How Old are Your Suspension Cones?

[surfblue63]

Well I'm guessing mine are 44 years old, and one has decided it's had enough.

I went to get the Traveller out of the garage yesterday and found this!



Under the car was a bit of white powder and this bit of alloy



I went back today for a bit more investigation.

Off side, quite normal...


...near side a bit racey looking!


Turn the wheel to get a better look



I don't think the ball joint would last long at that angle, and the ride might be a bit bouncey too.

I lifted the car and lots of nice aluminium oxide fell to the ground and the donut became a bit loose.



Well I supose nothing lasts for ever.


Now who's off to check their old cones?


PS Luckily this happened whilst the car was parked up.

[pad4]

its the nano robots from the day the earth stood still eating all the metal

run away run away

love the lowered look though

pd

[InimiaD]

When stripping a rot box of a 72 MK3 I had a hell of a job trying to get the doughnut compressor to thread on to the d/nut.
Long story short, the suspension cone was full of crud and when I eventually got the cone off, in 2 parts, it had rotted from inside out and had the white powder inside it. (Not my private stash either)
Got a pic somewhere.

I wonder how many potential, nearly rotted through cones are out there waiting to burst at the wrong time.?

Found the pic.

[surfblue63]

I wonder how many potential, nearly rotted through cones are out there waiting to burst at the wrong time.?

Luckily for me it decided to erupt all by itself in the garage. 10 weeks ago I was happily driving it about on a nice sunny Sunday, and this weekend I was due to go down to Gaydon. Also it was MOT'd back in March and there was no sign of the impending failure

[mk1coopers]

I had one give way on the road, made a heck of a bang and dropped on to the bumpstop, luckily enough the steering or wheel didn't lock so I got home, same thing had rotted from the inside I guess with the single bolt subframe you dont get the same problem, I modded the MK 3 subframe bolt lock tab by fixing (tiger seal ) a couple of upturned core plugs over the hole to keep the weather out of them

[1071 S]

Aaaahhh the wonders of HAO (Hydrated Aluminium Oxide)

In a past life I used to manage the restoration ( we called them refits) of Ton Class Minesweepers. These had wooden skins attached to an aluminium frame with steel fasteners - Made in England obviously posting.php?mode=reply&f=3&t=5331# The HAO would build up on the frame and force the skin off the fastenershttp://mk1-forum.net/posting.php?mode=reply&f=3&t=5331#

The thing I most regret about selling my first house was that I had to leave behind the Burmese teak and African mahogany staircase that we made out of the left overs from several refits.... Should have made a dash for the Mini.

Cheers, Ian

PS The rubber cones actually look to be in quite good nick..

[Dean]

Ooooohhhh

That's not good lucky it decided to do it in the garage, that's normally they only way to get them out once they have been in there for years.

There has been a big talk on our forum about the rubber doughnuts in the past, how much of a handling and ride improvement there is just changing them, it's normal something over looks as " they look ok "

[guru_1071]

changing old rubber cones for new ones transform the car, and it always amazes me that people dont consider swopping the rock hard squashed down old ones for a set of decent quality genuine ones when they rebuild cars - you wouldnt trust 40 year old tyres or brake pipes, why assume that a 40 year old lump of rubber will be still good to use?

i changed the front pair on a mk1 the other month, it went from a pogo sticking, understeering hateful thing, to a fairly reasonable comfy car.

oh, and the alloy trumpets fitted to it looked just like the ones in the pictures above!!

[surfblue63]

Rich

You may get a visit during the week when the old one have been taken out and inspected, hope you've got some in stock.

Stuart

[KR200]

Hydrolastic is lord!

All this harshness, pogo'ing and bumpyness.

Hydro cars are a delight. Soak up speedbumps like Rolls Royce. Ok not ultimately pin sharp but just a dream to pilot in the real world. Mine's an S with front dampers and comp bumpstops.

Hydro was how they were supposed to be! It's what Alec wanted from the off!

[Tim Harber]

changing old rubber cones for new ones transform the car, and it always amazes me that people dont consider swopping the rock hard squashed down old ones for a set of decent quality genuine ones when they rebuild cars - you wouldnt trust 40 year old tyres or brake pipes, why assume that a 40 year old lump of rubber will be still good to use?

Disagree. It's the one oddball tightarse solution that impresses me. The rubber forms an oxidised layer on the outer skin which protects the rest of it. We made a tool up to test and it confirmed what had been measured by more learned ones than me that they keep the same amount of bounce.

They settle 15 percent when first fitted which might give you an initial impression of more bounce

[abri]

changing old rubber cones for new ones transform the car, and it always amazes me that people dont consider swopping the rock hard squashed down old ones for a set of decent quality genuine ones when they rebuild cars - you wouldnt trust 40 year old tyres or brake pipes, why assume that a 40 year old lump of rubber will be still good to use?

Disagree. It's the one oddball tightarse solution that impresses me. The rubber forms an oxidised layer on the outer skin which protects the rest of it. We made a tool up to test and it confirmed what had been measured by more learned ones than me that they keep the same amount of bounce.

They settle 15 percent when first fitted which might give you an initial impression of more bounce

Interesting. I wonder if there is a difference in the way that the bounce takes place if it is indeed the case that the amount stays the same. Did you also compare the amount of bounce from old rear vs old front rubbers? Would be interesting since they'd have had completely different weights resting on them.

I have changed out the front pair with a used rear pair (from the same car) before and the difference was remarkable. I assume these would have all been the same age of rubber, so in theory the oxidised layer would have provided the same protection everywhere. The difference in driving comfort only lasted a few months though.

In a different case I did install new rubbers at the rear of a car and apart from an improvement in ride height, which continues till this day, the ride does feel more comfortable. You think it is imagination?

[mk1]

personally I have had very few problems with using old original cones. OK sometimes you see them that have flopped horribly, but if the ride height seems about right then I reckon its safe to assume that the rubber cone is OK too.

Regarding the little metal trumpets. There are some pretty impressive examples of rotten ones in this thread, although I have seen ones that have begun to rot out, I am lucky enough to have never seen one that was as bad as these.

[nick@dunsdale]

When stripping a rot box of a 72 MK3 I had a hell of a job trying to get the doughnut compressor to thread on to the d/nut.

Back in the day my old gaffer was a bit of a mini guru

He had a tap welded to a long rod with another piece welded across the top creating a T shaped tapping key

He always run the tap through the threads in the doughnut before attempting to use the compressor.

This was always worked as many people used throw away the cover at the top and all kinds of crap ends up down there.

Little tip if anybody has a spare tap lying around lol

[Tim Harber]

Interesting. I wonder if there is a difference in the way that the bounce takes place if it is indeed the case that the amount stays the same. Did you also compare the amount of bounce from old rear vs old front rubbers? Would be interesting since they'd have had completely different weights resting on them.

I have changed out the front pair with a used rear pair (from the same car) before and the difference was remarkable. I assume these would have all been the same age of rubber, so in theory the oxidised layer would have provided the same protection everywhere. The difference in driving comfort only lasted a few months though.

In a different case I did install new rubbers at the rear of a car and apart from an improvement in ride height, which continues till this day, the ride does feel more comfortable. You think it is imagination?

I can't tell ultimately. I'm not that technical but when you've spent money on something, it's easy to convince yourself it was money well spent

Rubber is a remarkable thing. I'm told that most suspension bridges made in Victorian times use rubber as an insulator and it is still working well today. The only thing that will change it's consistency is a lot of heat as it changes the way it works somehow

[In the shed]

Hydro is not lord, unless you are forest rallying.

The first thing I did with my 66 was take all of that crap off and fit 64 dry suspension.

[1071 S]

My earlier comment re the quality of the rubber cone was based on the picture provided. You can see the dark area at the base of the cone. With the weight of the car removed the rubber has rebounded to its "normal" shape revealing the area normally in contact with the top of the alloy strut...

I would suggest the amount of compression indicated is perfectly consistent with a cone in pretty original condition...

Additionally, the surface appearance of teh rubber does not reveal any degree of perishing. Rubber perishes from the outside in so if the outside is fine then......

Cheers, Ian

[surfblue63]

Some interesting opions on here.

When mine are out (next week) I will have a good look at them. If there's no cracking or perishing then I will stick them back in as the ride height was fine before the trumpet collapsed. I'll post some pictures of how they look and note any part numbers.

[In the shed]

From what I remember, the early cones (pre hydro) were harder. This is ignoring the various changes within the rubber.

I had some "new" cones and they rode very high, even with the suspension wound all the way down. They were a bit more squashy than I liked and I put the early hard ones back on and it's great.

I really didn't like hydro.

[Chalkie]

Seen this before water seeps in and starts it all off I wipe a thin layer of Greece around the inside of the trumpet helps stop it and also helps the cone not to stick to the trumpet