Yesterday i was driving along miniding my own buisness, jusmped over a couple of little bumps in the raod and CRACK!

then shhhhhhhhhhh and i could smell burnin rubber as my front left wheel was resting on the guard. i pulled over and had a look

at frst i thought i broke the upper control arm, but when i pulled it all down (after a flatbed ride home)

it is the horn that sits between the knuckle and the cone thats just smashed in half (horizontal crack)

my question now is, ive tried prying and what not but how do i get the front knuckle out of the upper control arm to remove the remains of the horn?

i have hilos to go in (only done the rear as the front was too much effort a couple of weeks ago)

does the front knuckle slide out of a hole.. is there n easy way to knock him out? does it come out complete with the ball and socket or just the ball like the rear does

cheers
Andrew

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Expert in training

you will need to make/ steal/ borrow/ buy a rubber cone compressor, it will make life alot easier

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lookin for another clubby

because the horn is broken.. the cone isnt causing me a problem (its floating around in there somewhere.. i have room to lift it up.. i just dont have the strength to lift it up..

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Expert in training

Yer the knuckle should come out from memory so I think you will probably need to keep trying.

Won't you need a cone compresson tool to get the hilos or new cone back in anyway? or do hilos not need that? because you can shorten then up ?

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Roads need more corners
A Deluxe(CG13DE), 2 Clubbies(998 and 1275) and 2 Morris 1100Ss

shouldnt need to get a cone compressor to put a hilo back in.. (or so ive been told)

i'll just take the car down to the mini place to have the other side put in (or maybe i'll make a cone compressor) anyone have a DIY cone compressor (photos or drawing or something)

oh.. right terminoligy.. when i say horn.. i mean trumpet

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Expert in training

My old man made me one up there is two types of threads so make sure you get the right thread.

This was just an appropriate sized rod threaded with a steel plate that on top of the suspension tower and two nuts on the other end of the threaded rod.

How it worked was you used the two nuts to lock each other and then you could screw the rod into the back of the cone or whatever and then you screw down the nuts against the plate and this compresses the rubber cone.

There is a picture of a cone compression tool on minimania's web site but I can't be bothered goinglooking for it but we used that to get the idea. They also say on there the threads that apply and how tell which threads your mini uses...

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Roads need more corners
A Deluxe(CG13DE), 2 Clubbies(998 and 1275) and 2 Morris 1100Ss

souds like the one i was gunna make

i just figured a long bolt rather than a threaded pole.. but it might be easier to get a threaded rod as a bolt that long would be crap to find

cheers

yeah they say on that site... but if the mini has replacement cones.. they could be either


come on guys... noone has ever put their own hilos in?

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Expert in training

Rather than the two nuts thing it would make it easier to use if you welded or something a t bar on the top of the rod as this would make it easier to screw into the back of the rubber cone.

Oh and we had to use an old bearing to pack the nuts up so we could get at them on one side no biggie though...

rubber cones are still available new aren't they? so following that if they have been replaced they would probably be the later thread type as why replace your rubber cones with older ones when you can get them new? well except for cost? maybe you will just have to try but don't cross thread it that is bad news

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Roads need more corners
A Deluxe(CG13DE), 2 Clubbies(998 and 1275) and 2 Morris 1100Ss

cone compressor.. see this thread
http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic ... compressor

until then.. back to the original issue

how do i pull the bloody knuckle out.. as shes stuck.. (nothing above the trumpet (its all smashed) so forget about talking about cone compressors

theres a small pieve of trumpet still on the knuckle.. so i need to pull it out to get that bit off and get the hilo in there

my problem is i dont know how this assembly goes in ( never seen one out of the car) so i dont really know where to bash to get it out ive tried and it doesnt seem to budge..

i sprayed it all with wd40 before i went to work so might be magically loose tonight

other option is pull the whole arm out.. but again, how do i get enough leverage to pull/push the pivot for the arm into the engine bay?

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Expert in training

i bought new knuckles just now, i figure with the condition of the trumpet.. that the knuckle wont be much cop.. besides.. i'll probably destroy it getting it out

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Expert in training

The pivot for the top suspension arm should push out easy by hand once you have removed the two big nuts on either end and the cap held in by two smaller nuts in the engine bay. You will need to remove the radiator to get to the nuts on the left side though.

Note: if you put in new cones you will need a compressor but with old cones (squashed) you may be ok.

G'Day MiniVan,
Always replace rubber donuts in pairs, or at least try and match them for age and collapse otherwise you will always be travelling around in circles, (one leg shorter than the other ??)
If you have HI-Lows you do not need the compression tool. BUT if you do use it, remember you have a rubber bungy wound up with the equivalent of the weight of the car behind it. I have had a thread let go on me, and if I had my hand in there at the time I would be typing with only one hand!!!
Dino.

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Over 1,000,000Km, but now my retirement restoration project

i'm not changing the cone, just the trumpet and the knuckle.. my rooted old cones are nice and hard..

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Expert in training

speaking of changing cones... does anyone know an aussie source for really hard competion rubber cones? or the swanky hard spring cone replacement you find on minispares?

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Expert in training

I changed from trumpets to hi-lo's without the compression tool.

You just drop the top suspension arm out and you can jimmy the trumpet (and cones if you want).


dewey

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dwightgunning.com