Tyre places' rattle guns are set for doing 7/16" and 1/2" wheel studs/nuts, not a Mini's 3/8" ones.

I worn't even start on how they jack the Mini up and bend your floors...

I park outside, jack up, take wheels in, refit and tighten em with my wheel brace.
Trust nobody....

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Well, i got the alignment done today... i will report back with the adjustments they made. The Pedders guys spent quite a few hours on the car apparently. They adjusted the brackets to their full adjustment too, so they couldn't get it exactly right but it's close.

Anyhow... my mate stripped one of my wheel nuts as he was tightening the wheels last week. It shits me because he claims it's the fault of poor quality steel (ie: my car's fault) and not that it was because he overtightened it. He was using one of those 4 headed wheel braces when he did it... so it was by hand. But grrrr still.

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- Simon -

If the nut was stripped I'd change the wheel stud too.

Molina, i would bet you have performance alloys with their nuts. They are rubbish, i've stripped them before too. Made out of cheap chinese crap.

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I wasn't sure what to do about the stud... I obviously have to get at least one more nut but how do i tell if i need studs?

Also, i was going to get the nut tomorrow... anyone care to suggest a brand or supplier i should aim for?

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- Simon -

It takes a lot to strip a Mini wheel stud, they are tuff stuff.
Only ones I've seen break had wheels with metric 100mm PCD.
I'd reckon stud OK.
As Josh said some alloy wheelnuts are absolute crap- I'd never let a tyre monkey do them up... ever.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Just whilst I'm thinking of it, should wheel studs have a small amount of grease put on them before the nut is done up, or should it be completely dry?
I wouldn't see the harm in a thin layer of copper grease, provided the nuts are still torqued correctly.

yeah as tempting as it is, any lube on threads will distort torque figures. I avoid it for this reason.

I have just taken my car in for an alignment, and took in a list of spec that I wanted. I made sure I told them how the rear bracket worked so they didn't charge me for extra labour time for head scratching. I also managed to get there when they were finishing it off, and managed to get a look at the computer screen. I found that caster was 2 deg less than I asked for??? the answer ooh we couldnt figure it out. We went over it, and found perished top arm bushes were the cause, and the top arm was being dragged over when the adj tie bar was being pulled in . If I wasn't there they wouldnt have brought it up! My theory is then to be there when they adjust, so that if any drama you can sort the problem. I will replace bushes at home, then take it bak so they can re adjust, free of charge.

for reference, the numbers i am using:

front
4 caster
1.5 neg camber
1/16 toe out

rear
1 neg camber
1/16 toe in

Chris

"found perished top arm bushes were the cause '

Typo presumably...the bushes are on the bottom.

I would suggest no camber at the rear - it grips well enough anyway and you need to loosen it up a bit to aid turn in.

Caster is something that doesn't get much press as people seem to concentrate on camber. However, caster turns into camber as lock is applied. So, one way to go is wirh less camber (no more than 1 deg) and more caster. The down side of caster is that it weights the steering. I find a bit over 5 deg is OK without loading the steering too much.

Cheers, Ian

right you are 1071 i have just set my car up now and i'm testing a few things but caster is one of those things were you can never have to much. it does weight the steering up abit but it's a mini not a dodge truck. i have a slight problem though because the car is low and i have large offset 10inch wheels i get abit of scrub so i'm goin to raise the car and cut the gaurds when i get it painted. the specs are now

Front

2* neg camber
2* foward caster
1* total toe in

Rear

2* neg camber
0* toe

i'm running rubber cones in a wet subframe with spax ajustable shocks

after i cut the gaurds i'm goin to try for around 6* forward caster.

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FOR SALE MInidlx, 1293, GR head, RE-13, GR worked Redline Manifold, 45 mm DCOE,pulsar dizzy , "S" Disc's, Mk II "S" box, 3.65 diff. Minator 10X6's On the loose

You might wish to re-think the toe settings. You do not want toe-in on the front of a Mini.
As for your claim that you can never have too much castor, you can reach a point where you start to lose grip because of it.

Why so much camber on the rear? A Mini is an understeering car and adding more camber to the rear may increase the understeer.

My car runs 0.5° pos camber on the rear with a touch of toe out on the rear as well. You would not want these settings on the road in a Mini though.

But I suppose if everthing is adjustable you might as well try everything because you just might find something you like.

uumm yes, I'm with Morris on this one.

IM(very) HO 2deg of front camber is too much for optimum tyre wear on a road car.

2 deg of caster is not nearly enough (I think 3 is standard??). You can have too much; if I go more than about 5 1/2 deg I start to experience "tea trolley" effect. This is a sort of shimmy in the steering - if you try pushing a shopping trolley fast the front wheels will waggle back and forward because trolleys have LOTS of caster...

As M said, you need toe out on the front of a Mini. The main reason for (static) toe is so that the wheels will run straight on the road. Because of flex in the suspension joints the front wheels of a Mini will pull forward under power and toe will move towards 0. The opposite happens at the back as the undriven wheels tend to drag behind. Hence rear toe in.

You can do a lot to the front/rear balance of a Mini by fiddling with rear toe. It probably has more effect on handling than any other setting. (And get pretty scary as you past 0 to toe out).

When you start getting REALLY serious (as they used to when Minis were front running touring cars) you get concerned about the relationship between the height of the inner and outer ends of the lower arms and the front and rear of the rear arms. I can't afford to be this serious but its an interesting academic exercise.

Cheers, Ian

i will try some toe out. the setting i have aren't final i'm just testing a few things an seeing how they feel and handle. i have found that these settings are good for high speed stablity and grip around the corners. but i get a fair bit of bump steer on the uneven roads. 2* caster is the max i can run because it scrubs really bad otherwise. once i cut the gaurds i will be looking to run about 4 1/2 deg. i have a wheel alignment machine at work so it doesn't cost me to mess around.

also i have had toe out on the rear and it makes the car handle shocking and makes it really twichy. 1 deg toe in is the way to go. and positive camber on the rear is just a backwards step do you understand why you have neg camber. i want it to handle i'm not worried if my tyres wear out quickly if i was i would drive it like a granny.
i'm welcoe to all susgestions though and i'm keeps tabs of my settings

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FOR SALE MInidlx, 1293, GR head, RE-13, GR worked Redline Manifold, 45 mm DCOE,pulsar dizzy , "S" Disc's, Mk II "S" box, 3.65 diff. Minator 10X6's On the loose

How do you go with the 2deg neg at the rear? I would imagine you are very close to fouling the shocks?

Also if you have 2* neg on the front, it's gives you more grip and turn in. Increasing the grip at the rear (by adding neg camber) negates this effect and you have higher effective grip levels but just as much understeer. That is the reason rear sway bars are used, they take away the effective grip at the rear and increase turn in which is what you need in a mini.

What tires are you running?

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Toe-in helps with stability. Like 1071 said though a FWD needs a touch of toe-out to keep everything sweet. Sometimes though stability is not what you want. When I was racing HQs I found that the most important adjustment was toe-out on the front (this was with a RWD car that normally runs toe-in) Toe-out helped the turn-in when you entered a corner. I could make it understeer or oversteer just by adjusting the toe setting.
Then you get to a track like Bathurst and you do not want the instability that large amounts of toe-out and castor give.

1071 also mentioned the "tea trolley" effect of large amounts of castor. The car will weave from side to side as you try to drive down a straight. What may work at Wakefield Park might be very scary at Eastern Creek (or just driving down the M4)

My tips for working on suspension adjustments....
Only change one thing at a time or you will not know which thing has worked.
Making a lot of small changes will consume a lot of time and you might be hard pressed to tell the difference. Making a big change might tell you if you are going the right way or the wrong way very quickly.