Hey has anyone purchased the rear anti-sway bar and well couldn't install it on there own? I need to pull off both the rear tires and I don't have any of the special Cooper jacks. I obviously need two jacks has anyone that owns a Cooper S been able to purchase one or two for that matter?

 

Como,
To ease the sway bar installation it is almost imperative to have a floor jack to get each side of the car up so that you can put jack stands under the rear-most jacking points. Without getting the rear tires off and the rear of the car stabilized I would think it would be next to impossible to remove/install the bar since it will be under load. We've had our MCS up in the air a lot know doing bar-related work and I've found that jack stands are really tricky to get safely into position (preventing them from shifting while getting one side jacked to get the other under it). What I found was that I had to use the front jacking points with two floor jacks raising both sides at the same time high enough to get the jack stands under the rear jack points. Once they are under there SLOWLY let the front jacks down until the car has fully weighted the jack stands (keep an eye on them as you do this to insure they aren't moving). Leave the front jacks under the car for safety (or place jack stands there as well). Once you have it safely on jackstands just take your time to loosen the rear subframe, wiggle out the bar, install the new one, and tighten the subframe back up. After you've done this be sure to have an alignment done as loosening and tightening the subframe will likely change your rear alignment.

An alternative, if you don't plan to tinker with your car a lot, is to just have a local shop do the installation for you.

Hope this helps

Mark

PS - Moving to Performance Mods forum

 

See Randy's excellent Rear Sway Bar Installation How-To :smile:

 

I know this question's been asked before, but I don't remember ever seeing a satisfactory answer: how do you get rear jackstands in place? I don't have multiple jacks or any such stuff...just one jack and four stands. Can someone point me in the right direction?

 

>>I know this question's been asked before, but I don't remember ever seeing a satisfactory answer: how do you get rear jackstands in place? I don't have multiple jacks or any such stuff...just one jack and four stands. Can someone point me in the right direction?

The MINI's body is AMAZINGLY stiff. What I found while doing the sway-bar install was that lifting the car at the front jack points will lift the rear of the car enough to get jack stands in the rear. So jack up front left, put jack stand in rear-left, lower jack until it's nice and solid on the jack stand, move to other side, jack up front right, jackstand rear-right. You'll need a jack with some half decent travel. One of those hydraulic ones with the long handle.

That's about it.

Paul

 

Check out the oil change HOWTO for the mounting points. I've found that if you jack it up from the front side just behind the tire, the whole side of the car comes up and you can get both jack stands in. Also I'd advise putting it so the longer part of the jack stand runs from tire to tire (like in the picture in the oil-change howto) and not front to back because it will try to kreep off the stands when you jack up the second side if you do.
-Chris

 

I thought that an alignment wasn't needed after the rear sway bar install? I haven't heard this before.... I'm almost ready for this mod so I would appreciate any info.... thanks.

 

>>I thought that an alignment wasn't needed after the rear sway bar install? I haven't heard this before.... I'm almost ready for this mod so I would appreciate any info.... thanks.


No alignment is needed after replacing the rear sway. Heck, there's nothing to adjust that you touch in the install!

R

 

Oh, and I jack at the front to place a stand in the rear as paulmon indicated. Easiest way I've yet found.

R

 

I installed a MINIMania adjustable last weekend. Took about 2.5 hours with no instructions except what was posted here. It wasn't at all difficult to do, slipped in pretty easy. If you have any questions while installing yours, shoot me an email offline (canajun-at-adelphia.net) and I'll do what I can. Unless of course you're in Colorado ... then you're in my backyard.

BTW, tremendous difference! Absolutely love it!

Cheers

Geoff

PS. If your kit came with new poly bushings, a little grease/white lithium works wonders.

gp

 

Quick question--are you using normal jack stands that have what looks like the end of a shuffleboard stick (kind of a two-armed ordeal) or the nice rubber puck ones that I've seen in some of the write-ups here.

All the talk about cars creeping off of jack stands and the one story about the factory jacking point popping off have me worried.

TIA,

jeff

 

As far as getting a non-mini jack unter the car, just drive your tires up onto a piece of wood or somthing to raise the frame up just that little bit needed to get your taller jack under the jack point on the frame rail.

 

I was able to get a floor jack with a 1.5"x1.5"x6" wood block just in front of the plastic jacking point. It fit perfectly into the slot in the underside of the aero side skirts. That way I could easily get a jack stand under the official rear jacking point without having to raise the front end of the car.