Hi everyone..

I have had a fair few minis in my time. Early models, clubmans, no mokes, but you get the picture, I thought I knew some things about them, never claimed to be an oracle, but I felt confident taking on my project, not really much of a concern.

I have just come across something I haven't seen, or heard of, so maybe someone can fill me in on what happened.

Has anyone ever seen a subrame that is exactly 2 inches too short, from towers to front of the car?

The reason I asked, is I built a jig around the subframe I was given with the car (which was completely disassembled) and made the required changes to satisfy the engineer, and went to test fit it. Thats when I found it. exactly 2 inches of air between front of subframe and the front of the car.

Yes, it can be fixed, but what the hell happened here? What's out there that uses a short nosed subframe?

Cheers,

Adam

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1966 Mini 850 - Suzuki Swift GTi 1300 conversion

I would today the front of your car has been replaced with later model leylamd front from UK.
These were rubber mounted and had a block of rubber between the subframe and the body.

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Great. Thanks! I thought I had missed something somewhere along the line. forgot to mention, the bolt holes at the front of the car were nearly 10mm wider than the subframe holes too. It may all work out really nicely actually, meaning I now have an extra 2 inches at the front to play with.

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1966 Mini 850 - Suzuki Swift GTi 1300 conversion

I doubt that even a mini should have "an extra 2 inches to play with" in their suspension!

I don't have personal experience with UK mini set-ups (others here will have) but understand the extra rubber mountings for the front of the subframe were intended to insulate noise between the engine and the body/cabin.
However, it allowed the front subframe/suspension to wiggle and move about, causing odd steering effects, especially with larger tyre diameters used on later minis.

The original rubber mounts can be replaced by special solid mounts to copy the original setup and correct these issues.

Id agree. 2 inch seems an awful lot.

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Yeah I was shocked to see so much daylight.
I agree, with you guys, I don’t think the blocks would be that big.

After a nights sleep, I am putting it down to a big mistake in the original build of the subframe.

If you look at my build thread, the engineer wasn’t happy with the quality of the welding of the subframe which is why I completely changed the design. I am beginning to wonder if it was built without a jig and a major cockup was made in measuring. This may even be why the project was sold when most of the work was already apparently done.

I just didn’t know if maybe mikes were shorter or perhaps there was some other, less dodgy explanation.

Thanks for the info and helping me think this through. Very much appreciated.

Adam


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1966 Mini 850 - Suzuki Swift GTi 1300 conversion

It all becomes clearer to understand. Ignore my comments.
These are the issues you have to sort out when dealing with another person's modifying.
Good luck with it.

Ha ha ha. Yes. Thanks. Beginning to wish I just sourced a fresh subframe and either started from scratch or returned to original a series engine. [DISAPPOINTED FACE]


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1966 Mini 850 - Suzuki Swift GTi 1300 conversion