6 replies to this topic

[h_h]

Hi, I've got a 1978 LHD Mini (I'm in Canada) with a 1275 that was involved in a weird accident that had a car slam it on the left side front which propelled it into the curb. So it got hit on both sides essentially. When I got it, it was after it had been fixed up to about $5000 worth and the insurance company said any more and it's a write off, but my friend who owned it at the time wanted to keep it.

I bought it off him, knowing that the steering rack had excessive play on the right side. I replaced the steering rack with a used one that I verified was in good condition (I've owned about 15 Minis, 1100s and Americas, and kept most of the parts.) After only about a few hundred miles, it's exhibiting the same side to side bushing play on the right side that the old one had. Right now my right wheel has about 3/16" play at the widest bulge of the tire when I force it back and forth without moving the steering wheel or left wheel. Upon installation it had less than a 1/16". I'm a little baffled by what's going on.

The previous owner installed adjustable tie bars, but the suspension shop (correctly) said they couldn't do much for the alignment due to all the play. I made up a device to measure caster and determined it was actually negative on the right side. By shortening the right tie bar, I've brought the caster to just barely positive and it handles better but still doesn't return from a right turn as well as a left. I suspect maybe the upper control arm is bent forward, requiring the excessive tie bar shortening to bring the lower ball joint in line. This is affecting the camber and making it positive on the right side while negative on the left. The car has hi-los which need to be set quite differently on each side to maintain level. The right side is almost threaded all the way in, with the left side about four or five threads longer. One of the suspension donuts may have been replaced without the other one, which may explain that.

The only theory I can come up with regarding the steering rack is that the right hub is so far forward, it's wrenching the steering rack arm further forward than it's meant to go at suspension travel extremes and wearing the rack bushing in short order. Does this make sense? And how could I possibly measure what it is that's bent? I have a spare subframe if that's what it comes to, but of course that's a major job.

Thanks for any suggestions or comments,
hh

[Dan]

I would think the first thing you should do is a drop test, that should reveal where the distortion is. You'd need to drop from a lot more points than usual though and do it quite accurately.

[rot remover 71]

Hi, I've got a 1978 LHD Mini (I'm in Canada) with a 1275 that was involved in a weird accident that had a car slam it on the left side front which propelled it into the curb. So it got hit on both sides essentially. When I got it, it was after it had been fixed up to about $5000 worth and the insurance company said any more and it's a write off, but my friend who owned it at the time wanted to keep it.

I bought it off him, knowing that the steering rack had excessive play on the right side. I replaced the steering rack with a used one that I verified was in good condition (I've owned about 15 Minis, 1100s and Americas, and kept most of the parts.) After only about a few hundred miles, it's exhibiting the same side to side bushing play on the right side that the old one had. Right now my right wheel has about 3/16" play at the widest bulge of the tire when I force it back and forth without moving the steering wheel or left wheel. Upon installation it had less than a 1/16". I'm a little baffled by what's going on.

The previous owner installed adjustable tie bars, but the suspension shop (correctly) said they couldn't do much for the alignment due to all the play. I made up a device to measure caster and determined it was actually negative on the right side. By shortening the right tie bar, I've brought the caster to just barely positive and it handles better but still doesn't return from a right turn as well as a left. I suspect maybe the upper control arm is bent forward, requiring the excessive tie bar shortening to bring the lower ball joint in line. This is affecting the camber and making it positive on the right side while negative on the left. The car has hi-los which need to be set quite differently on each side to maintain level. The right side is almost threaded all the way in, with the left side about four or five threads longer. One of the suspension donuts may have been replaced without the other one, which may explain that.

The only theory I can come up with regarding the steering rack is that the right hub is so far forward, it's wrenching the steering rack arm further forward than it's meant to go at suspension travel extremes and wearing the rack bushing in short order. Does this make sense? And how could I possibly measure what it is that's bent? I have a spare subframe if that's what it comes to, but of course that's a major job.

Thanks for any suggestions or comments,
hh

Change front subframe.Could possibley need putting on a body jig,sounds badly twisted????

[h_h]

Thanks for the quick reply. I tried googling "drop test" and I'm sorry, but I don't know what that means. I presume it's something to do with dropping plumb lines from various locations and mapping out a projection of the the various parts to a horizontal plane?

[h_h]

Update: I had a good look underneath today and my right tie rod is hitting the subframe on full lock. That may explain why it's destroying the right bushing in the steering rack, because it would lever it with the subframe as a fullcrum. The left tie rod gets close to the subframe, but doesn't touch. My worst nightmare would be replacing the subframe only to find out it's the body that's bent.

[Ethel]

By drop test (I think) Dan means park the car on a flat, level surface and use a plumb line to plot all the suspension/chassis points you can on to the floor so you can make measurements and compare the left and right sides.

By tie rod I guess you mean track rod i.e. the bit between the rack and the steering arm? First thing would be to check the rack is centred correctly and the track rod ends are the same on both sides. You could use the tie rod pick up point on the front of the subframe as a datum to measure to both ball joints on both sides.

[h_h]

Sorry, I have to remember to keep my English consistent. Between North American and British, it gets more confusing than Whitworth vs. AF. Yes track rod (in British) is what I meant (tie rod in NA English.) I know the rack is centered because I installed it myself and the centering hole is perfectly lined up. I think I"m going to try a third rack if I can get this one offset to the right so neither tie, er I mean track rod, touches the subframe. That should get me by until spring or summer when I'll change the damn subframe.

Thanks for all the suggestions.