8 replies to this topic

[1340 gt]

as keen readers will know ive been changing my radius arms over the last few days,

i struggle with access to my mini so i took a spare pair of old arms to exchange against some reconditioned items from minispares,

when i got them home opened the boxes to find to rather rusty unsymetrical arms, (i dont mean left and right handed!!)

one had all new nuts and a shiny machined hub "stud/shaft"? while the other had no nuts/washers and a dull hub "stud/shaft" that i didn't like the look of, however i presumed that one had been on the shelf a while and they had changed the spec at some point,

the one with shiny bits had a horrible 3"long curved bit of steel rivited to it do bolt the brake flexi to where the other had the propper small plate at 90 degrees to the arm, i was pretty annoyed to have to cut that c@#p down to the right length dress it up and drill it myself.

then i got an electric drill and wire cup to clean up all the surface rust (on reconditioned parts?!?!?) and painted them in several coats of hammerite,

i left them to dry and waited for a time i could swap the arms (my car has to be mobile everyday to push it back into storage)

i took yesterday and today off work to fit the arms (it has taken a day a side by the time ive swapped everything over)

when fitting the shaft that had new nuts i tourqued the nuts as per haynes and one split in half! fortunately the shaft was un damaged and i had my old ones so swapped for those.

i filled the brakes up and greased the arms up, or tried. the drivers side (dull hub shaft) went ok and after a few pumps grease cam out of the inboard end of the shaft (none came out of outer end but i presume this is normal?)

the passenger side took for ever and after 5 mins i stripped my grease gun to check for fault, changed the cartridge as this had become empty, tried again and after loads of pumping grease eventually came out of the little shaft that the handbrake quadrant goes onto and no where else!! (yes im certain ive tripple checked)

presumably this makes the shaft a dud? is there anything daft i could have done in fitting?

i am sure mini spares would have swapped the arm but it is now painted red and is all built up, i will have to find time to get at the car again and time to get to minispares.

i presume this will be another case where the customer looses out ie its cost me in paint, grease, split pins, lock nuts, £20 in petrol to harrogate from me and god no's how many days it will take. (everything ads up!!)

the biggest annoyance is its probably added a month to my nearly complete project and as previously said my car needs to be mobile everyday so no idea how ill swap the arm ill probably have to fit my old one again!!

i am not happy to say the least.

I am a Plumber/heating engineer by trade and a situation like this costs either my firm or the supplier the customer never ends up out of pocket.


i pray that someone will tell me its me being stupid or something ive done wrong but i think its highly unlikely

has anyone else had similar problems?
moan over!!

[Guess-Works.com]

The pumping of grease bit I can help with...

The rear radius arms are hollow, and you've just pumped it full of grease, this is not a problem... The pins should have a sleeve to prevent this but sounds like that has been missed off.

[1340 gt]

The pumping of grease bit I can help with...

The rear radius arms are hollow, and you've just pumped it full of grease, this is not a problem... The pins should have a sleeve to prevent this but sounds like that has been missed off.

thanks for the reply thats great, it almost sounds promising!! can you elaberate on "pins" the qudrant pins? is this sleeve something i can fit?

surely you dont nomally fill the arm with grease?!?! (my other arms have a tube all the way thru round the shafts)

am i wrong in thinking its dead or does it indeed need replacing? due to grease exiting via the little shaft none is going down the main shaft so i would expect it to be very short lived.

[1340 gt]

please can some one tell me is it useless, ok, fine, dead etc

im guna have to ring minispares tom if its no good and set the ball rolling for a replacement.

off to pack car away now,

any reply is most appreciated

[maddogmcg]

hi
you will have to pull the roller bearings out of the radius arm to fit a plastic sleeve to contain the grease ,it is smaller diameter at one end and will slide into the radius arm between the solid bush and the roller bearing ,some older cars were fitted with a steel tube and these can rot away at the ends allowing the pumped grease to leak into the inside of the casting .

at least the grease leaking out of the moving quadrant will stop it from seizing !

[1340 gt]

o dear, bearing in mind this was bought as a recon do you think i should take it back?

i think my others have steel sleeves but as this was a recon i left the shaft in and haven't seen inside.

wish i'd refurbed my own now

[maddogmcg]

o dear, bearing in mind this was bought as a recon do you think i should take it back?

i think my others have steel sleeves but as this was a recon i left the shaft in and haven't seen inside.

wish i'd refurbed my own now

if the tube hasnt been fitted then the job wasnt done correctly ,so you might have a chance !,

[mattw13]

I have also just replaced both rear radius arms with recon minispares parts. I have to admit that I had no problems with the appearence of the items but I did find quite a lot of metal fileings (presumably from the reaming) within the shaft. I removed the shaft and completly cleaned them before fitting. Give minispares a call- they have always been helpful for me.

Hope you get it sorted

Matt

[1340 gt]

managed to get it off and to mini spares today, saw a bloke in the no and he swapped no problem and the new one is much cleaner and nicer

full off this fillings tho so cleaned these out and started to paint it. (checked the tube is in this one!!)

ps i ended upt spending another 100 quid on adjustible camber/castor brackets and some excellent adjustible H/D tie bars and lower arms.

faith restored in minispares just a shame its costing me so much time.