home Diary    1/4/98     58,842     
Happy new year, eh? Yesterday, I spent some time taking care of many of those things that I'd been meaning to do for some time taking care of many of those things that I'd been meaning to do for some time (like when I bought it). I had searched out some brass caps to fit to the air pump connections on the exhaust manifolds and finally found some at Grovers. Not as pretty as I'd like just kind of like pipe fittings. So I remove the old air pump connectors and their respective hoses, label them and then go to put them back with all the other old parts when lo and behold I found some pretty brass fittings that by their black and sooty interior foretold of their previous life. I removed the ones I had bought and replaced them with these new found jewels. I also checked the air cleaner and removed the Birch leaves which had been sucked in. Then, I replaced the small plate that covers the hole on the top of the motor where you can see the clutch inside.

 I then moved onto the on-going heater problem. Previously, I had removed the valve and had cleaned and checked it. It seemed to work fine. Thinking that the lack of circulation may have been due to a clogged heater core I bypassed the driver side one. I had planned to remove it but couldn't see how to remove it. I finally found the two nuts in the fenderwell and removing the heater was then easy. I took it into the kitchen (luckily my wife was gone!) and proceeded to clean it and run water through it. It was not clogged and though I got some debris it was not enough to consider it to be the culprit. So, with everything cleaned I replaced it all and put a towel near the source (or exit) of where it looks like it's been leaking so as to check it later. If it's still leaking I'll see if a radiator shop can fix it or there's a guy in S.F. with heaters from a GTS that may work.

Then I cleaned the trunk, pumped the (now flat) tire and started in on the jack kit. Many of the tools had a fair amount of rust on them and I went at them with a scotch pad and soapy water. After a great deal of effort and scrubbing I got them mostly clean - not quite perfect but maybe some naval jelly... Later that same day...

 Did a cruise, wonderful as always, heat still nonfunctional - maybe it's something in the pipes below...Hmmm I got gas again. The attendant asked if it was a kit car. This makes about a half dozen times I've heard it. It was the first Ferrari motor he'd seen (as I checked the oil). After our drive it was off to Costco and grocery shopping. Quite a lot of groceries, big bag of rice, comet, milk, chicken, etc, all in Costco sizes and quantities. With some skill I assembled the cart-full into the trunk and it all fit. With the kids and wife aboard we motored off listening to our new purchase: a set of audio tapes to learn Italian. Mi piace guidar l'automvile!