Went to the autopart store after work. 95 degrees outside. Only took 5 minutes to get there but that was enough to get the temp almost all the way up. :(
Went in and got a new rad cap (13 lbs) and some rad flush and coolant for good measure. Got back to the car, popped the bonnet up and carefully removed the old cap (engine was stil very hot - doesn't cool down very fast in 95 degrees weather!!!) MAN! Even though I was removing the cap regularly (remember I had to top the coolant level almost every week) I never noticed how bad it was. The main (thick) rubber 'washer' didn't look too bad, but the thin one at the back of the cap... Stretched so much it looked like it could have fit a cap 1 1/2 times bigger. All wavy and a few rips. And the the flat metal 'pressure' washer (shaped like a dinning plate but with some spring into it) was cracked in three (yes 3) places. One of the crack was almost long enough to take a pieces off about 1/4 the size of the 'washer'. (I'll post a pic of the cap once my wife comes back next week from visiting her friends in Toronto. She took the digital camera with her!) Anyway, put the new cap on and took off to go back home. Stop and go traffic for about 15 minutes followed by 15 minutes of almost open road. Needle was rock solid... in the middle of the gauge!!! Yippee!!! :D One Problem fixed! Now only 562 more to go! I did noticed though that my voltage stabilyzer is acting up once in a while. While driving on the open road (about 20 minutes into the drive home, I noticed that my speedometer wasn't working (can you tell that the only gauge I was watching until then was the temp gauge!). Anyway, tapped on the gauge a few time (always worked with the tach) but it didn't work. That OK, not as important as the temp gauge... What?!? temp almost all the way up again... in just a few seconds! Hmmm, remembered what Mr Massey said about the volt stab. Looked at the gas gauge and it's all the way up too even though I know that it should be just over 3/4 mark. Hmmmm Tapped again on the speedometer. Gas and Temp gauges settles back to where they should be. Pheeww! Guess I'll have to spend some time under the dash soon! Ok! Back to 564 problems! One more then I started with. But I'll take these new ones anytime over the old one!!! But before all that, time for a nice cold beer!!! Thanks everyone for your help. I'll be replying privately to everyone throughout the day! P.S. I'm so happy that I decided to tease the rain gods today and take the spit to work without any tops even though there is a 70% chance of rain and thunderstorms. Hey, haven't been cought in the rain once this year so far. I kindda miss it! :) Call me crazy! Cheers Stef Ottawa, Canada '69 Spit - Running cool! But not knowing at what speed! '71 TR6 - Still in pieces! /// [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list /// Send admin requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] /// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool /// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive /// Send list postings to [EMAIL PROTECTED] /// Edit your replies! If they include this trailer, they will NOT be sent.
