never mind - just brute force compression on the garage floor locked it back up. Installed, started, idles nice and smooth the moment oil pressure builds up. Still hear a chattering from the chain area at idle once the car warms up over 170F - guessing the chain guides are worn, so that's up next. Was hoping I could skip that step.
And I was just about to tell you to try, brute force compression on the garage. No need to thank me for the help.
so looking at my maintenance log for it, it tells me I've driven this car 240 miles since Jan 1 this year. I got gas once to top off last year's gas. I better put at least one more real drive on the car before it gets put away for the year.
Just bought the core parts for the next project on this car, mostly because the condition and price were as good as I have come across in a while: [/url] The parts look very clean, with only paint damage on the brackets where the bolts used to be and minimal corrosion on the arms. Bushings look new, aluminum does not look like much salt and water ever got near it. $148 for everything, free shipping. I'm not really in a hurry to do this job, since I want to first clean up the arms and maybe powder coat them. it'll take quite a few more parts to do this whole conversion. The remaining budget is about $150 in bolts and nuts and plates, but it doesn't end there. Given this is supposed to be the final rear end handling upgrade, I was thinking of putting in the powerflex busings into the brackets ($109), add new wheel bearings ($190 for a set), and top it off with a second set of adjustable control arms for the uppers. Those are another $200 or so. I have Helix in there right now, so going to a second set will remove most of the rubber bushings from the rear suspension. Add the cost of an alignment after all that. Saves some weight and tightens up the rear. Hope to get this all done before the winter, but it won't really matter when I get to the install given how often I drive it. It's more of a "I want to have fun installing this" issue, so I wont do it when the garage drops below 50F
I kept the stock rubber bushings and did not go with power-flex bushings based on others people’s experiences because you need them to flex a little. They power flex bushings, even the soft ones make the rear too stiff. Also the rears don’t crap out like the front lower control arm bushings. That would save you $109. Also you can save money by just cleaning the aluminum arms with a great degreaser, drying and just spray paint them a basic silver from any parts store. They are never going to rust and will look brand new. No glass beading and power coating costs so that should save some funds. I did mine two tears ago and they still look great.
good info on the bushings - given those in the brackets look near new, I assume there really isn't a lot of lateral motion going on. With the Helix arms already eliminating some wobble in the whole assembly, I guess having at least one soft spot isn't a bad thing. I was going to blast it myself (ghetto harbor freight setup with play sand sprayed into the landscape next to my house). Finishing off with spray paint is probably good enough. I don't drive the thing in the rain or winter anyway. Powder coating isnt' too expensive, but yeah, I think I'll do the spray can. Got a case of red caliper paint sitting around, as well as several silver and clear cans which I was going to use to refinish some Toyota Tundra wheels, but then sold as they were. Additional costs to do the rear control arm conversion based on latest web search Hardware: 2 Self tapping Screw M14x1.5x101 33-32-6-770-089 $9.37 ea 2 Hex Bolt with Washer M12x1.5x83-10.9 33-30-6-768-048 $5.79 ea 2 Self Locking Collar Nut M12x1.5-10 ZNS3 33-32-6-760-374 $3.74 ea 2 Hex Bolt with Washer M12x1.5x100 33-30-6-772-658 $5.79 ea 2 Cage Nut M12x1.5-10ZNS3 33-30-6-770-138 $4.90 ea 8 Hex Bolt with Washer M10x75-10.9 33-50-6-771-928 $4.10 ea (I am getting those non-OEM for $0.50 ea) 2 "adjusting plate" custom part needed for shock mount, from Helix $ ?? rough guess, without shipping, getting a lot from bmwpartswarehouse $90 total plus whatever Helix wants for those plates That is the minimum for the job - $148 for the arms and brackets, so for just over $250, you can swap out your arms. Everything else I am spending is optional. The control arms are going in for sure, because I only want to pay for the alignment once. bearings and 2 new upper control arms 2 Timken rear wheel bearings $93.79 ea (bolts to mount are those 8 10.9 hex bolts already listed up on top) 2 Helix upper rear control arms $229 (optional. I may just paint my uppers and put them back in) alignment when all done about $75 One part I am not sure about (the same part should already be on the car right now) 2 Bushing Stopper 33-31-6-761-779 $32.78 ea same part? https://parts.miniofkennesaw.com/products/Mini/2005/Cooper-S/Stopper--rear/1292823/33316761779.html https://parts.miniofkennesaw.com/products/Mini/2008/Cooper-S/Stopper--rear/1292823/33316761779.html
I am not sure if the links you listed are the same part as I reused mine and reused the OEM upper control arms. I did not need to add the adjustable upper ones to get a perfect alignment.
alignment isn't really the issue with the upper arms. You can drop 1.5 pounds each by going with another Helix pair, plus you have the option to slightly change the wheelbase of the car by shortening or lengthening both, upper and lower - not that I have a clue what that would actually buy me. Keeping the uppers and just blasting and painting them is still an option. Re the links - open the diagram image lower on the page and see part #6 - it looks like a big washer and goes on the outside of those bushings I am not replacing with Powerflex.
Ahhh I just double checked the link and I am not 100% sure as mine came assembled and I did not have to take them apart. Oh you might want to send eminiparts a PM on your parts list. He is a M\A sponsor \ dealership and can save you a lot of money on OEM parts. Best of luck with your install.
How's the rear trailing arm project going? I'm doing the same for this winter and curious to know if you need those ridiculously expensive stoppers. I think you do.
The "stoppers" are needed, but they do exist on the R53 as well, so I plan to reuse the part. Same part number, so I doubt I need to buy these $35 "washers." If I had to source trailing arms again, I'd look for a more complete take-off that has the brackets still screwed to the arms, as those generally come with the "stopper." Found my custom machined shock adapters from Way in the mailbox last night - they are a perfect fit to fill in the control arms where R56 shocks have that cone shape. But that's about as far as I am. I am in the middle of doing brakes and wheel bearings on a Subaru Outback, so I haven't ordered any of the remaining nuts and bolts for the project. I first wanted to make sure I have the custom parts that are hard to source. If I find some time this weekend beyond the Subaru, I'll try my luck with some ghetto sandblasting in the yard, using a $12 blasting attachment and a bag of blasting media from Menards to clean those trailing arms for painting. As soon as I have something to show, I'll update the thread.
So I was going to sandblast the arms this weekend. Just one quick rear wheel bearing swap on my daughter's Subaru which has been in the garage for a week. Or so I thought. I finished the weekend with more tools in my garage, but the wheel bearing is still in that rear hub carrier and I didn't achieve more than completely destroying the bearing in the car, then ripping into the suspension arms to get the whole darn thing off the car and into my shop press, which then ran into more rust issues. Bottom line, I didn't get to touch my Mini. Nice big 5 pound slide hammer and 1190 foot/lbs impact gun added to the tool collection, so at least it wasn't a totally blown weekend.
True - but its getting new tools.. and I'm pretty sure a 1100 pound impact gun is a pretty nice one. I know I had to get a very expensive one to get the main crank hub nut off the M5 engine. If memory is correct it had to have around 550 pounds in reverse (thats the hard one to get... reverse). Or at least it was at that time. @fishmonger - net is a trip to harbor freight to pick up a press.
ha, I did that for the lower control arm bushings up front last summer already It's waiting for the knuckle and hub to come off the Outback this weekend. Already received a few parts I need to destroy to get it off, although I am still not sure I can pull one of the ball joints out of the knuckle. A rusty bolt that was pinching it in there was the one that needed the big gun (Harbor Freight's Earthquake XT) . That gun eats through the compressor air like crazy - glad I got high flow hose and couplers all through the system to get my money's worth out of that tool. So far I had been able to deal with tough bolts using breaker bars and an electric corded impact gun, but this is way nicer and stronger and smaller to fit in places I could never use the electric tool.
After spending nearly 6 weeks fixing a Subaru in the garage, I threw in the towel on doing the rear suspension this season. Leaves piled up on it in the driveway and then the first snow hit it. Since I still needed to fix some stuff on the electric blue daily driver, I decided to put it on dollies and rolled it back in the garage for the season. A whole 246 miles earlier I rolled it out of there. Not the way I expected this year to go. Note the 17" whit wheel on the right - that's the Chili Red car. It has been there since mid August. Drove about 1100 miles this year - now close to 39k on the clock. It got a Milltek, some boost gauges, fog and driving lights in a custom mount, and a few other tweaks before being put away for the year when my son went back to college. Over recent months, the boy realized that he needs a second R53, just like I have a "daily driver." So we're currently looking for #4 to be added to the stable as a "driver car" for him. But back to my Dark Silver money pit, ahem, toy car. Today, while already in winter mode, I gave it one more quick update for the year - fresh NGK wires to replace some Bosch wires I put in in 2014 in California when the car was acting up (fuel pump/filter). Good deal at Rock Auto, although I bet there was nothing wrong with the Bosch Ultra Premium cables I pulled from the car A few more things may happen before the garage gets too cold for anything serious, but the car won't move again until April or May.
Not sure if this would help considering how cold it can get where you are. But I use a Radiant heater during the winter to heat up my garage. It works pretty darn well. Here is a link to one like the one I use (not the exact one) https://www.amazon.com/DeLonghi-TRD40615E-Full-Radiant-Heater/dp/B00G96S4Y8/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1542552076&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=Radiant+Heater&psc=1 Its important to note, you have to plan ahead and turn it on as it takes awhile to get heated up (Hours). But once it does, works well.
I insulated my detached garage and put a second hand pellet stove in it. The stove will heat the garage to about 65F on the lowest setting, when it is freezing outside.
The garage is fully insulated and drywalled, 6 inch studs and R19 or something like that in there. The only part not insulated is the front 1/3rd of the ceiling that has just drywall and a roof above it (will address that soon) plus the door is only 2" foam covered, but it seals real well. In either like today, 1500 watt heaters can get the temp up to 55 at best, but you have to be careful what else you plug in. I've tripped the circuits many times. Now that I have a compressor more so than ever. It just sucks to burn through electricity for hours to spend a few more relatively uncomfortable hours in that garage. Without the heater, it is usually 20 F warmer in there than outside. A 1500 watt heater will bring it up 10F more in 2-3 hours, but not much more. Right now it's 25F outside, so I could get it to 55 in there if I really needed to do something on the cars. It's not comfortable even if you put the heater close to the workspace. You can't do any detailing on the paint, you can't paint, etc. I can't use the sand blaster as that is an outside tool due to the mess it makes. It just all stops here when the temps drop and we've already been down to something like 13F a week ago. I am waiting for next weekend when it's going reach 40F to tackle the fluid film application under the blue car. Even stuff like that works better closer to 70F than 40F.
My garage is attached to the house, and I believe using a stove like that in there would be against code here, or at least triple my home insurance rate.