Far Out Son of Lung...

Suspension

Friday Night
It took two trips but I managed to tote all of my tools, four jack stands and SUV sized floor jack to B's place. The jack itself was purchased at Pep Boys Thursday evening and probably weighs about as much as a dead minister. The thing is huge, red has dual lifting pistons and picks the car up with the same effortless shrug that Hulk Hogan has when he picks up a toddler. Add to that two tool boxes, a torch, various bits and pieces and all the parts that were to be installed.

Saturday Morning
Cooper S
I woke up around 8 o'clock jonesing to get to work on the car. With all of the parts and tools already at B's place I need only run to Home Depot for one final item I might need to finish the job. It was, of course, a giant freaking C-clamp.

We started with the morning with a break job on the Mini. B's Cooper S was getting a new set of cross-drilled Brembo rotors and some pads, none of which seemed too daunting. We ran into a few snags, primarily with the rear calipers not wanting to slide off because of a massive lip on the rear rotor. This, of course, is due to the lack of brain power on the dealer's behalf when they did B's brakes a year ago.

When you replace pads you have to turn the rotors down and remove the excess material. It brings out a new, clean, smooth surface and eliminates that annoying lip on the rotor. The dealer didn't want to do that though, so B & R had to remove the rear calipers with a rubber mallet. After that, it was easy.

The only thing we noticed on the Mini was excessive wear on the inside edge of the rear tires. The whole edge, mayve 3/4" was worn bald and into the cord on the driver's side tire. I have no explanation but it looks like he's running some hardcore rear camber. I am also told that it could be due to low tire pressures. B took the car for some new rubber while R, E and myself continued.

Spec V
With the Mini completed it was time to roll in the SE-R. We had a full plate of activities ahead of us and would need to be diligent if we wanted to complete all of it that day. Our to do list consisted of installing:

• Nismo front anti-roll bar (25mm)
• Nismo rear anti-roll bar (25mm)
• Nismo lower tie bar
• KSport coilovers
• SuperPro suspension bushings

Rear End
We started with the rear of the car and went to work removing the rear beam suspenion in an effort to remove and replace the trailing arm bushings. It didn't work. There's a central main bolt that supports the beam that would not loosen. We tugged, torqued, WD-40'd and I cussed a lot, but it wouldn't budge. I think I know why. I had put the monster jack under the beam to support it but had not lifted it much to take weight off the main bolt. I'm pretty certain now that there was so much of a load on that bolt that it wasn't going anywhere. Good design, we just weren't thinking at the time.

Front End
Back at the front we'd removed the OEM struts and had the brakes sitting on spare jackstands. I then released the pittman arms on both sides and slung the steering arms out of the way so we could loosen the front anti-sway bar. After some frustration we were able to loosen both sides of the stock anti-sway bar and removed it through the driver's side wheel well. It didn't take much effort to slide the old bar out, which was only around 19mm in thickness and had just enough bends to make it interesting. I had read horror stories about loosening or removing engine mounts enable to set the thing free, but I could not imagine this being truly necessary. The Nismo bar, 25mm thick, went in just as easily and we set about reconnecting it within minutes.

The purpose of a thicker front anti-sway (or anti-roll) bar is to control and limit the motion of the unibody durung the side loading stresses of cornering. By keeping the chassis more stable you can effectively utilize the suspension and it makes the vehicle far more predictable under load.

The front lower tie bar was next, a 30mm thick piece that rigidly connects the front a-arms at the forward most mounting point. The bar is designed to stop the a-arms from being pulled, or spread, inward during cornering or backward under braking. Ideally we'll also install new bushings in the front end to add castor and reduce flexation even more, but at this point I had no access to a press and didn't want to risk getting them off the car and then being stuck half way through a critical job.

Back to the Back
B and I started installing the Nismo rear anti-roll bar while R&E set to work installing the KSport coilovers. It didn't take too much longer and everything was in place, though we did have some issues refitting the rear brakes.

With the car finally finished we took it off the jackstands and...

posted by GreSam @ 12:19