MINI Mechanic :: MINIblog: BAH! @#$)(*%@$%!!!

Here it is.. the entry you've all been waiting for. Has the suspense kept you up at night? Are you dying to know how the installs went this weekend? Well settle down and dig in because this tale of busted knuckles, sliced fingers, dirty mouths, the ticking clock and sicilian old school vendettas is about to unfold...

As many of you already know this past Sunday was reserved for two things and two things only: Working on the car (Sway bar install and Short Shift Kit install) and Drinking at El Cholo with friends. Since the drinking portion of the evening wasn't scheduled 'til 6 I figured I would have no problems getting both projects done on the car. HA!

My friend Vaughn came over around 11 and we got right to work. We decided that the Shift Kit looked like the bigger job so we would tackle that one first (smart move). The install of the kit is actually quite involved and requires disassembling a better part of the exhaust- removing most of the heat-shields and dropping the entire shift assembly out of the car. I knew this going in and was prepared (or so I thought).

Early on I made an executive decision to do as much of the "in the car" work as possible before getting the MINI on the jack stands. I removed the shift knob and boot and took a look around at what I could see concerning the retaining ring and upper assembly. Ok so easy stuff done- time to get dirty.

The first obstacle was finding adequate jack points to get the car up on jack stands- To be honest I never thought this would pose any type of issue whatsoever- after all how hard is it to jack the car up? Answer should be "not hard"- wrong answer- getting the front of the car up in the air was fairly straight forward- but the rear has but a few obvious jack points so there was some figuring to be done. Lets just say we lost about an hour trying to get all four wheels off the ground. Having that done we dove in...

The next steps of the disassembly went very smoothly: we detached the exhaust just behind the O2 Sensor and dropped it out of the way this was followed by the removal of the heat shields. With all this stuff out of the way we were able to access the shift box pretty easily. It was at about this point that things started to go south. The instructions supplied by B&M state to "detach shifter cables with flat head screwdriver" - which makes it sound like they should just pop right off- what it should say is " pry the living shit out of shift cables- (but do not bend them)- until they pop off and you cut yourself punching the exhaust cowling" Ok so that wasn't really so bad- maybe the next step would be better..."Remove shift cable clips" or "Marvel at the incredible tenacity with which these seemingly simple clips cling to their posts- pry- curse- repeat"- ok so now those are out.

Time check now its 2pm (!)

Once those few parts were removed and the housing was unbolted the shift assembly pretty much dropped right out - now for the easy stuff right? almost...

The next steps of the install seemed pretty basic- take the old stick out- remove the old bushings and replace said parts with new shiny parts- then reinstall. It is at this phase that I made the most remarkable mistake. Against my better judgment I decided that the instructions-(even though they seemed wrong )- must be right - they were infact VERY VERY wrong. Basically here's what happened: It all comes down to the installation of the retaining ring- instructions say install after assembly is back in the car-not only is this impossible but trying to do so resulted in cracking the ring! So now the ring is cracked and I still can't get it in. I decided to remove the entire assembly again and try to install the now broken retaining ring from outside the car.

At this point the installation has become less about upgrade and more about preserving the functionality of the car- in other words "just make it drivable" (which sux ass)

Anways the real kick in the balls came when the retaining ring slid right into place with just about no effort once it was outside the car- after that the whole thing went back together in about 10 minutes.

Time check: 4pm (Dammit no sway bar install today :( )

The beauty of this situation is that now- after all that work- I still have to get a new ring and replace it- which means that I will have done this install about 5 times. All because I listened to that one misplaced instruction. Which brings me to the sicilian old school vendetta- B&M should be "dealt with" is all I'm sayin- because here I sit with sliced thumbs, a loose shifter and a sway bar that will now have to wait until after new years to get put in.

So I drove the car to work today- the shifting feels all f'ed up to be honest and I know it's because of the ring- nothing is staying aligned the way it should. As you can imagine I'm pretty bummed out about the whole thing and hoping that a new retaining ring is not only easily bought but not too expensive.

Here are some pictures of the debacle- but have no fear this problem will be remedied and the short shift will hopefully be repaired about the same time Vaughn and I reconvene for the sway bar installation.