"Mini Tec's 1st" is largely the biggest issue. Their B series has not had the glitches of mine but those were far down the R&D road for the most part save glitches here and there. Clearly people in the future such as yourself will have the vantage point of standing on my shoulders, although I am short. Suffice it to say, less power and equipment is safer, prudent and less costly. But since when has being less powerful, safer, prudent and cheap been the American Way?

 

Lance,
Do you have any info or pics on what you ended up doing to the steering rack assembly?
I thought I remember you saying somewhere that it was bending or weak.

Travis (I might have mine done by december) 10 Incher

 

I need to take then post a picture of the work by the "Amish" / blacksmith. It's "must see" on the ridiculous side of things.

Imagine a 1/4 inch steel plate on the inside of the floor board and a 1/8 inch plate on the outside with another steel plate over that and instead of the original u-bolts try grade 5, 7/16 bolts instead.

I feel confident now that if I drive over an IED here in the Sacramento valley that though the car will become air born the passengers and under carriage are likely to survive.

The original ubolts had "stretched which explains why tightening didn't do any good; as it was, the bolts were tight. Now I need to find more horsepower just to lug around the weight of the body armor...I'm being facetious.

Mrs. December (aka Travis 10), you may or may not suffer this issue. It's something to look for but not necessarily to anticipate. It may well have been faulty stock u-bolts, the supercharger, the stiffening of the suspension, my gut, etc. I just went to the extreme position to be safe as someday I might drive this car as a daily driver rather than a daily disaster.

I'll snap photos soon and post.

Car is at the body shop repairing the fender flares.

 

e tu brute'?

I have discussed this with the boys ar the shop and they are anxiously awaiting pictures. I dont know much but I know this....If its getting modified, its getting done before the engine goes on and it comes home.

I am picking up the doors, boot lid, arches, and windows/rubbers/chrome crap and bringing it all home this weekend.

By the way, my MT steering arms came in...just like yours. Very nice and major upgrade!

TTI

 

Body guy fixed one flare today and apparently forgot to fix the other one that is just now beginning to fall off. Seems to be the way of things for me....but it's good enough for the trip...I hope. I can always use gum.

Had you (Mrs. December) driven your car with the first set of steering arms you would have been in awe of the turning radius; it was akin to an air craft carrier...truly a radical improvement in strength and function. Chalk one up for the hillbillies! BUT steering now requires more muscle - I think we lost some leverage in the change but I'll give that up happily for the improvements.

I'm going to drive it hard tonight and see if something breaks...seems to be the pattern. Froggy goin' a floggin'!

Other than a "slight" (a relative term these days) bit of an alignment issue (or perhaps some other problem that has yet to be recognized) the car goes straight but it feels sluggish. Slipping belt? Imagination? Proof of prior drug use? Don't know...but Smallzilla is getting there...one repair bill at a time.

 

To be clear, this was not an easy photo shoot. Shooting a 1D with a 16-35 while lying under the car with a floor jack isn't optimal...I would have needed on of those Kansas City type pros...but you'll get the idea.

From the driver's seat:



Again from the driver's seat:


Laying on my gravel driveway...someday to be asphalt...



Alignment and thermostat drilling set for Tuesday. Stereo repairs tomorrow...wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

 

Holy cow. Body armor, indeed...

Good thing you have all that extra HP. When do you plan to install the roof-mounted machine gun in its WWII-surplus tailgunner's turret?

 

hmm...do you know if the measurements/templates were retained?

let us know if this solves your problem!

 

Didn't get details - don't know if the guy reads or writes. BUT it did stop the ubolts from moving...this is clear.

 

My Pro Bono Board of Directors:

It grieves me yet again to present my current dilemma, but I hope that I might glean fruit of wisdom from my online think tank.

I was at the Hondata Tuner today awaiting my new thermostat housing (don't ask) and the crafty head mechanic and I started pulling on the suspension to see what moved today. Well at first, most things. After a series of nut and bolt exercises all we could get to move (pressing on the wheels while on jacks) was the upper control arm ball joint on the drivers side and the tie rod where it connects to the steering rack (under the boot); both move liberally. Has anyone ever actually had there front end raised up and began to push on their wheels to see if the parts move? The odd thing is that these parts are original Mini parts, new but original. But perhaps they move on a regular Mini however when applying 237 whp movement is felt more readily. Just curious if anyone has run into repairs or ever noticed such a thing.

The other flare fell off today...to be installed again tomorrow.

Hot Rod A/C guy today was more interested in my car passing smog than he was in figuring out how to fix my A/C.

I feel like I'm in a movie...a very bad, B grade movie.

 

Lance,
I thought I posted this earlier but here goes again. A guy from the RSX forum sent me a message asking if I was interested ina 3.51 final drive for a k series. He was having some built or knows someone having some built. I mentioned you getting the 3.47 and now he has asked if he could just get one thru me/you/those cats guys in Canada.
I will dig up his info and send it your way later this week. I am off to vacation until sunday so you shouldnt see me here after this post....

later.

travis

 

Meno-

How do your flares just fall off? Are you helping them just a bit because we all know how you would like to have that slammed look. Are the Amish akin to slamming, or is this a different group of tech developers? Are you working on the "mud flaps" concept while the flares are on the ground?

As for the upper control arm questions--that's out of my limited knowledge base.

Speaking of knowledge base, Man, the whole ECU concept with new technology still baffles me--can you imagine trusting Microsoft with your car's performance? I can see it now, just you and Steve Austin cruising up I-5 and you decide to make the A/C just a bit cooler when Whammo! you get the dreaded "Windows Mobile has detected on non-Genuine Windows Certified Compliance Certificate and must shut down the ECU. Are you the system administrator, and would you like to report this non-compliance error to Windows for further research and development? If so, park your vehicle immediately as your system will reboot in 15 seconds-- Or select "No" from the menu and resume minimal task management in Safe Mode until purging the non-compliant utility from the system tray. For further information about non-compliant components, or about obtaining a Certified Genuine Windows Mobile Operating System, please visit our knowledge base at...

 

D - My windshield wiper apparently fell off sometime yesterday, too. This isn't all that funny although I'm still laughing...for now. MS meets Hondata K-Pro? I think I would sell.

T - I'm on vacation for two weeks starting June 6th - Steve Austin will be in Wyoming with me and hopefully I won't run into some moose otherwise concerns about the rack are of no consequence. Housemann Motorsports sent an email today stating the final drive would be complete by the end of July. I don't recall you stating you had met a guy through ClubRSX previously but I'm interested because each additional order reduces the cost of ordering so it's now or never. My cost currently is ~2000 with shipping plus I had to buy a spare tranny ($1200) because the first time a gear is cut requires the whole tranny for reverse engineering so I bought the 5 speed RSX tranny which has a lower first gear but all else is the same. So, the more orders that come in at one time, helps everyone but it is by no means a screaming deal until the order quantity is around 20-30...fat chance.

At 65 MPH on 50 series tires, I'm currently at 4000 RPM in 5th; with 3.47 that's 2900 RPM. The WOT switch for the A/C is set at 4-5K which makes life interesting with the old gear set. I considered going even lower but thus far have left it as is...2500 in 5th at 65 seems real cushy.

 

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-HAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

Staightline is back! On my way to Wyoming. Found some weak spots on the frame I'll line up to fix later. Quaife works much smoother than Phantom.

Smallzilla is fun again!

 

Meno-

Be careful if you are driving through Casper. Lot's of jackalopes in that area just waiting to play daredevil with your fresh, new drivetrain.

 

Okay...okay...things didn't go so well with any of the vehicles I took to Yellowstone save the bikes. So here it goes...

Steve Austin took a couple elbows to the face this trip but he did have his moments of fandmonium including some guy setting off the alarm while trying to get interior shots, people flagging me down on the road to take photos and the usual thumbs up as I drive in with four passengers.

But, then there was the dark side of the force.

1. Being that I was overheating in the California sun, I had drained my radiator of all antifreeze and went to distilled water and water wetter. When I arrived in Yellowstone, the forecast read 22 degrees so I shrieked then drained the radiator and put in a 50/50 mix. No harm, no foul, no big deal.
2. Dash fire number 3. Well, it should be clear to Travis at this point to make sure he doesn't use the Mini ignition system unless he has some superior insight. I toasted my ignition switch as I was pulling in for the night. I was able to hot wire the car but forgot to disconnect the starter lead and slightly cooked my starter but it still worked. So for a couple of days I drove around with an aligator clip and nut and screw. Spoke with Tom (the newest electrician at MT) and he said I need to abandon the in column ignition switch because the K series produces too much voltage for the system. Apparently this was not an issue for the B series. What he suggests is a Napa switch mounted in dash which can handle the load. So Steve Austin will have some surgery soon.
3. My CV joint fell to the ground and died. I was going 1 MPH in a hard back up turn toward the gas pump when the thing puked. Now I don't know what to think but this ended Rimbaud's trip and officially kept him sequestered in the trailer. My theory thus far is this: the new 'improved' steering arms DRASTICALLY improved turning radius however at the last 1/3 turn of the wheel feels quite different than all of the other turning of the wheel. My thought is that the leverage MAY have stressed the action causing the break.

Prior this the car was sooooooooooo much fun. Granted a moose weighs more than my car loaded with the family but nothing was as loud as Smallzilla roaring through the countryside. I'll post some pictures later.

Back to the drawing board.

 

 

 

 

Not pictured: Lance in bermuda shorts and banana hammock

 

My son found his inner Texas.



The closest my daughter has come to Hannah Montana

 

Snow? Yikes. No need for a/c in Wyo. Nice photos, Lance. I really like the two portraits.

I wondered about the ignition switch... Hopefully NAPA is the simple solution. Dead CV joint= GAME OVER. Bet you can't find one of those at a NAPA store, can you? I'll have to ask Norman if either end of those half shafts have commonly available CVs. Correction: You'll need to ask him. They're not talking to me these days.

I'm thinking that the rodent may be a drama queen.

 

Spoke to the big cheese today. He stated that Smallzilla still uses the Mini outer CV which, in his opinion, is substantial There is a different star gear and ***** which are used to match up with the Mini stuff. All non Mini products are manufactured by The Drive Shaft Shop in North Carolina.

Norman agreed with my troubleshooting. It appears that a bump stop will need to be installed to prevent the steering from over extending. (Heads up T)

Jokingly BJ has told me I might well be ASE certified in 5 years on the unofficial MTK-1 home study plan. I both laugh and cry when I think about it.

Coincidently Mini World called today and wants to come up June 30th to do a photo shoot. Wouldn't you know it? I wanted to have the trunk lined, A/C fixed, flares adjusted, yada yada before they showed up with a camera. So I'm a bit confused as what to do.

 

Meno-

I forgot to tell you that I like the snow close up as well. That would make a cool holiday card by merely saturatig the green in the background trees and border w/red.

Six days till photo call... Ouch. You could get the dash ignition switch and CV joint replaced by then. Actually, I think dash switches are very cool. You may have to forgo the fenders & a/c.

Is the steering bumpstop coming from MT or a conference call with 7? I think you are running out of possible issues. This baby's gonna be all sorted by the time I get my mine.

 

All points noted.


PS.

My new motto: NEVER set a deadline for yourself or your mechanic.



travis