My 96 Rover Mini SPI steers like its in treacle and wondered if this is normal.

Long story short, recently got this car from a dealer and slowly fixing the sometimes dangerous condition it was sold in and after changing out the tires to the correct mini size am still experiencing a hard time turning. Is it me just being spoiled after so many years of power steering or could there be more going on?

P.S. had an 84 Mayfair growing up in blightly and recall it being a lot nimbler.

thanks for reading,

Mike

 

How's it do above 5 or 10 MPH? Manual steering IS much heavier than power, but only at very slow speed - once you get rolling it should be light and nimble.

Also, do you feel any grinding or hitching anywhere when you turn the wheel hard-over to hard-over? If you're rolling and you have the steering all the way to the left or the right, do you feel a thunking from the wheels?

 

Thanks for the fast reply,
Its def really heavy at lower speeds and to be honest havent whipped it around a whole lot yet. I will have a play over the weekend and keep you posted.

mike

 

Have you ever greased the grease nipples? Do you have a grease gun?

 

Matt,

My 78 feels the same way. Where are the grease nipples?

Edwin

 

There are 3 up front and two on the rear - had to explain without a picture. You need a basic Harbor Freight manual grease gun and red grease - about $15 all told and the grease will hold you for years.

 

Matt,

Thanks for the update. Still havent had a chance to take it out, fuel pump died when I was looking to see why the head and tail lights dont work....when it rains it pours. Will have a look and see if the grease nipples are in the haynes manual.

 

Hmmmmm...sorry folks, but if you are telling me you have a 'classic' and don't know where the grease fittings are, you REALLY need to start learning your car and the maintenance requirements of an older vehicle....

When I first got mine it was hard as a rock.....a few hours cleaning encrusted crud out of the bottom with a pressure washer and later a steam washer made a small improvement. But bigger gains were made by getting Mr Grease Gun out and pushing MAJOR amounts of clean grease thru all four corners.....

Standard greasing says pump the gun 'til you see the old begin to push out....well, that's for regular service. Since I didn't know when the last grease was done I pushed about half a tube thru each joint (place drop catchers!!!!!) this way I flushed the joints as well as I could without complete disassembly. Several joints, I couldn't push grease thru until I got another jack - one was holding the corner in the air - to work the corner susp' up and down while applying pressure with the grease gun. Then suddenly the old crap would break loose, a handful of dried crap would blow out and eventually I'd see clean new pushing thru.

After cleaning up, the first ride was AMAZING.... Funny how different the car rode when the things that are suposed to flex actually DID....

Learn not only where the fittings are, but where the grease will come out one you fill there...and ensure you get an even flow all the away around the joint....not just where it breaks thru.....

Hint...if you hook up the gun and pump....and the grease oozes out at the zerk fitting, it does NOT mean the joint is full. It means something is PLUGGED UP......

 

Hey now... I had no idea where they were until someone showed me. Be fair. They're simple as pie to see with someone standing right there showing you, but hard to describe. As for forcing grease into them until the old stuff squirts out, you might have sufficiently tight joints that this isn't possible with a small, single-hand pump. My front ones were this way but the rears allowed the old, gunky grease to squirt out - listen for the "crack" of the old grease breaking out.

 

If you have an air compressor you could pick up a cheap air powered grease gun from HF. That should get the old out & the new in.

 

BJ, that's what this board is about right? I am quickly learning as much as I can so I am not ashamed to ask for help. Thanks for your input

Matt, does the Hayne's manual show this? I looked through it but didn't see it. I'll look again tonight

Edwin

 

Hey - all I'm saying is that one has to start with the basics.

I was there too - learning still am, every day .... reading the opening chapters of the Haynes is a good idea, it is more than a reference manual if you didn't happen to get an owners manual (which hanging out on this site suggests few MINI owners read anyway )

The problem with boards like this is a 'question' can be looked at two ways when there isn't additional discussion to scope the topic:

1. We assume all the really trivial stuff has been eliminated and the person is stumped and grasping for new ideas

2. We assume the asker hasn't bothered to look anywhere and start with the really simple stuff. Like when I get asked to help with a computer problem and begin with "is it plugged in and turned on?" {a four hour trouble shooting session eventually led to the question a few years ago....wanna guess what the answer was?}

I for one get frustrated when I spend time on 1 and come to find 2 applied. After a while one starts to think about how much effort they want to apply to a reply especially after a few detailed replies get acknowledged with..."oh, I was just askin...that sounds like a lot of work."

Or

A valid albiet shorter answer to this question is also:

page 1.14 in the Haynes 1969 to 2001, under "every 6 months/6000 miles maintenance" .. there are pictures of the fittings

 

Thanks Capt Just out of curiosity... can you see it in this pic?




Edwin

 

here's an article listing all the grease sites (including the hand brake, which is seoldom mentioned) - good reading:

http://www.theminorsite.co.uk/cms_vi...d9b1fae162a95f

Still looking for a diagram for you. The grease nipples look just like they sound - about 1/4" tall and fitted with a tiny ball-bearing at the end. the pressure of the grease inside the joint pushes the ball outwards and stops it from leaking back out. If the nipple is clogged (as they usually are), all you need do is remove them with a small spanner... erm, wrench.... and take a wire brush to them - the dirt-impregnated old grease is no match for the brush. There are 3 (4?) up front and 2 on the back, and some are up behind the brake assembly or on the bottom - the best way to do it is to jack up the car, remove the wheel and then shove your whole head in the wheel-well. Sounds hard, but once you ID the nipples the next time will only take about 10 minutes to do all 4 wheels.