Hey everyone!

So I'm tackling the suspension on the Mini. I was able to get the new RSB in and one of the lower control arms, and after a lot of searching I finally felt confident enough to get the struts put together.


Two quick questions though:

1. It says to torque the top down to 48lbs. How do I do that? The tab is on top so I can't use an allen wrench. I compressed the springs and then tightened the top but I don't know how tight it is. I showed this to a friend of mine and he said the compression looks fine, though the bushing and the washer on top are off (which I'll fix when I get home). Just wondering if I can get some more eyes on this:


2. Probably a very stupid question so my apologies. The strut mounts have an R and an L on them. Are they facing towards the front of the vehicle or the rear? They are angled and I unfortunately in all of my wisdom wasn't paying attention to if the angle faced towards the car or away from it.

Thanks as always everyone!

 

1st, go down to your local hardware store and get thyself a torque wrench, they're not that expensive. Not torquing something correctly can be devastating, those ft/lb directions on anything automotive are not suggestions. Second: Right side, left side. In this country (the US) the steering wheel is on the left side.

 

Haha, I appreciate it, but I have a torque wrench. When you try to tighten the nut at the top the entire inside rotates and there's nothing that I can see on the outside that would prevent the rotation. I also can't stick an allen wrench into the top because it has the adjuster tab there. I'm still a noobie at this stuff, but I did just hear about crow's foot wrenches and might pick up a set of those.

With the other piece I'm not talking about the physical location on the vehicle but the orientation of the strut mount when reinstalling it; sorry if that was confusing.


It has the R and the L on it, but I'm not sure which way that faces on the vehicle because of the way the strut mount is angled.

 

Recon I'd best do a better job reading between the lines. "Haha" is the key element. Good luck with your quest.

 

Crowfoot socket/wrench with a closed end wrench to hold the shaft.

 

Also remember to calculate the new torque setting/adjustment due to the crows foot increasing the length of the wrench.

 

There's a small hex on the top of the shaft under the damping adjustment. Use that to hold the shaft while tightening the nut with another wrench. Tighten until it bottoms out, and give a little snug beyond that. It's a nylock nut - you'll be fine. They only need to be ~30ft*lbs anyway.

 

Thanks for the help everyone.

Got the rears installed today. When I first drove it there was a bit of rattling. I put it back on jacks and retightened everything down. When I drove it again the rattling was gone but there was a bit of a squeaking/rubbing sound. I'm thinking it's because i accidentally used the LCA grease on the powerflex bushings rather than the powerflex grease.

Is there any way to confirm this? I'm also assuming since there's no more rattling I should be good to go? Will that rubbing sound eventually go away of should I go ahead and replace the grease?

I did also put in the WMW RSB and the Hotckhis LCA's but slathered those up pretty decently I think.