YAY! The Red Rocket is back!

The TSB work on my pony is done as of yesterday. And it's a really big difference! The gear shift slides into place now and there is no grind or rub at all, just a single click as it goes through the gate. It definitely feels more solid and more precise.

The kit for the TSB is, according to the service manager, a lot more than "just a synchro kit". He said that at one point he went into the shop and saw the tranny on the stand. Basically the only part left on it was the main shaft. He claims the kit included a ton of new parts including: some new gears, new synchros, new heavier forks, new "clutches" (?) and all the seals/gaskets and some other parts I didn't recognize the names of. It took their head tech a full day to rebuild it. Not including pulling out and replacing the transmission in the car. It's apparently only the second one they've done.
He said that except for the main shaft and the housing it could be considered a new transmission. He showed me their paperwork and the total DEALER cost was north of $1400. So I figure it would've been between $1800 and $2000 if I had to pay for it.

Although I was pissed that it took so long -- especially that my car sat mostly untouched for a week -- I'm pretty satisfied now.

Oh I am so bummed.

I have been without The Red Rocket for over a week now. She had been making some nasty grinding noises shifting into 2nd gear for a while now, especially when she was cold. So I did some poking around and found that Ford issued a Technical Service Bulletin (page 1, page 2) for that problem on the 2002 and 2003 Mustang GTs. It seems that the new Tremec 3650 transmission has a problem with the 2nd gear synchros and Ford has a kit available to replace them. By all reports the tramsmission shifts like butter when it's done, so I'm sure it'll be worth it.

BUT -- I haven't had my car in over a week. I'm bumming rides off of people (mostly Matt, THANKS!) and getting picked up at work by the wife. What a pain in the ass, I feel like a high-school kid with an afterschool job.

Plus, I am really pissed at the dealer. This has got to be the first dealer in years that didn't offer me a loaner. At first I didn't think too much about it because I expected it to only be two or three days. But for christ's sake -- a week? And they never even offered? Suffice to say, I think this is the only time the Red Rocket will be darkening their service bay doors.... I am so completely pissed.
I think, after I get my car back, that there will be letters going to both Ford Corporate and the Gladstone Ford management.

Well Shit. It's March 23 and it's freakin snowing. We've had something like 20 snowstorms this winter and even up here in New Hampshire, you can usualy count on being done with "real" storms by the middle of March.
But no.
We're supposed to get several inches of snow tonight. Of course, it'll melt in a day or two because the temperatures are trending up, but it will be enough to F-up the commute, delay school probably, and spread salt all over the cars.
Enough Already!

So, I guess I'm an uber-geek now. I just bought a second Tivo.


Why, you ask?

Simply this: Tivo is the single best piece of technology I have purchased in the last year. I don't even care when TV shows are on anymore, I just tell Tivo to record it and I watch it when I want to. I don't have to worry about missing an episode, I don't have to remember to put in a tape. All I have to do is press play when I want to watch TV. And this is the best part -- There's always something on that I like.

I bought the first one last June and just got the 40 hour recorder thinking, "Good Lord, I hardly watch any TV, I'll never fill up 40 hours worth of TV."
Heh. Who remembers Bill Gates publicly saying, "640k ought to be enough for anybody."?

Do I watch that much TV? Well, not really. While my current Tivo WILL record 40 hours of TV, unless you use the most awful low-resolution recording setting, you won't even come close. Then, factor in several episodes each of Sponge Bob, Fairly Odd Parents, Jimmy Neutron and Scooby Doo, for Daughter(™), and it ends up that Mom and Dad only actually get a few hours of TV recorded at a time. Plus, once you're used to the online guide, instant-replay , "Pause-Live-TV" and other features, you find that watching TV on any other TV in the house becomes a exercise in frustration. (I don't even have TV Guide or newspaper TV listings in the house anymore....)

So -- new Tivo time. They're running a special where I could get a new 80 hour Tivo for the same amount I spent on my 40 hour last year.

Life is good.

Ok this is just weird. Daughter(™) came home with a toy/keyring that she had bought at the school store. Now I had seen these type of squeezy toys before, but this one struck me as being bizzarely hysterical.
So I made a movie of it. Click here (470Kb video)