4 replies to this topic

[minisilverbullet]

I got the mini back form havinga respray after 4 weeks dying to drive it.

It sits about 3 cm lower on the drivers side, SO i have bought a set of cones for the front and a set of 4 hilos.

Firstly as teh car is LHD i had to remove the wiper motor for access to the tower bolts. I then "tried" to use the compressor tool on the drivers side bt basically the tool doest fit flush with the top of the tower as there is some sort of reinforcment bracket (or something). I have read taht it may be needed to cut a cm off the base of the tool so it fots flush? my first question?

I did however mange to thread the tool into the cone but while compressing it it popped, probably cause the tool wasnt properly in th cone - any way I have probably stripped the threads of the cone! SO next question how do i get this cone out?, can I drop teh top arm without the compressing tool - I s this dangerous?

I let that side be as it was stressing me out...... I started on th other side. was soooo much easier to compress the cone as the tool sat flush on the tower. I spent ages tryong to remove the alu trumpet. TMF was down but i managed to find a cached version on google and it turned out i has to remove the small buffer rubber inder teh top arm - easy peasy! teh trupet came out no problem. But teh nylon cup is a totally different beast. I coult not for the life of me get it out. it broke itto pieces, was totally fused to the top arm. most of it is out but some remains at the bottom of the cup - question 3 how can i get it out, any tips?

Is the solution in all cases to remove the top arm, what is teh easiest way to do this?

Cheers Craig

[liam1288]

hi craig, everyone has this problem getting the nylon cup out, i got so annoyed with mine i ended up getting a small blow torch and heating them up/cooling them down/heating them/cooling them etc until they they've been expanded/contracted enough to come out easier... but yeah you just gota stick at it and bit by bit it will come out... i found the rears are much harder as they are harder to access but yeah, keep at it! and then dont forget to clean and slightly copper grease bits when your putting them back on...makes things much easier if you ever need to get them back off.

i recently converted my rubber cones to coil springs and had to remove the top arm...its quite tricky just because of the 'not much access' but still possible...took me a while and lost of swearing/wd40... i had to get a new pivot shaft/pin kit with bearings etc...because when i was tapping it through, it messed up the thread so grease it up first with the nipple and put the nut back on and then start to tap it through... theres a retaining plate if you didnt know which is on the end of the pivot shaft facing towards the front of the car which you need to take off first (they are 11mm) and one (furthest away and hardest to get to the nut is fixed to the metal/subframe) so thats why it wont move, you need to attack the bolt on that one...

if you can avoid removing the upper arm...do! but dont keep trying to avoid it, if its not coming out easy with removing the rebound ruffer and loads of oil then your going to have to do it...

[bmcecosse]

Heat is the answer - burn it out!

[minisilverbullet]

Ok great guys thanks:

I think i need to remove the upper arm to get all (the remainder) the nylon cup out. DO i need a ball joint splitter to remove teh arm? and can i do it without compressing the cone, as above i cant compress on of the cones!

Cheers

[liam1288]

ive never done it without a compression tool though if youve got standard trumpets in some people cut them out if they are being replaced by hilos as you wont need them anymore and then the cone should be free to come out. though, if your going to remove the upper arm anyway i dont see why the cone and trumpet wont just fall out after its been removed...(someone correct me if this isnt the case)

yeah you'll need a ball joint splitter to get the arm out and what i found with that is if you buy cheap, you buy twice! i bought a cheap fork type splitter (5quid) and it was rubbish so had to buy a scissor type (one you wind up with a socket or spanner) its about 17quid but for me was well worth it and so much easier and faster to use, but by that time though i was fed up and just wanted it done so bought one i knew would work well...