Hi all has any body reconditioned there upper control arms ? not the bearings and shafts , the ends where the washers touch , my right hand one has a bad goove worn into it on the forward end , any advise would be greatlly apprciated

Is the grove in the subframe or the washers?

For washers: A groove that is ment to be there, or a grove that has worn into it?
My washers had an ecentric grove ring to help lubricate. As for a worn grove, i would just file the burrs flat, and walah.

Subframe: I would just file flat.

The groove is in the end of the upper control arm itself where it mates up to the thrust washer with the grease groove in it

are you sure its worn in, or was it there before but you didnt notice.

could it be someone trying very to change the donut without a compressor and bashing the crap out of it to get it in there and dinting the edge.

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Aussie Leyland, Aussie Factory, Aussie Mini S.

The arm is probably now short & more than likely once it`s back together may have some excessive end float

put another arm in there

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

Thanks miniman , that was my concern ,excess end float between the grease washers , what is an exceptable clearance . I was going to take the arms to a friend at an engineering shop who build race cars to see if he could resurface the end , what are your thoughts ? thanks

Ah wev`e played with lots of different ways around this problem , with building them back up & machining them back nice,,, & just machining them & packing spacers etc,,, but the best & easiest way we have found is to just replace the arm with a good one

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

Managed to get a NOS left hand side and a really good right hand side one . Just have to give them a coat of paint and press the bearings into the right one . New shafts, bearings, washers and seals . all sould be sweet ,Thanks

Anyone know of a good supplier of new upper control arms, and pin kits.
Cheers

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I got mine from John at miniking Narellan. give him a call 46481233

thanks i'll call him tomorrow

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I new shafts and bearings in and have the opposite problem, no end float to the point where the arms are unable to move at all when the nuts are tightened up. Anyone else found this ? I haven't measured them (pushed the subframe to the corner of the garage with the s**ts) but it seems the new pins are too short.

ah,,, i`d be checking that you have the right thrust washers fitted first,,, thick one goes to the front & the thin one to the rear (from memory) if you have 2x thick ones then you`re in trouble

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

Make sure you put the smaller washer to the inside , (to the rear of the sub frame) The larger washer has a step in it which fits into the two layers of plate at the larger hole (towards the front of the sub frame) If you have painted the sub frame , you may have to srape the paint from the inner surface of the front hole to allow the stepped washer to seat propperly , which then allows the cover plate to sit flush with the sub frame (front tower section)

It was a few months ago I'll have another look, thanks people