[DeTomaso] The latest adventures in the garage

[Christopher Kimball]

Thanks, Mike.

By the way, today my mechanic came over and we timed the car and when it 
still had problems idling a bit, he replaced the carb with an almost new one 
he had (he paid $100 for it, which I'm going to reimburse).  He said the 
carb that came with the car had been rebuilt at some point and painted, and 
the paint had gotten into the inner workings somehow (I can't remember 
exactly how he explained it) but, anyway, he put his on the engine and it 
runs great!

I managed to get the driver's seat in the car and I took it for a spin 
around the neighborhood.

I haven't replaced the bulkhead engine cover yet, so while driving I managed 
to whack my elbow into the spinning engine pulley, but luckily it was a 
minor tap and my arm didn't get ripped off by the belt...

Anyway, it's LOUD (which is OK with me) and seems to run well, although 
there may be a small coolant leak up front.  I'm taking it into the shop 
tomorrow so they can examine the brakes and check for other safety-related 
issues (and leaks).

I have heard about the dim lights on the dash and boy, I sure found out 
about that tonight!  I can barely see the dials, and the oil pressure gauge 
doesn't seem to have any light at all.

I'm thinking there must be some sort of extra bright bulbs available, thanks 
to modern technology, that I can insert in place of the stock ones.  If 
anyone knows what they are, let me know and I'll buy some.

Of course, there were the usual glitches during the reassembly--for 
instance, I managed to install the pistons that hold up the back deck upside 
down (and I had a 50/50 chance of getting it right, too!) and while trying 
to switch them managed to screw up the nice paint job I had done on the 
coolant bottles.  Then I even managed to whack the body of the car with a 
pair of pliers and put two big chips in the nice paint job.  At that point, 
during the subsequent yelling and screaming, I think I may have actually 
uttered a few words I hope my kids didn't hear...

I'm still waiting for a few more items to arrive in the mail to finish the 
interior, and I can see that the more I do to the car, the more I'll want to 
do.  But the nice thing is, even though it's not completely finished, I 
actually drove it this evening, and that's cause for a celebration around my 
house!

Thanks again for you (continuing) help with my project.

Sincerely,

Chris


>From: mikeldrew at aol.com
>To: chrisvkimball at msn.com, SOBill at aol.com, detomaso at realbig.com
>Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] The latest adventures in the garage
>Date: Tue, 08 May 2007 22:42:04 -0400
>
>
>Chris wrote:
>
>(snip) he
>told me their technician said there is no way to get the generator light to
>work with the alternator I have, and that I need to take it out and just 
>use
>the ammeter, or maybe add a volt meter for monitoring the electrical
>charging.
>
>Anyone have any comments about this?  Does it sound right?
>
>>>>If you hook the one-wire alternator up using only the one wire, then
>yes, what they are saying is true--which is an excellent reason to hate 
>one-wire alternators.
>
>However, most one-wire alternators have provisions for two more wires, 
>which add much-desired functionality to the system, including proper 
>voltage sensing and a functioning GEN light.
>
>Mike
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