Wheel stuff

Wheel bearings, disk braked minis

You do not need to remove the driveshaft! you only have to:

• remove the big nut

• undo the two balljoints

• remove (hang away) the brake caliper

• remove the disk, and the hub will come away from the driveshaft

To remove the big nut (after removing the split pin) you should wedge the brake pedal down hard with a piece of wood etc. and also put the gearbox in first gear, then you should be able to remove it without the wheel turning.

To remove the balljoints, either use a scissor type balljoint separator, or the hammer to the hub method (explained in Haynes).

When you have the hub separated from the car, you have to drive out the old bearings from each side of the hub using a good soft 'driver' or my method of the 33mm socket* that is used to remove the big nut.

Follow Haynes for the location of the various parts for fitting after cleaning, but important! make sure you tighten the big nut to the shaft with a BIG flat washer to pull the shaft through the hub completely. if you don't do this properly, when you do up the nut with the cone washer, it will grip the shaft before pulling the shaft through far enough and you will ruin a new bearing after very few miles!

Use plenty of bearing grease.

Afterwards, torque the big nut up VERY tight or better, get a torque wrench, take the car for a short run, then retighten again.

* That's actually the 1 and 5/16ths socket - the nut is not metric...

Wheel nuts, working loose

After swapping hubs and/or studs, ensure you tighten the wheelnuts then recheck them.

The first tightening may help to locate and pull the studs into place, but the nuts may appear to work loose as the studs settle in to the hub. Symptoms of loose wheelnuts caused by this can include a "strange wobbly rumble from the back end" when on roundabouts.

Wheel, rear, rubbing

It's worth taking a close look at the radius arm bearings. No play doesn't *always* mean they're not knackered. I've had ones where the bearings have worn away so badly that the debris have literally "back-filled" on them, ending up with an off-centre, semi-seized, but playless shaft. (This is normally only the result of years of neglect though)

A few other possibilities:

Cracked, or insecure subframe. Loose radius arm nut(s), most likely the inner one. Bent radius arm, sideswiped any kerbs lately?

The clearance isn't that great at the best of times, so if everything checks out as OK *thin* spacers might be the solution.

Wheel removal with spinning stud

Is the wheel nut open ended? or cut the top of the nut off to get access to the stud, MIG a nut onto the stud to stop the rotation or use a nut splitter on the wheel nut (bang... job done)

Undo the locking nut on the end of the driveshaft through the hole in the end wheel if the split pin can be removed, remove caliper, pull wheel/disc and drive flange off the driveshaft/hub, see if you have access to the back of the slipping stud, lock it up to the side of the disc with a long pry bar and try undoing the nut use a pair of mole grips?

OR

remove all the other wheel nuts, wheel on car, align the slipping stud downwards, lower weight of car onto the slipping stud to lock it up with the cars weight, undo the stud? stud hole in wheel might be damaged doing
this

Wheel removal with spinning stud (II)

A few things to try...

• hold the treaded end of the stud in vice grips and use an open end spanner to get the nut moving, then use the vice grips or pliers to hold the stud behind the nut to get it the rest of the way off. Not sure if there is enough length on the stud to do this?

• undo the other 3 nuts then get a lever in behind the wheel and pull like mad, at the same time try to undo the nut that is on the loose stud. The extra force on the stud, by levering it, might be enough to lock it up enough to get the nut off

• try a nut splitter if you can get it on to the nut

• Drill through the nut several times with a small drill (1/8th) and then split it with a cold chisel.

MAKE SURE you replace the stud before you put the wheel back on, I suggest you replace them all as the damage that has caused the loose one to be loose will probably be just about to do the same thing to the rest of them.

Wheels, steel 10" range

The range of 10" steel wheels are :

Original 850 3.5" - crappy thickness, works teams used to rip the centres out - AVOID!

Later 850 3.5" - as used on every mini with drum brakes - also same/similar wheel used on Cooper (probably had a different part number).

S 3.5" - same as above but very rare, different part number

S 4.5" - a 4.5" version of the 3.5" wheel, all the extra width has been offset IN, meaning that the wheel rim & tyre is closer to the shock

S reverse 4.5" - an aftermarket part, whereby the rim is reversed from above, so all the offset is OUT.

Fitting :

3.5" rims - will fit all models, regardless of braking type.

4.5" rims - on stock drum-brake models most likely tyre will rub shock - needs 'S' disc setup (integral 1" spacer), or drums with integral spacer.

4.5" rims reverse - will fit all models, regardless of brake type, but on 'S' discs will have a rediculous(dangerous!) offset.

Wheel studs, different lengths

There appear to be 4 lengths of stud available, 40, 50, 60 and 80mm with 40mm being standard. 50mm are useful on the front if using S disc flanges (thicker than others) and minilight wheels (fairly thick), as the standard 40mm only leaves ~5mm of thread to grab on to. For the rear, 60mm should be used for spacered drums and up to 3/8in spacers. 80mm is for spacered drums plus up to 3/4in spacers.

Wheel studs, removal and refitting hints

A scissor type balljoint splitter makes a useful tool for removing and installing studs.

Wheel arches, moulding in with filler

I have use copious quantities of 'Plastic Padding Elastic Filler' on my group5's. Normal filler will crack.

• Use a curved blade of some sort to shape the filler around the arch

• Apply filler and then move blade round the arch to get the same fillet contour from arch to body

• Make sure the arches are well riveted - I used ~12 rivets per arch to hold it hard against the body

• It'll take hours and hours of sanding to get it looking good. Use spray putty and primer.

• Then use cellulose putty on ALL the little pits and grooves. Sand it spray it, spray again... Then when it's all the same colour you'll see more pits and grooves so repeat the whole sanding, putty, spraying process again about 4 or 5 times. A lot of effort. You need strong arms! The results are worth it though. Looks great. Try it, you can always rip it all off if you get fed up!