shortened trumpet worked like a charm.

Before you start trimming  the trumpet. check your knuckle joint. You might have the later style with the built in spacer which is designed to raise the mini.

yup...your photo is exactly what I have..... the issue is the taller smootharide cone and the hi-low are too tall giving me some ridiculous ride height. I will be re-machining the hi-lows to correct the problem.

If you can't post a photo, here is the differences: Left-to-right: old squashed front cone; new rear Smooth-a-Ride cone and new front Smooth-a-ride cone.

There are different trumpets to the smooth rides. The lip to the fronts have been reduced in diameter giving less contact area.

The alternative to suggestions above is that you have a worn out set of standard canes.

The rubber compresses with age particularly at the front as they carry far more weight than the rear. It's pretty normal when removing old cones for the front pair to be quite severely compressed. If this is the case they need to be replaced.

If you can post up a picture of the cones it would be pretty easy to establish if they are a worn set.

Control arm is out.....since i was replacing the lower control arms I took the opportunity to clean up everything else. The issue might be too tall of an adjustable trumpet.....easily remedied, I'll let you know how it works out

Did you take out the bump stops? You may have to take the upper control arm out of the subframe. Or at least the control arm pivot shaft. With luck you may not need to disconnect the ball joint.

Thank you.

Yes it is a smooth-a-ride kit. The question arose while trying to fit it all back together. With the cone compressed as tight as I could get and the adjust-a-ride trumpets as short as possible I could not get the upper control arm high enough to get the pin in.

I'll give it another go tonight Thanks

It sounds like you have "Smooth-a-Ride" cones or equivalent. The taller, "pointier" ones are for the front. The difference in the moulded shape of the rubber produces a different spring rate when the cone is lightly loaded (i.e. not cornering hard or absorbing a bump). This produces a smoother ride, and a little more lean when cornering. When the cone is more heavily loaded it begins to act more like a regular cone. Rear cones in a Mini are almost never heavily loaded so a more conventional shape works.

You will need adjustable trumpets. When new, Smooth-a-Ride front cones tend to ride higher, even when using adjustable trumpets. In my car (not heavily driven) it took a long time to settle to a suitable ride height, longer than reported by others. I bought the full Smooth-a-Ride kit which included adjustable trumpets and uprated knuckle joints - the shaft of the knuckle joint was a larger diameter than stock, to fit the adjustables.

Overall I am happy with the result. The cones that came in my car were probably the originals and were collapsed and hard as hockey pucks. There is more lean going into corners but street handling is fine.

A buddy of mine decided to go with springs instead of the cones he ordered from min spares......so now I have new rubber cones for my car :) But, there are two different sizes. One set is "pointier" and a little taller, and the other two are more rounded..... Which ones are for the front and which ones are for the rear?

thanks