After Easter service this morning and the kids doing the bunny basket thing, I went out and puttered around on the Spit. None of the four side running lights were working, and the two license plate lights were out as well. All of them needed new bulbs, and the left plate light had a loose wire. Replacing them was tedious but rewarding.
However, when I pushed the switch to turn them on this evening, I felt something break inside the switch. It had felt stiff ever since I got the car, and it picked now to give up the ghost. I’ll pull it out of the dash tomorrow. I need to replace the hazard switch as well, so it looks like my next order from VickyBrits will be for electrical stuff.
I also worked on putting in the ‘replacement’ horns my Dad gave me with the car. They’re from an ‘88 Sundance, so they’re not original. The factory ‘Clear Hooter’ horns are rusted solid and I haven’t found an easy way to disassemble them. It looks like I need to fab up some kind of bracket to mount the other horns, tho.
I haven’t started the brake or clutch work yet. I think I’m just doing little stuff on the car as a way of procrastinating.
The work on the Spitfire continues.
The original owner had a problem with the turn signal switch while he owned it. Rather than simply buying a new switch, he had a “friend” who supposedly knew something about electrical systems “repair” it. The result was a two-way toggle switch hacked into a badly drilled hole in the wood dashboard facia. It wasn’t installed very well and would fall out on a regular basis. I just used the standard arm signals when signalling turns until I could fix it.
Today I installed a replacement switch from Victoria British, a parts supplier outside of Kansas City. I ended up having to use some of the hack-job wiring to get it to work correctly, but I did put a new plug-in terminal on the wire and convered it with heat-shrink tubing. Now the switch on the steering column works!
On to the brake lines next, as well as figuring out why the sidemarker lights aren’t working.
So Thursday evening I get home from work and find chele sitting on the floor in front of the sink, mopping up water. The aging garbage disposal had exploded out its drain pipe and puked water all over the under-sink cabinet. I’d repaired the connection at least once and was itching for an excuse to replace it anyway.
We took the kids out for supper and stopped at Home Depot. 40 minutes of under-cabinet work after the kids were asleep and the new disposal is working great.
Why I will never buy another Maytag appliance again:
A couple of weeks ago the handle on our dishwasher broke. chele was squeezing it one morning to get the dishes out and it snapped at the hinge. The only way to get the door open was to forcefully push up on the handle while yanking on the door. Joy.
Repairclinic.com had the part for $4.95 plus $4.95 shipping. I tried our local appliance parts dealer and was told that the handle wasn’t available separately. I’d need to special order a complete latch assembly for $60. Figuring that $10 for the handle was a good deal (and if it didn’t work I could get the latch later), I went with Repairclinic. 4 days later I’m arm deep in the door of the dishwasher, removing the latch and shaving the handle to fit.
The replacement handle works great. If that were the only repair I’ve had to do on the dishwasher, I wouldn’t be complaining. However, it isn’t. We went with this particular brand and model after reading Consumer Reports and seeing that this was top rated. In the two years we’ve owned it, it has had the following problems:
- The motor has been replaced twice.
- The “Lifetime Warrantied Rust-Free” racks rusted.
- One of the wheels on the top rack broke in two and wouldn’t stay screwed in anymore.
Now, if this were a cheap dishwasher, I’d just file those under “That’s Life” and go on. But it wasn’t a cheap model, and I was hoping to get a few good years out of it.
That’s why when we had to replace our washing machine, it wasn’t a Paytag, it was an LG
I upgraded WordPress on ammond.org today to 2.0.2. Like every other upgrade, it was a piece of cake. Back up the database and WordPress files, untar the new software, hit the ‘Upgrade’ URL.
Now to go digging into the new plugins.
After a couple of years of not working much on the Spitfire, I started up again. The church we attend is considering having a car show on Father’s Day, so I’m getting some much needed repairs done for that. One of the messiest will be replacing all the flexible brake lines. After 30 years, they’ve developed cracks:
I plan on replacing the clutch slave cylinder as well, and putting down the new carpet set.
