyed.



This failed. I don't have a vice, and there is no room to thread on the engine. I then ventured that I would do a press fit by shaving off the threads and slowly file down the fitting until it was the right size.



This failed. I then remembered I have a tap and die set. Using the largest size I have (24 x 3.0), with much patience and force, this worked. Once the fitting and the water pump were threaded, I wrapped the fitting with Teflon tape and slathered the hex end with high temperature RTV. Once installed, I used water weld on the inside to further seal the fitting from leakage. My wife did the gasketing. She's very meticulous.



When I went to install, the water pump wouldn't sit right. The hex head on the fitting was hitting the bump for the freeze plug for the #1 cylinder. I quickly pulled it back off and shaved the one corner. This, I thought was the end...



until my wife pointed out that the fitting was too close to the engine on the end to fit a hose.



After grinding, chiseling, and plier-ing, I removed one full barb and part of another.





I forgot to take a pic of the finished fitting to hose to pipe setup, but I'll post one tonight.

The timing has been set. The engine is ready to drop at this point. Now to get the truck ready...



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The block off plate for the PAIR tubing. Came from a plate off a water pump from my dad's tractor.



Since this truck didn't have power steering, the nuts to hold the braces for the power steering cooling line weren't there. I still had the bushings and they're in good shape, so hose clamps to the rescue.



Dropping it...



...it's in!



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Looking good! nice work.

Thanks, man. It's coming along. I was thinking of doing a nice cleaning under the hood but I don't have any paint currently. It's still in great shape for its age so I'm not gonna fix what ain't broke.

I will say the yellow is going eventually. Black and bright green is the current plan.

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I would have to agree. I only like yellow on old school hot rods, and even then its not my first choice. I'm more of an orange fan when it comes to bright colors.

I was thinking of adding a thin orange stripe down the upper body line to my B but I don't want to wash off all the mud that is on there... It looks good in mud

I do like the green and black color scheme idea though.

Plugged the stock exhaust. The top bolts are too long (30 mm was the shortest they had) so I may grind them off and weld at the end.

In case someone else needs to know, the four PAIR tubing plugs are 14x1.5 metric bolts and the oxygen sensor bung is 18x1.5. I did have to re-tap the o2 bung.



I ordered the bolts from Fastenal for $29.14.

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Success! First successful forward and rear movement tonight. Essentially just have the grill, hood, and seatbelt to put on. Then alignment and registration.

Converted the rear brakes over to use single port wheel cylinders like I did to my B2000, but I like this way better.







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So you basically removed the rear abs, correct? or am I missing something?