Good morning!!!!

   / Good morning!!!! #214,281  
My mechanic buddy had to change out an alternator on a Mini Cooper and said he would rather pull all his teeth out than do that again. His daughter likes it ok and he didn't pay all that much for it.

M7040, It would seem to me that a much heavier duty table would be better for a vise like that?

My wifey cooked 2 huge pots of chili. 33lbs of hamburger meat to start with. 1 with beans, 1 without. We took them to church and sponsored a chili lunch for fellowship. It was good. She also made 4 big pans of cornbread, a big salad, shredded cheese and we brought a bunch of bags of low salt fritos. Roughly half ate the bean chili and vise versa the non bean chili. We stayed at church until about 3:30pm. Also had a dessert bar too.

It was 86F out at 4:30CT and I decided it was time to take the bike for a spin/scooter pop. Beautiful weather, no wind, no clouds. Had to be careful of the deer, saw multiple does at different times.

Not going to lie, I rode down in a tree lined beautiful ravine area, and I got a chill on my arms (no jacket). Looked at bike's temp gage and it said 81F. Haha.

Screenshot 2025-11-16 192048.png
 
   / Good morning!!!! #214,284  
My mechanic buddy had to change out an alternator on a Mini Cooper and said he would rather pull all his teeth out than do that again. His daughter likes it ok and he didn't pay all that much for it.
Lol... I can imagine. That engine bay is tight! Not a huge engine, 2.0L turbocharged, but it's filling a hole designed for 1.3 or 1.5 liters.

Friend of mine had a mini, said you needed special from BMW to just change brake pads.
Typical German engineering. Every work instruction specifies specialty tools, and the cars are designed on the assumption that most owners will be taking it to a specialist mechanic (e.g. dealer) for all work. I've done a ton of work on German cars, and they're actually very easy to work on, but a shop manual is absolutely mandatory to figure out how things come apart without breaking, and special tools are often required.

That said, 90% of the time I either already have something close enough for the special tool, or can mod something up real quick. The specialty tools might make the job a lot quicker for a mechanic who's on the clock, but there are almost always work-arounds.

Many, many years ago a neighbours' wife had an original Austin Mini. She rolled over a semi with it. Got her nose stuffed in between the tractors' drive wheels and the trailer tandems. Over he went. Guess he was empty.
When the Mini came up as one of only a few options available with manual transmission for our teen, my wife said, "no way, too small!" But then she started looking at crash test ratings, and found they actually outperformed the larger Jetta GLI's that were our initial top choice of the few manual transmission options.

At least in the price range and years we were shopping, the only recent cars available with FWD or AWD and manual transmission are:

VW Jetta
Subaru WRX
Mini Cooper
Honda Civic SE i

There's also always the Wrangler, but my son hates them, and they're not great on-road vehicles anyway.
 
   / Good morning!!!! #214,285  
Good evening all. 62ºF for the start, mostly clear sky, breezy. Moderate wind, clouds building through day, and high temp was 77ºF. Made coffee to start day, later found out I had to turn pot off, so coffee cooked all day. Went to Hilton time share presentation, they came up with a plan I liked so I bought it. Took over an hour to get detail worked out, had brunch at 1:30 on a pier. Walked back to hotel, took a nap, worked on posting, dinner and more posting.
resuming Tuesday 11/11 8:01 AM CST post 214,011:
Ken sorry new sensor didn't fix the humidifier. Glad you got to have a fire. Nice pic, I like the truck.
Bill thanks to you pa for his service
Buppies thanks to your dad for his service. Thanks to your cousins and relative for their service.
Drew soup looks good. Hope apple shopping went well.
Bill hope his deafness got anyone hurt.
Gstrom99 aaahhhh the fertilizer truck.
Drew hope solar panel work was successful.
David glad to hear correct PTO shaft on the way, hope the temp bolts get you working.
Frits sorry leaves are back and brought reinforcements. Glad infusion good and groceries are picked up. Shame D forgot the color code already.
RS glad it's warming up for you. Good to hear all plants now moved in. Nice you got to watch some football. Hope utility room progressing well. Can you tel the difference from the insulation installed already?
Bill glad plowing went smoothly.
Dennis sorry hunt for pics continues. Hope you worked out backup media.
Dennis getting harder to find kids who have worked on machinery except farm kids.
Dennis I made one of the visible V8's too.
Thomas you have been having a lot of long days at work. to come home to warm house.
Scott(vt) thank to your dad for his service, nice pic
Drew glad you worked out a meet with Dennis and Frits. Too long of a drive for me.
Randy(wag) glad Remembrance Ceremony was good, and well attended. Hope good town trip and geranium clippings got cleaned up.
Lou hope you get boiler heat worked out before real winter sets in.
Buppies hope the weather is through Texas and Missouri by Thanksgiving.
Wednesday 11/12 3:38 AM CST:
Ron glad you got Sassy a grooming appointment. Hope tractor maintenance went well.
Drew hope you find a place that will give you a senior discount. Hope lunch was good.
Scotty(vt) 94 yo is impressive.
Billy glad you got hike/swim with Della. Good to here wife is home. Sorry you were last on the list when wifey got home.
Scotty(vt) sorry the kiddos are leaving, hope you and Kathleen get some quality time together.
Mike sorry things are in a standstill. Sorry about the MIL.
Buppies hope your day at work was successful. Glad dinner at Luigi was good.
ArlyA hope the the weather cooperated and you got the tie down strip added.
Bill hope you had a good energy conservation day.
Frits hope you enjoyed the fire. Hope you were able to get the vise mounted on work table.
Happy(NC) sorry about the gas leak on the buggy. Hope new clamps fix it. Have fun figuring out what to do.
Bill hair must be getting long.
Drew one of my BIL did that to SIL, he was in dog house till it grew back. I was paying $12 + tip but she injured her hand, ad I haven't gotten a haircut for two months.
Bill same place the $0.19 per gallon gas went ;)
Don sorry grab bar made your wife feel old. Glad pool robot still under warranty. Hope you like the new truck.
Buppies thanks for poodle story.
More catch up later.
prayer for all, especially Jay/Peg, Kyle /Daughter, /mom's breathing, /son's migraines, Mike /BIL in FL, Ron /heart, David(moss) /remodel, /divorce, Buppies /cancer, parathyroid, blood sugar /wife, Thomas /gout, Phil /reflux, Frits /veteran son with mental issues, /granddaughter with Evans Syndrome, Ken /chronic fatigue, Diet not working, Randy(wag) /sister stoke, Scott(vt) /wife's back pain, Steppenwolfe /son-auto immune disorder, Grev /wife's eye, Ted /knee recovery, /retirement & disability red tape, /family issues, /wife back issues and cancer, Lou /eye issues, /heart issues, /wife hip replacement, Doug and wife/health issues, / hand nerve and surgery, /fall and recovery, / wife headaches and heart eval, / David(sadamo)/Sophie's hip or leg pain, Eye recovery, /back issue, Scaredy/shoulder dislocation, /marriage dissolving, / friend stop drinking, Dennis /retirement, /neighbor issues, /brother's lymphoma, /dad surgery recovery, Drew /back operation issues, /friend's wife cancer diagnosis and recovery, Scotty /back pain, Helogabals /wife's friend situation, Fatjay /father broken hip, Ukraine war, Middle East War, and Country.
 
   / Good morning!!!! #214,288  
good Monday tractor morning all
up early enjoying my coffee
should be a nice sunny day in the 50's

doing trip food shopping this morning, then home to pack the rv
and hopefully do the yard leaves one more time.
Leaves start to mound up by front door so not like I can overlook them.

Scott, my stepbrother rents a small garage space to keep his Model A's but not going
there this week. I have pics of that woody, the one he calls Christine, somewhere, couldn't find them.

somewhat fascinating that all the boys in their family were given French Amilcar racers when little and
learned how to rebuild them, the one brother in Colorado I visited becoming one of the preeminent antique Euro
car restorers. Their father was an admiral and loved cars, so he taught that to his sons.
I was given a ride around the 1200 acre estate stepbrother lives on, my takeaway was that car sure was small inside
and bouncy.

oh the days when you advanced and retarded spark.
before my time...
a little lower tech than this thing...nice amp Scott, that ought to dim your lights ;)

 
   / Good morning!!!! #214,289  
Good Tractor Morning,
Last full day on the island, we are heading out tomorrow morning.
Ready to get home and get started on all the things that probably need to be done around the house 😉
Like leaves, that I can see piling up on our front yard on the Ring camera 😉

Hope all have a great day 🙏
 
   / Good morning!!!! #214,290  
Poured first cup of coffee. 23° with clear skies this morning. Heading to 42° with mostly sunny skies. Nothing got done yesterday except enjoy visit with son. Today will be much the same.
Doves are doing a good job keeping area under bird feeders clean.
8O3YZKW.jpg


Everyone stay safe and well.

Good Morning All.
 

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