Little did I know that when I bought my '78 1500 I
would be moving to California...
Michigan never seemed to care much about how badly a
car polluted the environment - God knows Michigan salt
certainly polluted my Spitfire. I didn't think my car
ran too bad before, but I knew three things: the carb
and timing needed adjustment, I had little knowledge
of EXACTLY how to do it in the most expiditious way,
and with a) my new job, b) the price of gas to fill a
Z71 pickup almost twice a week and c) my new job, I
knew that I needed someone else to take a look at him
(her? I really do need a name here...) AND, now that
I've arrived in the land of fruits and nuts (put away
the flamethrowers - this is my second time here so I
must qualify for the latter), I need to register both
vehicles with the DMVstapo.
Unfortunately, I'm faced with the fact that the DSPO
decided to hack off every piece of emissions
equipment, and I mean HACK off. On one of the carbon
canisters all three ports were literally sawed off.
There's no air pump, there's no egr valve, there's
little if any vacuum tubing, I have headers (with an
exhaust leak at the straight pipe flange) etc... I'm
not even sure what's SUPPOSED to be there.
Since buying my green machine, I've paid almost no
attention to the mechanicals - new plugs, wires and
distributer cap. So Tony, my new friend and mechanic
(btw - don't you just love Ferrari mechanics named
Tony?) was able to get it running within what he
thought would pass the tailpipe test - but he
cautioned me on going to get a legitimate smog check
since there's a sticker under the hood (sorry, bonnet)
that describes all the original emissions equipment,
and some righteous soul (certified smog checkers are
probably really government employees) would notice I'm
missing all mine, point this fact out, charge me for
the service and THEN fail me.
So. My options (according to Tony) are the following:
1. Spend a lot of money (his words) putting it back
to original condition emission wise...
2. Keep it registered in Michigan (Illegal I
think...) and don't get caught more than twice driving
it in California...
3. Wait four more years and register it as an antique
when it turns 25.
So, after all this - how much does anyone really think
it will cost me to redo the original (federal, not
California) emissions control system and should I go
new or find the parts used?
I also have to mention that when I pulled up into the
drive of Tony's shop, I could hear my car smile when
we saw a GARAGE FULL of vintage Mercedes, Jags,
Ferraris and Loti - mine was the only Triumph, which
can mean only two things - our cars don't break as
much as we think they do, and based on Tony's bill,
THANK GOD.
daf
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illegetamus non rubrum carborundum
1978 Triumph Spitfire 1500
http://www.egr.msu.edu/~frazier
dfrazier@yahoo.com
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