02for2

Well, sorry for the long post, but you did ask, and there is really no simple answer. I'd be lying if I didn't say that the 'Luck of the Irish' played a large part in my good fortune, because it did. Several times in my life I have been in the right place at the right time. But, a lot of credit goes to my parents who moved the family to europe when I was 2. My late father headed the Int'l. div. of a fortune 500 co. (think sandpaper and Scotchguard to name a few). This was before Sputnik flew and at the time companies were having trouble enticing execs to move overseas. As a consequence the perks were tremendous. One of which was that my dad's co. would pay to send your kids to whatever school you wanted and could get into. That meant I attended some of the finest schools in the world - something my parents could have never afforded. We returned to the states when I was 16 and I finished school here and went to college. Between college and grad school I started working in a local hotel and found I enjoyed it and had a knack, so I never went to law school as planned and started as a low level dept. mgr. for Holiday Inns - no franchises - all corporate owned. My 1st salary was $8k/yr. - all the money in the world I thought. But much to the disappointment of my father, who saw me as the family's first lawyer. Early on I made a pledge to retire at 50 so I watched my money wisely and started getting it to work for me. As I rose through the ranks, I caught the eye of a guy who went on to become the Chaiman of Holiday Corp. and as he rose the ladder, he brought me along with him. At that time, Holiday Inn had very nice Cloisonné and 18k gold nametags which took about 3 mos. to order, produce and deliver, and at one point I was 3 steps ahead of my current nametag. I met Curt Carlson one day, the founder of Radisson Hotels, who offered me a spot in the 1st class of their Corporate Training Program - a sure path to senior management. I did very well with Radisson transferring to the Radisson Chgo. as the asst. mgr. A year later, the hotel was bought by Intercontinental Hotels and they retained me through the changeover. A month later, their installed, euro-trained, GM suffered a heart attack and was forced to leave the co. They put me in as interim GM and within 6 mos. offered me the position permanently. At that time, the GM of a major hotel (1000+ rooms) was required to live on the property and as part of the compensation pkg. has what was termed 'Full Maintenance'. This meant that ALL my expenses were picked up by the company - I had a 3 BR apartment, no rent, no phone or utility bills, free dry cleaning, maid service, free Room Service, a generous clothing allowance, full health and dental coverage, life ins., a free car whenever I wanted one - we had a rental car kiosk in the hotel and part of the deal (which I wrote) entitled me to a free car. My salary was in the $85k range (w/ a 50% bonus structure). I was single, 28 yrs. old, living on Mich. Ave. in downtown Chgo. and no monthly expenses, and this was during the Reagan yrs. I invested all that I could, made some, lost some (I bought Microsoft @ $0.27 - unfortunately I sold it at $0.95 - dumb move there but who knew?). I left Intercontinental 6 yrs. later as a result of turning down a promotion which involved a year's training in London - at Intercontinental you don't turn down promotions - you move Up or you move Out. London is VERY expensive and would have been no net gain for me. The GM in Las Vegas was their 2nd pick and after training, he was installed at the Intercontinental in Kuwait City where 5 yrs. later, he was shot dead in the Lobby by advancing Iraqi troops - I told you luck played a part! A small independent co. w/ 28 hotels of varying brands in 17 states recruited me to be their president. Part of the deal was that if the company was sold within the first 3 yrs. I was with them, I would receive 3% of the sale price as part of my parachute - I mean I was leaving the Big pond where I had established great contacts and a good reputation to move to a much smaller pond, and I needed a safety net. The two owners agreed because they never foresaw a dissolution of the company, especially in the coming 3 yrs.. Well, 2 yrs., 8 mos. after I came to work for them, one of the Partners wives sued him for divorce forcing a sale of the company... Cha Ching! Anyway, during that time, I interviewed and hired a lovely young lady to manage one of our Holiday Inn Express properties in Mpls. She was bright, energetic and well schooled. I hired her away from one of the largest Country Clubs in the area which she was managing. Anyway, I left the company in the sale and a yr. later I was in an airport bar in DFW when this woman came up to me. She was still managing the hotel and we sat and chatted. During the conversation, this woman said that she had enjoyed working for me, but that it had been difficult working for me too - something I rarely heard. She went on to say that she had always had strong feelings for me and we decided to continue the conversation over dinner at some point back in Mpls. I asked her out and we chatted til the restaurant owner finally asked us to leave. She moved in with me 3 weeks later, 2 yrs. later we were engaged, and we've been happily married for the past 10 yrs. In our first year of marriage, my wife was recruited by a large local catering co. who was interested in starting a Golf Div. to produce the catering for major golf tournaments. They hired my wife as an account exec to service the 2 major tournaments they had contracts to produce. Today, this company produces 47 major tournaments a year and my wife, now Senior Vice-President, personally runs all the FedEx Cup tournaments, The Players, the Tour Championship, the past 4 President's Cups in additon to snagging the Volvo Ocean Race in Boston and the US Open Tennis Tournament. The salary and perks are very good and as they say in the MasterCard commercials: "Wife who loves her job... PRICELESS!" The time apart isn't always the best, but the homecomings are good. And, with my schedule, I can often slip away and join her at the end of the tournament. We accumulate more airmiles than we can use, but it's been a great ride. That's how I did it. Hard work, planning, and Lady Luck. The best part of the journey has of course been my lovely wife Brenda, all the rest is good, but I'd give it all up in a heartbeat to find what I have with her. Cheers!

So share your newfound knowledge Obi Wan to those newbys who have yet to find the Force... Cheers!

OUSTANDING ADVICE! I run the technical section of a Porsche Boxster forum and ALWAYS tell people to open the fill plug first - no point in draining it, only to find out the fill plug siezed. That may not be the ultimate 'Oh Sh*t' scenario, but it comes close. Cheers!

Have you removed the Hazard Flasher or switch? The turn signals and Hazard flasher circuits are intertwined. My turn indicators didn't work either and I found the hazard switch was the culprit - swapped in a new one and the turn signals work great! Cheers!

I agree with you about Sahara. If I had the choice, it might not be my first pick of color, but as you read, I'd didn't have too much say in the matter. It has definitely grown on me these past 6 weeks to the point where now I like it alot. Actually, I will be using it as my daily driver through the winter months. But, if you read my other posts, you'll see that I do not commute daily and can pretty much set my schedule to avoid the worst days when the slush and salt are prevalent. I figured this car was made for Bavaria and their winters are extremely similar to ours. Also, one thing I spent alot of time on these past 6 weeks was preparing the car for winter. I went to all the critical areas underneath and keyed the paint, followed by a coat of POR15, followed by 2 coats of rubberized undercoating. This was followed up by having Ziebart apply their undercoating. I replaced the rotors and shoes and each of these was powdercoated (hats on rotors in/out and exterior of shoes.), also, all underbody members were painted and then given two thick coats of paste wax. Any exposed bolts/nuts were given a liberal coating of copper anti-sieze where exposed. I also have a good friend who owns a gas station just 4 blks. from my house. I am the principle wrench in teaching him and helping maintain his outstanding Jaguar XJ12 Cabriolet, and in gratitude, he has given me free and unlimited access to the car wash at the station - I can wash the car 3 times a day if I wish. Finally, my wife travels 50% of the year, throughout the year - home 2 weeks, gone 2 weeks. So 50% of the time, I will have her Jaguar S-Type available to me to use as well. I think the car will weather winters just fine. In spring, I'll closely inspect the car and reassess. Cheers!

Yea, you're right about Steve. I was just at his home on Thu. to pickup a new Tii manifold for the car. Cheers!

Sadly no I haven't. The timing of the events has not been right for me for the past several years. I have attended several though, especially fun was LOG 18 in Atlanta - Lotus 50th anniversary - 1998. I love the Elan - owned a '69 as well and a '73 Europa. In fact, just a couple weeks ago I helped the owner of an excellent '67 Elan swap motor mounts with the engine 'insitu' - that job will expand your vocabulary believe me. Here's a pic of my Esprit Cheers!

No offense taken and I fully appreciate your POV. I am not doing any mod which is not totally reversible. I will be keeping all original parts and cleaning them and protecting them by waxing them and shrink wrapping them, each cataloged and put away in boxes. And, while this car will be my daily driver, I am semi-retired and office from home, so no daily commute. I have averaged about 2k mi./yr. on my dd for the past 5 yrs., so I won't be spinning the odo like a clock either. I am also a fan and collector of italian motorcycles (MSF instructor) and primarily ride these in the temperate months. Those mods I do perform will be mainly upgrades to improve reliability, starting, stopping, ride, etc. I am not interested in a bunch of 'Go Fast' parts for this car. I have a 99 point '65 Healey 3000, and my '85 Lotus Turbo Esprit scored 99.9 points at the Natl. Lotus Convention (LOG) in 2002 and took 1st place in the Concours - in fact, this car has been shown 9 times, and each time it finished in 1st place (and I have tracked this car). I also own a '99 Porsche Boxster w/ 27k on the Odo which is also Bone Stock. In fact it's rare where I think an aftermarket part or mod betters the manufacturer's work or intention. That said, I'd love to acquire another '02 someday and mod the heck out of it for track/autoX work. But I truly believe one of the reasons the Dr. wanted me to have this car was that he felt I would keep the car as original as possible. I say as much as possible because, for instance, the horse hair pads in the front seats have suffered with age, to replace them would cost $800/seat and that's just not realistic. Sport Recaros are a BMW seat too, and I will be keeping the originals should I ever want to restore it to showroom condition. Cheers!

Newby here too, What year? Later cars have the fan switch as the top slider control on the right side. Early cars have a rotary switch on the center console. I'm in the process of changing the fan motor on my '76 right now. You have to remove the entire heaterbox assembly - not as tough as it sounds - disconnect both slider switches, drain cooling system, remove in/out hoses from the air plenum under the hood, remove glovebox, remove center console, remove all electrical connections, undo the 2 nuts holding the box to the firewall and extract from the inside. I pulled my box this afternoon and have it on the bench to disassemble and refurbish tmw. - took about 30 min. to remove. There's an excellent primer in the archives - http://www.bmw2002faq.com/content/view/73/32/ Cheers!

Since I'm a newby here, I've been encouraged to introduce myself and my car and tell you all a little about how I came to own it. I live in the Twin Cites and have been an enthusiast my whole adult life. In those 30+ yrs., I have owned Lotus, Porsches, E-Types, Big Healeys, Z-cars, MGB, Formula Vee and Formula Fords. I do all my own wrenching - the only way I could ever afford this passion. I am semi-retired, but my much younger wife heads up a large company travelling about 50% of the time allowing me lots of free time to fiddle in the garage. Anyway, a chance meeting about 11 yrs. ago, has yielded the newest addition to our family, a 1976 BMW 2002. 11 yrs. ago, I was visiting my sister in Columbus, OH, who is a physician. At the time, she was collaborating with an elderly surgeon visiting from LA on a paper they jointly published. We all went out to dinner and eventually the conversation drifted to my passion and love for cars. The doctor from LA said he understood, that he had an old Jaguar MkII Saloon which he cherished. I asked him if he had any other cars and he said not really, that most of his life he'd had very nice daily drivers such as Mercedes, Jags, Caddys, Lincolns,etc. but that the Jag was his only collector car. He did say that he had an old BMW which he'd bought as an anniversary present for his wife back in 1976 - a 2002. He said that his wife drove the car for about 3 yrs. until one day, she suddenly developed an aneurysm and unfortunately passed away on her way to the hospital in the ambulance. He said he was so dispondent that he just couldn't part with the car, so he put it in the corner of his garage, covered with a blanket. I said that I understood, but if he were ever to think of selling it to please call me before ever putting it up for sale, that I would show the car the reverence it deserved, that I'd always wanted a 2002. He took my card and said he would call me, but doubted he'd ever sell it, and besides, he figured it wasn't worth any more than $1800 anyway. The rest of the evening passed in general conversation, but when he left, we shook hands and he assured me that if ever he sold the car he would indeed call me. Fast-forward 11 yrs. - I had all but forgotten the dinner, but 3 months ago I got a call from the doctor's daughter in Colorado who called to tell me that her father had passed away in April and that his estate had just been probated. She told me that in his will, he had stipulated that she contact me and offer me the car for the agreed upon price of $1800. Imagine my thrill! She said they were getting ready to sell his house and wanted the car removed as soon as possible. I immediately said yes and in a leap of faith, sent her a cashiers check, sight unseen and arranged to have the car transported to my home. It arrived about a month later - 6 wks. ago to be exact. I pushed it, along with the transport driver, into my garage and was amazed. The car is absolutely clean, not a speck of rust anywhere! The color is Saharra w/ tan interior. It is an automatique w/ AC. A one-owner California car with 53,000 original miles - backed up by the registrations and service records. In one sense, this is a 3 yr. old 2002! I drained the oil, swapped the plugs and battery. Siphoned all the gas from the tank and added 3 gal. fresh. When I turned the key, the car started within 20 sec. and settled to a fairly smooth idle in under a minute. All the gauges and lights work, the interior, though dusty is immaculate. The body is in good shape with only a couple odd door dings and the glass and chrome is excellent. The paint is good but I'll do a thorough buffing and polishing. The car has all the service records, owners manual, even the window sales sticker! The spare has never seen the road, and the jack and tool roll don't seem to have ever been opened or used. Even the ashtray and cigarette lighter are unused. Now it is a 34 yr. old car which hasn't seen regular service for 31 yrs., so I been busy doing a very thorough sorting and updating before driving it on a regular basis. In fact, I have already ordered about $3500 in parts - all hoses, vac lines, belts, shocks, springs, all suspension bushings, brake pads/shoes, wheel bearings, waterpump, all new engine gaskets incl. headgasket, carb rebuild kit for the weber downdraft, Master Cylinder rebuild kit, fuses, all new bulbs, a new set of tires. I will swap the points for a Crane XR700 optical trigger system, I have ordered a complete stainless exhaust. I'm going with a suspension upgrade kit from Kormann Racing incl. Bilsteins, 1.5" lowering springs, larger front/rear sway bars, poly bushings. I am also doing a 5-speed conversion, also from Kormann which is bolt-in kit incl. a rebuilt 320i tranny (w/ 24mo./24k mi. warranty), clutch, flywheel, pedal box w/ master, shifter and linkage incl. boot, mounting brackets and custom made balanced drive shaft. For right now, I am keeping the rear drums but upgrading to Tii master and wheel cylinders, in the future, I may opt to add rear disc brakes, again 320i parts. I am on the hunt for a 320i Sport leather steering wheel as well as a set of 320i sport recaros, again in leather. The car has just been ziebarted to protect it from future rust. A BMW 2002 has long been on my short list of cars to own, and to have this surgeon whom I only met just the once remember me and want me to have the car is just incredible! I don't know if St. Peter is reading this, but if he is, all I can I say is: " let the guy in and treat him well!"

OK - Update! The replacement downpipe arrived today and it was longer than the one it replaced. Installed it and while everything didn't exactly slip in like BUDDA it was better, but still not great. Anyway, after 30 min. of fiddling, again with the aid of a friend, it all came together. All aligned, not touching anywhere. It has not yet been road tested as the car's still on jackstands due to heater box refurbishment and cooling system flush. My main concern is possible resonance at the tranny exhaust mount because even though the mount was set to it's most extreme adjustment, the downpipe didn't want to fit squarely into the 'U' groove in the mount until I loosened it again at the manifold, tightened it in the mount and then re-torqued the downpipe at the manifold. I am hopeful that it will not resonate and that it drew up to the manifold to form a proper seal. I guess only time will tell. This time, IE did in fact issue a return ticket for the returned part, which has already been dropped at the UPS store. BTW, if I had to guess, after talking with Jeff, I'd say the system was designed purely from working with the individual pieces rather than working with the actual car. Once the pieces were produced, then it was left to 'make it work', at least that's my suspicion. Hopefully, all has ended well. Cheers!

OK... let me 1st say that I realize that Jeff Ireland has achieved near Demi-God status in the '02 community - a status that is surely deserved - I mean who am I to disagree? That's actually one of the reasons I chose to do business with him to begin with. But, I too purchased the complete SS system from them (albeit just the resonator/muffler/tip initially, keeping the oem downpipe) and encountered the same difficulties you described. I went to their Photo Gallery and carefully studied the photos, and yes, I installed mine exactly as it was shown, yet it did not fit. I emailed Jeff and described my issues. Jeff responded saying that I had been shipped the early model system (pre-'74 - different mount points), despite my identifying my order as a post '74 (1976 model to be exact when ordering) and were it any consolation, the fellow who packed my order was no longer with IE. Well it wasn't - I would have been consoled if the guy had been let go the day before I placed my order, but whaddayagonnado? Anyway, the proper system was sent to me and after some fiddling, it went in. I packed the first unit for return and asked IE to email me a UPS return slip as I have a UPS store 3 blocks from my home. Jeff replied that they had issued a pick-up ticket, but a week later, still no Mr. Brown Pants. I contacted Jeff and he replied saying that they were busy at SEMA and a pick-up had been scheduled for the following week - I was forced to stay home to wait for the UPS guy so as not to miss the pickup. When he finally showed up, I was in the shower and so he left the tag and I ended up bringing it to the UPS store anyway. I still had an exhaust leak which I traced to a partial desmog done by the PO - the braided hose from the oem manifold which was initially routed to the intake manifold had simply been cut and left open. To solve this, I decided to bite the bullet and contact Steve 'Blunt' Petersen to purchase a new Tii manifold and be done with the Thermal Reactor manifold altogether. Steve is local and it was great picking the part up at his home and meeting him - great guy BTW. Well, I decided I had come this far, I might as well lose the oem downpipe, so I ordered the SS downpipe from IE. It arrived and I installed it. Turned out it was too short - by 3/4"- 1&1/8". So I called Jeff and at first, he denied what I was saying stating that the downpipe was produced in a jig and was the exact length of the oem downpipe (for an automatic)and therefore what I was claiming was impossible - if that were true, why didn't it install as it should? . I differed saying no, it was approx. 1" short. He then asked that I take a pic and send it, which I did. In the meantime, Jeff sent me a pic of the unit (not my unit) measured against a tape measure. So I sent my pics, removed the pipe from my car and photo'd it against my oem pipe also, clearly showing the discrepancy in length. Jeff's response was that the pic I sent was an 'illusion', but that they were sending me another pipe which is to arrive today. I stood the two pipes - IE and OEM side-by-side and there was definitely a discrepancy in length of some 1". We'll see later today if the new pipe they sent mates with the rest of the system. In short, I believe it's a great exhaust system. But, I also believe that it's engineered to fairly loose tolerances (despite Jeff's claims) and requires a certain amount of fiddling to get it properly installed. So, to assist you, it took me an hour, with the aid of a friend, to get it all aligned properly the first time. I'm hoping that the replacement SS downpipe will go in with little trouble, but I'm not 100% confident based on my previous experience. And I'd be lying if I were to say that Jeff was understanding in dealing with this issue, issues where IE was clearly at fault - I am left somewhat disappointed. I've dealt with Bavauto, Pelican, Rogers Tii, Kormann, and each was apologetic and tripping over themselves with customer focus when an issue arose... Jeff?... Not so much. Cheers!

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I am a newby here acquiring my 1976 '02, and my 1st BMW, quite by accident just 6 weeks ago (an interesting story, but that's for another post). I am not new to wrenching though having owned collector/fun cars for 30 yrs. spanning Lotus, Porsche, Z-cars, MGBs, E-Types, Big Healeys, Formula Vee, Formula Ford, etc. Because I am not the claimed bastard son of an Arab oil sheik, I've had to do my own wrenching in order to afford my passion for great motorcars. I haven't paid for service or repair on my cars (save for machine shop services) since the '70's, so I'd like to think I've developed some competency over the years, from maintenance to full engine rebuilds, etc. If you read my contribution to the thread: http://www.bmw2002faq.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=50&page=viewtopic&p=667556#667556 you'll see that I have been pretty much totally immersed in the '02 recently. Being that this is an entirely new animal to me, the learning curve was fairly steep in the beginning, but the great people and contributions to this forum have aided me in flattening the curve considerably - a BIG thank you to you all! To the OP - while you've done quite a bit of work, it sounds as if it is a fuel problem and the first place to start is by rebuilding the Weber 32/36. You can get a rebuild kit for $25 and if patient, it ain't rocket science. Use a digi camera to document the disassembly and soak all the parts in carb cleaner for 48 hrs. to remove the built-up varnish (byproduct of gasoline). Then rebuild using the fresh gaskets, 'o' rings, accel pump diaphram, float and needle valve from the rebuild kit. Kinda like assembling a model airplane. Suggest using a disposable aluminum Turkey Roasting pan from the supermarket as it makes working with all the small parts easier - keeps them from getting lost. The Weber is an excellent candidate for rebuilding as a newby because it's simple (try a Dellorto DHLA 45M if you want hard) and there's lots of internet How To's available to aid you (probably even in the archives here). I bet that will cure all your ills. Cheers!

My saga is ongoing but coming to an end. So far in the past few weeks have rebushed the entire car w/ prothanes, added H&R springs, Bilstein HDs, Susp. Tech. sway bars, front strut bearings, all around, added Crane XR700, Bosch Blue, Bavauto 8mm wires, new plugs, new voltage regulator, all new vac lines, adjusted valve lash, weber 32/36, modified oem air cleaner, new fuel filters, new waterpump, new 'v' belt, all new coolant hoses, radiator cap, new 't'stat, new battery w/ +/- cables, all new relays incl. flasher, all new fuses, all new bulbs, new turn indicator switch, removed Clardy AC system, swapped clock for used Tach, replaced kidney grill, replaced hood mouldings, POR 15'd the inner fenders followed by rubberized undercoating, POR 15'd the headlight buckets, new H4 headlamps, SS brake flex lines, new front rotors, new Tii rear wheel cylinders, new pads/shoes all around, replaced all wheel bearings and oil seals, new halfshaft CV joint boots, new washer pump, new washer btl. w/ cap, new wiper blades, new trunk and hood rubber seals, new rubber door seals, new Tii exhaust manifold - Thanks Steve Blunt!, complete IE stainless exhaust (downpipe to tip), new flasher switch and relay, new fuel tank sending unit 'o' ring, reclaimed bumpers, 4 new Pirelli P5 Cintaurado tires, drained and renewed ATF along w/ filter and gasket, crush washers on drain plug and ATF cooler banjo bolts, disassembled seats and freed all adjustment mechanisms which were siezed, replaced tail lamp rubber gaskets and seals, repainted tail light reflectors, hadd the car Ziebart rustproofed. The only thing left to do is pull the heater box and replace fan, seals, weatherstripping, grommets, refill/bleed the cooling system. That will be a good day! Cheers!

I have a working clock from my '76 I just removed to swap in a tach for my upcoming 5-spd. conversion. Shoot me an email. cheers!

The fuel pump shouldn't be the source of starting problems. The fuel bowl should have sufficient fuel ti start the car and run it for a minute or two, espec. after just 5 or 6 days. I think more suspect would be the float height. If improperly set, it could close the needle valve before the bowl contained the proper fuel quantity. Another issue may be the the accel pump diaphram on the carb. You may still have a fuel pump issue, but I doubt that it's the source of the hard starting since the mech. pump isn't really pumping to spec when just rotating on the starter rpms. On mine, I do need to pump the pedal once or twice before starting, but that's the nature of carburetted cars. IIRC, the car doesn't use a fuel pressure regulator with the mechanical pump, at least mine doesn't - Weber 32/36 w/ in-line secondary filter under the hood and primary filter in the trunk just off the tank supply line. If you have one, that may be a contributor but not the primary source of your problem. cheers!

I'm looking at the Crane install sheets now and it says resistance required is 1.2Ω - 1.9Ω so you s/b OK. The test is to install it and run it 15 min. or so and feel the control box - if it's warm/hot, you need more resistance. IIRC, I initially tried to source the Crane from Summit and while it's still in their online catalog, a day after I ordered it, they emailed me saying it was no longer in stock and backorders were unknown. Go ahead and try them, but I know Pelican has them in stock - they're getting very difficult to track down. Cheers!

Realize that the Crane XR700 requires Ballast resistance and the Red Coil does not have internal resistance, so you'll need a ballast resistor - either in-line or ceramic for it to work properly. I went with the Blue coil (because of it's internal resistance) and it works great. I know there has been some discussion and the Red coil may be higher energy, but that's really moot on a street/stock engine. You can still find the Crane units retail rather than try to pick-up a used one on ebay - that's what I'd do. Pelican Parts still has them listed in their 914 parts section - model # 700-0226 - uses the same Bosch distributor as the '02. That's where I got mine 3 weeks ago. Find it here: Pelican Parts Cheers!

Just a friendly heads-up - Here is a great tool every shade tree with an '02 should have - the Actron CP7677 Automotive TroubleShooter - Digital Multimeter and Engine Analyzer. In addition to being a conventional DMM w/ Volt, Amp, Ohm and Continuity functions, it also incorporates a digital tachometer, especially useful when tuning carbs or other work under the hood. Use it to test fuses, circuits, battery voltage, alternator load, voltage regulator, tune carbs, set Dwell, etc. The unit has a 2" LCD display, a separate ON/OFF button, Hold button, two 18" leads w/ aligator clips, a rubber shock holster and a flip-out stand. In addition, it can also be used on modern cars to test TPS, O² sensors, MAF sensors and more. It comes with an instruction manual and even shows where the test leads s/b plugged on the LCD display. Amazon sells it for $36.33 w/ free shipping. It can be sourced elsewhere for around $30, but you'll pay shipping exceeding the Amazon deal. After some 30 yrs. wrenching on cars, this has got to be the best $36 I ever spent on a tool. Just thought I'd share.

Crane over Pertronix! The Crane uses an optical pick-up to trigger the coil whereas the Pertronix uses a magnet and Hall Effect. The issue with Hall Effect triggers is that they are very sensitive to changes in the air gap between the magnet and the sensor. If you have worn dizzy shaft bearings or bushes, the shaft can wobble slightly off-center and this translates into a varying air gap at the sensor which can cause false signalling similar to points bounce. An optical trigger is immune to such variances. I've done Pertronix swaps in other cars and it was better than points/condenser. But I just installed an XR-700 into my '76 '02 and it transformed the car. Near instant startup, unwavering idle, better acceleration and increase in MPG. Crane may have been sold and it's unclear if these units will be supported in the future, but they're sturdy units and should give 5-10 yrs. service as a given, so don't hesitate to buy one of the remaining NOS units if you can find them. If it craps out in the future, you'll always have an alternative available. The Crane comes with several different shutter wheels for different dizzys, best to use the model 700-0226 and shutter wheel #220.