Yeah, it's funny how the lineage works...my palate for small cars today has roots from the past. My Mom's Le Car kicked it off for me, methinks.

Guess what? I can't believe you guessed it! Yeah, the Heart of Darkness is still not ready so I'm on vacation without him...[INSERT GOMER PYLE HERE] surprise, surprise!

Have a good Thanksgiving All.

 

Well, I test drove Rimbaud today thinking I was going to have it for a week but instead had it for twenty minutes.

Joy.

I dropped it back off and asked him to keep it as I thought it foolish to try and drive in that sort of shape.

Such is the life with MTK-1.

Joy.

Merry Christmas to all.

 

Ouch!
Santa has taken another dump on your plans..... tis the season....welcome to the club...again!

 

What sort of shape?

What's wrong now?

 

Hmmm...where to begin.

Does anyone here recall Vera Lynn?

Ooops, let me start again...does anyone here recall the over heating issues I was having with Smallzilla? Well, after months and months and months and months of doing nothing but talking about doing something a new radiator with a cold air intake was installed. I am doubtful that the bends in the intake necessary to facilitate both the double capacity radiator and the position of the throttle body (if that's the correct term) has not adversely affected the horsepower. So this is one issue / concern but not one which would inhibit driving. The short test drive did not yield high temperatures though...if one were to search for some silver lining.

Does anyone here recall my three dash fires? Well the dash (mainly ignition) has been almost entirely rewired with a set of relays. Looks nice and allows me to use the ignition switch in the column which is much appreciated because the race car switch board was too much of a departure from normalcy for my tastes.

Does anyone here recall my new final drive gear set? Well it's in and this is what caused me to return the car after only driving a quarter mile away. When I let off of the throttle, the tranny emmitted an enormous droning noise. The guy doing the repairs hadn't driven the car except out of the shop and through the parking lot at low speed (he didn't have a key for the locking gas cap and the tank was empty) so he didn't realize how much of an issue was at hand. He agreed originally to let me take the car for a day or two so I could taxi around some of my european family who strolled into town for Christmas all the while stating the car must come back to address the "hum" he heard in the parking lot AND other issues about which I will write in the next paragraph. The gear ratio feels entirely different - what a big jump! I experienced a jump of the same approximate gear ratio when I changed my motorhome's rearend from 4.10 to 5.13 however in reciprocal. Naturally (unlike Dmini) I flogged Rimbaud hard out of the mechanic's driveway and was suprised by the reaction. The Quaife wasn't as smooth as it was prior, but the harsh gearing was dramaticaly softer. I didn't get very far though so I will have to withhold judgement about the final drive until I can "really" drive it. Hopefully it's a minor issue at hand (like shims?) otherwise, at the current pace of repair, Steve Austin won't be ready for regular driving until the contemporary US economy recovers.

Does anyone here recall my steering arm woes? Well, the new ones are much stronger and have a great turning raidius (great = better than original but still worse than what one might expect from a car so small - Aackerman angles are tough in such a small wheelbase I guess) but the passenger side causes the rods to cam over when in reverse which is what caused my CV joint to puke up the main bearing when I was backing up at a gas station whilst in Yellowstone this summer. This is not fixed and I am awaiting a revised arm from Mini Tec. This may take longer than my original build though, I fear.

Does anyone here recall my supercharger woes when I changed the head from a K20A3 to a K20A2? How about when I lost my my belt? Well George changed the configuration on the assembly which looks like it should add more tension (less slipping under load) but until it gets tuned by a Hondata laptop, not all is well in the land of forced induction. I fear Georger removed the top pulley in favor of something with more diameter to create tension thus losing boost. Perhaps the state of tune is also being adversely affected by the aforementioned revised intake or even the new injection wiring and/or the new handmade mass air sensor. Take your pick but until Steve Austin is driveable (tranny fix at minimum), I can't very well take it to the tuner now can I? But he is definately not a 237 whp best I can tell.

There are some other little items that need some attention too that I will mention only in passing: rewiring for the alarm and gps tracking, the battery relocation for the alarm and gps, raising the muffler a 1/2 inch, skid plate installation, upholstering the boot, the axle on the driver's side needs to be shortened and the front wheel flares need to be lowered (or install 15's like boister - I wish he'd tell me how he did that) which would then require some repainting.

I'm looking to meet again some sunny day...Rimbaud, Rimbaud what has become of you.......................or so the tune goes.

 

Crikeys!

I'm almost sorry I asked, dredging up such painful memories............

So, just a bit of sorting out to do yet, then?

Not to rub it in, but I think Dimini's about got most of his issues fixed, the rubber mounts really helped the NVH, he found and fixed the loose adjustment on his clutch so it works correctly, and I think he even fixed his gas leak with a little RTV on the screw. All things considered, we had a pretty uneventful 1400 mile drive from Georgia to KC, especially compared to your travails.....

Have faith brother, this too shall pass............

 

Yeah, but like a large kidney stone infused with glass shards.

 

Your picky .and a cry baby!

Just kiddin bro.
I feel your pain. Your way past me in $'s spent so I can bet it's starting to suck.
Good luck!

TTI

 

Yeah, like Heidi Fleiss at a board meeting.

 

Some pictures to demonstrate the issues:

 

I sure hope MT is standing behind their design & products are working with you to correct this. Good luck.

 

They are - BJ emailed today with some parts he's tracking down (the axel and boot, etc) and one I think they're making (but perhaps they have in stock) for the steering arm issue.

So, like Bill Murray in Caddyshack said, "...and I got that going for me."

 

 

Googa- Galunga.......

 

Well, in order to take my mind off troubles in the workplace I thought I'd stop by to look Smallzilla in the face so that I could be troubled by what I saw...a change of venue is nice.

Show-nuff, George is in a disagreement with M/T about the steering fix. M/T sent some extensions for the steering rack instead of re-engineering the steering arms.

George thinks this will exaccerbate the over extension issue.

M/T thinks this will fix the problem.

Lance thinks WTF?

My son graduates high school in 2021 - I hope it's done by then.

 

Lance,
If my car is done-done before yours, you will never live it down.

PS. 10 points for exaccerbate....you northern cali guys are so fancy.

Forealdo! I hate to hear that its still troublesome.

 

Meno-

At this point, I can offer you distraction from work & Smazilla... If you own a Garmin NUVI, I'll direct you to free software that allows you to "personalize" the voice prompts. My favorite is Karen. She's that little Aussie hottie who I morphed into "Kinky Karen"!

Warning: I first experimented with the proper British chick, Emily, with frightening results afterwards. She's now totally psychotic and blurts out highly-caffeinated mumbles. Not a pretty scene , which leads me to this hypothesis: One must be careful while altering an otherwise, proper British device, or be prepared to undergo lengthy corrective therapy.

Obviously Smallzilla is NOT an Aussie. Sorry.

 

DiMini & Travis,

Screw you guys.

Seriously though, both comments were quite funny.

 

The latest and greatest from Steve Austin, the six million dollar Mini.

The new, new, new, new steering arms: Ta-da!




I seriously have my doubts with these. There's no rise / angle and they are not "seated". But, I've been wrong quite a bit lately.

Any thoughts?

 

Mine look like the ones on top.
I agree with your comments about the flat ones. How is that supposed to work.

By the way, I sent you a PM.

Let me know.....

 

Norman from M/T suspects if the arms remain straight they will induce bump steer.

George states the opposite.

Isn't this just peachy!

 

I just hear that the rodent is back on the streets.

 

Drove the car on Friday. Runs well insofar as the cooling and such but the alignment was so far out of whack that I was skidding for nearly every inch driven.

When I was young and ridiculously good looking my father and I would fish for bonita in the bay with fly rods...it made it look like we had four foot trout online when pictures were being taken. As such we called it, "Setting the rod for 'show'". Likewise, with the alignment totally whacky , Steve Austin was set on "show"....I couldn't hardly move forward without smoking the tires or at least causing tire screach.

Is it an alignment issue?

Are the new "improved" steering arms to blame? Don't know.

The turning radius is better than ever that's for sure.

Neat...and the band plays on.

Anyhow, you've been updated.

 

Kirk is dead.


Whoops, sorry got lost in thought for a moment...let's see...ah, yes here we go:

So I pick-up Steve Austin yesterday. Wow, that was a long two weeks! So the A/C worked well in our 94 degree weather and the coolant temperature only spiked up to 210 but mostly ran at about 190. So far so good there.

The steering arms have created some fantastic qualities and some horrible ones at the same time? Which would you like to hear first? Okay, the bad it is:

When accelerating Steve feels like the front wheels are pushing down on the ground and trying to raise the hood off of the ground. It's quite odd and feels "flighty". Under hard acceleration the car is difficult to control and this is coming from someone who doesn't mind sliding one bit. The car is jumping again but not like it once did when the subframe was separating and would have an unpredictable - diabolical lane jumping action. When the subframe had been tack welded and the quaife was installed (circa summer of 2008), it was straight lining in a wonderful way. Now, with the new arms the quirk is always to the right and in a bumping fashion. I think what I am experiencing is what Norman from Mini Tec predicted, that being "bump steer". Bit by bit I'm experiencing every problem out there...that's my attempt of finding the silver lining.

The good stuff insofar as the steering arms are concerned is the leverage and radius gained. The car steers sooooooooo easily now that it feels like (relatively speaking) power assist! Also, the car now turns like one would expect a micro car to turn, despite that supposition being wrong after a certain point of steering angles but I digress. I can whip around now but will lose that when going back to the other steering arms. We call this progress.

The new gears are Wilt Chamberlain tall which is a monumental improvement however I think when they reassembled the tranny they did something wrong because when I let off of the throttle I get some gear whining. It's odd though, the car feels "sluggish" and I won't know if it's merely the effect of the new ratio or if the WHP has been reduced by the new intake. We shall see.

I'll drive the car until this afternoon and drop it back off to go back with the old arms, take it to Seven to address the alignment, corner balancing and the blinker return issues THEN to the Hondata Tuner for tuning and dyno test then I'll consider putting back on those ridiculously tall tires I began with (for ride and aesthetic reasons --> so I don't have to lower the fender flares) and find an muffler that is quieter than current.

Like sands through the hour glass so are the days of Steve Austin's life...and my wallet.

 

Good to hear from you, meno.

Darn... same old song, just a new verse. So by going back to the previous steering arms you only lose the tight radius? Or did you need new arms to prevent CV joint destruction? I've forgotten. I think I'd drive it for a couple days--just for the sake of keeping it in motion rather than parked in the back of a shop awaiting next task.