27 replies to this topic

[MRA]

Well well well.............. well ...

Trumpets or cones are the aluminium bits (aluminum -translated for any americans reading this )

Donuts are the rubber "suspension" part..........

If the donuts are sagging you will most definately get this situation, however I feel that you have lowered it to "keep up with the peugots" this will drastically affect your handling.

Also the "cheaper" adjustable units as stated above do NOT have the correct profile and therefore suspension is NOT controlled correctly, your compression curve will have negative values and this will lead to sudden "droop" until the platform has been contacted which will happen suddenly.

Original Hi-Lo's can't be beaten, at the moment...

[littlebluemonster2]

right then....where do i start.

i aint a guy that gets miffed off easily, but like most of the country i am on short time and am trying my best to put my mini back on the road after spending 12 months replacing nearly every panel on the car. Which has cost me a fortune...

so when i wanted the car to look right i decided that having a 6 inch gap between the rear arch and the rear tyre was too much....

Like most of the NORMAL people on here i dont have thousands of pounds to throw at my car but want it to look something like..... so i ask as many people as i can about the subject before i try to attempt it...

SO, If i offend anyone on here by buying the cheaper kits from our beloved mini shows to keep the cost down then i apologise..... NOT.

SORRY ANORAK FOR ASKING A QUESTION ABOUT A SAFETY ISSUE WITH THE ADJUSTABLE SUSPENSION BUT FORGIVE ME I THOUGHT THATS WHAT A FORUM WAS FOR.... IVE NEVER FITTED ANY BEFORE AND IT DIDNT SEEM RIGHT, SO HENCE THE QUESTION....

AS FOR MOCKING ME, KISS MY A--E.

If thats the sort of support you give fellow BUDGET mini owners then either dont reply or stay off the forum alltogether,
if someone needs advice, give advice, not your overpriced opinion. iVE BEEN ON YOUR COOPER REGISTER FORUM AND SOME OF THE GUYS ON THERE DO IT ON A BUDGET...BUT YOU DONT SLATE THEM...???

Sorry if i offend anyone else with this, included the tmf itself but enoughs enough.

Was gonna post my rebuild on here when finished but if mocking at the pictures of some guy struggling his tits off using aftermarket panels and an angle grinder is kind of funny then i wont waste my time. We aint all got workshops and garage equipment to use, i have used a single garage at my brother in laws on a sat and sun for the past 12 months, if i had a fully equiped workshop and a couple of grand to spend then it would be finished..... but hey, ideal worlds dont exist in my world....

regards,
Chris

[THE ANORAK]

if you think your on a budget mate then you should try on my shoes, the way things are going i may have to sell my mini before i can even start to re-build it

do i have a workshop, no i don't even have a garage, all my work is done under a tarpaulin on a gravel driveway so again your one step ahead of me on that one.

the thing is, there are some things that you can't budget on, not if you understand how a part really works and why it was designed in a certain way.

and you also don't seem to realise that the car will settle a lot over time and you will be hiring it back up in a couple of months

i don't know why you thought you offended anyone ???

yes you did ask a question on a safety issue and i gave you an answer. you MUST wind the adjustable units out until the are a snug fit before you use the car, if i wasn't worried about the safety issue i wouldn't of said that, but then you chose to ignore that bit of "support"


it's not my fault if i fail to see why the issue is not obvious, its not exactly hard to figure out that the adjustable unit can not use it's full amount of adjustment and still be safe.

and oh yes, the cone is not the trumpet it's the "rubber" cone, because it's cone shaped and a trumpet is... well not click

Edited by THE ANORAK, 16 April 2009 - 08:47 PM.

[littlebluemonster2]

i didnt ask about the cone and trumpet.....

read again....

thats probably another one where i'm ahead of you, but lets just leave it there....

I got some info i needed the rest is water off a ducks back

[THE ANORAK]

i wasn't referring to you when i mentioned the cone and trumpet jees, are you even reading this ?????

here's a couple of pics of my fully equipped workshop ....

[nicksuth]

littlebluemonster2 - Just to add a little bit of +ve input.

If you have only just rebuilt the suspension I would advise you set it high to start with as the whole set up with adjustable suspension (be it HiLo's or Adjusta-Rides) will settle after a few miles of running around, maybe even a few hundred miles??? I adjusted my set up 3 or 4 times while it fully setlled out and that was with new Rubber Suspension Units, Knuckle Joints, Adjustable Spax's and "Adjusta-Rides".

A bit of negative camber is what you want for better road holding.

[nicksuth]

So is that "ConeHeads" 1 "Dounts" 0 ??????????

[mk1leg]

What a lot of fuss over this poor chaps suspension He's done it on a budget that he can afford, and I think he needs to get new shocks for lowerwd sus and this will stop rubber donuts from dropping out...........

[MRA]

I hope that my answers have not been seen as condescending or rude

I do however try to answer fairly and honestly, you can take it how you like of course, how would you feel if you had just fitted something to find that component was substandard and nobody had informed you of this situation ? Whilst this is your "thread" you have to admit there could be a lot of other users "ear wigging" for information. I have seen a lot of cheep rubbish over the years, this cheep rubbish becomes VERY expensive when it is the cause of an accident.

Thanks
Regards Martin
MRA Minis

[icklemini]

So the problem is the trumpet, the rod and the knuckle are all falling to bits when the car is jacked up?

Have this on the racers - even the ones that are at 'standard' ish height (IE Mighty Mini), and these use proper hi-los and the 'control issue' shocks

Solution is quite simple: Lockwire the trumpet to the doughnut spring base in the subframe (done when the spring is not under any compression)

You should find then then when jacked up - nothing will fall apart.

Cheers,
Dave

[gav]

Even with genuine Hilo's and brand new cones and lowered shocks the cone will fall out of place when jacked up fully. Just hold the cone in the subframe when you lower the car back down.

[taffy1967]

Well well well.............. well ...

Trumpets or cones are the aluminium bits (aluminum -translated for any americans reading this )

Donuts are the rubber "suspension" part..........

If the donuts are sagging you will most definately get this situation, however I feel that you have lowered it to "keep up with the peugots" this will drastically affect your handling.

Also the "cheaper" adjustable units as stated above do NOT have the correct profile and therefore suspension is NOT controlled correctly, your compression curve will have negative values and this will lead to sudden "droop" until the platform has been contacted which will happen suddenly.

Original Hi-Lo's can't be beaten, at the moment...

Ere, Mini Sport 'Adjusta-Rides' are pretty good too and my Mini has had a set (plus Spax Adjustable dampers) fitted all round since early 1996 and I've not had any problems.

After all these years (it's now past 99,000 miles and counting), it still corners like a go-kart and yet the ride quality is still pretty good, even on the horrendously bad roads here in Taffyland.

[MRA]

Ok there are other good makes out there however the best are Hi-lo's and that is all I said

The shocks normally have to be removed from the rear to let the arm drop down which will in turn release the cone and donut assembly..... I cannot vouch for all aftermarket shocks, however this is a safety feature that if for some strange ( ) reason you become airbourne your suspension should NOT fall apart.

or in deed over a sleeping policeman........ you will often witness the backend of a mini leaving the ground, just imagine how many suspension systems that must have fallen apart over the years because of this ???? It's not that many....... and then its most likely that any that did fall apart had been modified in some way or where very worn.

The reason that some racers wire their donuts and trumpets into place is simply to aid in changing shocks quickly.... ie as the shock is removed the donuts and trumpets stay where they are