There are only really two ways of removing an engine from a Mini; Pull the engine up through the body, or drop the subframe and engine and lift the shell over. I’ve done the latter before, and it wasn’t too bad, so I am going to be doing the engine-up-through method next, especially after seeing an interesting result on a Poll I did on the Mini Club forum.
Before you can start pulling up the engine, a few bits need to be removed such as the radiator, dizzy-cap and a few other bits and bobs. Of course, one of the main items to get rid of are the driveshafts. There are several ways of getting them out of the way for the engine to come out, but this is my way…
My way, I find, is probably the easiest and quickest way. Its arguable of being a slow way, but I find it easy and quick. After removing the wheel, I first remove the nut on the track-rod end. Then, undo the retaining nut on the tie bar at the front, and remove the nut on the bottom arm.
The tie bar then can be removed. Then, loosen the top swivel joint and "pop" it out. I didn’t have a ball joint remover to hand, so I whacked it with a large hammer after making sure the nut is flush to the top of the thread – works a treat. Leave the nut on there for now, then remove the retaining nut on the rear of the bottom arm.
And remove it completely. Then, finally, remove the top swivel nut and let the hub, disc and calliper drop into your hand.
Before you can completely get it away from the car, the calliper must be removed somehow. Instead of undoing the brake pipes to it, instead I removed the calliper from the hub, so I didn’t have to re-bleed the brakes. Two nuts hold the calliper on, and after removing them, the hub assembly can come clean away, and the calliper left dangling. Tie the calliper up somewhere so the weight is not left on the brae pipe.
Instead of removing the whole hub, you can just undo the top swivel and Tie bar. Then just lean the hub out and down, the driveshaft should then just “pop” out of either the pot joint or the gearbox.If it is a bit stiff slide a thin bar up inside the pot joint gaiter so it sits on the shaft/joint knuckle and give it a tap, that should be enough to get it off the ring clip on the end of the shaft.
Much easier than removing the whole hub.
Nige
Hi Nige. I’ve done it that way before as well, but somehow I just find this way easier – don’t know why! Its more work doing it like this, but I find it easier!
Thanks for the comment anyway!
Excellent pics, well done. I’m going to replace my driveshafts complete with cv joints this weekend so I’ll be doing a similar job. Quick question, how do you strike the swivel hub in order to separate the balljoint? Hayne’s manual just says to “strike it sharply”, but which part do you hit and in which direction? Thanks in advance for any help you can give.
I use a ball joint separator and 9 times out of 10 it works as it should do so long as the separator itself is attached correctly. If it doesn’t work, then try screwing the nut back onto the swivel joint itself, but not all the way – perhaps 3/4 of the way on.
After that, sharply hit the nut itself with a hammer. Just be careful not to strip the thread on the ball joint. Although, saying that, it doesn’t matter all that much since the ball joints will probably getting replaced? – May as well while you’re there!
Hope this helps!
Thanks for the help!
The comments and this website helped a ton!
sound advice, gonna be taking my 1420 lump out tomorrow, just to give it a fresh lick of paint fpr the summer ehow season. keep up the good work
[...] Removing Mini wheel hub assembly for engine change Dazecoop Posted by root 11 minutes ago (http://www.dazecoop.co.uk) Thanks for the comment anyway anders emil 1 dec 2008 at 3 10 pm excellent pics well done i 39 m going to replace my driveshafts complete with cv joints this weekend dazecoop co uk is proudly powered by wordpress version 2 6 3 Discuss | Bury | News | Removing Mini wheel hub assembly for engine change Dazecoop [...]