The fitting of the beam axle purchased from Huddersfield Spares LTD

Read Me first

Disadvantages:

1) If Huddersfield Spares send you the wrong item then they want you to return it to them before the correct item is sent back to you.
2) Huddersfield Spares do not supply replacement bushes for the top of the shocks.
3) Huddersfield Spares do not tell you about the Things you need to know.
4) There is no means of adjusting the rear tow in with the Huddersfield Spares beam axle.

When ordering the beam axle Huddersfield Spares said they would give me a discount or make a donation supplie a set of Cobra seats that could be raffled at the end of the run and so far none of this has came about.

I bought a set of RFX tapered wheel nuts from Huddersfield Spares web site and they sent the sleeved wheel nuts instead. They wanted me to pay for another set of wheel nuts (the ones I ordered in the first place) and they would on receipt of the wrong ones they sent me would then refund the first set on wheel nuts and the postage.
They would not send me the correct wheel nuts and trust me to return the wrong set.

The invoice has the correct detail and price £15 but they sent the wrong nuts costing £25 so they have lost £10 and a customer.

Personally I would not use Huddersfield Spares as they can send you what ever and then you have to go to the bother of sending it back, or buy the correct thing again and then return the product and hope they refund your money. disgraceful I think.

I could not find a lot of info regarding the fitting of a beam axle so thought it best to speak to someone direct. So on Monday 9th Feb I phoned Huddersfield Spares as they manufacture a beam axle for the mini I thought it best to speak to them direct. After speaking to Andrew who answered my question I decided to order the beam axle plus shocks on line that evening (8.17pm). Total cost was £311.50 including the rear handbrake cable that also needed for the MOT. Tuesday 10th Feb (9.07am) I got an email telling me the shipping would be £20 making a total of £331.50 At 4.41pm I got the email telling me my order has been dispatched.
			Wednesday 11th Feb 12.20pm beam axle arrived with shocks and handbrake cable.
Subframe was off in about 2 hours and the underneath of the mini was then cleaned and the beam axle offered up to the mounting holes, I did not expect it to line up correctly and I was right, there was one hole that did not line up (see photo). This was not a big problem as it was not much out of alignment I drilled the hole to suit.
I marked the other two holes for drilling before applying underseal.
The knuckles on the swinging arms have to be cut off as they hit the bottom of the beam axle. This was done with a thin cutting disc on an angle grinder and then ground down smooth. This went without any problems.
The tops of the beam axle were rounded as it was a tight fit as some welding had been done to my car.
Beam axle fitted.
The first thing was to fit the break union and pipes, we found the bolt in the beam axle was: 1) Not long enough to go through the union. 2) It was in the wrong place (at least for my mini).
This was a simple thing to fix, a simple bracket was all that was needed.
Fitting the brake pipes, the drivers side was to short and a new pipe had to be made about 3 to 4" longer than the original pipe The left side was a bit long so was shaped to run along the body and did fit OK.
Putting the plates on the swinging arms we found that the holes were not big enough to go over the pins. By scraping of the powder coating they fitted OK.
With the swinging arms and the shocks on we found the shock springs were hitting the inner wheel arches both at the bottom and at the top. Simply widen the top out at the sides and bend back at the bottom to make room for the shocks again not a big problem and easy to fix.
Once we had clearance for the shocks and everything in place it was time to set the camber. We set it up to have some negative camber only to find that the wheels on the tyres were hitting the springs. Backing off the camber fixed this problem (this again will depend on your own minis wheels & tyres)..
Time to put the exhaust on, we made a rear bracket with an exhaust bobbin bolted through the boot floor and a bracket (most of this was from parts that came of earlier).
Photo of middle exhaust mount. This was made from bits we had lying around and bits that came of earlier.
After we bled the brakes and made sure all was tight the wheels went on and we lowered the car to the ground and that was it finished (or so we thought).
We went to move the car and the wheels were rubbing against the shocks (again). They were fine when the car was jacked up but not when on the ground. I phoned Andrew at Huddersfield spares about this and he said it was the standard 4.5J Rover wheels I have on the car, the off-set was not a lot on these wheels and that is why they rub the shock springs. I had three options: 1) Use less negative camber as this would take the tyre away from the springs. 2) Fit spacers. 3) |Fit wheels with a greater off-set. I went to my local motor factors and got a pair of universal 5mm wheel spacers. I could not go any thicker as I did not have longer wheel studs. After fitting the spacers the wheels cleared (just) and of I went on the first trip with the new beam axle fitted.
Did the beam axle make a difference? YES IT DID. The road holding was far better and the car seamed well planted on the ground and turned into corners very nicely with a lot less leaning and tail sway. Was it worth all the work? YES IT WAS. Would I do it again? YES I WOULD. but not from Huddersfield Spares Would I recommend it? YES I WOULD. but not from Huddersfield Spares Would I like to see any changes made? YES I WOULD. An instruction leaflet including the issue with standard cooper wheels, the holes the spindle from the swinging arms go through should be just a little bit bigger to allow for the powder coating. A longer brake pipe, bracket for the brake union and exhaust mounts could be supplied with beam axle making it a bolt on unit.
These are early days and I will see how things go after a few weeks driving.
BIG thanks to Scott and Mike from New Bridge Garage who without them I would have had to do the job on the street as Mike let me use his garage space and Scott done most of the work while I took the photos, went for the pasties and parts needed.
Mini passed its MOT today 23rd Feb 2009
It is now the 11th March and all is going well with no problems so far. I did a 300+ mile trip on Sunday going to the Malvern show and the trip was mostly on motorway with a few B roads that were quite uneven and the beam axle held up very well. Some have told me that it is meant to not handle well, all I can say is it does on my mini and I would not go back to a subframe even if it was free and fitted for me.
11th June 2009
It has been a few months now and the beam axle is still holding up. I had this squeeking going on at the back and it was getting on my bits, so I stripped out the shocks and copper greased the bushes etc. and that got rid of most. I still had the petrol tank squeeking so out it came and painted then back in. Still squeeking, out it came again and found the shock tops were to long and hitting the tank. Put some washers on the bottom bush to pull the top of the shock down and no more sqeeky tank. I will have to ask about this to see if it is just my car but I think I will put polly bushes on. I can lift the back wheel arch and lift the rear wheel of the floor so it is a bit lighter now.
10th July 2009
This is now really getting me down. I still have the squeek. The petrol tank has been out so many times its not real. I have changed the back wheels and re-done the shock mounts etc. and the squeek goes till you hammer round a few corners and then it comes back. I am sure it is the top mounts. I contacted GAZ and they have said they will have a look at the mini to see if they can fix the problem. I dont know if I could handle 41 days of the squeek. The performance is great and so is the ride but the SQUEEK!!! drives me nuts.