Went down to the shop and brought my MINI out of hibernation.... Sure felt swell driving it home.... Instead of cones I was zigging around "chuck holes" all the way home wearing a big smile...
Just finished putting on Koni Sport rear shocks and a 19mm H-sport rear bar.
Took about 4 hours in windy 40's weather done at curbside. No stuck or
broken bolts in the process (Yeah!!).
Yearly inspection is due this month and scheduled for next Monday (in 8 days),
and I'm gonna have them put in the front Konis struts along with the inspection then.
One of my rear end-links is binding at the upper joint, so I'm going to get some
Detroit Tuned or WMW ones (I think they're the same) and swap them in soon when
I change to Summer tires.
Rick, drive what you want to drive (whether it is a MINI or something else) and screw organized clubs, they are not worth the drama. IMHO, the worst are the clubs with officers and dues. Just because I share a common interest with a group of people does not mean that I want to pay to hang out with them (I have a very similar opinion about Fraternities/Sororities in colleges). Like others have said you may keep some friends both locally and on here and you may lose some. If you lose people as friends because you no longer drive a MINI or aren't part of a club, were they ever really a friend?
Been over a year since I got rid of the Clubby and I don't regret it at all because I bought it to stay within the brand/family even though I was never completely sold on it (but had outgrown the R53 from a family perspective) and because I feel like getting rid of it has opened up some new opportunities to me. The other advantage of not being part of a club (formal or informal) is that I no longer feel obligated to attend club events. To be clear, I don't feel like there was/is an expectation by anyone in MoM for people to attend all local events (I just found myself jumping through hoops in my non-MINI life to attend as many things as possible).
My Coupe just hasn't been handling very well all winter and several times I've blamed it on the Extreme Contact DWS tires I put on last fall. Several times I've spun out going through roundabouts (Welshman giving me grief when I did so). Today I got a wild hair up my a$$ and decided to take the lower control arms and RSB loose to see how they were wearing. Bushings were fine but totally dry and binding from the winter road crap. I cleaned them up, lubed them and put them back together. Amazingly, the coupe now handles like it used to. The tires haven't been the problem, it was the rear suspension binding.
We drove Skooby over to Best Motor Werks so Anson could place his healing hands on Skooby. Maybe getting a new Jarvik 7, but that's up to Doc Anson. He is also doing a trans drain & fill as a preventative measure. We don't want Skooby to become shiftless.
Yesterday I found a bubble in the sidewall of one the snow tires. Glad I have the Discount Tire road hazard warranty.
Got the front struts and top mounts installed yesterday.
Now I have Koni Sports struts and shocks all around and a new H-Sport 19mm bar
on the middle setting. Between the new front mounts and new rear mount inserts
and the gas charge from the Konis, I've picked up about 3/8" in ride height, a little
more up front and a little less in the back. I've also picked up about 3/32" in front
toe-out and about 1/16" in rear toe-out compared to before. Will set the front back
to 0 after letting things settle in just a little, and will remeasure the rears in a bit
and see if it's worth the effort to do them.
The old shocks still had some gas charge and about 1/2 to 2/3 their original stiffness.
The Konis have firmed up the ride nicely with moderate and big bumps, but the
initial impact on sharp bumps is actually slightly less harsh than the worn shocks were.
Some of that might be from the new shock mounts, bumpstops and spring pads, though.
Will have to change to my summer tires before I can evaluate the rear bar better.
The top caps on the strut bearings don't fit back with the Konis as the strut tops are
slightly higher. I drilled a 1/4" hole in them and they go back on fine now, although not
hermetically sealed.
I set the Konis for about 1 full turn off of full soft (1 turn each both rears, 3/4 turn right front,
1.5 turns left front actually gives fairly equal rebound settings on this particular set).
It seems there's a bit of variation in the calibration off the assembly line.
In preparation for MOTD, on Friday after work had New Pilot Super Sports mounted/balanced.
In and done in 21". Not bad. Discount Tire threw two guys at the car.
I hit a hawk last summer, it was on the side of the road and took off as I passed it. It flew parallel with the car for a short time, it seemed to fill the passenger side window. All of a sudden it turned in front of the windshield, it hit and bounced over the roof of the car. there weren't any other cars on the road, maybe it survived.
It's weird that it turned in front of the car after flying next to it, what was it thinking?
Update - really like the Koni Sports and the H-sport 19mm bar.
Bad news - left tie rod is pretty frozen. Didn't try super hard yet, but
put some Kroil on a couple times, struck the joint a little and gave it
some pretty good tugs but no go. Got the adjustment nut to move pretty
well but not the shaft into the end.
Good news - with a slight adjustment to the left tie rod, front toe is now
right on zero (with and without people in the front seat) and the steering wheel
points exactly level. Rear toe is about 1/32" toe-out which is close enough
not to try adjusting it further (especially since I don't have the BMW tool yet
that makes it easier).
Summer tires (Conti DW) are going on this weekend unless something looms
in the 10-day weather forecast then.
Like x 3
:beer 
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