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In talking today with a friend who has a late 1300GT and a Mk 1 Elf (he has owned many a Mini in the past, both dry and wet), he wondered aloud of there ever was a shock absorber kit available for ADO 16 cars to control pitch and tramping?

While he likes his GT, compared to his Elf, it can be a right handful to drive on curvy or uneven roads, to the point that he says it becomes tiresome 'bobbing about'. I have driven his GT, which is completely standard and has around 80,000 miles on the clock, and it is quite soft and 'wallowy' on any sort of rough or undulating surface when compared to my own hydrolastic Mini (that has around 50,000 miles total and a front shock kit). The GT is in very good shape and recently had new tires fitted.

Has anyone checked to see if there is air in the system Bertam?

_________________
David - chairman@ado16.info

1968 MG 1300 Saloon Connaught Green
1972 Triumph 2.5 PI Estate Royal Blue
1978 Carlight Casetta Caravan
http://carlightrestoration.blogspot.co.uk
1995 Lada Riva 1.5 Estate Cherry

With the late hard displacers and the anti roll bar there should be no wallowing!

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should you wish, you can contact me on rich@minispares.com

'long beard boss'

Exactly.
Perhaps the internal flap valves in some of his displacers have failed, so he is actually left without damping at all.
I had this happen in the past, and apart from the obvious different feeling on the road, the car also failed the roadworthiness test on "ineffective shock absorbers".

I would have asked the mot tester to show me the shock absorbers.....

_________________
should you wish, you can contact me on rich@minispares.com

'long beard boss'

I know what you mean, but in this case the tester was rather sympathetic and supportive, as he used to own and fix a number of ADO16s and Minis in the early 1980s when he was a student in UK.
Believe me, to bump into a tester like him in my neck of woods (central Greece) it does take some good measure of luck. He knew that i just had a bad displacer, but on the inspection sheet he could only discribe it as "shock absorber".

An external shock kit was offered by a company in Australia, they were the Koni agents.
I have tried to find out more but drew a blank.

There was a leak in his hydro system (a loosened connection in the LF, not a displacer or hose failure) a few months back. The car was parked in the garage and had simply 'hunkered down' over the span of a few days of disuse. The system was checked, the leak found, fixed and then it was refilled. All that work was done by a guy who is well versed in the quirks of the hydrolastic system (and has his own pump).

I had driven it before that failure, and when I did it was not on curvy roads but mainly in town. To me it seemed to ride somewhat cushy, like an older Cadillac would feel. His GT is a ex-NZ export car and it does not have anti-roll bars fitted.

There is no MOT type inspection system in place were he is located.

I do know that at least one of the front hoses was replaced during the past few years but believe all four of the displacers are original? All the work on his car has been done by the same guy.

The more you write Bertam the more I am left thinking there may well be air in the system which would give a very bouncy ride.

Also, when the front displacers were re-fitted, was the small brass restrictor valve put back in between the hose end and the car's rigid pipes - without it you would also get a very wallowy ride!

_________________
David - chairman@ado16.info

1968 MG 1300 Saloon Connaught Green
1972 Triumph 2.5 PI Estate Royal Blue
1978 Carlight Casetta Caravan
http://carlightrestoration.blogspot.co.uk
1995 Lada Riva 1.5 Estate Cherry