Had myself quite a day today.
I normally do everything to my car, but I ran out of time and patience on the vert and needed a few things done to it. I always bring welding jobs and a few other things I don't feel like doing to my local Meineke - great guys, the owner hooks me up with cash prices, all in all well worth the few bucks they charge me.
So I needed to get the cat back put on (to let them deal with any leaks, lining up the gaskets, etc) and extract what remained of the lower rear shock mount bolt so I could remount the rear shock.
Both of the above went flawlessly. And for under $100 - that's a great deal.
Then I decided to take my chances and explain the bending of the selector rod to get clearance around the harmonic balancer with my new z4 3.0 lever.
First, they couldn't understand how it would still function properly if bent - old schoolers with multi-rod linkage and whatnot. Then they tried to heat and bend the selector rod....
...while it was still on the car. Anyone want to guess what broke?
Yep - the aluminum shift carrier. Right at the shift carrier cup. Completely in half.
So I get there today, they show me what happened. After they tried a few times to get the old one out, they attempted to tack weld it - aluminum doesn't tack weld well ;)
So I threw on some work clothes and we had at it. Finally we unbolted the muffler and that dropped the tranny just a bit further (we had already unbolted the tranny brace) and I got up in there with my midget-like hands and got it out. WHAT a fucking process. All the while, the boss (my buddy) and the other guys are writing up fake invoices - one for me, saying how much it's going to cost me now that I worked on it myself ($1000's) and another for the guy I was working with, showing him how much he owed me for teaching him how to work on the thing. It was a pain in the ass, but it's done, I replaced the shift carrier bushing and the selector rod is bent.
All in all, well, well worth it.
I normally do everything to my car, but I ran out of time and patience on the vert and needed a few things done to it. I always bring welding jobs and a few other things I don't feel like doing to my local Meineke - great guys, the owner hooks me up with cash prices, all in all well worth the few bucks they charge me.
So I needed to get the cat back put on (to let them deal with any leaks, lining up the gaskets, etc) and extract what remained of the lower rear shock mount bolt so I could remount the rear shock.
Both of the above went flawlessly. And for under $100 - that's a great deal.
Then I decided to take my chances and explain the bending of the selector rod to get clearance around the harmonic balancer with my new z4 3.0 lever.
First, they couldn't understand how it would still function properly if bent - old schoolers with multi-rod linkage and whatnot. Then they tried to heat and bend the selector rod....
...while it was still on the car. Anyone want to guess what broke?
Yep - the aluminum shift carrier. Right at the shift carrier cup. Completely in half.
So I get there today, they show me what happened. After they tried a few times to get the old one out, they attempted to tack weld it - aluminum doesn't tack weld well ;)
So I threw on some work clothes and we had at it. Finally we unbolted the muffler and that dropped the tranny just a bit further (we had already unbolted the tranny brace) and I got up in there with my midget-like hands and got it out. WHAT a fucking process. All the while, the boss (my buddy) and the other guys are writing up fake invoices - one for me, saying how much it's going to cost me now that I worked on it myself ($1000's) and another for the guy I was working with, showing him how much he owed me for teaching him how to work on the thing. It was a pain in the ass, but it's done, I replaced the shift carrier bushing and the selector rod is bent.
All in all, well, well worth it.
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