Then I broke down (74 mini mild refurb)

[Jims5543]

OK figured it out. I have to pull the disk brake plate off the hub and place the bracket (EDIT) behind the hub..

Fun..

[MPlayle]

Shouldn't the turnbuckle of the swaybar be pointed down?

[MiniDave]

Yeah, mine comes in from underneath......turnbuckle pointing up to the backing plate

[Jims5543]

Question:

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.

[Jims5543]

This 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.

 

[MiniDave]

Your 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.

[Jims5543]

Finally 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.

[94touring]

I got to assemble a kad arm and disc for testing to compare vids Jim has been sending.  He developed some kind of grinding on that one side.  The one I just assembled has no grinding and spins freely.

[MiniDave]

Are those some of those paper light trailing arms like you put on the blue car?

[94touring]

Yep the alloy kad rear arms that weigh nothing.

[MiniDave]

What do you think is causing the binding and noise in Jims?

[94touring]

What do you think is causing the binding and noise in Jims?

I think it was maybe just the lack of the thrust washer on the outer bearing.  The kad kit comes pre pressed and with the bearings held in place with a zip tie, no washer.  Evidently back when I installed them I didn't think about the washer. I just happened to add alloy hubs with mini fin drums this week so had my hands on all the required parts.  I suggested as a trial adding a washer to the swing arm side to eliminate the possibility of something rubbing back there.  Come to find out there weren't any washers. So it could have just been giving Jim fits setting the lash on the one side with just the castle nut. There are 2 different size castle nuts, one large and one small. The smaller is easier to have seating issues with the bearings without the washer. Sounded pretty rough in the one video.  I set mine the way I do the bus, which is tight enough the washer is able to be moved with some resistance giving it a push with a flat head screw driver. Takes the play out but isn't overly tight things bind.

[MiniDave]

That's how I do mine too, just tight enough to remove the play, but not binding.

[Jims5543]

Turns out the entire problem was self inflicted because I am a moron.

I was not sure where the parking brake plate was supposed to be placed, I was not paying attention when I was taking it apart.

I goofed around with its placement and decided it would fit best between the brake plate and the axle hub, when the correct position was behind the axle hub.  That caused the bottom of the brake mounting plate to interfere with the brake rotor, hence, all the grinding and hanging up.

I took everything back apart, put it back together correctly, and its smooth as silk again.

I dipped out of work at 4pm last night and it took me about an hour to take it all apart and put it back together. I grabbed it out of the warehouse this morning and drove it to the office, she is perfect again.

Now on to putting all the parts from Mini Spares on the car. Hopefully correctly.

[MiniDave]

Cool, you got it going again......not like any of us has never put anything together wrong! s/ 

So, what's next - parts wise?

When's your next event?

[94touring]

If we had a thread of the dumbest mistakes we've made, I'd probably have some too bad to post.

[Jims5543]

I am so mad at myself over this ya'll have no idea.

Parts that need to go on, off the top of my head.

- Larger steering wheel
- Additional engine brace
- new bushings for the shifter
- Racing seat

I am probably forgetting some things.

[94touring]

Order replacement kad disc and pads?

[Jims5543]

Yes, I gave up on trying to order the slider pins, it was turning into much bigger of a deal than it needed to me. I ordered pads and rotors to undo my damage.

I need to hit the hardware store after work today and grab some bolts to mount the seat to the sliders. None were included.

I also ordered a 4 point harness, I am going to only install the lap portion for AX, that was how I had my RX7 setup too.

I tossed the steering wheel in, I will get the seat in this evening then it goes in the air to start on the shifter and the engine bracing.

[94touring]

Coming along! 

[Jims5543]

Seat installed, I was going to raise the back of it up about 1-2", after driving it some today, I think it may be fine. I prefer to be more vertical in my seat and on the steering wheel more.  I think I can work with this.  I will toy with this some more.



The tires arrived Monday, I dropped them off this morning at a Golf Cart store, they just called me and told me they will be ready 9am tomorrow morning. Cost me $80 to have them mounted.

When I saw the box I was worried that they got my order wrong and only sent 2 tires. I opened the box and was surprised to see 4 jammed in.






I managed to fit the 4 rims/tires+ the 4 new tires in Blue, it was my first test drive since installing the second lower engine brace and second upper engine brace and the new shifter mount bushings. I did some hard on-off throttle testing and it appears everything is much more solid now.



I joked with the guy helping me at the golf cart store that his gold carts were bigger than my car. He did not seem to have a sense of humor installed and just looked at me like I was crazy. O-kay!!!

I would like to take a moment and say, I love the new street rims. I think they look cool.



I also received my custom tag from the DMV last week, its on the back parcel shelf, it is the same number as the UK Tag now. It will be interesting when I finally get pulled over for no tag.

[MiniDave]

I have never been hassled about my "euro" tag in the 8 years or so it's been on my car......

[Jims5543]

i have no idea where you live Dave, it may be much like here. There is no crime here at all.  The police tend to go after little things like no tag, a tail light out etc..  I have been pulled over to a tail light out, no seatbelt in my work truck, and well, speeding because I am me.  So, I totally expect to be pulled over at one point when a sheriff ends up behind me eventually.

[MiniDave]

Yikes, so they have nothing else to do then but look for some reason to hassle folks?

I live in KC, but my car has been all over the country, east, west coasts....north as far as Milwaukee, South Dakota, Texas Hill country twice and so on.....I think they just assume it's someone who brought their car over from the old country or something! At any rate, part of the issue I'm sure is that it's hard to speed in a stock classic Mini!   

Maybe I've just been lucky, but I have had sheriffs, hi patrol, city cops you name it right on my butt, so far they don't seem to care. I do carry the correct plate in the car just in case. My thinking is if they run the plate and it comes back as current reg to that number, maybe it isn't worth bothering over if I'm not doing anything else wrong? I dunno....

[94touring]

Remember when I drove blue to the Texas drive when it had the 998 in it, which was barely chugging along as is, and I got pulled for speeding. The cop handed me the ticket and it said 93mph in a 65 zone.  I immediately said sir the speedometer doesn't even go that high, and I'm lucky to hit 65 in this thing going downhill. He concluded he mistook me for the other car speeding up on my ass over the hill and he ripped the ticket up.  I thought I was doing 60 in a 45 or something not being familiar with where I was. Glad I looked at the ticket before he left!