HIF 44 Carb rebuild for ERA Mini Turbo
Turbo Mini Forums

I have purchased the Burlen fuels rebuild kit and having read their BRIEF instructions I sought out the legendary guide written by Tom Fenton

http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.php?p=vt&tid=2878

My dilemma is this: In all things I try to keep the ERA as original as possible - certainly in all things that show - hence I have no intercooler, no dump valve other than the standard one fitted fitted to the plenum. In the instructions above Tom says that the original throttle butterfly flap containing the poppit valve should be replaced with the plain one in the rebuild kit but that a dump valve must be fitted to protect the turbo against sudden stalling - so the question is should I fit it or not?

Assuming I dont fit it should I take the original butterfly off the spindle, replace with the new spindle or leave well alone. Car has completed 29,000 miles.

If i dont remove the spindle and butterfly flap can I still change the seals?

Just use the original butterfly on the new spindle as you suggest.

Fastest 998 mini in the world? 13.05 1/4 mile 106mph

As Wil says. Take special care fitting it though, as although it looks like a disc with square sides, they are not, they have a taper to allow it to fit snug into the bore.

Thank you Tom & Will!

I shall do as you recommend

well that went pretty well except for those darn springs and trying to get the lower right hand nut done up with the choke cam and heat shield in the way.

One last question obviously I understand that there are extra bits in the Burlen fuels rebuild kit that are either or bits for different versions of the carb but the instructions relating to the choke assembly are somewhat sketchy and differ to Haynes (possible because of a non - turbo HIF.

So I removed the choke assembley by releasing tab washer and nut then came the first difference I have a diamond shaped washer to retain the spring coils - this is not shown in the Burlen instructions or the pictures kindly posted here.

Undo 2 screws remove the choked assemby consisting of centre spindle and body. Mine is not the type that separates body from mounting plate. I found the remains 2 O rings fitted to the body which appeared to fill the O ring groove - the Burlen supplied ones do not and barely stand proud of the bush - I fitted 2 as per instructions here, Hayens and I believe Burlen say 1 - the one nearest the the shoulder/mouting plate. So far so good!

The real question I gave is... are there so seals at the end od the spindle - the spindle consisting of the brass shaft with a metal washer pressed on the end and then the variable "V" slots half way along. Haynes appears to show a seal at the bottom of this journal. I had one "o" ring left over which was much fatter than the other and would be perfect to take some of the float/slop that the spindle now has.

The O rings in the choke assemble had become hard and brittle and had started to disolve - old age or are the scare storys of increased ethanol levels in fuel accelerating the problem?

So to recap:

2 "o" rings to seal the choke body to the journal - is this correct and does size matter?

Should there be an "o" ring anywhere on the choke spindle?

Just had another look at the pictures associated with the rebuild thread and the diamond washer IS shown under the spring coils - so covering the screw heads and NOT over the coils - is this correct?

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Thank you Turbo Phil! I asked Burlen and they said look at our exploded parts list so I did! It didnt answer the diamond washers question but it did explain the difference to Haynes - apparently there was an early alternative choke assembly which does seem to show an extra seal at the end of the spindle. Perhaps the "o" rings swell up on contact with fuel...

Burlen also could not explain why my mixture screw was a lot thiner that the one in the rebuild kit - I just re-used the old one with a new "o" ring