Hi,

I just bought this kit:
http://www.minisport.com/mini-spare-par ... _Ride.html
which is basically Hi-Los & new rubber & shocks etc.

Have never messed with my suspension before so wanted to get an idea of how long it will take to do.

As far as i know it's the original suspension on the car, so it's 20 years old and i imagine things might be well stuck and require some encouragement.

I bought the cone compression tool along with the kit, so hopefully that part will be easier than otherwise.

How long has it taken people to do a job like this? Any thoughts?

I plan on taking it to Mini Classic afterwards to get the geometry and so on set up right, but in principle it seems like an easy enough job. Am I right?

It took me about 4 hours I guess. Almost all the work is in the fronts; the rears take aout 1/2 hour. There was a little to-ing and fro-ing as the Smootharide cones are easy to not seat properly. As long as the trumpet engages the rubber cone correctly, it should be fine but just check. I went for a hoon down the street and one unseated itself, allowing the car to drop on that corner. However, once they're in there, they're fine.

The cones take a while to settle, so you'll need to adjust the adjustarides in a couple of weeks etc.

How long it takes you will be down to how much shagging around you need to do with the older components and when they were last touched. For example, I had to weld a tap to a socket and use that to clean up the thread in the old cones so that the compressing tool could engage safely. You may not need to do this, but bear it in mind. I wanted to keep the old cones in case I had to backtrack and reinstall them.

You can set the rear camber brackets yourself. Just take measurements of where the rear arm pivot is now, install the camber brackets and make sure the pivot is where it was before. You're not actually changing the geometry then, all the suspension arms etc are standard.

I'd be interested to see how you find the ride - I love the way the car doesn't crash over speed bumps; it feels like the suspension can finally work properly.

This is what i'm really interested to find out - hard to beleive that a relatively small change in components can have that effect.
All I know is that of the 3 minis i've owned, this one's always been the crashiest over bumps so at least i'm expecting to improve a bit, if I can achieve evolution rather than revolution, i'll be happy, if it's as good as they say it is i'll be over the moon.

Im looking at this kit myself, don't suppose you would be kind enough to take some pictures and measurements when it arrives?

Pictures and measurements of what?

I already have the kit sitting in a box on my living room floor, it may be a few weeks before i get the chance to try installing it.

This is the crucial component, the larger smootharide front cones:



The rears are a little taller than standard but not by much. The adjustarides are 'super low' variants of your normal hi-los, as the front cones are so much taller. The Minisport kit also includes rear camber brackets although I'm not entirely sure why. You can buy just the cones, although you'll never make the cones fit without hi los.

Apparently coil springs also give a more compliant ride than standard rubber cones, so it would be interesting to compare all three types. All in all, I'm delighted with the smootharide kit, but it has meant a pile of work getting it engineered in NZ.

Hey Weevel,

installing new cones, hi lo's, tie rods and shocks this weekend too. I am hoping it will only take a day... That's if all goes well.

Good luck with yours.

See you on the next SWOM (if it gets finished....)

Simon

Angusdog,
These are commercially available replacement Mini parts from UK. Why would you need them engineered in NZ? Is it the taller cones, or the fact they need hi-los?
AFAIK nobody in Oz ever bothers to get hi-los engineered; every 2nd dry performance Mini has them!

_________________
DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

yeah, it's not the cones that need engineering, it's the adjustable suspension. Just the hi-los mean you're up for a minimum NZ$400 for a cert, but you also need to meet the braking standard (100kph - 0kph in less than 4.4 seconds, x three stops). There are no approved modifications that make it easier; the fact that thousands of minis run hi-los doesn't mean you get approval any cheaper, sadly.

That's why I fitted adjustable bottom arms and tie rods, and metro vented four pots with a booster - may as well make it worthwhile. The upside is I can drop in the metro engine I had lined up for my MK II without any further mods. The downside is my MK II project becomes less viable by the day

Hmm I'm not sure whether engineering is supposed to be needed in Oz for hi-los, but I've never heard of anybody being pinged for having them.
They've got to be safer than running the usual half-rotted out alloy trumpets...

_________________
DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

In NZ, you won't get a warrant of fitness with hi-los, but the minimum NZ$400 for a cert means it's hardly worthwhile. The wheels also get noted on the cert. I also have to fit Group 5 flares as the disk hubs push the wheels out just too far to be covered by the standard special flares.