Project Dumpster Fire - Slow progress, but still burning

"Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo" (akioohtori) 02/19/2018 at 22:05 • Filed to: Project Dumpster Fire

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My last real update on Project Dumpster Fire was in mid November, and I’ll be honest, not a lot has changed.

The last time I took it out it began to sputter pretty bad while on the freeway. Feeling that failure was imminent, I went ahead and pulled off the highway and, sure enough, it died shortly thereafter. I managed to coast into an empty parking lot and quickly located the problem: the hall sensor connector fell off. Plugged it back in and away we went.

But since then trust has been hard to come by. The weather has been bad, the Alfa has been blocking the driveway, and I’ve had a lot of other stuff going on are all great excuses as to why it has just been hanging out.

That said, every time I’ve gone to start it, it has started without any fuss, which is pretty cool.

Recent Work

So I say all that to say, I have done some work!

I pulled the speaker to replace the brake fluid warning light and fix the heater. Easy enough.

Model car display at the shop. He had a lot of these little guys

I also took it to a shop and, long story short, I have 5th gear now. They ended up adjusting the linkage but still couldn’t get 5th. They pulled the inspection cover and eventually found the selector shaft for 5th, is is (apparently) a rod that rides inside a tube, had rusted and locked up 5th. Judicious use of a pry bar and 2 hours labor, and I am back in business.

This weekend a long overdue replacement of the window scrapers was performed. As far as I can tell this is supposed to be done with the door card and window out, but I fudged it from the outside and made it work. Not the easiest job, but you can’t argue with the results.

Still TODO

The last pain point is the trunk lock and linkage. The lock itself fell out and even when it was in, I couldn’t get the damn thing to lock. I need to investigate further, but haven’t bothered.

After that, the plan is to start driving it as much as possible, which is going to be a pain as the weather gets hotter and hotter. I might even have to pay to get the AC serviced...

Urambo Tauro > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/19/2018 at 22:53

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Man, it must be so nice having 5th gear again. How long did you go without it?

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Urambo Tauro 02/20/2018 at 08:40

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6 months or so? City driving I never really felt the absence, but highway was a chore and seemed to stress the cooling system a bit.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Urambo Tauro 02/20/2018 at 09:46

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Which is now occurs to me that even if the coolant was fresh when I got the car, the green stuff really only lasts about 3 years or so. I guess I’ll add it to the list...