Mike Self

Welcome to the 02 fraternity/sorority...lots of excellent advice, friendly folks and most importantly, corporate knowledge. So don't be shy about asking questions. We were all new owners once upon a time--even going back to when friends thought you had bought one of those British Motor Works cars--when you could have bought a Buick for the same money... As I'm sure you know from lurking, automatics are ideal candidates for 5 speed conversions due to their wider transmission tunnels. I'd be really leery of that chin spoiler on parking blocks and steep driveways, It appears to have very little ground clearance and is gonna get scraped or damaged easily. I've learned that the hard way with a lowered E30 318is--I've knocked my spoiler off 4 times (fortunately it's a breakaway design) in places I didn't think it would hit. And...since your car has a nice bumper conversion from the original US-mandated (unfortunate) 5 mph bumpers, there are lots of archive posts on how to get 'em level. Cheers, and again, welcome mike

Interestingly in the past couple of weeks I've seen on the road--admittedly around town, not I-75--but both instances not when there was a car show or cruise in--a 1915 or 1916 Model T Ford (brass radiator/electric lights were only used together those two years) and a week or so later, a circa 1929 Pierce-Arrow touring car. Made Wolfgang feel positively youthful! I think the old car hobby is too well entrenched, too popular and economically too wide-spread to ever have our cars permanently legislated off the road--but we all have to remain vigilant to insure it doesn't happen due to our own inattention. Witness California's inane laws requiring emission inspection for 48 year old cars! mike PS Those Tesla trucks look like escapees from a 1950s science fiction movie...

Main drawback with using jute under the carpet: if you either have a heater or windshield leak, or your A/C condensate drain hose gets plugged and the pan overflows, or you track a lot of water in on your feet when it's raining, jute will hold water like a sponge--for days or weeks. Water = rust even with paint on the floorboards. Suggest using 7/16" "rebond" carpet padding--the kind that's "pet-proof" since that stuff has a waterproof barrier that's equally good for pet pee and water. You can usually scrounge free pieces from a local carpet store--either by asking or a little dumpster diving. Just get new stuff 😉. mike

Pictures of the cam's front (sprocket) end would help with its ID. And a picture or two of the head itself would help--valve chest side as well as combustion chamber side. mike

Is your current one completely broken or is there a problem with it either not canceling after turn completion, or not staying in the on position when you select a left or right turn. If so, it may be repairable. i did a column on repairing those things; PM me if you'd like a copy. mike

Pulled up the coco mat in my '69 to vacuum the carpet underneath and discovered the original heel pad on my original carpet had hardened and shattered into little pieces. Interestingly, the shattered portion is directly under the brake pedal--all that heel-and-toeing has taken its toll. And amazingly the carpet (55 years old) has outlasted the heel pad! Anyone out there have a ragged old carpet with a good (that is it's still flexible) heel pad that they're willing to cut out and send me? I think they're all the same color (medium grey). I have a basement full of 2002 bits 'n pieces, so if there's something you seek, I may be able to help. Trying to keep Wolfgang as original as possible 😁. PM me if you can help. Cheers and TIA mike

Is your Camry a 4 or a V6? We have an 07 V6 RAV4 with 144k miles and it burns no oil between changes (done with conventional oil at about 5k miles). I have heard that Toyota engines don't tolerate dirty oil very well and will clog up if the oil isn't changed frequently, but that may go back to the 90s or early 00s. mike

Posting the VIN will be helpful in case someone is either (1) looking for their long-lost engine or (2) they want a VIN that goes with their car. Any idea as to the CR, piston type (a photo would help to help determine what head will fit), and of course, does it turn over? mike

Scrounging parts in a CA salvage yard, I was warned about black widow spiders that liked to nest in trunks. Sure enough, I spotted a couple. But when I was dismantling my '48 Fiat Topolino, I found a 1905 Belgian 10 centime coin under the floor mats. I know the car was imported by an AF guy in the early 50s, so I suspect he either bought it in Belgium or the Netherlands (it had Englebert tires and Phillips light bulbs) or at least visited there. Best thing I ever found in a car (my 73) was a 14k gold charm--twenty years after buying the car I accidentally ran into the original owner--the charm was his wife's, a gift for being a bridesmaid. Much to his surprise, I still had it and returned it to him (who throws away 14k gold?) mike

Presume the new tank is the same depth as your old one. There were two short neck tanks used--the factory slightly enlarged it for the later (I think all squarelight) cars. Post a picture of the old tank mounting hole so we can compare 'em. From your picture the sender barrel is a very close fit to the opening, so the tabs couldn't be any longer or the sender wouldn't fit through the hole. I wonder if the paint is a bit thick... Are you using a new o-ring for the sender, or reusing the old one. And if new, is it factory, or did you get it from the local hardware store. Should be OEM, as the rubber is designed to swell slightly when exposed to gas, so it seals tightly. And it helps to use a little silicone grease on the o-ring so it doesn't bunch up when turning the sender to lock it in place. And with a new o ring and that thick(er) paint, it's gonna take a bit of grunt to turn the sender so it locks in with the tabs. mike

Roundies don't have that resistor wire--they have (originally) a ceramic resistor that mounts atop the inner fender, just above the coil which serves the same purpose. If a PO replaced the original black coil with a Bosch blue coil, the blue coil has an internal resistor so the external one is not needed, and thus often removed. mike

What are really cool (and sooooo French) are the old (60s vintage) tungsten (not halogen) Cibies with a concave lens. There's a valid reason for concave lenses, borne out by my experience ( once had 'em on my 2002, still have 'em on my Renault 4CV): airflow over the concave lenses keep bugs from smashing into 'em. I've driven through bug-infested areas (think Florida love bugs) and the car's front end would be covered with squashed bugs--except for the headlight lenses. Wish they were still around... mike

I know some dipsticks (certainly not 02 owners!) but have never cut one off, either human or steel...

Scarfed up a pair for me and one for a friend at my local Toyota dealer. Think I'll install 'em on my '73 to save my Cibie lamps from damage as they're getting hard to find and increasingly expensive... mike

Coupla more ponderables: A 185/70 x 13 tire is almost identical in revolutions/mile as the OEM 165/80 x 13, which means your speedometer and odometer will be (more) accurate than on a 175 tire, which has more revs/mile. If you have a roundie with its original 4.5" x 13" wheels, you might want to consider going to a 5 inch wide rim; per my old Michelin fitment books, a 4.5" wide rim is a bit marginal for a 185 tire, as the tread won't sit completely flat on the ground due to the sidewall bulging from the narrow(er) rim. It'll work, but isn't optimal. If you have a squarelight with the slotted wheels, you're all good as those are 5" rims. mike

Not having any electronic memory, your Blaupunkt needs only one hot lead (the aforementioned yellow wire) that should be wired to a switched terminal, so the radio will turn off when the ignition is off. Radios with memory chips need a second hot lead that's hot all the time to retain station memory, clock time etc. It doesn't look as if your Frankfurt is dual voltage and/or dual polarity (like the Essen pictured above) but check anyway just to make sure it's set for 12v negative ground. And install an in-line fuse on that yellow wire. Those 3 band Frankfurts are pretty cool, as they'll pick up shortwave bands so you can listen to Radio Havana, the BBC etc. mike

Make sure you cut off the holder and not the dipstick 😉...

I always thought it was interesting that the factory chose to use Euro rear bumpers--incorporating license plate lights--on cars bound for Australia, where license plates are the same size (more or less) as US plates that have a completely different lighting setup.. Your car doesn't look a day over 2 😁. mike

Yep. look closely, though, there should be a brown ground wire plugging into a fourth terminal that's male on the wire and female on the terminal end. In your picture, none of the wires going into the heater looks brown Your '74 should have the 4 lever heater control, so that fourth lever is the blower switch. Hopefully someone (John76???) will post the wiring diagram for 73-76 heater blowers, switch to heater housing... mike

Are those Campy wheels on the Nevada '02?

The chances of your using the smog pump again are slim to none..not even California requires one for 1975 and older cars. Anyway--from experience--if you examine that bracket closely you'll probably see that one or both of the pump mounting holes are all worn due to the rubber mounts failing--and your not noticing 'em. That's what happened to my '69; I removed the air pump around 1972 because it made the engine stall when cold. Then I got tired of that bracket in my way when I changed oil filters, so I got out my trusty hacksaw and sawed it off. A bit of filing on the cut edge, and presto--a Euro dipstick holder. mike

What weight oil are you running? Do you have an oil pressure gauge? If you're running the usual 20w-50, it's closer to 50 weight when cold, and could mask a loose bearing. As the oil warms and the viscosity thins, that loose bearing is no longer cushioned by the thinning oil. Or... You may have a worn oil pump that's OK when pumping thicker oil, but as the oil warms, the pressure gets lower at a given rpm. A gauge would tell you that. mike

Those horn contact plungers are usually a push in-push out fit, so swapping from one wheel to another should be easy. If the Petri wheel's mounting hole is too small (and I'm betting it isn't, since that wheel was an option/accessory on non-US cars) you'll know it before you break it. It should just push in without tools. mike

There are four different fan switches used on US spec 2002s: early cars had a two speed push-pull instrument binnacle switch located in the lower left corner of the binnacle--off, low, high at VIN approx 1664761 the heater gained a third speed, so the switch got a third position--still located in the same location. Sometime around the time the modell 71 cars came out (257XXXX VINs) and rear window defrosters became common, the heater switch (same lower left location) must be rotated to select heater blower speeds, and pulled out to engage the rear window defroster. With the beginning of 1973 production (VIN 2585138) and continuing on through all squarelights, the heater blower switch became the 4th lever on the heater control--making two levers on the right panel. What year is your 1602, and is it a US spec car? If it's a Euro car, and has only 3 heater levers (two left, one right) it may still have a two speed heater. You can determine that by looking at the connectors where the car's wiring harness meets the heater box, and checking how many wires are present at the blower switch's location in the instrument binnacle. If you have a four lever heater car (and you know the fuse is good as is the heater blower motor) chances are the brass contacts in the switch--exposed to the elements and dust under the dash--are corroded and not making good contact. You can clean 'em up by running a small piece of fine sandpaper between each pair of contacts. Otherwise, you'll have to replace the switch--not difficult, just requires a bit of contortions to get it out of its home under the dash and behind the (removable) trim panel. mike

Have you tried removing the horn contact plunger from the Momo wheel hub and installing it in the Petri wheel? If it fits, you're in business--and you can order another contact to make your Momo wheel whole again. mike