More Car Stuff

Mostly because of my newly acquired inheritance, I've been getting in a good amount of car work in these days. As always, there's more to do!!!

Not chronological, but to start with, I bought a new deep cycle battery to use in the Hawk, and put the one I'd borrowed from the Falcon back in. I'll also mention since I don't have a picture to go with it, one of Kutcher's tires had a nail in it that I removed and plugged the hole. I'd bought a tire plug kit from my previous job, and this is the first time I used it. I've seen them installed before, but have never done it myself. Either I should have gone at the tire more and oversized the hole more, or it's harder to get in than I thought, I had to fight it to get it in!!! It's holding fine, though. The tires are all getting worn, and I'm thinking I'll do something I've been meaning to do, take it for an alignment, and buy a new set of tires. The oil change light just came on, and it will be the first one I've done without being able to buy employee price oil. One of the driving lights burned out, but I bought a pair of yellow ones to replace the factory white ones with not long after we bought it, and this may be the perfect time to install them!!! Oh, and I bought myself a pair of ramps to make some of these maintenance tasks a bit easier.

I'm also planning on doing a repair on the bottom of Zonker's front bumper like I did on Scruffy, it has a little portion in the middle that's hanging down now. That was a big part of the reason I bought the ramps!!!

On to the things I've done to the Hawk, I got all the window tint removed from the front windows. It wasn't as difficult as I'd thought it was going to be.

Also got a reflection of Zonker and of an unmentioned cat with coffee T-shirt my wife got me in the window picture!!!

One of the first things I did to try to get it to run cooler was to flush to cooling system and install a high flow thermostat. After I drained it, I removed the thermostat and added the flush, ran it for a while, and drained it again. As I did this, I got a better look at the sketchy looking routing of the upper radiator hose. The water pump and air conditioning compressor run off one belt, and the alternator drives from the A/C, and the hose was running between the two.

While I had the hose off, I got a look at the groove it had cut in the hose, and did not like the look of it at all!!! On my first run to the local auto parts store, they were good enough to let me go behind the counter and see if I could find a molded hose that might work better. A portion of part number D72224 turned out to work quite nicely!!!

My other thought was that the upper radiator hose appeared to be higher than the radiator filler, which could possibly cause a bubble in the system. I found a filler neck tee that I planned to put in place of the splice junction. I made the first purchase from my former work for a U-bolt to use as a solid mount for it, and added a bracket to hold it between the belt. I also tensioned the belt a little more.

After I'd done all the cooling system work, I was thinking I should have got some T-bolt hose clamps from my previous work while I was there (I'm not paying their shipping costs!!!) While I was looking around for something else, I located a couple I'd previously bought!!! Makes for a cleaner looking installation!!! I'd run it a couple of times in the driveway for around half an hour at a time, and the temperature didn't get all the way up, but the first time I noticed the electric fan wasn't coming on all the time. I cleaned the terminals and it seems to be working fine ever since.

I had ordered pizza a couple of nights later, and the younger and I took the Hawk to pick it up, as well as try it out and see how it did. It made it without and cooling issues, but it would surge while driving. Steady throttle, and it sounded like I was on and off the pedal. On the way back, I thought I'd take the less steep but longer back way up the hill. Around half way, it starts acting like it wants to cut out. I throw it in neutral and rev a few times (still acting like it's running rough and not really wanting to run) then try going again. It stalls out. I re start it, and it wants to die again, then does. I re start it again, and there's a road going off the side that I'm pretty sure goes down to the next street over. I head down it, and it's doing a little better not climbing, but the road is super sketchy, it goes down to one lane, and rutted dirt!!! I had the idea of taking it down to our street and parking it there, but it made it halfway down the street between, and stalls. I roll it to the side, and try re starting it again. It starts, but it's running really rough. It had gotten warm, but not like when I'd brought it home. I was thinking the heat was causing an issue, so I'd let it sit and cool for a while and try again. Oh yea, where it was, they now have no overnight 2 AM to 6 AM parking now.

We walked up, ate our pizza, and I walked back down a couple hours later. It re started, but was still running rough. I drove it over to the bottom of my street, and it stalled as I was rounding the corner. I was able to re start it, and drove it to the same back way street I'd last attempted, and it stalled out going around that corner, too!!! I called it for the night, rolled it back to the side of the street (no overnight restrictions there!!!) and once again walked up the hill.

The next day I headed down to see if I could figure it out. I was suspecting a fuel delivery issue. I recalled from when my dad had it, it came with a cork float for the fuel level sender, and after 40+ years it just kind of came apart!!! Probably, ideally, I should probably drop the tank and get it cleaned. He had installed an inline canister style fuel filter before the fuel pump, a clear filter with replaceable elements just before the carburetor, and the carb has a built in filter. I took out the clear one to get a look at it, and it was caked solid, and the gas in it looked like dirty brown water!!! Thinking I might be onto something, I headed over to the auto parts store again, and got a replacement for the carburetor filter and the inline filter. I just removed the clear one, planning to get a replacement element at a later time, and put the new carburetor filter in. It seemed to run much better with just that!!! That night, I drove it straight up the front way, and it pulled all the way!!!

You may have heard the old cliché, the old cars, if they break down you can fix it on the side of the road with a screwdriver, crescent wrench, and a pair of pliers. That was exactly what I did!!! Oh, and one of my neighbors driving by told me it's a beautiful car!!!

I cut open the old carburetor filter, and it looked pretty gunked up.

I had ordered replacement elements for the clear filter, but then noticed that the glass was cracked, too, so I ordered a new one of those.

The next day, I pulled it up on the ramps and replaced the canister filter. I noticed it is concerningly close to the exhaust, and decided that I would fashion a heat shield before I wrapped up the work in that area. I used a Monster Energy Drink can, it has to be better than the nothing that was there before!!!

I've also vacuumed it out, and used some carpet powder on the interior carpet, and re vacuumed it. My surrogate son gave me a black ice air freshener. Neither of these has completely gotten rid of the rodent smell, and I laid down another layer of carpet powder and will vacuum it again tomorrow. Should see about getting the five years of dust washed off the car cover, and clean out the trunk. Should also see if the spare holds air, and pick up a replacement tire if it doesn't.

I've figured out some of the operation for the radio, it was a nice HD radio Pioneer unit back in the day, but the antenna doesn't seem to be working. I'm thinking of swapping in the one that was in the Homecoming Saturn, it's got nearly the same function as the ones in Scruffy and Kutcher, and having Bluetooth is always better than off a thumb drive.

One other concerning thing, the voltage gauge... always seems to show on the low side!!! If you rev it up, it'll come up, but cruising or at idle it's well under 12 volts. I'd mentioned the underdrive crank pulley, and had had the thought that the slow spinning was possibly the issue with the cooling. Having read up on the water pump, it seems like they are more than is necessary to keep things cool, even at lower speed, but the alternator could possibly not be spinning fast enough at lower speeds. I had thought of buying a couple of V-belt pulleys and different size cogged drive pulleys and a belt, and making a belt overdrive. Since the aren't that expensive or hard to install, though, I'm thinking of getting a one wire conversion to try out before I go that route. Years ago I installed a GM alternator on the Falcon with a one wire conversion, and it is awesome!!! If you just start it and it's only idling, the headlights and dash lights would be dim, as though it's not getting a charge, but rev it just a bit, and you can see it turn on, and it stays charging strong. No gauge on the Falcon, but from the lights, you can see it working!!!

Oh, and speaking of Scruffy, it developed a freakin' rod knock!!! Right around the time I was having to retrieve the Hawk, and I got the old transmission and engine that had been down at my mom's house. Drove it straight to a shop, and had them do a full rebuild, and swap it in since I no longer have access to a nice big flat driveway to do these things. Set me back probably more than it's worth, but you know. I form an emotional bond with my machines.

Sorry Substitute

The vet's office sent a sympathy card last week. I cried like a baby.

A lot of things will remind me of that boy. Pictures. His things. Sometimes I'll hear a song that will make me think of him.

I had a dream around a week after we'd said good bye. We were vacationing with the extended family up in the mountains, but I wasn't feeling it, and was off by myself. My dad (still around in the dream world, apparently) came out to find me, and was telling me that mom would really appreciate it if I'd spend some time with the family. I was telling him that I wasn't feeling like it, then I told him, “My f'ing cat died!!!”

I've seen a couple of the neighborhood cats since, but they're not sociable. I have been wanting to be around a friendly cat that I could pet and feel the purrs.

A couple years back, my son had seen a stuffed Halloween cat in a claw machine. He like it enough that he took a picture of it, but didn't try and get it. He said, “I should have tried to get it, it was right on the edge, it would have been easy!!!”

A couple of weeks after we said good bye, he located the same stuffed animal that someone was selling on Ebay.

He bought it, and he's pleased with his purchase!!!

Onto an interesting confluence of events: Last week, my wife's car (Kutcher!) was stalling. I've suspected the fuel pump isn't up to the task, it acts like it's fuel starving sometimes under hard acceleration. I ordered a new one from Rock Auto, and in the meantime, we've been rolling in Scruffy.

Of course, it sits a little lower with the whole crew in it. One thing I should have mentioned in the Car Stuff post, I had fabricated a hanger loop – skid plate rig around the end of the tailpipe. It wasn't fully fleshed out, but I had a couple angles screwed to the floor pan, and a flat with the ends bent up. It would scrape occasionally, but if it wasn't that, it would have been the tailpipe!!! Anyway, on Saturday we were out, and came out of a driveway with a scrape... that just kept on going!!! I pulled over, and the front end had come undone, and the plate was vertical to the ground, wedged into the ground, and the tailpipe just hanging (the inside hanger had come off it's hook, too. That always seems to happen when the outside comes loose). Called a tow truck, and located a muffler shop that could take care of us.

They put a mount almost exactly like the one that the very first side exit exhaust I'd had made up had on the outside, and tacked on a couple washers on the inside hooks to keep the hanger in place. It's solid!!! Bonus, they did it for a reasonable price, I think I've finally found a new exhaust shop!!!

While it was up on the lift, I finally got a good shot of a little repair I'd done to the bottom of the front bumper. It was coming to a point in the middle, where it would drag backing out of the driveway, so I drilled a series of holes and tapped a piece of angle aluminum to flatten the whole area. I'd taken a picture of it when I'd done it, but accidentally deleted it.

But this was the highlight of our trip to the muffler shop!!! The dad told my wife that this cat had recently been dropped off by the shop. There's several feral cats around the area, but this one is domesticated. My wife was sitting out back petting him (or maybe her, I didn't even try and find out), and after the car was done, I pulled around and gave him some pets, too. Got my pets and purrs that I've been craving. I'd walked over towards the back of the parked cars there, and he came right over to me!!!

He had the softest, silky fur, and those orange eyes!!! My wife was wondering what you'd name a cat like that, and every time I see a black & white cat like this, I always think “Domino”. My son makes mention of a character from Fallout: New Vegas, Dean Domino, the King of Swing!!! Of course, if you have a pet, you need a one syllable name, so Dean works, or you could call him “D. D.” for brevity's sake. He seemed to have some kind of bump – protrusion on one of his flanks, and when I touched it, he meowed, so he might have some kind of injury.

Later on in the day, when we got home my wife was tidying up and found her cat ears!!!

Car Stuff '22 Recap

It's been far too long. I've put together this post with a recap of the car stuff that's happened over the last year or so.

Back in December of 2021 the starter had gone out on the Matrix. It had rained, and it went out right after that! Just a little after that, one of the coils went out, also after it had rained. Or maybe it was the other way around, it's been a while. Anyway, it doesn't seem to do well in the rain.

The air conditioning went out on Scruffy back in May or June. I was sitting at a red light with the windows down, when there was a very strong acrid smell. I had no idea what it was, until I tried the AC a bit later, and it didn't work at all. Apparently the line to the condenser blew. Of course, I don't have the equipment to do A/C work, so I had a shop doing it. While everything was being worked on anyway, I bought a new condenser and a seal kit.

In May I took Scruffy back to the shop that I had the tint done at all those years ago to get the two back side windows and the hatch glass tint redone. I had found the receipt when I'd moved my office into the corner a couple years back. The side window tint has been getting wrinkled at the top edge, and the back window had developed a bunch of bubbles. It has been bugging me for a while, and I finally got around to getting it done. They were at a new location. This was while I had been going into work, so it was a bit of a hassle, but got it handled.

Near the beginning of summer, the battery in the Matrix began acting up. This was one of the things I'd had an eye on since we'd bought it. The battery it came with was crusty looking, and one of the battery terminals was breaking apart back when I'd done the starter replacement. I held the terminal on with a C clamp. Had a couple of times where it was low to where it needed a jump start, but it worked OK after that. Also had a few times driving with the A/C running where the radio started acting up. Anyway, bought a new battery, and things went OK for a while, then the battery died again. Got it tested at AutoZone, and they said it was too low to judge the condition, so I charged it up and went back. Everything was working fine, but the guy said we had a bad battery and replaced it. I was suspecting alternator issues, and was wanting to get it checked, too, but they said both times that the battery was too low. Oh yeah, I also replaced the battery terminals while I had the battery out.

The registrations were due to be renewed for both cars in September, and they both needed their smog checks. As is always my custom, I did an oil change for both cars before taking them in to be tested, as well as a new air filter for the Matrix and a cleaning and re-oiling for the K&N filter in Scruffy. Things got interesting on the Matrix, when I went to check the oil level, the dipstick tube was broken!!!

The tube seemed to set back into place, so I tried cleaning both sides off and using some epoxy to stick it back together, but that didn't work. Needless to say, the lower portion that was still attached to the engine wasn't very easy to clean off. RockAuto sells a replacement dipstick tube for a quite reasonable price, so I ordered that. It was still giving charging issues occasionally throughout this time, so I went ahead and bought a replacement alternator, figuring that was the issue. The recommendation for replacing the dipstick tube was to remove the intake manifold. Since I had the alternator off, I went in from the side instead, which to me was a much easier way to go... except for it requires taking the serpentine belt off. Of course, I was putting a new belt on while I had all that apart, and that was honestly the most difficult part of the job!!!

The Matrix passed smog without any issue. I took Scruffy over the next week, and the computer wasn't completely ready. The check engine light that I usually get is for a small evaporative system leak, and I'd reset it not long before I'd taken it in. The tech told me to look up the driving procedure to get all the monitors set.

I looked up the driving procedure to get the monitors ready. Had things like start the car and let it run two minutes, drive for around 5 minutes with no more than half throttle, from a stop accelerate to 50 MPH with ¾ throttle, drive for 10 minutes at 50 MPH, then let off the accelerator and coast to 20 MPH without hitting the brakes or shifting, and things like that. I went out around 2 AM to do the sequence so there wouldn't be much traffic to impede. Did the sequence as best I could (it hardly coasts down to the 20 MPH, it'll stay around 35), turned around and did everything but the warm up on the way back, and checked the computer. It didn't have the monitors ready, so I did it again, out and back. Still wasn't showing ready, so I gave up for the night. Did some normal driving over the next weekend, and after that the monitors were ready. Took it back to the smog place, and finally passed with no issues.

I had the thought that Scruffy may be having coolant temperature issues, which was causing it to idle higher that it should. The engine coolant temperature sensor on S series Saturns can be a sore point, causing all kinds of driveability issues. While I was checking into this as a possibility, I came across several owners who had replaced the factory thermostat with a higher temperature unit, with good effect to their MPG. I went ahead and purchased a higher temperature thermostat and a new engine coolant temperature sensor from RockAuto. I had previously replaced the temperature sensor, but they're cheap. I had bought a new connector for the sensor on 3, which had deteriorated, but never had a chance to install it. I flushed the cooling system and installed everything, and filled the system. The next day, I topped off the coolant. From then on, every time I drove it, it would lose enough coolant that the low coolant light would start flashing. I've seen this before... could the higher temperatures have over stressed somewhere else? It looked like it might be leaking from the water pump and slinging it around the belt, so I took the one I had left from the swap back to the store and exchanged it, with the thought that I'd go ahead and replace it. When I jacked her up to drain the system go to work on it, I crawled under and found the hose to the thermostat was a little wet. I found a different hose clamp, and replaced the one that was on there. Seems to have taken care of it!!! Oh, as far as I can tell, it hasn't improved the mileage at all!!!

A couple months ago I was driving Scruffy on the freeway. It felt like there was a little vibration going on. As we were driving along, there was an under body thump, like I'd run over something. I checked the rear view, but there was nothing to see. I noticed that the vibration had stopped, though. I did an under body inspection when I got home, and the front panel under the radiator and A/C condenser had gone missing. I wonder if it didn't get put back on well when I'd had the A/C work done. I don't miss it, but I think it would probably be a good idea to fabricate something for protection down there!!!

The rear driver's side window on Scruffy has developed an issue. I've got a replacement slider that I suspect is all that needs to be done to get it back in shape, but of course that will require taking it apart.

Just last weekend, I went back to the tire place and bought another front tire for the Matrix, the one opposite the one I'd replaced back in March was getting rounded off on the outside, and it's been raining on and off.

The roof on Scruffy is looking pretty bad. It's losing paint in patches. Of course, a lot of the area around the ribs never got a proper sanding. I'm plannng on repainting the roof, quite possibly with a couple of white stripes, making it into the Skunk Mobile!!!

Golden Hour

A week back, I took Scruffy for an alignment. Having the front subframe removed had messed it up. The update on the swap, I ran into an issue bolting the transmission to the engine, and ended up damaging the pump on the transmission, so, since I've never had too much luck working on transmissions, ended up having it towed to the transmission shop. When I picked it up, started off with the oil warning light on. That spooked me, I shut it right off, and checked the oil. All the way full. OK, must be the wire to the sensor or something, right? Start driving it back, and after a while, it goes off, but the low coolant light starts blinking. That doesn't concern me much, I hadn't had a chance to do anything with the cooling system other than fill it with water and cooling system flush, and the needle is in the normal area. It turned off a few miles later, but then the temprature light went on, and the gauge heads to the top!!! I'm in traffic, and before I could even start working my way off to the side, the gauge drops, and the light goes off. Then the oil light comes on again. Once I got it home, I drained, rinsed and filled the cooling system, and checked the oil pressure wire. Everything looked good, and it never came on again. Passed smog with no problems, and other than the alignment, everything is fine!!!

The alignment shop I use is in Glendale. I had gone after I got off work. I asked the tech about how long he thought it would take, and after he told me around 45 minutes, told him I was going on a walk. Since I've been seeing it for years but had never been there, I headed straight for the local graveyard!!!

Imposing brick walls and an iron gate surround the property.

Within, there is much beauty among the dead.

Many statues, and great views of the surrounding area.

It's been years since I've gone through a graveyard taking pictures. I remembered why it works out so well.

I haven't been getting as much walking in as I would like to these days, with the time change it's not as easy to get out in the afternoons before it's getting dark. This was a great one, not only did I cover a good amount of distance, but I got to do a bit of uphill walking, too!!!

On the subject of it getting dark early, it so coincided with my walking time that I was in the right place for the "golden hour", as the sun makes it's final descent on the horizon.

I was glad to have been there for it!!!

All in a Day's Work

I've been wanting to get the engine pulled out of 3 for a while, but as always happens,life gets busy. The plan, of course, was to swap it into Scruffy. Well, smog check time is coming up, and the P0410 air injection code has been coming back on and off. Took it over for the check, it had been a good spell without the light coming on. Less than a block away, it comes on. Sigh. I pull off onto a side street and reset it, then for the check, it hadn't gotten enough data to re calibrate it, so it failed. He checked the exhaust afterwards, and it's got a little smoke coming out, and he says it fails for that, too, but I think he wouldn't have gone there if the computer check had passed.

So, this weekend took it down to my parents' house where there's a big, flat driveway and went to work. It drove way better than I'd thought it would, with the steering wheel all tweaked. To make things easy, the hood comes off first, and since it was tweaked, pulled the whole front bumper cover off, as well as the headlights. The bumper core had an amazing crease down the middle, and the side of the frame rail was nicely accordioned, but I didn't get a shot of that.

Of course, it's not a one-man job, at least not for me!!! I enlisted the younger boy, and he comported himself quite admirably, considering he has close to zero experience working on cars. There's a multitude of little stuff to disconnect and remove, and he helped with a good amount of it, as well as the actual removal. Pretty much got all but one thing disconnected, the connection from the steering rack to the column. Started lowering it down, and that side wasn't dropping.

Speaking of dropping, that was the method I elected to go with, disconnect everything, unbolt the subframe (only 4 bolts!!!) then lower it out the bottom. I'd heard of people doing it with lifts, and figured I'd have to drop it, then the weight would shift more to the back, and I'd probably have to raise the body some more. Got it dropped, and it's within a couple inches of clearing. Got on the back bumper and bounced on it, and it looked like there was close to enough room to slide it out. My son couldn't get it moving, so we switched, and got it rolled out!!!

There it is!!! Gotta do the same to Scruffy, and I'm planning on unbolting the engine from the transmission, and swapping it to the recently rebuilt transmission in Scruffy.

All in a day, I couldn't be more pleased with the progress!!!

Armored

I finally got this together last week!!!

You may recall I had the rocker panel on the exhaust side had melted down, after the exhaust had bottomed out a few times.

It was a messy looking meltdown. I'd trimmed around the top edge, so it had a hole all the way through already.

I bought some aluminum tube, and trimmed it to fit with the clearance.

And there's the mock-up!!! You may notice a couple of little button head screws on the back. I added a 1/2" x 1/8" aluminum bar back there.

In the mock up picture I had button heads holding it on. From the beginning I'd had the idea of using square neck bolts. Here's after I'd filed one of the holes square.

And some high-temprature paint on the guard and the bolts. Also pictured, I bought a plug for a piece I always remove from the air filter box.

Putting it back on, I had trouble locating the back hole, so I was using the camera as a mirror to see what I was doing. Ended up with a working selfie!!!

Came out pretty decent!!!

Today I did an oil change in preperation for an upcoming smog check, and while I had her up on stands, took the pipe off to give it a fresh coat of paint.

Bool Hunt

All of my nonexistent readers are probably well aware that I end up going to the junkyard on a fairly regular basis. This post will cover a few of those trips, as well as filling in a bit of recent history.

About a month ago, I'd finally gotten Scruffy over to an alignment shop to get the rear tires pointed in the right direction. This is the only car I've ever had where I've had a rear tire wear and alignment issue, probably because nearly all of the cars I've owned have had solid rear axles where alignment isn't a thing. The others not in that category, I haven't messed with the ride height, so there's that. As you can see, they were REALLY worn down for about two years of wear!!! The alignment shop had told me that the camber was still a bit out, but to come back when I'd replaced the tires, with a little advance warning, and they would install a camber kit to correct it. Yesterday I finally got a replacement pair.

Prior to heading over there, on Friday evening, I opened up the back of the two machined look rims I'd picked up, with the idea of getting a full matching set on Scruffy, at which point I realized that the one had a significant abrasion on one opening, where it had peened the metal out, so I decided against using that one, for now. It also had quite a bit of scuffing on other areas, and I took some medium-fine sandpaper and 3M pads to one such area, to see if I could get it looking decent. Looks like all it is is through the clear coat or anodizing, whichever it has. About a half hour's work, and it came out looking quite good!!! Anyway, left that one off for now and now have 3 out of 4 the same.

Now, for a few weeks back background. The second to the last week I was working at the physical building, on Thursday they were doing Wuhan Flu testing. They were having us come in at the time of the testing, wait for the results, then, if negative, report for work. My appointment was for noon, so I got to go in a bit later. Oh yeah, spoiler alert, around 400 employees still working there, and not a single positive!!! Anyway, about a mile from home, it started running really rough, with not much power. I drove it almost to where I get on the freeway, and pulled into a gas station to see if I could see anything. Restarting it had done nothing, but plugging in the OBD scanner showed multiple misfires. I turned around to go home and switch cars, and getting to the uphill area discovered it didn't have enough juice to climb the hill. Called my wife and had her bring her car down. Used her car that day, and did a bit of research. There were several things, but the consensus was to start with the spark plugs and work your way down the systems. No idea when the plugs were last changed, but never hurts to have new ones (so long as they are OEM NGK copper core ones, not any exotic metal ones, as they have a high fail rate in Saturn 1.9 engines, due to the waste spark system they run). Also, while I was getting the plugs, I got a crankshaft position sensor, my reasoning being that the sudden failure seemed consistent with that. Replacing the plugs did nothing, so I headed back up the hill and took the plug wires, coils and ignition control module off 3, and went back down and replaced all the units on Scruffy. Viola!!! No cumbersome crankshaft position sensor replacement, which I was not looking forward to. Just to see what would happen, I put the units from Scruffy back on 3. Moved the issue to that one, as I figured it probably would. I figure it was likely the ignition control module, as I've had coils fail before, and the OBD will show the coil specific to two cylinders missing.

So, now 3 is fairly undriveable. Not like I'm driving it much anyway, but I want to be able to move her around, not to mention I'd rather have everything going if and when I swap the engine out. The ignition control module is around $85, and most of the consensus is that you are better off getting an OEM used replacement from the junkyard anyway, as most of the replacements have a high fail rate. Off to the junkyard!!! Coils are pretty reasonable, but control modules are supposed to be in the $50 to $60 range. Since the double coils mount to the module, I figured I'd pull the whole unit and try and pass it off as a coil array. I also was wondering if they were the same unit for the generation 2 and SHOC models. No one seemed to have that information, but I could probably look up different years and engines and figure that out if I wanted to. I took a look around at earlier SHOC models, and even a generation 1 SC2 and they all appear the same. Anyway, to be safe, I got them off the same year and engine SL2. Funny thing, there didn't seem to be much body damage at all, but both of the airbags had been deployed!!!

When I got to the checkout, the cashier was questioning the pricing, noting that an array would be more expensive, and it was actually two coils, which would be cheaper. He called over a supervisor, who told him to ring it up as two coils, and put the module as a bracket. He noticed it had the wire connector socket, so rang it as a electrical connector. Two coils at around $13.50 (plus $1 core charge) and $2.75 for the ignition control module!!! Score!!! The exhaust manifold was removed from the SL2 I got the goods from, which gave me a chance to get a better shot of the exhaust air injection ports. They look equally as plugged up as Scruffy's had been!!!

And there's that 1st generation SC2. While very little is common to the later ones, they weigh less, and the style is growing on me. I actually like the SC and SC1 front ends with the fixed headlights, which I believe are the same from the doors forward as the sedans.

Now, from quite a while ago when I'd gone to a junkyard near my work, and they had almost exactly the same as 3 on the other side of the wall, I imagine pre being put in the yard, but possibly to be sold. Even has the same rims as 3 originally had!!! In other news, I came across an ad for the same year, color and wheels as 3 with 95K miles, and a busted up front bumper and driver's side fender and mirror, plus a check engine light, asking $1800. I sent them a message that, considering the condition it seemed about $500 to $800 too high. I'd take that deal, if it seemed OK and could pass smog, which of course it won't with that light on.

A couple of the cars of interest there that time were this 60's Mustang with little left but the firewall and the undesirable 6 cylinder engine. It's very rare to see anything that old anymore.

Up next is a early 70's Celica, another of those you never see anywhere anymore!!! Someone had done a terrible job of putting a whale tail spoiler on the trunk, looking like it's about 20 degrees from where it should be. Has the distinction of being similar to the one we had. Of course, it has the unique pull out handles. The steering wheel was removed, but still inside, so I was also reminded of the style of the horn buttons, double circles on each of the three spokes, cheaply made so the ones rotated around it end up upside down!!!

And finally, the junkyard I went to this weekend, a while back there was this pretty nice '64-'66 Suburban in the lot. I noted it because it's similar to my GMC panel truck.

I know I've used the phrase "bool hunt" in previous posts, but I'm not sure I've ever explained it. It's from the Stephen King story, "Lisey's Story". It's where something will be hidden and the other person has to find it. Also in the story is the mention of a "blood bool", so take that for what it's worth. It's been years since I've read that one, maybe I'll dig it out, I quite enjoyed it. Stephen King is a very talented writer, but he's also an old crank who keeps yelling at the Commander in Chief to get off his lawn.