As many of you may be aware, I finally managed to get my classic back together, running, smogged and registered. It drives well, but I have a few issues that I need some help with.
1. Since I replaced the rear subframe (including new cones and rebuilt trailing arms) when I make a hard left turn, I have a nasty grindy metal-on-metal noise coming from the rear drivers side corner. It's right hand drive.
During driving the car back from Ohio, that was the side of the rear subframe that broke after rusting through, and I had to drive is some distance with the wheel getting closer and closer to the wheel arch. Eventually, the tire was rubbing constantly and I gave up and did the last stretch with the Mini in the back of a U-Haul truck. After I had the subframe all bolted up, I noticed the rubber pads that were on top of the old one sitting beside the car.
So my question is: is the noise likely coming from the subframe moving against the body because the rubber pad is missing, or might I have bent something in the trailing arm area causing some other kind of rubbing?

2. There are some odd electrical things going on. The car has separate bulbs for brakes and indicators/blinkers. When I put my foot on the brakes, the brake lights work fine. When I use the blinkers without the brakes on, they work fine. If I signal that I'm turning then put my foot on the brake, the blinkers stop blinking. They come on and stay on as a solid light. Any ideas?

3. I can't get the high beams to stay on. If I pull the headlight stalk up, they lights go to high beams, but as soon as I let go, they revert back to lows. I haven't pulled the steering column apart yet to see what's up with the switch. Anything to look for other than a dodgy switch?

 

Can't help with 1 or 2... and maybe not 3. But on my '80 Mini, the headlight bright switch is a 3 position switch: 1) center position is low beam, 2) pulled toward driver will flash the brights (and is sprung loaded to return to center), 3) pushed away from the driver (and should stay in that position, the high beams should stay on. How's that compare to yours?

And on no. 2, what year is your Mini? Mine has dual filament bulbs (brake/tail) and is an 1157 type bulb. The separate amber turn signal is a single filament 1156. But I can look at the schematic for your year car and maybe figure something out.

 

what year is your car?
pics would help, did you buy the mounting kit that included the rubber pieces?

 

check the rear wheel bearings, my issue was similar and it had nothing to do with the subframe.

 

Can't help w/#1

For the light issue, I had many odd yet similar issues when I first got my classic. Everything I tried, pulling bulbs, reconnecting wires, etc was not working. So I finally got my hands on the electrical schematics for my year (actually a few different years as my classic is a conglomeration of parts) and started tracing wires from the bulbs backwards checking each connection, voltages at multiple points and cleaning connections along the way.

I never found the root cause but as I traced back everything slowly, took notes on what I had done already it started to come together. Not a fun process but I learned a lot and almost all electrical has been in good shape since.

Good luck.

 

The car is a 91 (should have mentioned that, sorry).

Shorn...the stalk lights the brights when I pull or push it, maybe I'm not pushing it hard enough to lock them on. I'll try that when I go home for lunch.


Elprofe...you mean the subframe mounting kit? It included all the rubber bushings but did not include the square rubber pads I mentioned in the original post.

Blueheat...I'm REALLY trying to avoid tracing the wiring harness. The previous owner installed a cd-stereo in the front of the car and new speakers in the rear. There are a number of wires hanging around like a spider web in the boot. Some run the speakers, others just go into the regular harness.

The blinker lighting issue seems to be kinda wierd to me. Almost like there is too much resistance in the circuit and the little clicky unit that makes the lights blink isn't getting enough power to make it blink when the brakes lights are on.

 

On the non-blinking turn indicator problem, you may have something there. The flasher depends on current through it (and through the bulbs to it) to heat up a bi-metal strip. When its hot enough it bends and opens an electrical contact to the lights. Once it cools (no current through it anymore), the contact closes again. Repeat as nauseum to blink. If you don't have enough current flow the thing won't get hot enough to open. So you may have grounding issues, which are very common in Minis. Bad ground connections, corroded "bullet" connections, etc. Could also be a defective flasher. You could try that first since its cheap and readily available at auto parts stores. Then go hunting for poor ground connections. You could try adding a "temporary ground", for example from the negative side of the light sockets (typically the black wire) directly to the negative battery post. Others on this forum have written on how to clean up the bullet connections in the harness and at the devices - buff them up with a dremel or equiv. then seal them with conductive grease (also at auto parts places).

HTH,
steve

 

for high beams on the 91, you move the lever down towards the pedals, up is for flashing them.

I wiring diagram from a Haynes manual will help you isolate the problem. There is an issue with that year in which the current at the fuse box will overload and melt the plug, in some cases you only get parking lights and no headlamps, a little wiggleling of the wires takes care of it sometimes.

Water may also drip do the fuse box causing corrosion and other electrical problems. I can isolate the rear lamps by removing the inline fuse the firewall and seeing if that makes a difference.

ARE you running a stereo? is it stock or after market connected to the stock plug?

 

It's an aftermarket stereo with funky, light-up aftermarket speakers on the rear deck.
I'll have a look in the fusebox. Thanks.

No suggestions on the suspension/cornering noise?

 

check your bulbs, they can short out instead of burn out, thus giving some weird effects.

 

*Did you check if the rear hub bearings are lubed?

*Is the subframe bolted on tight on all four corners? New rubbers or old bushings? Jack up the rear and try to move the subframe. It should not be moving at all.(Make sure that you use the body's jacking points)

*if it does, the shocks might be hitting the body during body roll.

*did you fill the grease nipple of the swing arms after rebuilt?

There are only a few moving parts on the rear: swing arms, knuckle joint, cones, what else? Check all the moving parts.

 

do you have hi/los?

 

I'll check, but when my foot is off the brakes, the blinkers work perfectly. I think it's more likely to be one of the previously suggested things.

Hub bearings...no. I need to look for the grease points in my Haynes this weekend.
The subframe is bolted tight with new bushings.
If it was moving and hitting, wouldn't it happen in both directions? It only happens on left turns.
Yes, I made sure to fill the trailing arms with grease after the rebuild.
I replaced the cones and knuckle joints. That's why I'm wondering if I may have damaged something driving it with the busted subframe?


Nope. Good old rubber cones for me, but fresh ones from England.

Oh yeah, the high beam won't stay on. I pushed the stalk forwards until it felt like it was about to bend or break, no joy. I'm going to have to disassemble the steering column and see if I can see what's up with it. I'm going to hit some of the Mini parts places in Sydney when I go home in September, so it's time to put together a "wants and needs" list.

The high beams will be less critical now that the lows actually put out visible light. I installed these yesterday.

 

When you flip the stalk forward from center position, does it stay forward? I know you say the brights don't come on. But I'm confused as to whether the switch in the stalk is defective or you have other (wiring related) issues. When I flip my stalk forward the travel at the tip is about an inch, no more. And not much pressure is required to flip it forward or back to center.

 

sounds like you may have a broken or cracked stalk.

 

I removed the shroud on the steering column. It looks to me like the switch is not aligned correctly. I can push the stalk forward and the high beams come on, but the stalk doesn't have enough space to move forward far enough to lock into place with the brights on. Further investigation will ensue.

 

Looking at the diagram in the Haynes book (pg 12A-5), it appears that the wiper/direction-brights stalk assembly clamps onto the column and is held in place by a screw at the bottom. Maybe you can try loosening the screw and sliding the multifunction switch module up the column until the lights stalk can stay flipped forward.

 

From a quick look last night, after removing the screw that holds the clamp together, sliding the assembly up the shaft didn't seem to make much difference. It's like the assembly itself is put together not quite right. Also, the indicator cancel is on the wrong side of the steering column. The blinkers only cancel if I turn the wheel more than 3/4 of a full turn, and how often do you need to do THAT in a classic?

 

does it work with the shroud removed?
You can switch the blinker cancel to the correct side by removing the the bolt at the bottom of the steering column, remove > align > reinsert.

make sure wheels are straight when you do this.

 

On the blinker cancel, I had a similar problem. The cam just rotated on the column' shaft. I had to drill a hole thru the cam and into the shaft and insert a self tapping screw. There's a thread on this with pix of it somewhere on this forum. Works fine now.

You mean that even after moving the multiswitch up the column, the stalk won't lock in the "brights" (forward) position??

 

On the blinker cancel, I had a similar problem. The cam just rotated on the column's shaft. I had to drill a hole thru the cam and into the shaft and insert a self tapping screw. There's a thread on this with pix of it somewhere on this forum. Works fine now.

You mean that even after moving the multiswitch up the column, the stalk won't lock in the "brights" (forward) position??

 

I think that's the case. I didn't check the stalk movement while the switch was movable, but looking at it, it appeared to be a single unit that shouldn't have its operation changed by the position on the steering column. I can mess with the blinker cancel if I can get the steering wheel back off.

 

Ok...update time.
I got the blinker cancel to work. Removed the steering wheel, spun the cam 180 degrees and reapplied the steering wheel, they cancel perfectly in both directions now.

I finally found the flasher unit under the bonnet, opposite side of the car from the fusebox, sitting in a round cutout in the foam attached to the firewall. I replaced it with an identical thermal flasher which didn't make any difference, so I tried a new style electronic flasher and the problem is gone. I think the extra drain in the circuit from the added 3rd brake light was enough to stop the thermal flasher getting to it's flash temp.

Absolutely no luck with the high-beam locking on problem. Even with the unit moving freely on the steering column, no luck. I think I'm going to pick up a new unit when I'm in Aus later this year.

I added grease to the trailing arm, it didn't take hardly any, and made no difference to the noise. I'm now wondering if maybe the suspension trumpet is rubbing on the subframe, but I need to get the rear end on ramps to see.

 

I'm puzzled about the flasher resolution, but no matter - at least its fixed. On the Hi beam issue, (also may be moot since you're going to replace it), does the stalk stay in the locked (on) position? And if not, if you hold it in the locked/on position, do the brights come on?

 

The stalk will not go into the locking postion, it hits against the plate that everything mounts to before it locks. The brights come on while I'm either pushing the stalk down or pulling it up.