Chris sez:
(in brief, my brain-dead mailer has stopped allowing included text..)
That DMV grants permanent exemptions, a friend with a smog-pumpless
Dino is going through the process...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The California DMV does not grant permanent exemptions for cars with
missing smog bits. This is as of two days ago. I don't believe that they
grant permanent exemptions for any vehicle unless it is non-gasoline
powered.
Interesting that you mentioned a Dino. Is this the yellow one being
refereed at the Concord station? I was there when the owner was asking
about the smog pump. The referee would not even check the exhaust unless
all the pieces were present. (They did not have to be in working order;
the exemption would be granted on the do-not-exceed-$50-repair-rule
for pre-'71 vehicles). The referee did have extensive cross-reference
books for smog parts; the owner was given a list of cars with the same
(aftermarket) pump and advised to head for the junkyard.
The referee was cool about one thing, though. The state of the smog
system on my Spit was such that it tended to cause the car to catch fire.
(Lousy WORKING catalytic converter!) He mentioned as how if this was
disconnected, that and that were plugged, and this and this were adjusted
for maximum idle speed, the car wouldn't catch fire; but an intermittant
electronic distributor dumping gas into the catalyst is still a hazard.
Maybe I didn't make one thing clear; the distributor is one of those
with the module integral to the casing, not the one with the separate
module. In the catalogs, California-spec distributors run ~$400; I can
get an aftermarket performance distributor with straight mechanical
advance for a fifth of that, of course for off-road use only!
I may have been given the typical DMV runaround, does anybody have a
1990 Cal DMV manual handy with more specific info?
As to smog station integrity. I know of cases where the car who's exhaust
being sampled is not the car the certificate is being written on. Just a
case of a few extra $$$$$$$$$$$$. I don't condone this and I don't do this
with my own cars. My mini restoration on the Spit is going to, as much as
possible, restore the car to original operating spec, including the smog.
It's probably worth more in the long run, I won't have to deal with the
smog hassle every two years, and if I sell the car, I will be complying
with the new California law requiring the SELLER to be responsible for
complying with the smog laws.
If I want to socially irresponsible, I can always haul the old smog-free
12 cylinder beastie out of the garage and rip up a few back roads. (Insert
Ferrarigrin here!)
Aran (Yes occifer, It's all legal now, would you mind signing off this,
and this, and this, and this....) Guy
guy@bevsun.bev.lbl.gov
(P.S. I think the brain-dead mailer has just been fixed. If all else fails
and /tmp is filling at a frightening rate, boot the world. If you are not
reading this, be happy in the knowledge that I am the one with his head
buried in SUN manuals, and not you.)
|