3 replies to this topic

[stolengoods-r-us]

Hello everyone, I have tried searching for help on this topic but yielded no results unfortunately, except apparently a back issue of mini world from decades ago may be of help if I pay £50 or something.....

Anyway, I am interested in lowering my car slightly but it is a mk2 and thus has hydrolastic suspension. Can this be achieved by turning down the hydrolastic strut that enters the displacer unit? If this is correct, is anyone aware of the ratio of ride height to strut length? I want to keep the hydrolastic pressure the same as I thought reducing this would probably affect the handling...

I am slightly worried about doing this due to parts availability but damn, I love lowered minis....

[Dan]

That would be the way to do it but of course would only apply at the rear as there is no strut at the front I believe. You should not turn down the knuckle joint shoulder at the front to acheive this. It may affect the bumpstops front and rear and it may also affect the helper spring at the rear. Progressive bumpstop kits are available to help and it might be a good idea to fit dampers at the front.

I think the ratios are the same as for dry Minis, 1:3 at the front and 1:5 at the rear but it would be good to get that confirmed.

Don't worry too much about availability, it's only the displacers themselves that are NLA. The strut is just a turned length of steel tube and I think it's still easy to get.

[Woody]

I lowered my metro turbo and my Riley elf by just pumping it up a little less , when the pressure hits max the car starts to rise untill you hit the required level , the spring rate is set by the rubber diaphram in the dissplacer unit not by how much fluid is in it (within its operating range)
however , I only used this method to lower by an inch or so and cannot say if it would be any good lowered any more .
OK that is not quite true , I tried the metro droped to the deck and it was awfull ! so raised it back up to a reasonable level
Looked cool, handled Krap though

[stolengoods-r-us]

Thanks for your replies.....

Having looked through the haynes manual, you are right there are no struts at the front, and the shoulder on the knuckle joints are too thin to remove any significant amount of material (which I am guesing is why you said it cannot be done this way), so i am not really sure on how to lower the front if I was to go down this route.

So it looks as though the best solution is woodys, I always thought that the working pressure was arrived at when the ride height is at it's 'normal' height - I normally pay someone a large sum of money to pump it up and don't see the process.

Thanks again