For those in our family, here’s an update on Laurel’s surgery: she went in
to the hospital this morning at 6am. At 8am, they took her back to put tubes in
her ears, and remove her adenoids. 35 minutes later, the doctor gave us an
update: her ears are fine, and her adenoids did need to be removed. They
were the source of the nasal drainage and infections we’ve been battling
the last few months.

When they brought her back to the room, she was really groggy, and definately
wasn’t happy to have the I.V. in her arm. After much cuddling with Mom and Dad,
she drank lots of apple juice, and ate a popsicle and two slushies. The
much-hated I.V. was removed at 11:00, and we were free to go. As of
2:30, she was napping peacefully.

I have a replacement gearbox that is sitting in my garage. It’s grimy, but
it spins with no troubles. It’s the correct 3-rail with an FK serial number.

However, after looking at the one in my car, I’ve got a small mystery. The
gearbox that’s currently in there has a serial number starting with ‘HK’,
and I can’t find a decode for that anywhere. We’ll see if the experts on the
Spitfires mailing list can help.

I drained the gearbox oil today. The magnetic post on the drain
plug was a modern-art sculpture of metal bits and pieces. What bothered
me the most were the bits I could recognize as circular parts of
bushings and spacers. It’s been in the back of my mind that I’d
end up rebuilding or replacing the gearbox, but I didn’t plan on it
this soon. Reverse is impossible to find. First and second are getting
more difficult to shift into also.

After a break for a family vacation, the weather finally cleared up for a
weekend. After backing the Spit out into the driveway, I drained out all
the old coolant. I flushed out all the remaining crud from the engine
with a hose (a nice brown/green color).

My Dad had an idea for installing the replacement plug: use a socket slightly
smaller than the inside of the plug, and hammer it in. An 1 1/16 socket
fit perfectly, and the new plug is in! No leaks!

While I had the system apart, I decided to replace the thermostat
and gasket. After looking at the inside of the radiator, I’m betting I’ll
need a new one of those soon also.