Yes the bearings were looking tired. One day I'll have upgrade to this. Search: 106 - Quaife Engineering
Mini gearboxes are looking into a straight cut gear set for the Midlands box.....then I can shift like a real rally star! LOL
Have there been any Rally Monkey sightings lately?......Seems like with all those parts out a Rally Monkey might come by and steal something
That's funny becuase I was thinking last night I have not taken any monkey photo's. I think the monkey's got bored of seeing the box out of the car again. They seem to like the fun stuff, like the suspension.
The nice thing about being away for 3 weeks is I have time to focus on the Mini after work. Last night I had a big piece of aluminium plate sitting in the shed that was begging to be a front suspension top mounts anti-mushroom reinforcement plates. I made some cardboard templates, then after about an hour with the trusty Jig saw I had had some plates. The center hole for the STI top mount is not exactly circular due to the Jig saw had a mind of its own! LOL The plate is around ¼” thick so I’ll get a little extra ride height. Tonight I need to fit longer top mount bolts and fit the plates/suspension.
Mini Mini Mini! Now I'm back in MA I spent of the time gathering more stuff for the next trip back to CR. This weekend I was so lucky to call a breakers yard near Boston about the 8 spoke rims, they had 1 (I needed 2) rim, so to my surprise they found another when I got there! They cost $70 each for CAAAAAAAAAAASH. Now I will have 4 rims with street tyres and 6 with rally tyres. Job done. While I was getting the rims I called into Boston airport to pick my TSA rejected rear STI struts....my babies are back with Daddy! LOL I got the engine mount bracket and will make the fender/arm bracket when i get down there. I'm also waiting for the 5th gear the replace the chipped one I found when I rebuilt the gearbox. The rally technical test is on April 25th which means we had to buy all the FIA safety clothing(5 year shelf life) and HANS device .....a big $$$$$ ouch! Plus I'm about to buy a Triumph motor bike! all fun stuff.
Safety gear is pretty pricey & with a 5 year life it sucks. Wonder if there are bootleg SF1 & FIA lables on fleaBay. :lol: What flavor of Triumph bike? I love the old Bonneville's & Daytona's. :drool
Yes the 5 year rule is a killer, I bought all my stuff in 2009 so it's time to renew. Helmets will be due in Dec too! The seats are due in 2016....ouch. I hope to get a 2007 Triumph America.
We did the tech test on Saturday and finally got the Mini weighed! A little heavier than I expected but the corners are pretty even. The Mini was weighed with a nearly full tank, a heavy tool kit, both helmets, suits and Hans devices etc Moving the battery to the rear helped level up the front. The only issue in the Tech was the kill switch didn't stop the engine which I need to check as it did before. other than that the Mini was about the best turned out car after I viewed all the others in my class. The Sentra's weigh in at 2474 and the C2 2384 so the Mini is the porky! LOL
This visit saw me blessed with a long weekend of 4 days so after the Technical check I was able to fix some of the observations which were minor seeing as the Mini is one of the best presented cars in the rally. Not just a boast but after looking at all the other cars I’m amazed the teams bring the cars in such a state. Basically as they were from the last rally in November still covered in mud! Anyway I have my standards so that’s what counts. The long weekend I fitted another set of 2013 STI suspension so I have now a spare set. The bottom bolt hole bush mount looks way to weedy for my liking so I had the Muffler guys knock up a brace which should stop the weld breaking. I’m still thinking what to do with the big bolt , some sort of support frame is on the cards for the future. The center exhaust mounting bracket I removed and fitted a rubber suspender type mount as the original bracket got wacked on the last rally with the exhaust vibrating on it. I totally went through the car to see of any potential problems. The drive to work highlighted a much better handling over the bumpy roads and no vibrating exhaust!
Mmmm I was thinking this thread would run dry now I have everything working well! Nope! after the last rally I noticed yesterday that both bottom damper bolts are bent by about 3/4" which is going to be a pain in the bottom to remove. I'm driving with them like that but I need to fix that issue before the next rally. So either they got bent by being hit by a rocks or the dampers bottomed out slowly bending the bolts or the stiffer springs. Now I'm thinking to build a steel craddle to support the bolt using the R56 trailing arm currently fitted or go back to the R50 trailing arm and weld up some brackets. I like the R56 trailing arm due to the less weight so I'll play with that first.
I don't think it is rocks doing that at least not rocks thrown up by your own car. Maybe rocks sticking out of the road, but firmly imbedded. More likely as you are landing your shocks are at full compression & the weakest link are those bolts. Not sure what the answer is. Building some abrasion protection around the bottom shock mounts is a good idea. Possibly a stronger bolt would help too.
I have the protection there already so I'll figure it out once I have the dampers off. At least I'll be doing some fabrication work again...I like that.
This was my first weekend after the rally to inspect the Mini. Saturday was a full day promoting the car with sponsors. Sunday I got up early to work on the rear suspension. I removed the top mount bolts to let the struts swing free to make it easier to remove the bent bolts. The right side came out with little effort but as always more of the aluminium thread came out. The left side was completely stuck so after some oil and much sweating I got the bent bolt and most of the threads! Then I found some flat steel in the shed and made up a support backet. What I find strange is Saturday and Sunday stages were the same, after Saturday the bolts were straight. I know I was going faster on Sunday so I think some heavy landings bottomed out the struts bending the bolts. I plan to put longer bolts through the trailing arm so I can put a nut on the outside and move the spring plate up about 3/4" to gain a little more ride height. Another issue maybe the battery and spare wheel being too much weight for the suspension, moving the spare wheel forward and a lighter battery might solve that. I want to keep the R56 trailing arm as putting back the heavy R50 trailing is going to add more weight. Left Right Support bracket.
I believe it goes like this " If you arent breaking parts you ain't racing son" I could be off , but yeah sounds about right. Winning makes up for the breaking/bending of bolts....:cornut:
Well yes that's a good point....going fast does tend to find weak spots I was thinking to stay with the 10.9 bolt as I thought fitting a stronger bolt might stress the aluminium trailing arm to the point of breaking it. Supporting the bolt on the outer edge is my plan of action. I made the bracket to bolt to the back of the sway bar arm with the bottom damper bottom passing through it. Then I have a flat piece of steel going up to the middle/end of the trailing arm which will be bolted in place to stop down/rear movement. Also I'm now thinking of a locking plate to go around the damper bolt head to stop the bolt working loose. I found the bolt needs tightening after a few stages so I think my mistake was on the Sunday I was having such a good time I didn't check the bolts so I think they worked themselfs out and bent. I know this for sure on the left rear because the bend was about 1/2" after the damper bush. The problem is in Costa Rica bolts like this are not available so i'll have to wait to I return in July.