Here's a thought - since I assumed you were talking about the rebound buffer and not the bump stop above the arm...

You could always just shorten the bump stop by about 1/4".  It won't solve your problem, but it'll make life a tad more comfortable until you get proper tools and new parts.

Oh boy...


No - the upper arm only contacts the rebound buffer (2A4267) on full suspension droop - when the wheel travels downward, for example when going over a hole or the vehicle is airborn.  

Minis used for rally, autograss or minis using lots of negative camber will either install taller rebound buffers (2A4267C) or as the Special Tuning manuals suggested, a 3mm thick plate inserted under the rebound buffer.  This reduced distance between the upper arm and rebound buffer helps prevent the lower ball joint from breaking off.

Inserting a 3/16" washer between the knuckle joint and aluminium strut/trumpet as Mal suggests will effectively raise your suspension by .56" - you knew this of course, as you've read the tech articles on this site and have already used the well-known 3:1 front suspension lowering ratio which can be used for calculating how much is needed to raise the ride height.     

 

I'll s'plain this in plain old English:  Assuming the washer to be used is ³/₁₆" = 0.1875" thick.

If inserted between the knuckle joint and the aluminium strut/trumpet, it will raise the suspension three times as much (three to one ratio here, rembember?)  So, 0.1875" x 3 = 0.5625" raised front suspension.  

For the purposes of illustrating and simplifying the example, to lower the front suspension, you'd remove 0.1875" from the aluminum strut/trumpet to lower the car 0.5625".  It's normally accepted to use ½" or multiples thereof as a goal in either example, and add or remove material from the strut/knuckle joint (lengthening or shortening) height as necessary.

Your logic is flawed and dangerous.  ersonally, I really don't care in which manner you decide to kill yourself, but engulfing innocent strangers in your barnyard engineered duct tape fireball simply isn't acceptable.

The most likely reason your rubber suspension cones are causing the vehicle to ride too low is that they're likely old and collapsed.  The other possibility, and it's been mentioned before, is that occasionally, due to lack of proper maintenance and/or proper lubrication, is that the knuckle joints can wear through their nylon cups.  As I s'plained earlier, the rebound buffer has absolutely zero influence on ride height.

Trying to do any of this work without a proper cone compressor is going to prove enormously frustrating, as you'll have the new cone flopping around in the tower as you try to balance the strut/trumpet on the waggling knuckle joint when re-installing the upper arm.

My suggestion, not unlike the others and merely echoing what's been stated previously:


Use a healthy smear of copper grease on the knuckle joint shaft into the strut/trumpet and another healthy smear in the rubber cone's cup where the strut/trumpet seats.

Reminds me of a Mini owner that stopped by my place and had a 3 inch long 1" x 2" piece of lumber strapped with cable ties to his upper arm between the bump stop and upper arm as his new aftermarket cheapest he could find front cones had collapsed, got him home.

What Malsal warns is true. You will expose yourself to serious injury and liability by jamming scraps of tire into your suspension. It would be right up there with the dumb lawnmower cut-away idea.

If your current suspension is near or touching the bump stops it is time for NEW CONES. Nothing else.

There is no logic with your solution. It is dangerous and if you don't value your own life at least value other road users and pedestrians who will be around you and in the line of fire when it all goes tits up.
That cone compressor and new donuts will seem cheap by comparison when the insurance company denies your claim and the ambulance chaser lawyers get a hold of you while you are sitting in a jail cell .

Sir Mal that's another good idea,,il l keep that in mind., but in my understanding, the thing that prevents the rubber cone from performing to its maximum flexibility is the rubber stop,, if i remove the rubber stop, i will probably have a smooth ride BUT i cannot remove it because it will become toooo low,,so to prevent the car from getting so low and prevent the rubber stop to touch the upper arm amd to maximize the cone's flexibility inserting a cut flat rubber  about 1 inch thick is the way to go..  But  then, you guys are the more experienced, ill follow your advice.  But i just want you to see my logic. 

You really take the cake for backyard engineering tb. I have said it before and i will say it again "i feel sorry for the next owner of your Mini".
I think i explained this before but anyway if you want to raise the car cheaply  ( i know that is a word you can relate to ) just remove the knuckle and install a 3/16" washer in between it and the trumpet. It will not change the ride as the worn out donut will still be worn out but will raise the car up some.

Dan you have a lot of patience.

NOOOOOOOOoooo!!!!! It absolutely won't work.
 - the truck tire piece will only move around and get jammed and cause an accident.
 - the top of the trumpet is shaped specially to fit the flexible end of the rubber cone so that it compresses a certain way to get the progressive spring rate.
 - the effect on ride height will be 5 or 3 times the thickness of the truck tire.

Sir Dan, please analyze this pic and see if it'll work... 
 Im gonna cut a piece of rubber from an old truck tire and squeeze it in between the cone and the trumphet. This will regain height  of the cone as well as the shock absorbing capacity of the front suspension.  This will prevent the upper arm and the rubber bump stop from kissing each other.

Round and round we go.

All springs settle and weaken with time and age. Good quality stock rubber cones may settle a little at first and then will be OK for many years, even if driven hard. For the type of driving you do, genuine cones on stock trumpets with stock shock absorbers  are absolutely fine.

As others have said, steel springs need the right trumpets, additional other parts and accessories, and you will end up buying more bits and pieces to try and make it work to your satisfaction. (Read Jeg's comments.)

Steel will cost you more money and frustration than just buying good rubber cones AND a nice new cone compressor to do the job easier in the first place.

Minis with rubber cones don't need sway bars. PERIOD.

Now there's a guy on the other thread named spank who said that the rubber cone is good only when first installed and when it settles it goes bumpy and when it settles more its worse, and he said that springs will make you car sway on turns and that spring suspension requires sway bars, where the hell can i get a sway bar???? , but im leaning towards getting a red spring because i usually do city driving less turns.

We don't all lavish our Minis with money and bling. We do what we can to care for and love them, within the limits of our finances. As you have found out, the real joy is in driving it around. Like children, Minis can be spoiled by giving them too much... you get it all fancied up and become afraid to drive it lest it get marred or dirty or (gasp!) stolen.

This changed my sad mood....

During a robbery in Guangzhou, China, the bank robber shouted to everyone in the bank: "Don't move. The money belongs to the State. Your life belongs to you."

Everyone in the bank laid down quietly. This is called "Mind Changing Concept” Changing the conventional way of thinking.

When a lady lay on the table provocatively, the robber shouted at her: "Please be civilized! This is a robbery and not a rape!"

This is called "Being Professional” Focus only on what you are trained to do!

When the bank robbers returned home, the younger robber (MBA-trained) told the older robber (who has only completed Year 6 in primary school): "Big brother, let's count how much we got."

The older robber rebutted and said: "You are very stupid. There is so much money it will take us a long time to count. Tonight, the TV news will tell us how much we robbed from the bank!"

This is called "Experience.” Nowadays, experience is more important than paper qualifications!

After the robbers had left, the bank manager told the bank supervisor to call the police quickly. But the supervisor said to him: "Wait! Let us take out $10 million from the bank for ourselves and add it to the $70 million that we have previously embezzled from the bank”.

This is called "Swim with the tide.” Converting an unfavorable situation to your advantage!

The supervisor says: "It will be good if there is a robbery every month."

This is called "Killing Boredom.” Personal Happiness is more important than your job.

The next day, the TV news reported that $100 million was taken from the bank. The robbers counted and counted and counted, but they could only count $20 million. The robbers were very angry and complained: "We risked our lives and only took $20 million. The bank manager took $80 million with a snap of his fingers. It looks like it is better to be educated than to be a thief!"

This is called "Knowledge is worth as much as gold!"

The bank manager was smiling and happy because his losses in the share market are now covered by this robbery.

This is called "Seizing the opportunity.” Daring to take risks!

So who are the real robbers here?

Sometimes i feel really guilty and ashamed of myself on how i am being stingy on my mini, i start to realize and ask myself why did i get a mini,  i simply answered myself quietly that i wanted to bring my lifelong passion to reality and become happy, and now here i am, i am being stingy on my mini, i refuse to even buy her a pair of gadam cones,,, poor mini. And after all she's the source of my happines everytime i drive her on weekends, i really felt sad for her and guilty for  being heartless, while other people i know just buy expensive stuffs for their minis, carb,nice shiny wheels, new tires, new 1380engine, new seats, disc brakes, now here iam driving my mini like a horse and only give here $2 of gas everytime we go out. I feel every hole in the rode because the suspension is sitting on the bump stop, And here i am i cant even give her nice new set of suspensions. I have money, im just being stingy, i know im wrong, (sad face)  Haaaay!

Forget about  hydrolastic suspension. To start with you would need different front an back subframes, 2 hydraulic lines running front to back in your Mini, assorted fittings and 4 hydrolastic displacers (hydrayliic "springs") assorted other suspension brackets and rear helper springs. The used displacers are scarcer than hen's teeth - new ones are not available as far as I know.
Conversion of your Mini would cost more than it is worth - IF you could get all the parts. and you probably wouldn't like the ride when you are done.

Hahaha... if you only knew!

oh Lord,,I'm so confused and torn between getting a moulton cone or coil spring, my only last bet is the Hydrolytic suspension system, but mur said in the other thread that you'll mess up your mini if you go to Hydrolytic suspension, i dunno what he meant by that, maybe he meant it's a downgrade changing to hydrolastic...eh who cares...
Then, mighty mouse said on his other post that he has been using the red coil spring and he is happy about it, no complains, but then, jeremy thorpe said in his video that he has replace red coil springs about 12 times already on his customers mini because they snap.. haaaaayy!! ,i dunno who to believe now, i think mouse is just trying to lure me,he wants me to buy the red spring so it'll end up snapping on me in the future and mess my mini experience..

But i think, i have a strong feeling that the Moulten is the best choice,,but i dunno...still trying to equate possibilities.but i'll follow what sir Dan tells me, he has  a more balanced mind than others.

As Malsal says, the big tower bolt holds the subframe in place. The big bolt does not come near the hole in the cone.To install the cone compressor, you need to remove the big bolt, and put it back when you are finished. Check your Haynes for the proper torque - it is one of the highest torque settings on a Mini.
When you remove the bolt, you use the inner shaft of the compressor tool to reach down and find the centre hole of the cone and gently work it to clean the threads. Don't force it or you will destroy the threads. Once you have it fully threaded, you assemble the rest of the compressor tool.

No and Yes. The bolt attaches to the sub frame to hold it in place. If you feel brave you can remove the upper arms and install cones without a compression tool.

Sir Dan, just some clarification, is this tower bolt attached to the rubber cone center nut?  If not, does it mean that the sole purpose of the rubber cone nut is only to accomodate  the compressing tool?