Leaning to the left

[bahoffe]

My left hand drive mini is leaning a over over the front left tire.  Not sure what is causing this.  I jacked up the car and tried to shake the tire left/right and up/down and there is very little play.  Hoping someone could give me an idea what would be causing this problem.

1971 Austin Mini Left hand drive

[94touring]

Sounds like a bad rubber cone.  It will give the car the appearance of being lowered, at least on the corner where the cone has failed. 

[joltfreak]

Sounds like a bad rubber cone.  It will give the car the appearance of being lowered, at least on the corner where the cone has failed. 

+1

[mascher]

If the cones have never been changed it is likely that the knuckle joint has worn through the nylon cup in the upper arm. In my experience the cones in pre-'74 Minis rarely collapse. The only significance to 1974 is that I'm the attendant to a '73 Mini and all the rest are much earlier models. The mid-to-late '80s and later cones, and the current OEM cones collapse if you look at them wrong.

Cheers,

Kelley

[bahoffe]

I just got my new cones and will be replacing them this week.  Do you have instructions on how to do this?
I referred to the Hayes maintenance manual but there isn't much information.

Brian

[94touring]

I've personally never had to replace cones, but I believe there is a special tool?

[bahoffe]

I have the tool but from what I can tell they are hard to get to.  Heading to the garage now.  Let you know how it goes.

Later,
B

[bahoffe]

Another trip to the store is in order.  Need a ball joint seperator or whatever the hell that tool is called.  haha

[94touring]

I hate seperating balls joints!  They are either really easy or impossibly hard.