FITTING INSTRUCTIONS

Mini oil pumps are susceptible to premature failure caused by excessive large particle contamination of the oil, mainly metallic debris created by the gearbox. The situation is not helped by the oil getting to the pump before being filtered. Mini Spares has developed components to help minimise this problem, including these in line magnetic oil traps. Their design allows easy fitment, as the adapter simply replaces the standard oil pick up pipe blanking plate on the back of the gearbox. It’s position in the oil supply gallery necessitates frequent removal of the trap to clean collected particles out, more so for the filtered version. Failure to do this will cause premature failure of the pump and possibly engine bearings.

There are no hard and fast rules for this periodic maintenance as vehicle usage will determine debris build up. Obviously a carefully driven road car will not need as frequent attention as a race car. Certainly clean it at every oil change. This frequent servicing can be of benefit as excessive amounts of debris could indicate a deteriorating gearbox. Fitting to a gear box with the engine out of the car

• Remove standard oil pick up pipe blanking plate (oval plate to top right of diff housing) by removing the two 7/16” AF bolts, one at a time.
• To avoid ‘loosing’ the oil pick up pipe, undo the lock tabs and remove one of the 7/16” AF bolts, then loosen the other.
• Swing the plate to one side and clean off as much of the old gasket as possible from the gearbox mounting face.
• Fit adapter to the removed bolt location with gasket applied but no lock tab.
• Remove second bolt, complete removal of the old gasket, then fit second bolt again with no lock tab.
• Use a little thread locking fluid instead on the tips of the bolt threads.
• Bolts should be just nipped up (8-9 lb ft torque).

DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN – you may strip the threads.

• Screw in magnetic trap using new copper washer provided, and torque up to 25-28 lb ft. Again, do not overtighten. Fitting to the gearbox with engine in the car:
• Jack front of the car up and sit securely on axle stands. On a pot joint type fitment:
• Drain oil from gearbox
• Remove right hand wheel and disconnect top suspension ball joint
• Disconnect pot joint from gearbox, pull hub outwards to remove pot joint from gearbox. Lower shaft out of the way.
• Alternatively to proceed without draining the oil, cut pot joint boot strap and carefully pull hub outwards to pull inner bearing cage out of pot joint casing. Make sure the balls do not fall out or are properly replaced before refitting. Lower shaft out of the way. On cross joint type fitment (including rubber coupling, Hardy Spicer and nylon Quinton Hazel types)
• Undo relevant nuts/bolts/U bolts on right hand driveshaft inner coupling and lower driveshaft out of the way
• After trap installation, reassemble in reverse order, using a tie wrap/lock wire/new boot strap if latter method used. In either case, once these steps have been done, fit traps as detailed as above.

Importation rules regarding vehicles are very specific: Only those over 25 years in age may be brought in to the USA without compilance to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS).