6/1/09

Well, I have no idea why the horn on Shichi was acting up. Saturday I messed with it for a little bit and could not find anything wrong. Oh, I blew a few fuses, but never did find the short. Roger called and wanted to go shoosting so I quit messing with the car at that point. I'd already taken the back half of the thing apart yet again to get the console out and was hot, sweaty, and none too pleased with the situation. I was pleased with the excuse to leave. He’s still waffling on what gun he wants to buy and wanted to go shoot some of the rental units at Shooster’s Club. I blew through about 150 rounds of .45 ACP in Big Millie and he shot some… well, I don’t know what he shot. We talked to the dude behind the counter for a while then called it a day. I wasted the rest of the evening in front of the TV, go figure. Sunday I eventually rousted myself out of the house and went to the shop again. I stopped and bought a box of 15 amp fuses and got to work testing. First I disconnected all of the switches from the console, as well as the ground wire from the horn, and plugged in a new fuse. I turned on the battery kill and waited a few seconds. I turned it off again and checked the fuse. It was fine. I plugged in one connector for the console and hit the power. Power off and check fuse. It is fine. I connect the second connector and repeat the power check. The fuse is fine. I connect the third connection and do a power cycle. The fuse is fine. Next I hit the horn button to listen for the relay to click. It does so I check the fuse. It is fine. I connect the ground to the horn and cautiously flip the power on. Silence. I push the horn button and it honks. I try it again and it honks again. I shut off the power and disconnect the ground again. I turn on the power and wiggle wires for a while, listening for a fuse to blow. I hear nothing but check it anyway. The fuse is fine. I finally decide to re-tape the horn button’s connection and reinstall everything with the wires routed more securely away from the shift mechanism. I mean for cryin’ out loud, it worked fine for almost four years without shorting out. I couldn’t find anything else wrong with it. It had to be an interference thing. Keep the wires out of the shifter and it should be fine again. I might put a tab on that fuse though so I can find and yank it quickly if it does act up again though. I re-taped the switch and reinstalled them in the console. I tested it again and the fuse was fine. I reinstalled the console and the rest of the back half of the car. I think I tested it again once it was all together but I don’t honestly remember. The one thing I know I could have fixed but didn’t get around to was the zorst hanger. Every time I walked past that side of the car I thought, “Oh yeah, I need to fix that too.” I just never did it. Oh well. I did make the interconnecting rods for the Mikuni setup though. They still need some fine tuning to open simultaneously but they do work. I'm not sure just how drivable this thing is going to be though. The throttle jumps open really quickly with very little movement from the cable wheel which will be connected to the pedal. It might be an “On/Off” switch throttle. Yeah, in a race car that is what you want, but on the street it might be a bitch to drive. We’ll see. Did I mention the two cars I test drove last week? I'm not going back to look and see, I'll just run the risk of retelling a story. If the details are different from how I told it last time, then your memory must be wrong. Ok, so Wednesday evening when we didn’t go to the shop, I swung by the Nissan dealer to see if they had any Cubes. They did. The two on the front line were automatics, CVTs for that matter I believe, so I had no desire to drive one. The sales dude said they had a red one in the back which might have a six-speed. We took off on the golf cart to look. It wasn’t back there. Just as we were about to give up, I saw it sitting in “Make Ready.” We hopped in and I drove off. Yep, it drives pretty much exactly like a Versa. It is one funky thing though. I don’t hate it by any stretch, but I don’t think I love it as much as the Versa either. As a backup, second, alternate, other, auxiliary car, it would be cool. I don’t think I'll be trading Ms. Clio or Fifi in on one though. Thursday, after my doctor’s appointment which was right across the street from the Smart Car dealer, I test drove a Schwimmwagen. Ok, I know they don’t make those anymore, I was just trying to throw y'all off. Of course it was a Smart that I drove. I think I could possibly get used to only having two pedals with that transmission, but it still wasn’t right. It, the transmission, was the worst of both worlds. It wasn’t a manual, and yet it was a bad automatic. I loved the car! The car is the coolest thing in the history of things being cool. But the transmission sucks. Ok, wait, it sucks as an automatic. As a clutch-less manual transmission, it could be acceptable and I could get used to it. I know I'm not making my point very well. Let me ‘splain. Being a clutch-less manual transmission, it requires you to lift off the throttle when it makes a shift. If you are choosing when this shift happens, you can train yourself to lift as you are flipping the paddle or bumping the stick. However, when the car’s “brain” chooses when the shift is going to happen, and you don’t lift, the thing does a bit of a rev-up while the clutch is disengaging and the shift is being made. It is so very far from smooth that I'm surprised Mercedes allowed it into US release. I think they would have been better off making it a regular slush-box, a CVT, or just let us row our own damned gears with a proper three-pedal system. In fact, this transmission is so bad, I'm truly surprised to see as many of these cars on the road as I have. On the plus side, with only one liter of displacement, making 70 foot/pounds of torque and 70 horsepower, and weighing 1,800 pounds, you really do have to flog the thing to get it around town. Why is that a plus? Because it does suit my driving style to a “T.” I think with a proper manual transmission it would be very similar to a Datsun 1200 for the fun to drive factor. But like the Cube, I don’t see me trading in Ms. Clio or Fifi for one any time soon. And on that note I think I'll call it a rant. Y'all have a day.