Fitting Titanium nylocs to the Mini

The weather has warmed up a bit, so it was great to get into the garage.
The first thing I noticed was, even though the garage felt dry and there weren't any puddles, when I removed the back wheel damp and moisture was clinging to everything. You can see in the picture the rear subframe, radius arm and pipework are all new condition.  This is what is attacking our cars, The creeping corrosion of a damp garage.  Before fitting the rear subframe last year I covered as much as possible in Vaseline in the hope of keeping rust at bay.  It just felt wrong splodging thick black anti rust paint all over a new subframe.

Moisture clinging to everying

Cross drilled Ti washers and Ti 3/8"Nyloc nuts

Mini rear trunnion with titanium fasteners

Excuse the blurred photo's.
Here's a titanium cross drilled washer (weight= 6.8gms) fitted to the Mini rear trunnions.
Bling bling Poly bushes and  anodised aluminium rear subframe mounts.
The Ti nyloc 3/8"unf nuts fit perfectly and should last a generation or two.  

Ti 3/8"UNF nyloc nut again fitted to the top mount of the rear damper.  In the boot of the Mini.  One of these top mounts is a pain to get to on a Mini because the fuel tank is in the way,  but I've got an aluminium race tank so that's one bit of time saved for all the hours it took to fit the race tank.  : )

I think the 3/8"nyloc fits the rear wheel spindles too. (Not the wheel side obviously).  I'll need to get under the car to check on this. If it's not a 3/8" then it'll be a 7/16"unf nut.

You can see a bit of kevlar cloth in the left of the picture. That was put in as a firewall in case of a crash. Kevlar was a nightmare to cut.  I had to use my wifes best scissors. She doesn't know of course.


Titanium 7/16"UNF nyloc nuts
I've counted 6 of these used on the Mini. Well, the standard nuts are plain nuts but I've used nylocs for years with no issue and I drive like a maniac.
The front tie rods to the front of the front subframe and front hub ball joints use 7/16" nuts.

Here's a break down of the weight compared to a steel nyloc I pulled off the Mini.

7/16"UNF steel and Titanium nyloc nuts

Steel 7/16"UNF nyloc nut removed from the Mini.
Weighing in at a hefty 14 grammes

Titanium 7/16"UNF nyloc nut.

Weighing in at a featherweight 6.7grammes

What an athlete!  : )

So fitting 6 of these Ti nuts saves 43.8grammes

Gearbox refresh
Here's todays pic of a gearbox I'm giving a spruce up.  It's had a new diff pin and gaskets and that's about it. Maybe I should've put some new baulk rings on it but I think it'll be fine. You can see I've used Loctite gasket sealant in the futile hope of stopping a Mini engine from leaking.  The last time I worked on this gearbox I used some blue gasket sealant which worked ok for a while but succumbed to the inevitable.

By replacing the 10 7/8"long bolts on the drive flanges there was a weight saving of 62grammes

It would be nice to have those large bolts on the diff housing made in titanium.  I bet there's loads of weight to be saved there.
Cheers for enduring my ramblings.  : D