Front shocks on a hydrolastic

[davidmuir]

Looking to put front shocks on my hydro........how does one access the back of the holes to put the nuts on the top mount......should there be captive nuts on all cars?

[minimans]

I have to ask why front shocks? we tried it back in the sixties and it really didn't make much difference has something changed?

[66S]

Hi guys,
In my mind, front shocks are one of the best things you can do to a hydro car to prevent nose or tail diving under brakes or acceleration and makes the car far more stable.

If my memory serves me correctly, there should be tapping blocks (1/4" UNF) for all four capscrews.

Al

[Ollie78]

Hi David
I'm currently restoring my 67 mkII, I'm changing it to dry but of course it was originally a hydrolastic. My car only had the 1/4" UNF tapped captive blocks above the bulkhead crossmember not the lower ones below. I have no idea if this is normal and my first thoughts were perhaps they had fallen off. On closer inspection and clean up (bare metal) it looks as though they were never fitted as there was no evidence of spot welds. I bought some new and welded them in, M-Machine sell them very reasonable if your interested.
Ollie

[davidmuir]

Hi Ollie, Obviously you had the subframe off(did you change to dry one or modify the hydro. one?) to allow access to weld in the tapped block? Looking at the Minispares front shock kit, it includes 8 X 1/4 UNF bolts & nuts which implies that the kit can be bolted on readily, but, looking at my car , there is no access to get the nuts on with the subframe in place!
Thanks, D

[mk1coopers]

My hydro car was the same, welded bar above the bulkhead, nothing for the bottom bolts to go into, I ended up finding some square outer section nuts with the correct threads like the ones you sometimes get with dexion shelving kits, they were thin enough to fit between the panel and the subframe tower, the shocks must have gone on there 15+ years ago, they've never moved! but please satisfy yourself that you have the bracket firmly attached enough for it to be safe

[Ollie78]

Hi David

Yes I have the subframe out, I didn't bother modifying the hydro frame, I've never done it myself so can't comment on that one, I just used another dry solid mounted type. I have a project diary on here with loads of pictures but progress has halted for the while as I'm doing major works on our new house before we can move in so sadly no mini time for a while.
I considered making the captive bars but as they were so cheap and I was making a panel order from M-Machine I just added them to the order. Originally they are spot welded in, can't remember if it had one or two spot welds, I think just one, there really isn't that much holding them.

I recon it could be done with all in place but it would be fiddly, you'd have to try and tuck the captive bar up inside between the inside inner wing below crossmember and in front of the subframe tower. It would no doubt be a PITA... maybe a magnet could help or similar
If you could manage to get the captive bar into place and bolt up tight with the two 1/4" UNF bolts (without damper mount bracket on), you could drill though the inner wing and stiffener with a couple of holes between the bolts, just go though the panels and then into the stiffener 1mm or so, then zap it with a good plug weld in each hole on a high power setting right though everything then linish off smooth so the damper bracket will go on ok. To my mind that would be at least as strong as the original fitting. That's pretty much how I welded mine on but as the subframe was off I couldn't resist running a seam of weld along underneath the bar as well.

Hope that makes some sense

Ollie

[Ollie78]

Oh one other thing.. sorry
make sure the damper brackets fit before welding, that might be tricky subframe in situ, there isn't a lot of room for error on the fitting I found between the top and bottom captive bars. I guess if it was a little out filing the damper bracket holes a touch might be ok.

[Dr S]

Definitely only the top captives on my dec68 mk2. I'm looking forward to getting the shocks on. Have been running the ST bump stops but they make the car very different in compression to rebound and when pressing on hard can feel a little unpredictable..

[lexie467]

You will get a new Mini.
Tommy