I've converted the newish cones to red coils with the 15 click adjustables and I found I needed a higher ride height in the rear as well on the '93. Needless to say, I am not impressed as ride height is a big deal, but it does indeed ride smoother. Has anyone tried air ride on the mini? 

Just took my springs out after a year ,Huddersfield black springs , kyb gas shocks , the car just did not feel " nailed to the road "  it always had the wanders and friends who drove the car did not like it at all ,we replaced them with rubber cones and all is back to normal . What we did find when we tried to wind the hi Lo down to get the spring out was the hi Lo bolt had bent and when removed was close to breaking with a big crack in it . Speculation is that I have hit a pothole and the spring has become coil bound and therefore broken the bolt . 

Oh yes and steel springs should be installed with Hi Lo s. Steve (CTR)

When converting, can one keep their existing HI-LOs?

I'll weigh in with my experience. In my British Open, I just changed the rear with Sracer blues and left the front cones. The ride was transformed. The bounce or choppyness is gone. I didn't put gas or adjustable shocks on but they are heavyduty. Been driving it this way for about a year now. I don't know when I'll do the fronts as I feel there is now sense of urgency.

All this talk of springs and cones.. I'm planning on having a split set, springs in front and cones in back. So I retain the progressive spring rate on the end that needs it most on the pickup I am trying to piece together, most people tend to put down that idea, but to me it seems sound with what I am planning to haul in the pup, front weight shouldnt every vary much and no hastle dissasembling the frontsuspension to replace flat cones, but the increased load capacity of the cones in the rear would take an occasional overloading and are not at all hard to change if they go flat.. A perfect comprimise in my opinion... especially if I plan to go travelling with it.

Chris

I ran the C-STR687 competition cones and it gave a firm ride from new, however cones wear out.  I replaced them with the S-Racer red springs, same ride however stays firm a lot longer.

I currently have hi-lo's for the whole car - looks like I will be sticking with the blue springs that I bought a while ago and the adjustable Gaz shocks.  It will be a daily driver with the occasional track session (once I find one semi-nearby).  

Thanks, all you that have given me input on this - I'm hoping to be on the road soon and wanted your feedback on this subject - as usual, there were more ideas and thoughts I hadn't come up with.

 

Thanks, again -

Dave

Jolt, how low do you want it to sit? I have made my car pretty low with Hi-Lo's, shortened shock bodies, cut fenders, flares, and modified bump stops.

I still get plenty of travel out of my suspension, I clear most speed bumps if I navigate them correctly, and I can drive it daily without any issues. I do wish I could go a little lower in the rear, but without some more creative body work, no suspension setup is going to work. I'm about as low as a classic can go with bolting on suspension and a bit of cutting. You'll have to get a lot more creative with your trimming and flaring to get the "slammed" look.

What did you have in mind with the coil over setup? I'm kind of interested.

i would like to add one more in the mix......ive been debating on getting coilovers for some time now to replace the tired old cones (with hi/los) and new shocks. i would like to have my mini sit lower than it currently does without having to worry about damaging my tires because it bottomed out....

I have probably the most valid comparison. I went from stock shocks and NEW cones to stock shocks and new SRacer Red coils with hi-lo's. I kept the same ride height and had just the cones vs springs for a while. I will say that the SRacer springs feel very progressive. More give in the first bit of travel making daily driver use more comfortable. But in really tight curves, they do have a bit more stability than the cones in my opinion. But the Rubber had a much stronger presence all the way through the travel... if that makes sense. It's the best way I can describe it. I personally just found the rubber to be a bit too bouncy. But that was partially a byproduct of the old shocks.

 

In short, the new cones feel a lot stiffer on a daily use than springs, but in spirited driving on an actual track, the cones seemed to be more consistent and predictable.

 

Now here's the second part that no one is touching on. The shocks (dampers) are a key that MUST be changed if you are looking to change your handling characteristics. I went with fully adjustable GAZ Shortened shock bodies. THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!! It adds adjustment beyond what you can imagine. I now have a daily driver with a really smooth ride, and a track stiff car within about 15 clicks on every corner.

If you never track your car, go with the blue springs from SRacer and a nice set of shocks. You will be happy and have a squishy butt.

If you want to have some fun with the car, go with the Red SRacer springs and a set of Hi-Lo's and some good adjustable shocks.

 

You won't regret it. And like I said, this is MY experience and I did try out all the different setups before buying. I rode in a car with Hi-Lo's and cones before purchasing the Hi-Lo's. I got a bunch of feedback before going with the Red springs, and I am VERY happy with my over all decision in suspension setup. And it will all be even better after my new parts go on in about a week.

They are called S-Racer springs because they are from S-Racer

I prefer new cones for a performance car and springs for daily drivers/ light spirited drives. Stay away from old cones as a cars suspension need compliance to function properly and old cones ten to overheat(soften) during prolonged hard driving causing cars to spin/bounce from hitting the bumpstops.

The fact that you need to raise the ride height kills the deal for me. plus handling is a bigger priority than ride comfort.  I have other cars for that.  If my 65 year old body can drive my Mini with 30 year old rubber cones on trips as long as 3200 miles in a week, with a bad lower back injury, so can any of you. 

 They shouldn't call them S-Racer springs, they should be named S- Comfort springs or S-Wimp springs.

There are many factors in adjusting suspension that need to be accounted for.

The comments about going from old cones to new springs need to be considered.

My comparisons are not valid as I have new rubber on a Traveller with 10" wheels and a sedan with 13" inch wheels and springs. I would really like to do a valid comparison, but that is a bit of work to swap all the cones/springs and hilos from one car to another

Keep in mind that there are different spring manufacturers (S-Racer, Delta$$, etc.) as well as different models for each. Same with the cones as far as manufacturing goes (Rover, Moulton, and other copies). Don't forget about competition cones either. All different ride qualities. Just some thoughts.

-Shawn

Ditto what Kelly wrote. I can tell you that the S-Racer blues are 'WAY better than 8-yr-old cones! I chose the blues over "competition" cones.

Best Christmas gift ever was my girl friend having a new set of blue sracer springs from minimania.com under the tree this year! My father installed the rear coils New Years Day with relative ease. The biggest issue was freeing the compressed rubber cones from the trumpets, it took a vice, both of us with pry bar screw drivers and a lot of penetrating fluid to motivate the cones free. The biggest issue was ride height adjustment. My car was sitting very low, which I like. However, we had to raise the rear ride height about 1 inch to stop the tires from bottoming out on the fender. Top tip was measuring from center of wheel bearing cap to bottom of fender / wheel skirt with the org cones holding weight of the car. once one side was installed, we loaded the coil spring with a jack, once it was holding weight of car, we measured, unloaded, adjusted, reloaded, measured until we had it correct. The battery side is can not be easily adjusted without removing the shock, the petrol tank side did not require shock removal.

To address the handling question... on test drive, with only the rear coils installed, the difference was amazing! Such a smooth ride, I can't wait until the front ones are in place. That said, I wanted smoother ride for the crappy Missouri roads.. Those hard core mini owners concerned with body roll, etc. I'll have to wait till the fronts are on to answer that one. With blue coils though, plan on having to raise at least 1 inch all around b/c the increased suspension travel. Hope this helps & I'll post more info.

If you don't mind, I'd like to suggest that it would be better to find people who went from new rubber cones to new springs or vice versa. There are plenty of people who went from worn out rubber cones to new springs and noticed considerable improvement.

Kelley

  Who on here has used a suspension with rubber cones and then, gone to springs?  Which way seems to make the car handle better?  Also, when converting to springs, did you ever have one fall out or get jammed when the suspension dropped or when going over a rough surface?  I know you guys have a lot more experience with this kind of stuff so, thanks in advance for your suggestions and advice.

 

Dave