The downside to doing some renovations is that my wife and I still don't have a place to live. The upside is that the garage is not currently part of those plans which means the Mini can come home!
I pilled a bunch of extra parts that I had in the unit into the Mini and fired it up. Just like the last time, I took off with a small puff of smoke and a smile on my face. All I had to do was make it 10 miles to my new home. In the venerable words of Jeremy Clarkson, "How hard can it be?"
I don't think I made it 3 minutes down the road before I heard a noise I had never heard before. It was extremely loud and worrying. It sounded like rattling metal and I needed to pull over before something bad happened.
After a quick listen, I traced it back to the radiator fan. I'd always known something was wrong with the radiator. It was very apparent that the shroud was not perfectly centered on the fan because the fan was worn down from rubbing on it. I only compounded this problem by trying to fit a new upper radiator mounting bracket. It didn't fit and had no way to secure the top of the radiator. It hadn't been an issue until now and it was becoming a big issue.
I didn't have much of a choice so I just continued along my way. I figured I needed to replace the fan anway so I might as well just make it to my destination. I was concorned that the fan would shatter into a million pieces, but thankfully, I made it to my destination!
One of the things that was not negotiable with my wife while looking for a home, was the need for a large garage to work on the Mini. Above all else, I wanted a space that I could spread out and make sure that I was able to dismatle the Mini in comfort. I think we got it a little wrong.