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#1
Restorations / Re: Then I broke down (74 mini...
Last post by Jims5543 - Today at 02:55:05 PMFinally finished. Have an annoyed wife to show for it.
What was supposed to take an afternoon on Saturday bled over into all afternoon Sunday. I spent a lot of time dicking with the rear hubs, I am still not happy and I am ordering entire new rear bearing kits.
Sorry no pictures, I went into get shit done mode and just plowed through finishing up the install. I think the turnbuckles will work if you swap to coil over suspension, with the cone/trumpet/Hi-Lo suspension there is just no room for it to go up.
It is hard to tell how much changed on the street, I can say, I immediately noticed better grip from the new tires, I think the old tires were on their last legs. As I was driving up the street from the house, I could hear a lot of rock noise in the wheel wells from the tires pulling pebbles up off the road.
I railed around an empty round about as fast as I could stand and it feels like the front stays much better planted. Great traction accelerating out of the turn. I will reserve my final opinion until I AX it again.
I tucked Blue away for the week, I will revisit this Thursday of Friday, I am off to order rear bearing kits. Something is up back there, I am missing washers and she was binding up, I used some machine washers from Ace Hardware to put a band aid on it, not confident I fixed it.
I am no stranger to wheel bearings, I rebuilt the axles on my boat trailer replacing all the bearings and adding EZ lube covers to the hubs, I did the front wheel bearings on my E30. there is just something wrong here and I am not sure what is going on.
One thing I do notice, I work a lot on German and Japanese cars, they are very precise, what you encounter on one side of the car, you are sure to encounter, identically, on the other side. I notice with these Mini's everything is a little different from side to side, on one side I could take off the brakes with ease, the other side I had to take the top nut off the shock and drop the suspension more in order to back out the top bolt on the brakes. It is just weird to me how these cars leave you guessing all the time.
What was supposed to take an afternoon on Saturday bled over into all afternoon Sunday. I spent a lot of time dicking with the rear hubs, I am still not happy and I am ordering entire new rear bearing kits.
Sorry no pictures, I went into get shit done mode and just plowed through finishing up the install. I think the turnbuckles will work if you swap to coil over suspension, with the cone/trumpet/Hi-Lo suspension there is just no room for it to go up.
It is hard to tell how much changed on the street, I can say, I immediately noticed better grip from the new tires, I think the old tires were on their last legs. As I was driving up the street from the house, I could hear a lot of rock noise in the wheel wells from the tires pulling pebbles up off the road.
I railed around an empty round about as fast as I could stand and it feels like the front stays much better planted. Great traction accelerating out of the turn. I will reserve my final opinion until I AX it again.
I tucked Blue away for the week, I will revisit this Thursday of Friday, I am off to order rear bearing kits. Something is up back there, I am missing washers and she was binding up, I used some machine washers from Ace Hardware to put a band aid on it, not confident I fixed it.
I am no stranger to wheel bearings, I rebuilt the axles on my boat trailer replacing all the bearings and adding EZ lube covers to the hubs, I did the front wheel bearings on my E30. there is just something wrong here and I am not sure what is going on.
One thing I do notice, I work a lot on German and Japanese cars, they are very precise, what you encounter on one side of the car, you are sure to encounter, identically, on the other side. I notice with these Mini's everything is a little different from side to side, on one side I could take off the brakes with ease, the other side I had to take the top nut off the shock and drop the suspension more in order to back out the top bolt on the brakes. It is just weird to me how these cars leave you guessing all the time.
#2
The Lounge / Re: F1 - 2024
Last post by MiniDave - Today at 11:36:09 AMAbu Dhabi - last race of the season.
McLaren were in the perfect place to win the constructor's and the race with Norris on pole and Piastri 2nd, but Max wasn't having it as he and Piastri came together on the first turn and spun each other out - although both were able to continue - both got a 10 sec penalty.
That left Sainz in 2nd behind Norris....which is where he finished. I think the real story was LeClerc, who went from 19th to finish right behind Carlos. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to win the constructors, and that went to the Big Macs.
The Hamster also had a terrific race to go from 18th to pass Russell on the last lap and finish 4th.
Gasly stayed just ahead of the Hulk so Alpeen finished ahead of HAAS in the championship too. I wonder where Alpine got Gasly the performance these last few races, with a supposedly underpowered engine by over 30 hp?
It's been a long season and next year promises to have a few surprises too, what with new drivers on the grid and new teams in Audi and Cadillac, plus Alpine with Mercedes power and Honda coming back in to power Aston Martin. Should be an interesting grid, but a long wait till March of 25 when things get going again.
McLaren were in the perfect place to win the constructor's and the race with Norris on pole and Piastri 2nd, but Max wasn't having it as he and Piastri came together on the first turn and spun each other out - although both were able to continue - both got a 10 sec penalty.
That left Sainz in 2nd behind Norris....which is where he finished. I think the real story was LeClerc, who went from 19th to finish right behind Carlos. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to win the constructors, and that went to the Big Macs.
The Hamster also had a terrific race to go from 18th to pass Russell on the last lap and finish 4th.
Gasly stayed just ahead of the Hulk so Alpeen finished ahead of HAAS in the championship too. I wonder where Alpine got Gasly the performance these last few races, with a supposedly underpowered engine by over 30 hp?
It's been a long season and next year promises to have a few surprises too, what with new drivers on the grid and new teams in Audi and Cadillac, plus Alpine with Mercedes power and Honda coming back in to power Aston Martin. Should be an interesting grid, but a long wait till March of 25 when things get going again.
#3
Events and Mini Clubs / Re: South Florida AX events - ...
Last post by MiniDave - Today at 09:43:53 AMA racecar will benefit from the rear end being "loose" so it will rotate, as these cars are prone to understeer, it lets the race car get it's back end around. But yes, it can feel a little squirrelly on the street.....
#4
Restorations / Re: Then I broke down (74 mini...
Last post by MiniDave - Today at 09:40:45 AMYour last pic is how mine is done, and while mine isn't a KAD, it's a MiniMania bar which looks to me to be an exact copy made with less high end stuff.
#5
Restorations / Re: Then I broke down (74 mini...
Last post by Jims5543 - Today at 09:01:16 AMThis pic shows the turnbuckle pointing down, which I think will be a better fit for this Mini, above appears to have interreference with the trumpet.
#6
Events and Mini Clubs / Re: South Florida AX events - ...
Last post by 94touring - Today at 08:35:57 AMAnother thing while I'm thinking.. I chatted with one of the mini racers at hallet and he said he actually improved his lap times with 0 to some toe out on the rear. Which surprised me, because when blue was new to me, the rear end was jacked up and had toe out. It was very squirrelly to unstable feeling to me. The way the subframes are setup, it should just be fixed at about 1/16 toe in.
#7
Events and Mini Clubs / Re: South Florida AX events - ...
Last post by 94touring - Today at 08:19:00 AMThose adjustable tie rods will let you change caster. But, I always just set them to the stock length and take advantage of the bar being heavy duty. The stock tie rods bend like aluminum foil. You can play with tire pressure and see what you like. I've been running 30-32psi on the street. But you could go a bit lower for autoX with good results most likely. Particularly the rear on that car which weights virtually nothing.
#8
Restorations / Re: Then I broke down (74 mini...
Last post by Jims5543 - Today at 07:20:30 AMQuote from: Jims5543 on December 07, 2024, 12:29:21 PMQuestion:
Anyone have KAD rear disk brakes and KAD rear sway for them? How does it mount up to the brakes?
No instructions, the video on KAD is for drum brakes, I am stumped.
This is the best clue I have after searching online.
This pic gives a great perspective as to how the plate is to be installed.
I watched this you tube video on how to install it, after I watched it I guessed it would take me 2-3 hours to do this install. LOL! I am such an optimist. After 5 hours last night, I have the backing plates on and I am not happy with the sound the hubs are making. I am pulling the hubs back off cleaning and repacking the bearings hoping that makes it happy back there.
I spent so much time trying to figure out where TF this stupid bracket was supposed to go. Probably over a hour.
Now reading Dave's last post about having his turnbuckle under the backing plates I am having second thoughts about positioning mine like I am seeing in pictures online or above.
The left side brakes were really hard to put the keeper bolts in. I thought that was normal, on the right side, I cleaned them real good and put a tiny bit of anti seize on the threads and I could finger tighten them, the left side needed a wrench the to screw them in. I am going to clean the left side real good too.
I had not planned on working on it today (Sunday) I should have some time this afternoon.
#9
Restorations / Re: Then I broke down (74 mini...
Last post by MiniDave - December 07, 2024, 06:56:31 PMYeah, mine comes in from underneath......turnbuckle pointing up to the backing plate
#10
Events and Mini Clubs / Re: South Florida AX events - ...
Last post by 94touring - December 07, 2024, 03:57:09 PMYou have a couple things to correct. Rear camber negative 0.50° with 1/16" toe in.