Attitude Adjustment...

Just when I was starting to wonder if maybe I had gone too far this time and trying to fix what wasn't broken to begin with was perhaps not such a good idea- Vaughn and I finished the install and the MINI was reborn.

Now I'm not going to go so far as to say "phoenix" or anything - because - to be sure the MINI was not really in an ashen state prior to the updates made this weekend- more like it had a case of the flu. The difference that can be felt when driving the car, however, is truly night and day. It's meaner, tighter, and even feels faster- (but that is probably just the re-tuned way the car handles itself on the road)

For those of you who have not been keeping up- doing your MINIblog homework- (first of all- shame on you)- I will briefly recap the past months "exciting" course of events.

The idea was simple- install a B&M short shift kit and MINI Madness adjustable rear sway bar thus increasing the performance of the MINI. The first attempt to achieve this goal not only failed to improve the car- but left in it a worse state than it was previously- and put me in a really bad mood (not exactly what I had in mind)

After a month of holidays and waiting for parts- last weekend was the time to clean up the mess.

Well I have to say that all the toil and patience has paid off in spades. The MINI is now truly a force to be reckoned with. There is a certain level of comfort to be had at looking at a Porsche in the lane next to you and thinking "I know this guy can cook me off the line- but his ass is grass in the twisty's." The addition of the Madness rear sway bar has truly changed the dynamic of the car- if I thought it handled well before- then now it's just silly -PHYSICS BE DAMNED!

Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself..... let's discuss the installs

As you may have guessed by reading the previous few entries Vaughn and I are now supreme experts at disassembling and reassembling the MINI's shift assembly (having done so about 6 times now)- so installing the new retainer ring went about as smoothly as it could possibly go- It went so smoothly that it pissed me off when I thought about all the time and expense I wasted by following the directions provided by B&M- in short- their product is second to none but their directions are trash.

Anyways- Once that was done we moved on to the Rear Sway install. This was breaking new ground for both of us- so we proceeded with caution. The directions provided by MINI Madness seemed straightforward enough- but I had learned my lesson with directions so I took them with a grain of salt.

The steps for this install are basically as follows:

• Remove rear wheels


• Detach Sway Bar Links


• Un-Bolt Rear Sway bar


• Remove 4 Sub-frame bolts


• Install New & Improved Rear Sway


• Put it back together

All in all I think there were 14 bolts involved and that's 4 more than you probably need- because just to have some extra working room we also detached the rear struts (from the top). Much to my surprise this install was easy and right on. It went along almost without incident- since there must always be some drama involved in every upgrade here are the highlights:

• We accidentally bolted the sub-frame back into place prematurely - thus pinning the sway bar into the wrong position (we had to take it back apart once to set the bar correctly)


• I managed to torque the head off of one of Vaughn's socket extensions which made a great popping-crack noise (so that was cool)


• We got to try out my new Torque Wrench when putting the car back together- turns out that thing is awesome & thanks to it I'm confident that my rear suspension won't fall out on the highway
  
• Oh and last but not least I managed to - at the very end of the day- drop my car off the Jack and totally destroy the factory jack that is included with the car (Damage to the MINI: NONE ;- Damage to ego: MODERATE)

Yeah dropping the car off the jack was a little embarrassing & scary- but here's how it happened:

I just got a REALLY cool 3 ton hydraulic floor jack for xmas - problem is that its a little to tall to fit under the car. So what I have been doing is lifting the car a little with the factory jack and then continuing with the floor jack. This process is really easy going up- but not so great coming back down. I guess I didn't seat the factory jack properly and when the cars full weight was applied- the jack buckled- and the car fell (only a few inches)- once I realized that the only thing that crunched was the jack I wasn't too upset but did feel a bit stoopid. I guess it may be in my best interest to invest in some ramps. Well live and learn I suppose. I wonder how much a new factory jack will cost?

Wow this is a long entry. Ok- I'll stop writing now and get to the pictures:


That's the stock sway bar prior to upgrade



Here is the Sway bar link, now detached (these should also be upgraded at some point)


Thats me detaching the subframe on the drivers side


Here is the subframe detached (This part really was necessary and made the whole install much easier)


This is a shot of the new sway bar vs. the stock. I dunno if you can see in this picture but not only is the new one WAY thicker than the old one- but I has three holes for various levels of stiffness.


There's Vaughn reattaching the sub-frame on the passenger side.


Oh- in my excitement to get the car out on the road I forgot to take a pic of the new sway bar installed. Here is a pic of the finished product from the MINI Mandess Instructions- (the new sway bar is the red thing behind the wheel)

Hope you enjoyed this installment of MINIblog. For any MINI gearheads that may have specific questions about anything discussed here- feel free to email me whenever.

Next up: most likely H&R springs (though that will depend on funds)

Until then I'll just get used to razor sharp shifts and handling that defies the laws of physics.