7 replies to this topic

[SteveyM]

Hi all
Question for anyone who has fitted some KAD radius arms...

I’m trying to assemble my rear subframe but it’s not going as expected. Once I have fitted the KAD arms I cannot angle them low enough to fit the shocks (even fully compressed) and of course if I fit the arms and shocks already assembled I can’t then fit the donuts, trumpets etc...

Comparing to pics and vids with normal arms the KAD ones don’t seem to drop anything like as low. At the moment the only way I see to do it is to fit donuts/trumpets first, then the assembled arms and shocks but I can see me needing at least six arms to do it that way.

I’m assuming I’m doing something stoopid but can’t work out what...

Any ideas/advise much appreciated ;)

Steve

[KTS]

they should be a direct replacement of the standard arms, so can't imagine why you're having problems

 

can you post any pictures of how you're fitting them 

[gazwad]

I have the kad arms and they are fiddly to fit, either you have to have the damper fitted and the trumpet & cone and offer it in as a complete lot or you can place the cone and trumpet in position on the subframe then fit the arm with the damper attached and you should be able to then guide the knuckle joint ‘pin’ into the end of the trumpet (assuming you have hi-los and have wound them fully in). Don’t fit the outer radius arm bracket until everything is in place as you need to wiggle the arm about quite a bit.

[SteveyM]

Thanks both.

I don’t have a pic without the damper fitted but the position of the radius arm here is pretty much the max travel without it anyway.

I think the trick is probably as mentioned - cone and trumpet first then arm/damper assembly in one go.

...and this is the easy side. Crawling down a narrow gap beside the garage wall for the other one...hey ho

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[KTS]

If it helps; when I refitted my standard radius arms I installed the damper to the car (fully extended), wedged the rubber cone in place, and then swung the radius arm into position picking up the lower damper mount onto the hub pin and the trumpet (hi-lo's in my case) into the cone at the same time

As above, outer radius arm bracket can be fitted after

Edited by KTS, 02 November 2020 - 10:02 PM.

[Spider]

What is the arm or what part or the arm is hitting / fouling preventing full movement ?

 

I do a few trick things on the rear suspension of our Mokes that results in a similar problem to what you are experiencing, though likely for different reasons.

 

If after assembling the Cone / Hilo / Knuckle you can't compress the Suspension enough to raise the arm to be able to get the shock on, you can sometimes get there by jacking the Arm up, place a block of timber on the jack and I jack from under the Arm.

 

The other way I find I need to assemble them with new Cones is to use a Cone Compressor, but as it doesn't go square through the Subframe, I have a special base for it to get the right angle on it. This is fairly straightforward on a Moke, but you may need to make a special short one to fit in a Mini as the rear beaver panel will be in the way and it's counter-productive to drop the rear of it down.

[Wazzah]

Fitted KAD rear arms my self and had a few issues.

They didn't like low ride heights but that doesn't bother me much because a like a bit of suspension travel.

The main problem I found is the handbrake quadrant fouls the drilled hole in the arm which the cable passes through.

A bit of air grinder on the arm and resizing of the quadrant was required to regain an effective amount of cable travel to gain an effective handbrake hold.

[SteveyM]

Thanks guys.

The top of the arm behind the spindle catches the subframe and stops it lowering down far enough. I’ll try the trumpet/donut first next time...