Friday started out well enuff.

[DrEntropy]

Then I decided to run to the parts house and get a couple of H3 bulbs for the Square-8 lights hangin' from the B bumper. Pull up to the place (independent, just got a computer put in a few months ago!) and he's standin' outside. Looks down at the front of the Alfa and says he hadn't noticed the li'l chrome bit under-bumper before. THEN he says: "You're drippin' water."

Hmmm. I look and sure enuff, Luigi's drippin' coolant. BAH! I go to uppen-zie bonnet... BLOODY CABLE END BREAKS!!! I just had the thing open yesterday to check oil! Now I can't open it. GRRR... I get a pair if Vise-Grips from 'im and we yank the cable. It's the front water pump seal wot's leakin'.

Well, I s'pose the best place for it to break is at home, second best place is his pitch. I'll have a new BeckArnley unit by four this afternoon. Limped home, gunked the front of the engine and now waiting for it to cool sufficiently to pull the rad and do all the other stuff to get the old one out and "ready to receive." Herself will do the pick-up on her way back to th' hovel from work.

I think Luigi is jealous of all the attention Diesela has been getting lately. Couldn't be the 80K miles since 2000 when I screwed the engine together!

...or the added stress two years ago when a motor mount let go in a hard right turn and stuffed the pump hub/fan thru the rad... /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif

 

[GB1]

Doc:

Don't you park Luigi arount the other side of the hovel when working on the Disela.

I usually tell them that it warmer there to bake out in the sun for a while.

Pat

/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif

 

[BIBBER]

you may want to do tomorrow if the luck or lack of it continues....similar incident on the Jag...put new pump in...leaked....thought it was gasket...reinstalled again, leaked...reinstalled again....leaked...found out it was a bad (new) pump...was actually leaking out of the hole on pump...pulled it, sent back...ordered another one..all is fine...needless to say I got pretty good at replacing water pumps. Hopefully the rest of your day ends well>>

 

[DrEntropy]

eep! I have enough "practice"!! I don't want to even *think* I'll be doin' this three times! This pump is said to be new, not a rebuild, so I could be in for a real contest. I don't think it'll be "Made in Italy"... /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/blush.gif

 

[DrEntropy]

Rad out, all nuts/bolts undone, tach drive out. Now I gotta UNdo the crank pulley... thank multiple dieties for AIR TOOLS!

New pump hasn't arrived yet, may be doing this all for drill. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wall.gif

...reaching for th' CAB...

 

[tony barnhill]

Glad its not just me!

 

[DrEntropy]

Mine is improvin' a bit tony.

Pump arrived and lo-an'-behold... IT'S the RIGHT ONE! On now, have the crank pulley back in place but not torqued. I'm DONE for the day. Storm clouds threatening, sun's goin' down. T'morrow at daybreak it'll take me no time to bolt up the other bits. May even try to fit up another tach cable. The one in there is frayed, that explains the 'wobbly' tach reading at low RPM. THAT I have a spare for.

Considering I've driven this thing since May of 2000 and basically only changed oil and plugs once in a while (nothing else but the alternator has failed in that time), I have NO reason to whine. The intermittant cut-out problem is directly attributable to my ambivalence over P.M. of the poor thing.

*Almost* as reliable as an MGB! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif

 

[BIBBER]

DOC

did all finish out OK with carryover into today!!! Weekdays are great for FIXIN'...but the weekends are for DRIVIN'!!!

 

[DrEntropy]

This is gonna sound completely familiar: After the pump R&R was completed Saturday AM, I went out for a check-ride, came back and decided to go after the blower motor. It has been "stuck" for the entire time I've owned the car, will pop its fuse as soon as the switch is on. Takes several other more critical devices out with it... to get to the motor means a disassembly of the under-dash interior: console, shifter, vent/heat controls. Now I'm into a "may as well" project! Found the inner and outer rubber shift boots were disintegrated; tranny oil was all over the wiring, carpet, switches, etc. Had two sets of new boots "in stock" so that bit is under control. Repaired the hood release cable, plotting an upgrade to the radio, the old BlueDot had lost the left channel and I have a Sony AM/FM/Cassette replacement in-hand. Fixing the ciggy lighter, replacing burt out instrument bulbs, re-routing the low oil pressure warning light to the O/P gauge in the tach. Addressing some really tacky DPO "tricks" for shortcutting how the thing was reassembled after it'd been smashed up and repainted.

Have to keep the thing semi-driveable so this will be a bit of a challenge.