Contrary to what some friendly neighborhood Yeti's may have you believe... sometimes shorter is better. Which brings me to my point- My new B&M Short Shift kit just arrived! As some of you may know I bought this item off of ebay a few weeks ago and have been awaiting its arrival every since. I'm glad to say the wait is over- the shifter is here and it is as described- bran-spankin' new.

The package was delivered to my office early this afternoon and I immediatley tore into it. Inside I found this:



The kit contains the following:

• Detailed Instructions


• B&M Shift Billet Aluminum Shift Knob


• B&M Shiftlever


• 4 Metal Bushings


• Some O-Rings


• a buncha screws


• and some cool B&M go-fast stickers

It all seems pretty unintimidating upon first inspection- then I read the instructions...

This is quite an involved procedure- more involved than I had first imagined. Without getting into too much detail (I'll save that for the install write-up) it appears that the exhaust must be removed in order to access the shift linkage assembly from below the car (AWESOME). Bottom line is that now I can't wait to attempt this install- its gonna be insane and I'm pretty sure it's doable.

The negative is that I'm not sure I have enough time this weekend to do both this- and- the sway bar install. My plan is this- start early Sunday morning with the short shift install- if that goes well and there is enough time then continue to the sway bar. I have a feeling though that the bar will have to wait another week.

The worst thing is that now it's only monday-

hopefully the week will go fast... tick tock tick tock

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.




finding the jack points...



jack points located...



beginning the deconstruction...



MINI in the air!...



"simply removing the shift cables"...



Vaughn "persuades the cable clips from their posts" ...



hello!...



shift assembly removed- short shift going in...



old parts...



"finished" product...



This is far from over....stay tuned

Remember all that money I saved by getting the short shift kit off of ebay? Well, let's just say that I'm all caught up and there is no such thing as a free lunch.

After much research and lots of phone calls I found that the little plastic ring that I need to replace is only available as part of a set (the entire shifter assembly to be exact) and costs $98 from the dealer.

A few more phone calls located a parts supplier that can sell me one for $67 + shipping. So I bought it. The way I see it- I f'ed up and now I'm payin' for it and that's fine. I learned a lesson- and the lesson is this:

"Never get involved in a land war in Asia..." No wait that's another lesson

The lesson is this:

"Listen to yer gut cause yer gut don't lie"

And I think those are words to live by- sux that it's cost me ($67 + shipping) dollars to finally lock that one down- but sometimes that's how things go- I shoulda listened to my instincts.

The other interesting thing that I learned during my ring research was this- There are ALOT of people who have had this same issue due to faulty instructions- apparently is REALLY common. So that's good - I feel somewhat validated and a little less stoopid.

The new part should arrive just in time for me to leave town for 2 weeks - so it won't be going in any time soon.

In the meantime the shifting is functional at best - and that's a bummer- but it's all part of the game.

Oh! I left out one important part of the story when I last posted - and it's this- despite all of the snags and busted knuckles- the install was indeed good times- if it wasn't challenging and a little risky it wouldn't be any fun.

To be continued...

Ok now for those of you who have been anxiously awaiting the conclusion of the B&M Short Shift ordeal- yer just gonna have to wait longer

But for now I can say this:

Upon returning to the office today (following a quite lengthy- and awesome nationwide holiday vacation spree) I found a large cardboard box sitting on my desk. Still being in the holiday spirit I tore into it with reckless abandon- sending cardboard and tape flying this way and that...(as I have become accustomed to doing over the past few weeks of presents, mayhem and gluttony)

What to my wondrous eyes should appear? A brand-new MINI shift assembly COMPLETE!



My surprise came from the fact that they not only shipped me the 1 small piece that I actually needed- but I also apparently bought a new shift lever, gaskets, bushings, cable clips, and housing. AWESOME

So this weekend when I go to install the new retainer ring- should I run into any snags- I have a replacement for every part. So I guess that's something.

That is all for now- Tick tock 'til Sunday.... and this time I'm gonna get that sway bar in too!

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. (to be continued...)

posted by Steve