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Yesterday was a good day


williamggruff

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I posted this last night, but accidentally put it in the NK General Discussion forum. My apologies if I offended the elite NK crowd.

Today was a good day.

I cleaned and waxed my car this afternoon. The car hadn't been washed in over 5 years. It had been stored in a parking garage for 4 years prior to my buying it in August 2009, and it sat morosely in my driveway while I, and a marauding gang of half-crazed mechanical banshees beat it with wrenches for the past 15 months until it came back to life last weekend. I was pleasantly surprised that it ended up looking quite shiny-and-newish after 5 1/2 hours of Karate Kid exercises with the Meguire family.

So that was nice.

Later in the afternoon, Dudley stopped by to say hello and loan me a check valve for my brake booster, which went in a smooth as silk.

That was a minor win, but nice all the same.

I mentioned to Dudley that the car wouldn't start, which seemed odd since it had started quite easily in the morning, and I had driven it around town to buy the car cleaning supplies. So Dudley popped the hood so he could see what was going on while I tried in vain to get the car started. After a few minutes of this nonsense, it occurred to me that I should ask whether Dudley was seeing any fuel in the fuel filter. He was not. This led me to the conclusion that my gas gauge, which had been consistently reading a full tank despite my having driven the car more than 100 miles, might be a bit misleading. Fortunately, I had a gallon or so of 103 octane in the garage, and after adding some fuel, the car started right up.

So it was particularly good fortune that the car was fine, and that it had demonstrated uncommon decency by running out of gas in my driveway rather than out on the road. I think that's pretty nice.

I had noticed last weekend that my speedo was reading way off the charts since installing a 3.91 LSD that Marshall loaned to me. I had a spare speedo from my previous 2002, but it was marked W=1.30, which wasn't going to do the trick. After dinner, I went up to my attic to search for a few gizmos and schnick schnocks, and I noticed that I had another spare gauge cluster. I recalled that I received it as a gift from a good friend. Coincidentally, the same friend gave me a 3.91 LSD, which is in my garage awaiting a set of output shaft dust covers. Wouldn't you know it, the speedo in the cluster my friend gave me is marked W=1.393, so it was a match to the 3.91 LSD.

That was an exceedingly good bit of news.

To top it all off, I successfully fixed and tested the odometer on the 1.393 speedo by following Curt Ingraham's FAQ, and was even able to set the odometer so that it reads all zeros (well, it's actually showing all zeros and all ones at the same time, but the numbers are nice and lined up horizontally, so I'm happy with it.)

I love it when happenstance works out better than any plan I could have formulated on my own.

williamggruff

'76 2002 "Verona" / '12 Fiat 500 Sport "Latte" / '21 Toyota 4Runner TRD Off Road Prem “The Truck”

 

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Wow what a great day.

I took a brief drive through the country-side - it was a beautiful day.

I had noticed the car was driving a little strange, and I checked the tires, and sure enough, a couple were low. Filled 'em up and everything was A-OK after that.

This year I restored the bumpers, got an antenna tip from someone here on faq, and put an exhaust pipe tip on my car, which never had one. I realized yesterday that this is probably the best my car has ever looked in the 23 years I've owned it.

Was a great day.

Scott

02ing since '87

'72 tii Euro  //  '21 330i x //  '14 BMW X5  //  '12 VW Jetta GLI

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A few observations:

Dudley is a good man

Curtis was a good man

You trained your car well

You are a good man

May I come rummage through your attic?

You're too kind. Not to Dudley or Curtis, but certainly to me. You may rummage through my attic anytime you wish. Please bring a carrot for the ponies that live up there. I haven't seen them myself, but given the humongous pile of horseshiat I've got up there, I'm sure there's at least three.

williamggruff

'76 2002 "Verona" / '12 Fiat 500 Sport "Latte" / '21 Toyota 4Runner TRD Off Road Prem “The Truck”

 

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Awesome, looks like your luck has turned around !

How comfortable are those seats riding around town?

I find the seats surprisingly comfortable. The passenger might not agree, but that's OK. The rules in the right hand seat are

(1) buckle up

(2) shut up

An exception to rule 2 may be made if the person in the right hand seat is holding course notes.

I haven't taken a lengthy trip in the car yet, so I'm not sure how they'll feel after a few hours on the road. I think I'd be OK with them in a daily driver, primarily because I like to drive as though every trip is a rallye stage, with points awarded for courteous driving, maintaining distance, proper signaling, engine management, and of course, giggles by the driver, smiles by the passenger. Looks of abject terror by the passenger are good for bonus points.

williamggruff

'76 2002 "Verona" / '12 Fiat 500 Sport "Latte" / '21 Toyota 4Runner TRD Off Road Prem “The Truck”

 

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Grice,

Shotty when I get back for Turkeybreak. I'm used to uncomfortable seats, so its alllllll goood. I'll see you and the rest of the ivy street gang soon.

-Dan

Daniel Shor

Bethesda, MD

'74 2002 "Charlotte"

Half as old as my first car and I wouldn't have it any other way.

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Grice,

Shotty when I get back for Turkeybreak. I'm used to uncomfortable seats, so its alllllll goood. I'll see you and the rest of the ivy street gang soon.

-Dan

Dan,

If you are our size and not Dudley or Clay size, then the seats are REALLY comfortable. True, there is not back adjustment, but there is cushion underneath your butt unlike your seats. Imagine your seats with like an 1.5" of memory foam all the way around... can you say plush racing seat?

I think that most of the uncomfortable ride with be driver-induced... ;D

J Swift
Global Formula Racing (Oregon State University)

1972 Opel GT "Mae"

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Grice, can you link up that FAQ on the speedo?

Jason,

Check it out here:

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/content/view/72/32/

It's a winner. Well written, easy to follow, works like a charm.

Note: go EASY on the indentation you make in the odometer shaft. It only take a LITTLE out of rounding to make the shaft too large to fit back through the hole in the outer casing of the odometer box. You want the oblong you create in the shaft to give some resistance going through the hole into the odometer box so that it will hold the odometer drive wheel in place. I went too large from the start and spent quite a while filing the shaft down to fit. But once I got the shaft to go through the hole entering the odometer box, it slid smoothly through the number wheels, then stopped when it encountered the odometer drive wheel. I used a large pair of channel locks to press the shaft into the odometer drive wheel, and it pressed through with an audible snap. The odometer worked like a champ on my drive today.

Cheers,

Grice

williamggruff

'76 2002 "Verona" / '12 Fiat 500 Sport "Latte" / '21 Toyota 4Runner TRD Off Road Prem “The Truck”

 

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Dave,

If you look at the back of the cluster, the speedo should be marked at 3 o'clock. The marking should be written vertically, with the top of the letters on the right.

Grice

williamggruff

'76 2002 "Verona" / '12 Fiat 500 Sport "Latte" / '21 Toyota 4Runner TRD Off Road Prem “The Truck”

 

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