Sunday I started the Hide Food regimen on the seats, dash and side
pockets. I removed the passenger side seat first to make it easier to
clean and and apply the Hide Food. But before starting on this seat I
vacuumed off all the dust and cleaned it with Lexol cleaner. Much to my
surprise very little dirt came off with the Lexol. Guess it was mostly
dust or dirt so well ground in that it was beyond mere soap and elbow
grease. Anyway, I decided not to bother with the cleaner on the
driver's side. As many of you predicted, the dried out leather on the
seats really soaked up the HF. Of course I put it on as heavily as the
leather would take it, then put on some more after the first application
had been somewhat absorbed. It did seem to soften things up quite a
bit. I'll continues with this, particularly on the really dried and
hardened areas. The dash wasn't nearly as bad but I still plan to
continue applications there too.
When I opened the jar of Hide Food I noticed that it had a familiar
odor. My sense of smell isn't what it used to be but I've smelled that
smell before. Then I remembered what it was: saddle soap. I dug
through my daughter's horse paraphernalia and found an old can but it was
too dried for my weakened sense of smell to get a recognizable sniff.
The Hide Food jar says that it contains lanolin in spirits. The alcohol
spirits, I imagine. The saddle soap tin didn't say what its the
contents were made from.
There are also a pieces of thick rawhide leather on each of the
competition style seat belts which I globbed with Hide Food for about a
week or so. This didn't seem to help much so I switched to reartsfoot
oil. These pieces would be pretty easy to replace if the neatsfoot
doesn't work or damages the leather.
I wonder why simple jobs always end up being monumental undertakings?
Saturday a "two hour" job on one of my other cars stretched into the
whole day and involved numerous trips to auto parts stores to exchange
incorrect parts for correct ones and to buy items that I was sure I
already had on hand. Sunday morning was spent on the snake's leather
and went well. But in the afternoon, after taking care of a dreaded
chore my wife had been nagging me about for over a year, I figured I had
just enough time left to tackle the simple job of confirming that I
really did have oil pressure and that the zero reading I had seen last
week was the result of a bad gauge or pressure sensor. While at a
hardware store earlier in the day I'd picked up a cheap pressure gauge.
I removed the sensor unit and judging from it's condition, it's a good
bet that it was the source of the zero reading. The electrical terminal
for the gauge connections was askew. Most likely this occurred when the
old engine was removed or the "new" one was installed. Naturally the
sensor had 1/8" pipe threads and the gauge had 1/4" thread. Back to the
hardware store for an adaptor, then back to the garage for another try.
Ooops. Not enough clearance for the gauge to fit. Back to the hardware
store for an elbow. Can anyone explain to me why the brass fitting I
bought were cheaper than the galvanized equivalent? Anyway, back home
with the elbow and another try. Well, still not quite enough clearance;
but close enough. Who cares if the paint on the gauge gets bunged up a
bit.
Before starting the car up I decided to see if I could come up with a
quick and dirty bypass for the dead thermal switch for the radiator fan.
I shorted the wire going to the switch to ground just to make sure my
theory that the switch provided a return-to-ground was correct. I saw
a few wimpy sparks but not a sound from the fan motor. Hmmm, must have
been wrong about the return-to-ground function so I shorted the wire to
the body of the switched to which the other wire was attached. Nothing.
Not even sparks this time. So I decided to hell with it, I'd fix it
next time. Time was getting short. Inside the cockpit I notice that
the generator light was no longer on. I turned the ignition switch on
and off several times. Nothing. Then I tried the starter. Absolutely
nothing. Hmmm. Must have blown a fuss fiddling with the thermal
switch. Let see now, where's the fuss box? Can't remember. Oh yes,
there it is on the cockpit side of the firewall. What a dumb place to
put a fuss box. I had to lay on my back with my head under the steering
wheel to get at the box; even then access was nearly impossible because
of the heavy stiff wiring harness running in front of it. I remembered
I had a fuss extractor somewhere. After a fifteen minute search I
finally found it at the bottom of my tool box. The first place I'd
quickly looked but just as quickly given up on thinking that I would
never have put it there. Not that it mattered. There wasn't enough
clearance to fit this gizmo under the dash behind all those wires.
Speaking of wires, look at all of those butchered connections.
Temporary fixes or additions done years ago that I'd planned to take
care of when I had the time but had forgotten about. After some
contortions with a small screw driver I managed to get each fuss out
and confirm that they were all good. Hmmm, must be the battery. I
connected some jumpers to the "suspect" battery I'd taken out of my VW a
few weeks back. Now at least the generator light came on when I turned
the key. I tried the starter again. One solitary "click" for each try
and nothing more. Hmmm, my suspect battery must really be bad. Next I
pulled the Chevy van into the garage and jumpered to its battery. Same
thing. Hmmm, the snake battery must have a hell-of-a short for the
running Chevy not to be able to overwhelm it's deadness. Out with the
snake's Delco, and in with the suspect Diehard. The engine starts right
up! AND I HAVE OIL PRESSURE!! A surprising 45psi or so at idle. For
the heck of it I decided to see I if there was any oil in the crankcase.
The black deposits on the dips stick made it nearly impossible to tell
where the oil (if any) line was. After wire brushing the stick I
discovered the level wasn't even a quart down.
Since the car was running I decided it might be a good idea to drive it
to a station and put in a bit more gas since I might not be so lucky
next time and have to do the next refill by hand. At the station I ran
into a guy who actually knew what kind of car I had and was aware that
it wasn't a replica (who would build a replica that looked that bad).
After I put the car back in the garage I noticed that the really bad
rear tires were even worse. Guess it's time to rotate again. Not so
much cord showing on the fronts.
Roland Dudley
cobra@hpcdcsn.cdc.hp.com
CSX2282
|