4 replies to this topic

[Steve G]

I have been trying to find out the correct ride height for Mini front suspension and spotted this in one of my collection of manuals. 

 

 

Pretty much all I could find before were the hub to wheel arch setting dimensions for hydrolastic cars which isn't very helpful on the front of my Scamp.

 

What I needed was the designed height of the front suspension and these figures should give that. I realize these might not actually give the best handling but it will provide a good starting point and also allow me to position the trailing arm mounts right in relation to the front. 

 

What I don't know is if the distances take into account the compression of the bump stop rubbers?

I found this diagram in an early Haynes manual and wonder if it is also in a proper workshop manual along with more detailed info.

Can anyone help ?

[nicklouse]

my question to you is what are you really trying to find out?

 

just set it with the drive shafts level as that is a good something for something.

 

personally i would set it higher but my intended use of a scamp might be different to yours.

[Steve G]

I want to make my Scamp a low as possible without running on the bump stops all the time and the Mini I am using as a doner isn't standard so I can't just measure it.  Having the driveshafts level is a good place to start and when I get the old style solid mounted subframe built up I can test fit it to see if it looks right.  

 

When the MK2 scamp was designed they wanted to have a low, flat load area and allow big front wheels with off road tyres to get better grip off road. To help do this they used 12" front wheels and 10" rears.

I will be running 12" wheels with low profile tyres all round and the front will be 1 1/2" lower than standard due to modified subframe mounts as well. To get the car level I will have to raise the rear suspension trailing arm pivots up a lot otherwise the arms will be pointing upwards far too much.

I need to mock up the front at runnning height to work out what to do at the back.

 

There are so many variables with it I just wanted to have somewhere to start. In theory there is just over 5 1/2" of travel as standard and I would like to keep that if possible. I was interested to know if anyone had seen the diagram in a works manual as it would prove the information was accurate.

Hope that makes sense.

[rodandtom]

Found this. don't know if it will help you.

 

Rod

 

Attached Files

•  Ride Height.jpg   77.39K   14 downloads

[Steve G]

Hi Rod.

 

Yes I have seen that diagram in the workshop manual I have thanks for the interest though. Trouble is the dimensions given aren't from the floor as I originally thought, but somewhere just above it. I did work out approximately how high off the floor and think it's about 45mm and that involved a full size wheelarch drilling template and some scale drawings I found on the net !

 

I have searched a lot to find this info and the only other figures I have seen are the hub center to arch measurements. I have found quite a few other people asking about this as well but I don't think they have found a answer.

 

A lot of the information in the early Haynes manuals was taken from the proper BMC manuals, and if this is then case it ought to be right, at least on early cars.