Racing Green 89 Mini

[MiniDave]

Probably more than I paid for them, and probably more than it would cost you to just buy some from Mini Spares like I did!   ;D

But I'll look into it just for fun - copenhag

[John Gervais]

Dave, don't bother - it's not worth it - as you said, MSC is the sensible option, and since I have no income, my wife would be pissed off.  Not worth the hassle...  I have hubcaps and correct nuts for the winter steelies already, so these would just be something to put in a box.

[MiniDave]

I don't think these are right for steelies, are they. Shouldn't that be the rounded end ones?

[John Gervais]

I use 12" - here's a picture in it's 2015 winter garb.

[MiniDave]

Next up...suspension.

I decided to do a rear one first, just to see how it all went together, and mostly it was no issue. Getting the trumpet and cone out was a bit of a hassle, but the right prybar in the right spot and out she came. Putting the new one in involved widening the braces at the top just a bit to make room for the width of the coil spring with judicious application of a ball peen hammer, but even that wasn't hard. Of course I did the right side first, as the left involves removing or at least moving the gas tank so you can get behind it to reach the top nut.

I set the spring perch at the lowest setting to start with, I'll even it out once they're both on, but I won't set the final height till I get it on the alignment rack and can check it accurately with the frickin lasers.  ;D

One small disappointment....well two actually.....the set came with no fitting instructions and the lower spring perch collars do not fit inside the coils. I wrote Huddersfield and they said just turn it over so the spring just rides on the adjuster. That's not how it should be done and in fact the fronts are done correctly, but it will work of course.

Lastly, even an inexpensive motorcycle comes with a cheap aluminum wrench to set the spring heights with, but not these. The problem of course is getting one the right size that will span the nut properly. I can find them pretty cheaply on Ebay if I can find the right size. Adjustables are fairly expensive.....

I got ready to do the left, drained and removed the tank, pulled out the old shock and ran into a wall......the car is not sitting square on the lift and the left side won't drop far enough to get the trumpet and cone out. I can't start the car and back it off and put it back on again - the gas tank's out. I can't get a floor jack under it cause the lift is in the way, so I may be stopped for now till my neighbor across the street and his strong son get home tonight.

Maybe I'll work on something else......

I received the radio blanking plate from the guy in England, but my dash seems to  have faded considerably from what his plate is - there is a really noticeable difference in color. Might go back to plan A, which was to put the gauges in that radio hole...there's enough room, I'd just need to make a proper surround and mount. gonna hafta give that some more thought.

The pin I made for the steering wheel to make the turn signals self cancel didn't work either, it just rode over or under the plastic collar, so I'm going to have to come up with a better design for that too.

It wouldn't be a Mini if anything were easy, I guess.  ::)

[BruceK]

I use 12" - here's a picture in it's 2015 winter garb.

Hey, you've got a Mini Mascot model!  I remember seeing those when I visited Copenhagen about 15 years ago.  I also remember my Danish hosts telling me how stupid crazy expensive it was to own a car in Denmark.    I imagine that hasn't changed over the years.     

[BruceK]

Thanks for the update Dave.   Regarding the different color of the radio blanking plate, it's kind of counterintuitive, but sometimes it doesn't take much time to 'age' wood like that. You might want to try just exposing the plate to the sun for a week or so and see if it becomes similar to the color of your dash.

[John Gervais]

I use 12" - here's a picture in it's 2015 winter garb.

Hey, you've got a Mini Mascot model!  I remember seeing those when I visited Copenhagen about 15 years ago.  I also remember my Danish hosts telling me how stupid crazy expensive it was to own a car in Denmark.    I imagine that hasn't changed over the years.   

Yup - I've had this car since '98 and our daily driver cars cost about 2½ times what they would have elsewhere - soon to be selling mine (unemployed...) as I can't afford to have both a toy car and a daily driver.


Dave,have you considered that perhaps the turn signal cancelling ring on the steering column (steering column upper bush) is perhaps upside down or might be worn?

GSV1095

[MiniDave]

On these later cars the ring is part of the turn signal switch, I bought and installed a new one as the old one had a broken high beam switch......

[John Gervais]

I remember once that my indicator switch didn't work properly after I changed steering wheel boss, or maybe it was after I replaced the lower column felt and upper bush; I can't remember which, but in any event, I ended up flipping something over - believe it was the upper bush and the indicator switch more solidly engaged the steering wheel's split pins.

I'd have to see it again to relive the moment...  "There was this problem and I did something which fixed it" probably doesn't help much...  I'll sit back and sip my Pimms...

[MiniDave]

 ;D ;D ;D ;D

I'll take a pic of it next chance I get.....

So, got both rear struts in at last...neighbor came home and we lifted/scooched the car over a bit till the control arm could drop and the rest was just the same as the right side.

Next I went to the gas tank, I had a feeling the sender was bad, so I had already ordered a new one.....and since the tank was already out for access to the shock........ releasing the lock ring was no biggy even tho I didn't have 'the tool", a good sized pair of channel locks did the trick. Once out I hooked it to my ohm meter and sure enough, about half way down the travel it went to open. Just to be sure I checked the new one and got a good increasing signal from one end of the travel to the other. Result! as Edd Chinar says....

I need to get a new piece of vent tubing, this one was broken off just inside the boot, I'm hoping that's where I'm getting raw gasoline fumes from as I don't see any leaks anywhere.

I also need to make some new gaskets for the boot hinges, these were dry rotted and fell apart when I took the boot lid off to get easier access to the strut top mounts and tank fittings.

Lastly, as I took the tank over to the bench to change the sender I heard something rolling around inside, once I had the sender out I got a slim flashlight in there and found this little gubbin. Apparently a "72" didn't have the restriction for unleaded fuel, either that or they took it out so they could run regular leaded fuel across the pond, cause we sure don't have any here in the states. I think this car may have come from Belgium or Holland, being left drive and having a KM speedo and so on......and it doesn't have any German market indicators like my old 62 Cooper S did. Who knows?

Tomorrow I have to work all day, so I won't get to play with it again till Wed, then I'll start on the front suspension. We have a club event the weekend of the 16th, so I need to have it drivable by then

[John Gervais]

Wow, cool 'gubbin'!  Never seen one of them before; it looks almost aftermarket or dealer add-on as they received cars built from old-stock bits.  I'm inclined to agree that it could be Belgian.

[MiniDave]

I'm debating with my self whether to put I back in, it's just held in place with three grub screws.

So, got one side figured out and installed, but I have yet to remove the rubber spring, I could be in for a fight.....some guys just cut the support in two, but I'm not sure the rubber spring will come out with the upper control arm still in situ. This is just a trial fitting, I have to take it back out to get the spring and trumpet out.......

More as it happens......

[MPlayle]

Having been down the road of replacing the rubber springs on the green Panel Van I had a little while back, you will indeed have to pull the upper arm to get the old spring out even with cutting the trumpet.

You will also find it helpful to compress the spring to relieve pressure while removing the arm and trumpet/knuckle joint.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

I was able to get the new cones in/out with the upper arm in place, but not with the trumpet.

[MiniDave]

I'm thinking a lot will have to do with how collapsed the springs are......more as it happens.

[John Gervais]

I've done my front cones a couple of times and I've never been able to get either the old cone out nor the new cone in without removing the upper arms.  In fact, the new '687 cones I installed this past Spring didn't allow the fully-shortened RipSpeed hilos to be installed without first being compressed.  Pain in the butt!

[MiniDave]

Well, I couldn't get my cones out either, even tho I wasn't trying to save them or going to put new ones in again so I had to remove the upper control arm too. It's just as well, just like on Buzz the shaft was knackered....I had anticipated this so on my last parts order I added two repair kits. I'll knock the bearings out then take the arms up to school and blast them, then give them a coat of paint - so BruceK won't accuse me of being like Edd Chinar again!  ;D

Taking mplayle's suggestion, I made a tool to pull the cone up out of some all thread, a few nuts and some tubing and washers, and it worked a treat! Popped the trumpet out then set to work on the control arm shaft. It didn't take long and she was out and on the bench. Comparing the front and rear cones, the fronts were definitely compressed more..........

I've had a funny low speed wobble in the front end, so I hope all this front end work and new parts will result in getting rid of that once and for all......I'm replacing the lower control arms and tie bars with adjustables so I'll be replacing all the bushings at the same time. Once it's all done I'll run it up to school and set the ride height then do a good 4 wheel alignment and see where I'm at. If these springs act anything like the ones I put on Buzz I'll be resetting the ride height a couple of times as they settle in..... I wonder why they didn't use a longer spring on the fronts, there's plenty of room for it.

I'm really hoping for a ride improvement with all this......between the extra travel in the coil springs and the adjustable shocks.

[John Gervais]

When I rebuilt the upper arms this past Spring, I didn't use the bearings that came in the kits, as one kit had the genuine Torrington bearings and the other had something else which looked similar but didn't have as many rollers.  Apparently there are 2 different bearings used in the kits, genuine Torrington 88G302 which has many needle rollers laid tight against each other and another bearing which is often substituted and has more space between the rollers.

I ended up ordering and using these:  88G302

[MiniDave]

I wonder if I could get those from the local bearing house, I've gotten other Torrington bearings there.....I'll have to look into it. Thanks, John!

Edit: Your comments made me curious so I went down and looked at the ones in the kits from MiniSpares....I don't think you could get any more rollers in there! I think these will be fine, and as I remember these are the same ones I got from 7 Ent when I did Buzz's upper arms.....

[John Gervais]

Happy to help when I can, it's a bear of a job to have to do it again...  Oh, that's right, not for you with coil-overs... 62.gif

It's a full-compliment bearing, I'll try to find the Koyo-Torrington number.

Here it is:  Upper-Arm, use: Koyo B1212 full-compliment

I've attached the catalogue (catalogue page B-2-57 (119/274 in the .pdf download)).

[John Gervais]

Yes - those are the good ones. 

On my (messy) workbench I've got the 'other' - I'll try to remember to get a picture.

I'm sure the other type would be fine enough, especially with more than frequent greasing, but it just seems better with more support on the shaft.

I also wonder sometimes about how quality conscious folk are when assembling the kits.

[John Gervais]

Aha!  -

I have a habit of saving message threads and useful information.

Check this out:  http://www.minimania.com/msgThread/109110/1/1/on_the_upper_control_arm_rebuild_kit

[MiniDave]

Ha! Recent thread too......I'd love to have one of those bearing removal tools too, but not for the $125 it sold for on bay!

[BruceK]

About 30 years ago I owned a Mini that used to live in Canada.  Which is one of those places that puts loads salt onto their roads for 75% of the year they call "Winter".  This caused the Canadian Mini rust even more than a regular Mini.

I was trying to replace the broken knuckle joint on the Mini's right front strut, and I was using a cone compressor to reduce the pressure on the strut to retract it up into the subframe.  As I applied more tension to the cone compressor I heard a loud bang!   In the center of the rubber doughnut, the very rusted nut simply broke out, taking much of the center of the cone with it, leaving me with a mess. 

No way to compress the cone now, and no easy way to extract the strut either.  I came up with an idea to try drilling holes into the rubber cone to try turn it into Swiss cheese and weaken it so I could wedge strut out.  I found that I could access the rubber cone through a small window of the subframe sort of above the clutch arm.  So I found the biggest drill bit I had, a 1/2" one, and I began drill a hole. This won't take long, I told myself.  But when I pulled the drill bit out I was shocked to see it left no hole where it had been -- the rubber was so very dense that it effectively sealed itself back up.  I attacked the rubber again with the drill, but no hole resulted.  I kept going at it, and I could sort of see an area where the surface of the cone looked a little different, but still it still no holes!  It took many many curse words and a lot of drilling, while I got madder and madder and kept attacking the rubber cone with the drill.  Eventually, it was weakened enough that I was able to pry out the strut.    I still have nightmares.