Sylvia passed her 5th MA state inspection today….a joyous occasion for all….especially my 16 yo daughter who is learning to drive on this behemoth (the Saab 99 and VW Jetta are both stick and we'll teach her those when she knows how to keep the wheels between the lines…
It was a bit of a nail biting moment as just to pass inspection this year I had to replace the dreaded upper right control arm, the now even more dreaded complete emergency brake from the center cable on back (cables, shoes, the whole bit), as well as the lower left ball joint (not so bad) and replace the exhaust from the manifold back. Turns out having the exhaust removed made replacing the e-brake that much easier.
When we did the engine swap, we took a hard look at the exhaust systems from both cars and put the worst one in first - so glad we did. I got 4 years and almost 30,000 miles out of that one, and kept the center section and forward pipe from the donor car in my shed as a home for wayward field mice until last week. The decision saved me nearly $600 - all I needed to pass inspection was a new rear muffler and some rubber donuts. I looked at the old one after it was removed - it looked like swiss chesse and sounded more like Detroit than Munich in those last few hundred miles! I can believe how quiet it is now - so quiet I can again hear the wind noise from the mis-aligned driver side door…(have to get to this one soon!)
I've still got a minor crack in the windshield in line of sight - but apparently enough to pass in MA. Still, am going to finally get this swapped out - I thought this car required new seals but am told it does not - just pop out the old and glue in a new one. Anyone have experiences with this, please let me know as I will be ordering that this week.
For the first time in nearly 2 years or more, there is no longer a list of things that have to get done and instead only (for now) a list of things I want to get done….
For reference, in the last 6 mos, the following work undertaken on an engine with ~300k and body frame with just over 200K.
New MB vacuum pump - car starts and shuts off at will and….
New MB glow plug relay & wiring - car starts happily at 5 below 0F
Upper right control arm - no more squeaks on the right side
Lower left ball joint - no more squeaks on the left side.
New/used exhaust front to back
New tranny oil pan cover + flush and filters
Rear transaxle flushed and filled
Ebrake rebuilt/replaced
Driver/pax locks replaced
New fuel filters back to front, new air filter
All fluids flushed - Mobile 1 (has probably added 3 MPG and quieted down the warm up idle considerably)
New stereo w/ BlueTooth hands free & satellite radio
Still to do this spring/summer:
Fix/replace odoometer
Replace AC compressor
Driver side front door check repair/replace / re-align
Rear window seal replace (leaks under heavy rain/ice conditions)
Sunroof clean/rust prevention
Front driver/pax seats and interior makeover
under body PoR and rust preventer
debug/diagnose cruise control
repair/replace wood trim panels
then it'll be poifect…
-Barton
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