Dead alternator?

Nope, my 1965 Cooper S was definitely hydrolastic, as were all MK1 Minis post-1964.

Chris

busted! ;-)

;-)

I'm still confused exactly how much of this car is (93, 218SD) Rover, Honda or Peugeot?

Ok, I understand the 1.9 lump is Peugeot, the body and running gear are Honda(?) and the badges are Rover ...???

I mean much as I'm used to BL with Dad's 3 x A40 Farinas, my Moggy Minor Vans (x 2), the Wife's Mini (sold to buy the kitcar kit) and Mums Moggy saloon (at the time) I'm nor sure where (or if even) *my* Rover sits with all those (just out of mild interest)?

All the best ..

T i m

Why's attempting to negotiate a price rude? It's fairly normal practice in most business transactions.

So you would expect your employer to barter with you over your wages each week? Or you try to get a discount in tesco? How much can you buy a lottery ticket for? When did you last make an offer for your electric bill? Negotiate for your car tax?

They do it on every job.

WEll I normally negotiate when buying tools, not negotiating when buying anything from a builders merchant is plain dumb, elctrical wholesalers or bulb suppliers even more so. Wat's rude about it?

I ask a price and either accept it or go elsewhere and check prices, not ask for 25 percent discount. I also think about what I am getting for the money, a job done immediately while you wait, for what is a fairly small amount of money these days, does not stand out as needing any discount, for instant service like that I would give a tip, not try and pay less.

Mrcheerful

Conor submitted this idea :

Only the very early ones had rubber cone suspension - not certain what the later ones used, but probably hydrolastic I think.

You'll get stitched buying timber or electrics with that theory then. I can understand one having no interest in haggling, but I can't understand why it's offensive.

But he isn't your employer - or you his. I'm freelance and do have to bargain about fees sometimes.

Certainly some shops will bargain. Places like builder's merchants etc always.

None of these is remotely similar.

So what was that big rubber donut for?

Hardly.

It's got pictures for a simpleton like you.

Also..

Moulton rubber suspension

This suspension system is based on the compression of a solid mass of rubber - red in both these images. The two types are essentially derivatives of the same design. It is named after Dr. Alex Moulton - one of the original design team on the Mini, and the engineer who designed its suspension system in 1959. This system is known by a few different names including cone and trumpet suspension (due to the shape of the rubber bung shown in the right hand picture). The rear suspension system on the original Mini also used Moulton's rubber suspension system, but laid out horizontally rather than vertically, to save space again. The Mini was originally intended to have Moulton's fluid-filled Hydrolastic suspension, but that remained on the drawing board for a few more years. Eventually, Hydrolastic was developed into Hydragas (see later on this page), and revised versions were adopted on the Mini Metro and the current MGF-sportscar.

Come back when you've come up with a fact of your own instead of just leeching from others because you think there's some points scoring to be had.

There was no "solid rubber donut" involved in the suspension system of hydrolastic Minis.

More to the original point, a Hydrolastic failure *would* make that side of the car sit on the bump-stops. The car would *not* be supported by the rubber Hydrolastic units that looked similar to the original Moulton rubbers.

In fact, it happened so many times to my "S", that I used to rally, that I eventually carried out the non-trivial conversion to "dry" suspension.

Chris

Pictures which show the Moulton rubber spring, not the Hydrolastic displacer.

Your original statement, that the Mini used a solid rubber spring, would be completely correct for a Mini with this type of suspension. It is incorrect for post-1964 MK 1's however.

Some of the statements in this article are incorrect.

If you scroll down the page to about half-way, it shows a cutaway view of a Hydrolastic unit. Have a look; you will see what I mean.

Chris

I think it's you that needs to do that. I stated a fact that my Mini had hydrolastic suspension and I'm now getting people adamantly telling me that I'm wrong.

Hydrolastic still had doughnuts - but hollow ones filled with water. Connected to another on a different wheel also filled with water. Compress one and the water expanded the other. Remove the water and they both collapsed onto the bump stops.

IIRC, hydrolastic was rare on Minis - they started out 'dry', went to Hydrolastic as a gimmick, and back to dry. The handling with hydrolastic was much poorer although the comfort marginally better. IIRC again, the wheelbase was too short for basic Hydrolastic to work properly - although Moulton managed it on prototypes.

Yep, the "water" was a foul-smelling green fluid that was the only thing I've found that is worse than diesel fuel on your skin!

Hydrolastic was used for seven years production, so not that rare really. The introduction was possibly as a cost-saving as identical parts from the

1100 could be used. The time it went "dry" coincides roughly with the end of 1100 production.

It really didn't suit the Mini; it made the ride choppy, and the handling was worse. Supplementary rear dampers helped a little.

The 1100 used Hydrolastic suspension for all of its production however; this was much more successful and made it one of the most comfortable and best handling cars of its class. It's just a pity they made them out of metal that you could hear rusting...

Chris

When on the bump stops, they used to corner really quite well :-) A friend in a 1275GT never used to be able to keep up around the twisties.

Not so good on the sort of going I used to experience on road rallies however :-)

I eventually converted mine to dry. I could then use decent dampers, and go negative camber with it.

I also used the rear trumpets from a van; they had a larger diameter where they contacted the rubber to increase the effective spring rate. (The "S" in rally trim was quite heavy at the rear; it had twin fuel tanks, a Triumph 2000 battery and the rear subframe was fully skid-plated.) The van trumpets were also longer, so needed cutting down to get the ride height where I wanted it.

Happy days! I used to live, eat and breath Minis in the early seventies.

The room I am sitting in now that I use as my study has loads on Mini memorabilia in it!

Chris