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!
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