Monthly Archives: March 2012

Mega Millions Anyone?

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UPDATE (April 1, 2012): Well, it looks like I saved $12!  My odds of winning were  about 1 in 170,000,000  for each number I picked. Well, a little worse since I didn’t actually have a ticket. I really wanted to delve into some of the lottery math, mechanics and philosophy but I just don’t have the energy or time these days. Anyway, I’m going to take my savings (or is that winnings!) and invest in a meal (bad bad long term ROI, by the way)!

I have a “real” blog post coming soon. But I thought I’d post something quick & fun.

If you’re alive then you probably know about the $640 million dollar jackpot from Mega Millions. I’m not going to go into any details about how you play, odds, or anything like that right now. I’m simply going to announce that I will never buy a lotto ticket. It’s a sucker’s bet. That being said, you can’t help but feel some of the excitement in the air about the drawing tonight. It’s interesting enough that I thought I’d pretend to play. Here are my Mega Millions selections assuming I had played twelve times:

3-10-41-27-15 & 7
28-38-11-3-7 & 36
12-34-1-2-3 & 4
1-2-3-4-12 & 34
9-10-38-47-37 & 33
7-9-23-54-49 & 40
22-18-3-20-21 & 6
10-19-27-32-48 & 7
1-15-38-46-52 & 18
10-24-28-40-52 & 35
3-14-29-30-51 & 16
17-18-34-38-53 & 21

After the drawing tonight we’ll see if I’m $12 richer or out hundreds of millions. Sure-  it would be upsetting to be the guy who picked the winning numbers and then didn’t buy a ticket but I doubt that will be the case.

After the drawing I’ll update this post and I may elaborate more on the game, explain some of the math behind the odds, share some insights explaining why some numbers really are better than other numbers (some of my picks are not actually good choices) and discuss the pros versus cons about luck based games like these.

Posted by Cam, March 30, 2012, 5:55pm

Replacing the Corvette Clutch Pedal Return Spring

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The other night I was getting gas and decided to shake out my floor mats. As I pulled driver side mat out of the car I noticed part of a coil spring was nestled comfortably near the back. I drove back home, pulled out a flashlight and discovered the clutch pedal return spring had snapped. I pulled the remaining portion of spring out (super easy if your spring has snapped: just push the center portion of the spring over the groove on the back of the clutch pedal and twist it out). A quick Google search revealed this was a pretty common occurrence.

I have no idea when my spring broke. I don’t recall noticing a change in the feel of my clutch pedal but I have noticed that shifting gears is sometimes tricky (I chalked this up to the new ACT clutch).  My guess is that the spring has been broken for a year or more.  A lot of people seemed to advocate swapping out the C6 spring with a C5 spring or leaving the spring out altogether. I’m all for innovation, but I decided to just replace the spring with the original part (10376347 for anyone curious).

Installation is super simple (with some help). First you need to put the ends of the spring into the two white bushings (above). You can put one end in first and then compress the spring and put the other end in (make sure you have the spring facing the right direction). Now you need to press the pedal all the way down (this is a where it’s nice to have a friend). With your hand behind the clutch push the U shaped portion of the spring over the catch groove on the back of the clutch pedal (lift and pull it toward you- it will slide up, over and in with very little effort).

That’s it- your new spring is in (I borrowed the picture above-right  from The Clevite Kid on CorvetteForum.com – great clean pic of the installed C6 spring).  Remember to grease your new spring! I drove the car around for a bit to see how it felt. There is a definite difference in the feel. With the spring the compression takes less effort. I almost want to say it’s spongy, but that seems negative and there’s nothing bad about the clutch feel, per se. People seemed to complain about uneven tension, but I didn’t notice anything like that. Overall I think it’s an improvement from no spring.

Posted by Cam, March 26, 2012