When we last left our saga of the classic Mini known as Henley, his engine pooped out and threw a bearing. Ripped out the 998. Got a 1275 at MiniMania which ran great but transmission was shot, so after a day of driving back and forth and 3 days of work, the car was still sitting there DEAD… Ready for the auction block or tow it back up the state to Auburn (where another Mini repair shops is) or Nevada City (where MiniMania is) UGH!

Well, thanks to John Koo I didn’t have to take my Mini into tow and haul it all the way up to rural California for two hours … one of his other customers had a matching transmission like mine, and we were able to rebuild it and get her back on the road , woot woot! $550 for a transmission? You betcha! Sold!

The used A-Series engine I bought from MiniMania (as can be with these, it’s a risk since you don’t know the history)… well it tested strong, but, uh-oh, the transmission was bad! Why? Well, it wouldn’t shift and yech! when we opened it up we could see .. teeth gone in 1st and 2nd gearing, on both gears! yikes!

Lesson learned? Sure, there’s a reason people get rid of a perfectly good engine… but for $995 it was a gamble I was willing to take. Some $4,000 later (most of it labor) I have it in working order.

Well, now she’s got a new tranny/gearbox and is good as new! yippee! actually better than new, because it’s a 1275 hehe! That is just freaking AWESOME and it shows with all that I’ve contributed to the Mini community, the only vendor who offered to help (right, money out of their own pocket!) was .. drumroll please .. SRACER PRODUCT who again saves the day for me and likely saved me thousands of dollars that I would be spending for a rebuild … yay!

So, I’m not going to badmouth any other aforementioned classic Mini shops. But let me say this — MiniMania did great, Don Racine was awesome at finding me a donor engine and was the only one who replied via phone and email to me (other than John Koo at SRACER), and Don got me inspired to give it a go.

Alright now a bit of a rant, you can skip this if you are sensitive to my blabbering. We know the other dealer (who I won’t mention by name) does great work rebuilding engines, but they didn’t really offer much in the way of help or incentives this time around, maybe next time guys? Sure you have a business to run and money to make from it, and need to put food on the table and all that, but really, owning a Mini is one part that and one part COMMUNITY.. In in that community people help and lend a hand when it’s needed. That’s all I am saying, so here’s to community, cheers!