11 replies to this topic

[RyanBebo]

Hello all, I have been trying to remove my nearside Radius arm today and only with some prevail!... I had to take the fuel tank out to get to the top of the damper, i have taken both bolts off the front and rear of the radius arm, and i have taken the damper off. I have also removed the bolts attaching the radius arm to the subframe, but i just cannot seem to get the thing free!.. any help would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers!

[sledgehammer]

There is a nut inside the subframe (near the front end) that will need undoing to release the pin

but you may have already done this ? - it will be well camouflaged with rust

the handbrake cable can hinder things - also the brake pipe - but I assume you have removed both ?

Edited by sledgehammer, 05 December 2012 - 09:31 PM.

[rally1380]

Have you removed the camber bracket? From what you've described, you seem to have removed everything.

[2-alex-2]

to me only sounds as if you have the handbrake cable and the brake pipe left but must be some thing els there some where posibly

[cradley-heathen]

if you have removed everything that you need to it still can be a bit of a wriggle to get it out due to the location of the knuckle on the suspension trumpet,

you need to swing the arm as far down as possible to take the tension of the spring, if you have hi-los on the back wind them all the way in as this will help.

[RyanBebo]

Well the handbrake cable is still attatched and the brake pipe is rusted into place, how do i remove the handbrake cable silly question!
Is it possible to just remove the pin, bearing and bush without taking the whole unit out? cheers

[tiger99]

No need, the handbrake pin is just diconnnected from the lever on the brake backplate (clevis pin and split pin), followed by removing the cable from the quadrant. It is only held in by the edges of the quadrant being squeezed, at least on the Minis I have owned. It may have changed on more recent models. I have rarely had to remove the quadrant from an arm, and would expect the pivot pin to be rusted solid in many cases.

[JonnyBMX]

as tiger suggests, dissconnect the clevis pin from the mechanism part on the backplate,(making sure handbrake is not pulled on) then be carfull as the spring will be under a bit of tension and slide the wire out of the locating hole. you must the prise apart the qaudrant which will hold the cable on.

then you must take of the brake pipe be carefull though as the lug that keeps it inplace on the radious arm is quite weak and you might end up snapping it off (which i did do on one side luckily i have a tig welder as its quite thin aswell)

then it should just come off if all the other relevant nuts and bolts are undone.

p.s also as tiger has mentioned the pin that hold on the rear qaudrant is a clevis pin and i woudnt really try removing this unless you have to

[RyanBebo]

Tried removing brake line and it is absolutely rusted into place and will not budge, it also looks half rounded off before I even got to it. So I am booking it into a garage for next week which is probably going to cost a fortune!
I am gutted to be fair.

[ANON]

Tried removing brake line and it is absolutely rusted into place and will not budge, it also looks half rounded off before I even got to it. So I am booking it into a garage for next week which is probably going to cost a fortune!
I am gutted to be fair.

if you want it doing give me a shout, will look after you on price

[tiger99]

It is quite normal to hacksaw off the brake pipes and make some nice new Cunifer replacements. If you cut carefully you can avoid damaging the bracket. I usually end up cutting the hose, which is generally needing to be replaced anyway.

[RyanBebo]

All sorted now thanks for the replies :)
Passed the MOT with flying colours ha ha, another year of happy motoring indeed!