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The Duster Repair Itinerary |
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20.3.2002
Enough is enough. I'm tired of smelling burning whatever, so the Duster was dropped off at a local automotive electrical repair shop for some attention. For those of you who haven't already heard, ever since the first week I owned the thing, the electrical system would randomly put out much more voltage than it should. The headlights would become extremely bright, the wipers would move at about double-speed, and the turn signals would blink extrememly quickly. This would happen on and off usually during the first ten minutes of driving, and then after about an hour of driving.
My original thought was that this would be the voltage regulator. Thus, the problem was only a nuisance that I would deal with for as long as necessary, since it really wouldn't injure the car. I planned to change out the regulator over the next weekend. Well, two days before I was driving home from work on a nice sunny afternoon, and the voltage went through the roof as usual. The problem was, now it was accompanied by a nasty burning smell. I became concerned. A few miles down the road, a small plume of smoke was rising from the steering column. I pulled off the road, shut down the motor and let the thing cool. Now I'm very concerned, since it seems that this is more than just a regulator; it's more like a short! I don't know about you, but smoking cars are not my cup of tea.
The next morning, I limped the beast into the repair shop. The technician who did the work traced the problem right back to the regulator. The poles seem to stick apart - indicating a worn-out regulator. The regulator was swapped, and the bill came to about $34. I'm impressed. It drives wonderfully now. Once that was taken care of, I replaced several bulbs throughout the car that had been eaten by the excess voltage.
16.3.2002
The first oil change of the blue beast is complete. Just a few notes for those endeavoring to do likewise. I was quite surprised at how low this thing is to the ground. It's not much higher than the Firebird, but it requires the poor person to climb under more car to get to the oil drain plug. This is the largest drain plug I've ever seen - it requires a 7/8" socket. It's also located directly inwards of the left front tire, so you have to climb around the tire to get there. That isn't a pleasant thing when you're pulling on the plug with the wrench and the tire is moving with the car an inch away from your head. The oil filter on this guy is upside-down which is interesting but makes for less spilled oil. Instead of unscrewing the filter and pulling down, you unscrew and lift up. This way, most of the oil in the filter drains out before it comes off. It's still very helpful to have the oil drain below the filter though. With the air conditioning lines, it's a bear to loosen the filter. There's virtually a 100% guarantee that you'll have scraped knuckes before the filter is off the car. Oh well.
24.2.2002
It's a relatively warm Sunday afternoon in late February, and the car is sitting in a church parking lot 360 miles away from home. And it won't start. I replaced the fuel filter in the parking lot, drawing stares from all sorts of people leaving church in their own less interesting machines. Still nothing. I called triple-A to arrange towing. The driver who showed up just so happened to have a "fun" job working at the local car auction. His job is to get trashed cars running so they can be driven onto the auction block and off the other side. Once the car finishes that trek, it is permitted to die permanenetly. Anyway, it turned out that while sitting the carburetor had emptied its entire fuel bowl back into the fuel line. It took nearly fifty pumps of the gas pedal to fill the bowl enough to start the car, but once the bowl was re-filled it worked fine.
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