Fitting Metro hubs to a Mini
Turbo Mini Forums

Has anyone used MK1 Metro hubs on their Mini, seems to be lots of conflicting information about them on the boards

From what I can gather the caster and camber is easily sorted will adjustable bottom arms and tie bars

King pin inclination is fixed but the Metro angle is reported to be better than the Mini hub, the controversy seems to be the ackerman angle of the steering, does anyone have any experience of this?

Would Mini steering arms correct this or are custom arms required?

I remember reading an article about this that Calver or Solis wrote a little while ago.

I rememember there being quite a difference though...

This is something of interest http://www.calverst.com/articles/brakes-fi...ancillaries.htm

He does mention Ackerman angle but not in detail.

The article u read had great photos

i did this to my car many 13 years ago i used pre 1983 metro ball joints which has the mini taper and played about with the caster camber ......................................sort of got it right under 100mph but gave wierd handling over that speed very dangerouse !!! i even was running upto 5.5 deg caster trying to to correct but to no avail...............................

my advise is stick with the mini set up

If you want to stop using the mini ball joint and move to a metro sealed unit, the KAD and Minisport alloy units both use them.

Bit pricy though!

as above the caster and camber can be corrected,

I belive the problem is bump steer, you will add a fair bit when you put the metro hubs on due to the different geo, using the metro arms gets you a bit closer to where you want to be but it will still have a bit, you need to add rose joints and shim them touget rid of as much as you can,

if you think about it, when you boot it the car sits down at the back and up at the front, and this alters the toe and makes it squiffy, I presume the front height alters at high speed to, either lifting due to the pull of the ginne against woind resistance or possibly mor likly to airodynamic lift, and again toe alters, steering feels weird...

that my theory anyway!

Why upset the complicated geometry? And What's wrong with shimming the ball joints once in a while?

The alloy hubs from KAD do look good and at £380 a pair just about achievable

Sprocket I hate doing the damb swivel joints, there a really crap design that fail/wear out far to often. I'm trying to improve all areas of this 63 car before it become Mrs Rats daily

Edited by Ratty on 19th Oct, 2011.

fitting metro hubs has been discussed a lot over on 16vmini forum. i'm just fitting metro hubs to my redtop mini only to move to metro sealed balljoints. everything is fully adjustable so no worries about geometry etc

From experience with a mates Mini, fitting the Metro hubs and steering arms gave the Mini a turning circle similar to a bus, so the geometry would need to be altered to make it more acceptable

i preferred the metro hubs, and prefer the k-series metro hubs even more :)

there's a thread on there fitment to a regular a-series frame on 16vminiclub just now



http://www.16vminiclub.com/forums/showthre...3495#post253495

turning circle is indeed worse, but torque steer symptoms drastically reduced :)

Edited by evolotion on 24th Oct, 2011.

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

.....and any play in the ball joints seems to be magnified with heavy engine/big power, and shimming ball joints is a PITA

Reading through the above thread the kingpin angle looks very simular between the mini and the mgf hubs, looks like I'll have to get some and start measuring

On 24th Oct, 2011 evolotion said:
i preferred the metro hubs, and prefer the k-series metro hubs even more :)

there's a thread on there fitment to a regular a-series frame on 16vminiclub just now



http://www.16vminiclub.com/forums/showthre...3495#post253495

turning circle is indeed worse, but torque steer symptoms drastically reduced :)

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM

yes :) though i only drove the car around the scheme, and then down to avon so not done allot of miles on the k-series hubs. if i ever make it to another avon your welcome to a shot robert.

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

thanks denis ,that would be fun .

i was wondering if the same effect could be realized by running metro turbo wheels , on mini hubs ,with a 10mm spacer to give 36mm inset ,so mimicking a stock mini wheel scrub radius .

full lock may be a bit rubbing ish .

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM