The Independent American Magazine for all Mini Owners
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rest of the pulleys. If you’ve never done this before, make a little sketch of how it’s routed. Next is the harmonic damper retaining bolt. This takes a 15mm socket and A LOT of torque to break loose. My old crappy impact wrench couldn’t do it. The ½-inch breaker bar couldn’t do it (the engine would just spin). So I had my wife put the car in gear, and really stomp on the brake. I still couldn’t break the bolt free! So I got a piece of pipe to lengthen the breaker bar, and hoped for the best…. (Last time I did this, I sheared a huge bolt off of a ‘94 Explorer suspension member, hence the hope…) It worked! Now with the bolt free, my air wrench could remove the bolt. We’re off to the races! Next, you thread in the pilot bolt (it’s basically a bolt without a head, with a depression for the tip of the damper removal tool to sit in). And now you mount up the damper removal tool. Way had warned me that the biggest problem in doing this job was not putting the M8 bolts in enough, and they pull out of the damper, taking the threads with them. Now a small job is a big job…. Well, my bolts didn’t pull out, but one sheared! Darn cheap bolt! I hate it when stuff like this happens. So I improvised. I used a 13/64-inch drill, and drilled through the rubber into the metal, tapped it with a ¼-20 tap, and all was good. (I had ¼-20 bolts that I knew were strong, and also had a ¼-20 tap in the toolbox….) An hour plus later, the stock unit was off and I was back on task. Installation is easier: First, inspect the end of the crank to make sure all is good. Then, heat up the center of the new harmonic damper with a hot plate or equivalent. Heating it up causes the metal to expand a bit, making installation easier. The ATI SuperDamper comes with a long bolt to start pulling it on, and after you have new part pulled part way on, the stock bolt can pull it the rest of the way down. Using an air wrench here is very helpful. Use Loctite Blue on the threads of the factory bolt, and torque to spec. Now re-install the serpentine belt, apply tension and run the motor for a bit before you put the fender liner back in place. Make sure that the belt runs true. If everything looks good, button up the rest of the bits and you’re good to go! When I started up my car, I had an unexpected surprise: A rattle that was there at idle was gone! I guess that my stock unit was about to give up. I replaced it just in the nick of time. The harmonic dampener on our cars is at the accessory drive end of the engine. You get to it by removing the fender liner. 7KH UHPRYDO WRRO DOO PRXQWHG XS UHDG\ WR GR LWV MRE $QG \HV WKLV LVQ·W WKH ZD\ LW ZDV VXSSRVHG WR JR RQ ,·P QRW SURXG RI WKLV EXW LW GLG JHW the job done. 7KLV LV D JHQHULF KDUPRQLF GDPSHU UHPRYDO NLW ,W ZRUNV EXW GRHVQ·W KDYH the bolts that screw into the MINI damper. Source those elsewhere. Here’s the new ATI unit installed on the car! It’s such a nice piece that I’m almost sad it will be covered by the fender liner. Way Motor Works (www.waymotorworks.com) lent me this special tool needed to do the work. It threads into the end of the crankshaft and has a recess so that the dampener removal tool doesn’t wander off. 7KH IDLOHG GDPSHQHU IURP D ÀUVW JHQHUDWLRQ 0&6 7KH UXEEHU KDV WRUQ so much that it’s separated into two parts. Issue 30 MC2 Magazine 37