While under the car this past weekend it was noticed that the PSRS had lost all it's set screws and was moving on the A-Arm Nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer. Then welded the sleeve to the A-Arm and gave it a quick coat of black paint to protect. To bad the camera battery died....
Mine have not spit any set screws, but they have rattled from time to time when the screws backed off. I think I'll give them the weld treatment the next time the subframe is off - or if the screws go AWOL.
Nathan, I had a similar problem as you and Mike.... shortly after I installed them they started rattling like crazy. One weekend I was under the car trying to tighten them back up and got pissed and dropped the sub frame and welded them in place at both the end and the base. Then just for good measure, I reinstalled the set screws and have not had any issue since. When I first installed them, I was skeptical that 6 tiny set screws were going to hold the sleeve in place.... I wasn't super happy to find out that I was correct.... come to think of it, I have not been super happy with the fit of most of the Alta parts....
I wonder if a better way would be to drill and tap the end of the control arm to match the set screw then use a bolt with a bit of red Loctite. Welding is so final. The clunking I just lived with is gone. The MINI down right sorta semi quiet now, if you tune out the exhaust...
Maybe, I would imagine that there is quite a bit of force placed on the end of the control are where the bushing is. By the time I made the decision to drop the sub frame, I was so "displeased" with having to mess with it I didn't care how permanent it was. I just wanted the RATTLING TO STOP.
If you tack weld the end, can't you just grind it off? Mine was welded at the time of install. Our club has some very good mechanics and shops available to us and he won't install one w/o having the ends welded. And none of the many he has installed ever rattled.
Mine was the first this this tech had ever installed. Need to turn on the wayback machine to take us to that heady time 2.5 years ago when I was still learning how to mod a MINI. Since then, not only have I learned better but the tech said today he's weld more than he's installed. He's installed more then a few too...
I havent lost any set screws yet and i have driven on them for 10 months. I have just now developed the dreaded rattle. Anyway, this may be a dumb question, but i want to get in there and weld them, but what exactly am i needing to weld? does anyone have any other pics?
I don't have any pics, but what you are welding is the bushing sleeve that goes over the end of the control arm. I believe it is aluminum. I had a weld put at the base of the sleeve where it hits the control arm, and then another one along the end. After that, I also used the set screws, but the weld is the main thing that is holding it in place.
It's a different solution. However, when one has already made the swap to the PSRS why change to the Powerflex bushing when a few tack welds fixes the inherent flaw in the Alta part. That said, if I was to do it again knowing what I know now I'd have probably gone with the Powerflex from the outset.
As a welder my self...if you are welding them correctly.. IE NOT spot welding. They will not break... since these have been tested in MI for more than a year welded.. and not broke. I think we're good. But yes they have to be done correctly.
Thats all well and good Lynn, but the weld cost me $20 on the existing part. Being as I don't have the time, patience, skills or desire to handle the work involved to swap what I already have that works perfectly fine I offered a solution to others in the same boat. When I have the desire, tools and enough extra cash to trash a prefectly good item then I'll look into a replacement. Right now a $20 weld every few years is a lot more cost effective. Like I said, if the knowledge that the Alta part had these problems was more prevalent a few years ago when I did the swap I would have gone in a different direction. Since I didn't and many others have not as well I thought I'd share a fix. The intent is not to argue the efficacy of the part but to share a fix to a common ailment we who choose this part are afflicted with.