Hi All

I have just fitted the above, all good except I am not sure the angles of the drop links are correct, they are vertical looking from side of mini but as you can see from rear, they are on quite an angle, slightly different each side.

Was thinking of making spacers up to set them straighter however i will require longer bolts due to having a spacer in there, which isn't a problem.

FYI - I have fitted the spacer provided in the kit

What do you guys think?

Cheers

Hi,
No comment on the fitting, namely because I don't know, however did this package come with a set of instruction? You may need to contact KAD, unless someone hopefully knows the answer.

One comment l will make, when getting new component parts ask for a set of instructions for an install.

As clr60 said, I can't comment on fitting either as I haven't fitted this brand either. Not having a go at your work but it could just be not fitted correctly, by that I mean not central. Sometimes you'll find you measure accurately from given points only to find they're not actually in right place. I'll explain better, this is just example, the instructions say to drill hole 50mm in from outer edge at a given point, you do this and according to the instructions the holes should be 900mm apart, you then measure it and they're actually 890mm.
What I'm getting at is the subframes are designed to have certain points, i.e. arm pivot points, mounting points, etc, in an exact position, all else is irrelavent.
The stampings are in some cases woefully inaccurate, have a look at different ones you'll see what I mean.
Anyway, back to your problem. Just do some measuring and insure bar mounts are central to the suspension arms, forget the frame, then 'tweek' the drop links to suit, the spherical rod ends will take care of the rest.

Thanks for the advice guys and yes there were instructions, followed to the letter, measured and re-measured, will check over it again

I'm not an expert, but i don't think that should be a problem.

There shouldn't be any sideways movement between the swaybar and the trailing arm so all that should happen is the spherical joints will move slightly front to back, but not side to side. So should all be good.

Just so long as the outer body of the joint is not hard up against anything or close to max angle.

Rod ends will not cope with high bending loads. These should be only in tension or compression. Any angle will induce bending loads, so it needs to be minimised.

Also you need to remove the springs and check the angles of everything through the whole motion of the swing arm. Only getting it right at full droop may cause problems once the suspension is loaded up with the full weight on it or when at full bump.

_________________
the world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page
66 Mini Minor sponsored by http://www.lifeonthehedge.com.au/ The Dog Harness Specialists
It was a pleasure ausmini. I'll miss all you misfits and reprobates

Here are some photos of my K Mac rear bar on Mk1 S with hydro, worked Ok for the past 40 years

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1969 Cooper "S"
1967 Mini Deluxe
1973 Clubman Van (the fleet spare)
1978 ex 1275 LS ("Wizard" Eaton Supercharged)
2015 HSV GenF GTS(occasional drive & tow car)
2019 MINI F55 Cooper S

I have also had the same issue, but got it as close as I could and it seemed to work fine. The biggest problem I had was when you run a standard rear ie cooper s offset with no spacer , the tyre will rub against the torque arms under heavy cornering
.
This can be overcome somewhat by using 10mm spacer and modifying arms to allow fitment of counter sunk cap screws.

To resolve the problem properly I made a custom set of for a standard set up , basically the bar has been shortened and dog leg torque arm fabricated.

just a heads up

Wait until you have the car on wheels on level ground before dialing in the endlinks. I have the same swaybar , and I believe they should be set dead flat vertical from the ground.

thanks all, I am still waiting for KAD to get back to me, I did set my droplinks when the car was on the ground at normal road height. I was thinking I could just put longer bolts in and spacers to get them more vertical (from the rear)

Also, the bar is only 2mm difference from left or right and as both droplinks are angled in, it wont make much difference if I move the bar left of right.

Selby used to make Mini sway bars, don't know if they're still available. They had links similar to K Mac but fitted to shock bolts.

69cooper i like how you went nuts with the hole saw on the subframe.

Yes I have gone A bit Burt Munro on the rear end, sub frame holes plus fiberglass boot lid and some attention to the rear sway arms gives me a 4.8kg weight loss, next on the list is a alloy muffler

You can't induce a bending moment in a rod with pin joints at either end. The only way that drop link gets any bending loads is if the rod ends run out of angular travel. That doesn't look like it is happening in the photo shown but could occur at the extremes of motion. If the rod ends don't bind, I would just leave it as is.

M

How much did u lose on just lightening the subframe, is it a street driven car?

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SPO41 Mk2 Cooper S very original
1993 R32 Nissan Skyline GTR