scratch the strut bar, i need to trim my Alta box and then I have to drill the holes, Plus Im up in Virginia now, and I didn't bring it. I'm going to be there hopefully early sunday morning.

 

I used a fully synthetic lubricant (Vavoline) made for all suspension materials and haven't had any problems. I still have a lot if you want to use some.

 

Thanks Chris.


Is it worthwhile to put some zerks on as well?

 

OK... just to summarize
8:30 - 9am Sunday morning

In no particular order...
Agile_moments - pulley, short shifter
pwjcw - short shifter
LeeL - short shifter
Pir8 97 - pulley, pads&rotors
MiniTiger - sway bar, oil change
Goldfinch - ?
Audioman - helper

 

Hi, I really would like to hang out with you guys tomorrow, but since the weather is so nice, think I'll get a mountain bike ride in the morning and then up to the lake for some water skiing in the afternoon.

Only parts to make it in this week were the Ferodo DS2500 brake pads an pulley.
I thought I did the bedding in process correctly, but the brakes squeel like crazy. Will have to spend some more time with them to rectify that problem. The 15% pulley came in Friday and installed it today. took me about 3hours. I rented the pulley puller from Webb Motorsports so if anyone needs to use it tomorrow, send me PM and i will make it available. I'm in the Oak Ridge, NC area. I have most all the professional SnapOn tools and still I thought the pulley would never come loose. Hope it goes smoother for you all. One interseting thing I found, the hose clamps installed at the factory for the radiator hose running in front of the intercooler were rotated in such a way that they were wearing into the super charger housing. Just rotating them corrected the problem.

Now I have to decide on which CAI to use, install the rear sway bar when it comes in, and the Milltex exhaust when its available. That should do me for a while.

Would love to know your experience with the SS installs, what brand, pro and cons, etc.

Hope to see some of you at the track days in Rockingham.

 

Well... it was a really long day and lots of accomplishments, but not without it's woes.

A 13 hour day yielded the following accomplishments...
2 pulleys - pir8 97, agile_moments
3 rear sway bars - LeeL, pwjcw, mini03tiger84
2 short shifters - agile_moments, pwjcw
1 set for front rotors and pads - pir8 97
1 magna flow exhaust - agile_moments
1 oil change - mini03tiger84
1 trip to Autozone 0 a long story there... but don't a belt for a MCS w/o check the length
1 trip to Ace for bolts

Did not do...
hmmm I think we got it all

LeeL sheared a shock tower bolt trying to torque to BMW spec of 100Nm... I think 75 is much more reasonable. A couple hour setback there after drilling and using easy out to extract the bolt.

Agile_moment's exhaust install needed a few trys to adjust the brackets to get the tips hanging at the right height. (and apparently it needs a lot of grease )

The short shifter installs... well the '04 shifter box is a pain in the butt. It took longer to install the short shifter than the Keith and BJ installing the sway bar on the the same car.

Anyway, it was a great day, beautful weather and lots of Mini-ing.

 

And so it begins


again, many thanks, great day of fun. Took the scenic route 49 home, some fun hills and stuff. Runs great, no problems with the exhaust rubbing, just needed a swift kick when i stopped in charlotte to get it to even out.

 

Great job! Be sure to invest in more jack stands. I'm amazed at everything accomplished in one day.

 

Wish I could take credit for doing more work, but it seems everybody there had more experience. I was more than happy to hand out tools and move around lights... and remove grease from shifters BTW agile_moments, I still have grease on my shirt if you need some more

Thanks for hosting this Chris. Especially thanks for all the help with the pulley and the belt saga. Thanks to Keith for the work on my rotors & pads.

 

agile_moments, mini03tiger84Any chance I can get you guys to put your pics online so I can use them in the Past Events section of M2C2.org?

 

A little mix up. Agile Moments did not do a rear sway, I did, I'll never forget that feeling when the shock tower bolt goes pop!


Had a good time, I only wish I could have stayed to help do your rear sway Chris. After mine and then the second one (with Keith and his air tools helping, we made shot work of that one), the third should be a piece of cake.

I did notice a clunk or 2 here or there with the Ireland bar but nothing too bad and I was really listening for it. I have not had a chance to really try it out since it was late and I had a car full of tools last night. I might have to swing by the extension of Louis Stevens Drive over by Cisco on the way home tonight.

Thanks for hosting Chris!

 

yeah, i have a couple decent ones i can send you.

 

I glad you got a fairly quiet install on the 1st try...
Louis Stevens Dr... hmm... a nice stretch of road that goes no where, literally. I've definitely been down that road before.

and I fixed my mistake in the accomplishments section. I guess I was delirious after that long day.

 

And that was also LeeL on pwjcw's rear sway helping Keith. I'd take credit for it, but I haven't heard how well it turned out

 

Hey Guys,
I had a great time helping out, I only wish I could have gotten there sooner. Its almost as much fun working on these things as it is to drive them!
I'm glad I got to put some new faces to screen names.

Thanks to Chris for once again, hosting a great event/ meeting (this counts as a meeting right? ) and Laura for the hospitality.

 

Furthermore, I managed 0 speeding tickets...as I was uh....keeping up with the flow of traffic

 

All I can say is wow, even with the bar set pretty conservatively at about 2 inches in from the end on the Ireland bar, (Chris said he was doing his at about 4) there is a significant difference in handling.

Much more neutral and even in lower speed cornering the rear wheels seem to track right behind the front whereas before it almost seemed the rear wanted to come closer to the curb in the middle of a curve (leading to at least one nasty bit of curb rash on my passenger rear wheel).

I have definitely noticed the clunking, especially at low speeds so I might give it a while and try to retighten everything again.

 

I'm a little confused... were you also changing shocks/springs? I can't see why you'd have to remove them for a sway bar swap. Of course, I haven't received my car yet, so I don't have a clue what the geometry is down there.

A stiffer rear sway is on my list of probably mods. Little worried about the clunking though. Do you know/remember the dimension of the OE sway (I assume that you have an MCS)?

Oh, and we're neighbors... (I'm in Cary).

Michael

 

You'll understand when you get your car Space is not something the MINI has a lot of.

 

unless you're sitting in it.

 

 

To do the rear sway, you need to take the shock tower off of one side in order to get enough clearance.


The bar itself is very close to the springs (1/4" on each side) but should not hit. (this is one thing I am going to check though)

The only bar that really clunks is the type I have, from Ireland Engineering. Most of the others do not have any issues. I did not know about the clunking when I bought it.

Come on down the next time Chris does it and you'll be able to see what we are talking about.