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I have mentioned not too long ago I was thinking of getting a brass hammer for inspections. I found one, somewhere missing in action in my possession.
I was browsing some long lost photos of a past project and here it is, a bloody brass hammer that I forgotten that I own. How it came into my possession? When I bought my first tiny house, the previous owner was a Norwegian old man. I would only learnt of his unfortunately death later in which he was killed while riding a bicycle. From what I could pieced together based on the workshop in the basement (he dug with bare hands after the house was built) and the collection of hand tools, he must had worked in Portland's heavy industry as a skilled blue collar worker. He was already deceased when the house went onto the market.
a bloody brass hammer
Like many of his tools, this one also have the hallmark of modified or purpose made instead of store bought. I still have to locate where it is in the house.
Found! It is carefully filed away in the garden studio. The brass head is 6.6 oz, just a bit shy of my desired 8 oz. It had been well used. I would prefer it has a wood handle for better balance but can't argue for something that is free.
When I wrote the previous post, I had a subliminal thought of John Lee Hooker's "I cover the Waterfront" in my head that couldn't be shaken off. I struggled with the tagline to use, and may be in retrospect, "the street car named Desire covers the waterfront" be better than "A few more fotos of Desire frolicking at the waterfront"? Anyway, here is it is. I would love to play this with the Mini cruising the waterfront.
so so soulful of mister hooker that makes my heart bleed
when I first moved to the Bridgetown, I lived in the McCormick Pier for a while and I always love the riverfront's heavy industrial district; alas this area is being gentrified and have steadily losing the characters what make the city attractive
Last edited by pnwR53S; Feb 17, 2018 at 09:36 PM.
Reason: replaced photo
A Friday night shopping trip turns into a joyride. I wasn't planning to take these photos. As I glanced back to see if the Mini is secure as I have some stuff in the boot from shopping. I was a kind of like the impersonal and anonymity of the night scene at a America's ugly strip mall. I whipped out the iPhone and snapped a few shots. I was also curious if the photo would be extremely grainy in such low light. I came home and looked at them on the big display and I am very surprised how sharp they are except one.
being photogenic at night is a pepper white privilege ; all minis are born equal but some are more equal than others
Before seriously considering investing (more like pour money down the drain) on a short shifter I want to get some quantitative numbers. My point of reference is the Porsche GT4. It has the best gear shift of all cars that I have ever driven. It is precise, short throws, smooth, and most important has the best snap action moving in and out of a gear. There is no vagueness to it, and the force requires is neither too light or too heavy. It is very hard to describe the tactile as well as the audible feedback.
First, here are some quantitative measurements comparing the Mini to the Porsche. For me longer throw distance is not necessary a big negative within reason. So too is the reach from steering wheel hold to the gear shift ****, again within reason. As you change the factory shifter to an aftermarket one to change some of these attributes, inevitably other attributes like force and feel will change. If you think Mini gear throw is too long, check out this $250k Alfa GTA and no doubt there is no lack of fun with the foot long shift throws.
M = Mini and P = Porsche
I drew this on an iPad with apple pencil and the result is not exactly art and that 6-year-old hand writing is no calligraphy
I wanted to post this auto **** of the Porsche's drivetrain showing the gear shift mechanism. It has two mile-long cables similar to Mini. One can also see their connections to two linkages at the gearbox. The weights for the fore/aft gear throw aren't that big.
A few other interesting things are:
plastic clutch slave cylinder
hydraulic engine mounts the engine is suspended rather than sitting on top
I am rewatching a few videos, and one that is highly relevant is this video of Evo's interview of Porsche GT car design chef Andeas Preuninger on the design of the 911R, a car that is designed for the driving purists rather than trackrats, where he talks about the gear shifter. In his words it is like a rifle bolt. I am not a gun nut, but I keep an open mind for anything that is physics, science, design, and controlled pyrotechnics especially internal. Only recently because Mini and I were bored, that I went to hand hold and handle a few AR-15 rifles at Cabelas.
to spare you the hardship of putting up with the boring video at 9:17 is where he talks about the gear shifter - which he describes it is like a rifle bolt and I totally get that (and I don't have a rifle )
I have been thinking about a short shifter a long time, and done significant research. It is now down to the qualitative tactile feel and sound. I went and took the videos of rowing through the gears in the Porsche and the Mini in soon-to-be boy racer fashion. That is shifting through the gears with the engine off. Compared mine videos to that of MartijnGizmo's video of the Coolerworx gives me very good idea what to expect. With this exercise it becomes clear to me that I want to get the Coolerworx and willing to butcher into the center console.
As you can see the sound and feel of the stock Mini shifter is dull and lack definition when snaps into gear. It does not have the satisfying tight sound of the Porsche's and the Coolerworx's. In fact the Coolerworx's tight "slick" "slick" sounds better than that of the Porsche's.
Since I decided to go ahead and get the Coolerworx, I reached out to them to explore a small group buy discount. Once I have the specifics I will update this Coolerworx shifter thread.
I promise to give a detail account of the long shifter, good and bad. Evidently some owner found that the centering spring being too strong, as Mini gearbox already has one inside.
Being left out in the cold days on end, Mini's blood electrons are getting low. Today he got a generous dose of electron transfusion.
And Desire is still grounded as the roads are unsafe. The city DOT has been going whole hog with road salt and brine this year as if they are the silver bullets for ice and snow. We are waiting for more rain to wash away this crap before letting Mini run wild.
I recently snagged a deal on this great charger. Today I got around to put on this customized XLR connector that I use in many of my vehicles, including the Mini named Desire. No more cheap Harbor Freight charger that kills batteries. The fact is they are not cheap in the equation of cost to functionality ratio. The CTEK chargers are the only smart chargers that are done (designed and built) right, in my experience.
the connector on the right is an XLR connector that I have been using a very long time
I can close the boot with the charger connected. I just have to be sure not to drive away with it and I am quite good not to do that. I cannot tell you how many times my neighbours ask if my vehicles are electric.
The sound of rain last night and today never ringed better in my ears. I got what I wished for. Enough rain to wash away the chlorides that the city now fell in love with. People in this town has no idea the detrimental effect of salts on the vehicles. I am looking forward to take the Mini out for a few spins.
Last edited by pnwR53S; Feb 26, 2018 at 07:53 AM.
Reason: gramma, gramma, gramma
I am beginning to suffer from panic attacks from the weight of all the Mini parts that I have collected over the wet season. Most are works that I have not done before so there are the elements of the uncertainty. I also want to have all the needed parts on hand once I take the plunge starting the work. I am beginning to suspect the harmonic damper of the main pulley may be on the way out but I cannot be certain. I have no obvious symptoms but very subtle ones. Mini has not been as smooth at times during this winter, but a lot of things can cause it including crap winter blend fuel, stiffer rubber, viscosity of oil in the dampers, stiffer rubber on all the suspension joints and the list goes on.
I am thinking of procuring an ATI crank damper to get it over and done with. While I am in there I should also replace the main crank front oil seal. The Mopar number for that is 4667198 which should be around $7, but most online sellers want too much shipping. The key is to bundle. I will order the ATI crank damper from Summit as they were very graceful when I needed a helmet in a pinch. They didn't charge me the return shipping cost when the helmet didn't fit as I expected. I feel I owe them some business to make up for their loss. I order two bottles of GM supercharger oil also as they have the best price.
Since you track your Mini, definitely spend the extra $$$ for the ATI.
The fluid damper is a great upgrade. Even the less costly PRW one makes the lump smooth(er).
Thanks for the unvarnished suggestion. I am going with the ATI as it has the best user satisfaction. The cost difference is not all that big, especially compared to the genuine MINI quality part. It is like having a monkey on my back not knowing when the stock crank damper is going to die on me while on track. And I like monkeys as long as they are not on my back.
Really looking forward to the Coolerworx long shifter to arrive. It is coming from Europe, and that's right, Lithuania - the former Soviet Bloc country but now an EU member.
I have a big container of red Loctite thread-locking compound. By big I mean 50 ml bottle which I have for decades. This stuff is gold if you buy the tiny package that is only good for one use. I am so cheap that over the years when the manual calls for blue Loctite I just use red. I am no idiot, at least according to my rationale. I just carefully use less of the red to reduce the surface area . It should be equivalent to using blue right? So far of the instances that I have to remove the fastener where I use the red (permanent) Loctite, there has not been an instance that I cannot remove it without breaking the fastener. Though I am beginning to warm up to to investing $18 for a bottle of blue.
What is really interesting is on Amazon there are many to choose from. Like lithium batteries and flash memories, Amazon is full of counterfeits. While I am convinced Henkel brand is real, some buyers received Locttlf instead. It has Japanese words on it which is very suspicious, as a lot of China made counterfeits like to use Japanese words to inflate the perceived quality and country of origin.
I was just browsing thru some photos, and this one struck me as how monochromatic it is. I didn't do any post. I always like the segmented oil and air in the nylon tube for the mechanical pressure gauge. Cobra stripes with the black synthetic oil which turns dark almost immediate after an oil change. I actually like the black and white contrast. That's right. If you are alarmed with the dark colour of the engine oil you should do some more in depth reading. Your gearbox oil will stay clean for 100k miles.
Finally I had a chance to witness the intermittent failure of the two gauges on my neighbour’s Trooper. It has just over 200,000 miles and still runs great.
In my second iteration of prescription I added 2 more test wires. I wanted to eliminate the possibility of a series inductor that supplies power to the bi-metal temperature compensator. I marked them L+ and L-. If both are 12V when the gauges stop working, I know the inductor has nothing to do with it. Then is down to either the contact points or a resistance weld that connects one end of the heating element to the bi-metal arm.
It was a mild day at about 50. We started the car and the fuel gauge immediately slowly rises - it is a dead giveaway of the gauge being bi-metal. It was working, as one might think. I proceeded to check the voltages on the test wires with a freebie Harbor Freight DMM. All are what I expected for when the gauges are working.
While I was monitoring the voltage of the temperature compensator output I notice rather than toggling at a few Hz it would drop down to zero for a couple of seconds. I glanced up to look at the fuel gauge and it was falling back down slowly. This is consistent of how they function. Then the falling needle rose again to indicate the right fuel level. So if one were not observant one would think that the gauge is functioning, but in fact, it is failing a small percentage of the time.
the bi-metal contact of the temp compensator
Clearly this observation is enough to make the call to the likely cause of the failure. We narrowed down to two possibilities - the contact points or the resistance weld of the heating element that I could not visually inspect. I put the former being the much more likely cause. With 200,000 miles the contact points must have open and closed 10s of millions of times. I feel confident to tell him to carefully and gently sand the surfaces of the contact points with a fine wet sand paper. I cautioned him be very careful not to disturb the bi-metal arm as doing so will ruin the factory calibration.
To do this, he would have to disassemble the aux gauge cluster. It is house in a plastic enclosure that acts as a incubation chamber as well as protect the gauges from dust contamination.
It is time to give an update on the diagnosis of the auxiliary gauge cluster of my neighbour's Isuzu Trooper. Since I instructed him to carefully clean up the contact points of the temperature compensator he has put many miles on the vehicle. The fuel gauge and coolant temperature gauge have been working reliably without failure. It may seem like a slow diagnosis but I didn't want to take any chance to misdiagnosis the cause, or ruin the factory calibration. No replacement part can be found for this very old car as each have long been snapped up by owners trying to repair the same problem. We are very pleased we accurately diagnosed the cause and repaired it properly. As the contacts only handle very low current I have little reason to worry the repair will not last. We can declare we have it fixed.
My neighbour must now think I am the Meister mechanic. I am the goto person for any puzzle of things he has in need of fixing. I cruised by his house in the Porsche and saw him out fussing with his 24" Stihl chainsaw so I stopped by. He was pulling on the pull cord to try getting it started. I heard one ignition with all the mad pulls he did. He kept saying he suspect debris might have got into the fuel. Soon I sized up the history of the saw.
He pulled the spark plug and it was wet so clearly it is flooded. There is no sign of electrode erosion and the ceramic insulator also looks good without persistent stain. He reassembled it after drying out the plug and blew air into the cylinder to try dry out the excess fuel. Still no start after countless mad pulls and we could both smell fuel so obviously it must be badly flooded again. I suggested we check ignition by observing the spark at the plug by I grounding it by hand to the cylinder cooling fins while he pull start. This is a sure way and easy way to prove ignition but requires 2 sets of hands.
Sure enough there is no spark, as both of us witnessed. What gives? Must be the magneto, as how often does a fine looking spark plug fails to spark? Then I noticed for whatever reason I could not see the center electrode tip, which was there in fine shape only moments ago. Looking closer I realize the ceramic insulator had slid forward and obscured the electrode. Clearly the ceramic insulator has broken at the base which you will never see unless you cut the spark plug open cross sectional.
It was most unlikely that I happen to spot the ceramic insulator had slid forward for it could just stay put and we would have spend a lot more time finding the cause. I joke that I will go to Home Depot in my Porsche to get him a new plug, and I will park at the most coveted spot by the door to save time.
As both of us are cheap (he is 10x cheaper than me) we decided to stop by Bi-Mart is likely cheaper than HD. We took the Mini. What surprised me is Bi-Mart has a good selections of small engine spark plugs though most are no name except may be 3 NGKs. He really lucked out as the number he needs is NGK for just $3.99.
He popped in the new plug and the problem is solved. He could immediately tell the saw runs a lot better, so the failure has been graduate.
The time to buy flip flops always eludes me. It is very hard to find half decent flip flops in this country when all Asian countries's people wear them. Of course you can buy this MINI boutique one.
MINI boutique flip flops
Over the years I resigned that I can only get them, intermittently at Walmart. The quality and design have been very hit and miss, and more miss than hit. The worst is the supply have been very limited in recent years. For this year, the one for men are crap. Fortunately the one for women are OK. The problem is the larger sizes are always sold out. So the only solution is to drive to all the Walmart stores in hope of finding them.
this one is in Forest Grove
for whatever reason, Walmart decided that this is women's
Of course the point of driving around town for a few 99¢ flip flops is not about penny pinching. It is finding utilitarian goods that I must have. They are consumables.
we stopped by a farm supply to check out some mini chicks
the multicultural Mini stopped by this Mexican grill (that's right, in Aloha) for a bite of burrito as breakfast; I deliberately doctored the photo for a amp'ed up Mexican pastel colour appearance
The most interesting in the Mexican restaurant is observing the clientele. Most are Hispanic families out for a Saturday breakfast, a few day labourers, and a few parties of good suburban white kids. My burrito was just under $6.
Now you made me hungry. We like Maria Bonita Mexican Grill on Hall in Beaverton. Very friendly and family likes the food, although I'm happier making my own Carnitas, tortillas, etc.
Now you made me hungry. We like Maria Bonita Mexican Grill on Hall in Beaverton. Very friendly and family likes the food, although I'm happier making my own Carnitas, tortillas, etc.
The truth is I don't eat out that much. I can cook circles around most professionals. Home cooks deserve a lot of credit as we are fearless, and cook more varieties than most professionals. I too make my own Mexican food, but the challenge is fresh warpers. In Oregon we have no shortage of affordable Hispanic stores and restaurants. Too late to build that beautiful wall as the cultural infiltration already happened.
How it came into my possession? When I bought my first tiny house, the previous owner was a Norwegian old man. I would only learnt of his unfortunately death later in which he was killed while riding a bicycle. From what I could pieced together based on the workshop in the basement (he dug with bare hands after the house was built) and the collection of hand tools, he must had worked in Portland's heavy industry as a skilled blue collar worker. He was already deceased when the house went onto the market.
I still have to locate where it is in the house.
I struggled with the tagline to use, and may be in retrospect, "the street car named Desire covers the waterfront" be better than "A few more fotos of Desire frolicking at the waterfront"? Anyway, here is it is. I would love to play this with the Mini cruising the waterfront.
I am not a gun nut, but I keep an open mind for anything that is physics, science, design, and controlled pyrotechnics 
