The Culprit

Right! So the gearbox is open, and looks pretty broken and chipped and metal flying everywhere. This was expected. The good news is, I don't have to buy a new motor. I think. The bad news is, the gearbox I'm ordering from England costs 250 quid just to ship. That's 250 pounds. Sterling. That's 500 dollars. What the crap! I guess I'll just suck it up and not order that flatscreen TV I wanted. It's important to have a car, you know. It's also important to have 2 TV's, but whatever. I'm not surprised, but I'm really excited on pulling the trigger on the gearbox I'm interested in.

See ya later little guy.

Herman from Mini Mania came up from Virginia today to pick up little blue and tow her to her new home down south. It was sad to see the little car disappear down the street, I'll really miss her. I'll miss the harsh ride, the view of the street beneath my feet, the jump starts, the snow coming in through the floor, the smell of burning rubber, little bits of the body falling off on the highway ... what a great trip it has been. I'll miss you guys.

Updates AHOY!!

So I've sold little blue. It's a sad sad day, but I think concentrating on just ONE mini is way smarter than trying to wrangle two into functionality. Plus the electronics and wiring were starting to get crazy, and jumpstarting the car every morning just sorks.

Plus, I've amassed like fifteen hundred billion dollars in my account - which is JUST enough to start fixing the green monster. I flatbedded it down to DSG, and they have begun opening her up to see what's wrong. All they've done is drain the oil and they've already found some hairy shit:



Nice, right? That's the magnetic drain plug. And yes; that's a long piece of metal sticking out to the right. I'm hoping it's a bit of transmission, and not a bit of motor.

Progress

So I put Little Blue up for sale and got a response from the guys at Mad House Minis offering a trade for some work hours. The plan now is to tow the Green Monster out there, drive Little Blue out there, and return to a functioning Green Monster a couple weeks later. I'll probably still have to pay 'em a little dough, but way less if the trade wasn't involved. Now to figure out the towing issue and find the time...

I hate everything.

So then the car springs a mysterious gas leak. Call the fire department so they can throw down some kitty litter on the spill and syphon the gas into an external 5 gallon gas tank except I don't have a syphon so Alex, being the brilliant bastard that he is, disconnects the gas line to the carb, and sticks that in the 5 gallon tank, except I don't have a 5 gallon external tank so we put it in a bucket. Then we turn on the car to get the gas pump going to pump the gas out the line to the bucket, but I don't have the keys, so he connects the pump directly to the battery using jumper cables. Did I already mention that Alex is brilliant? It's true. So I have a bunch of gas in a bucket, and now I just have to pour it into the 5 gallon tank I bought last night. With a funnel that I don't have yet.

All of this on a night when the last fucking thing on earth I wanted to do was not be at home. Thanks a lot, you fucking green piece of shit car.

Love, Me.

The Plight of the Sucker

I guess that sometimes with great excitement comes great disappointment.

I still don't know what's wrong with the green monster, and I won't know for quite some time. I can't afford to get any replacement parts or pull the engine to do the diagnostics, so I'm just putting the BRAND NEW little fucker in storage until ... I don't know. Guess I'll keep you updated. In the meantime, little blue will see sunlight once again.

Here's a thread at minimania describing the problem and a bunch of responses from some smart fellows. Should be helpful when I win the lottery and can afford surgery.

Then the transmission blew up.

Ever since I got that car it had been making this weird clacking noise unpredictably when slipping the clutch in first, trying to get started from a standstill. It was unnerving.

Well, on Monday I was just trying to do a hill start, giving it a fair amount of gas and easing off the clutch when ClackCLACRAACK! and no power going to the wheels. I thought it had slipped out of gear so I tried to put it back in first, but it wouldn't go. Couldn't really get it into reverse either. And the idle felt different and weird and was bogging the engine. At idle. WTF. All I can think of is that first gear exploded.

We'll see.

This is how we roll.

When you come to my house, you have to watch TV like this:

Oh yeah

All the crap that used to be up here is now in the "past" section, and can be viewed by clicking "past" up in the left hand menu, or by clicking here.

Holy crap, my first inline link in my blog! I'm a fucking madman.