Things left to do

• Fix the heat
  • I finally crawled underneath the car and found that the heater cables just didn't attach to the hinges; they just ended in mid-air; this explains why the heat never worked.
  • I got the new cable and little attachment thingies from Economy Imports, installed it and then discovered that my initial inspection wasn't complete enough; I also need the hose from the heat exchanger to the body tunnel and the gasket that goes on the end of the tube housing the heater control cable.
  • I went back to Economy Imports and asked for the hose that goes from the heat exchanger to the body, and got something that looked a little funny but hey, they were knowledgable about the other stuff so I figured I'd just take it. Went home, tried to install it, it was small enough to fit inside the heat exchanger... returned it and was told that they were no longer stocked anywhere... another thing for the junkyard!
  • Went to the junk yard, got the heater duct, and the little plastic vent things that go in the front footwells. The heater duct was missing the metal liner that makes it fit well on the pipes so I had to tighten down the clamps and I'm a little worried about how the rubber will like the heat (I don't really want it to melt!)
  • Got the little round black knobbies to put on the end of the heat control levers from West Coast Metric, now I'm not so worried about people poking their eyes out on the heater controls any more.
  • I also got the gasket that goes on the end of the tube housing the heater control cable from West Coast Metric, so I installed it and re-adjusted the throw of the heater cables to the full range (I had originally adjusted them so that the heat was always on low)
  • Still need to fix the outlets under the rear seat; they don't close all the way.
• Fresh Air
  • Need to figure out the fresh air system. I think that the controls got disconnected when the car got repainted!
  • After taking the glove box out, it appears that there is nowhere to attach the control wire to -- perhaps the vent got replaced by a straight hose! Looks like more junk-yard for this one.
• Interior
  • Need new carpet, at least the driver's and passenger foot pieces...
• Clock / Fuel Gauge
  • The clock doesn't work. It's always 4:05 in my car. It has +12, so it's an internal problem.
  • Sometimes when the lights are on, the fuel gague reads higher. It was a pain to discover this the first time.
  • At one point, the backlights failed, the high beam light inverted state (!) but jerking the car around a little in 1st gear made it go back to normal.
  • I wiggled the ground around a little which solved the problem for a little while.
  • I am looking around for a whole new instrument cluster.
  • Tried one junk yard, every Ghia clock they had was bad. Looks like these things have a ~20 year lifetime, =( ...
• Electrical System
  • The fuses are not quite wired exactly as the Bentley Book says. They are in the same group, but not necessarily the same numbers. I plan to rewire them to be the same numbers, to lessen potential confusion.
  • There are several unclean splices, which I have yet to clean up.
    • Fixed the major one: the main power supply from battery to fuse box. Turns out the PO just twisted the wires together and black-taped them up. I soldered them and used 3 layers of heat-shrink tubing to insulate them.
  • There are a couple of wires just hanging in mid air; some of them just go to the computer hookup but some of them probably don't.
  • The brake warning light on the dash lights up dimly when the headlights are on, blinks with the turn signal and glows with the brakes -- but only when the headlights are on.
• Charging System
  • I came out to the car one day and the battery was completely dead. No click, no lights, no radio. I got a jump and it started right up, drove to the parts store, it started fine out of the parts store, went to Sears and they told me the battery was toast.
  • When Sears installed the new battery, they also tested the charging system and told me that it was bad. So it's time to check the generator and regulator.
  • I tried the test in the Haynes manual, it was relatively inconclusive but the voltage across the battery never went much over 13.5; the Haynes manual says 13.5-14.5 is normal. What's more interesting is that I let the car idle, the voltage dropped to 13.1, I turned the car off, the voltage stayed at 13.1 ...
  • I tried the no-load test in the Bentley manual, and there was at least voltage coming out of the regulator, and it did cut off below around 770 RPM.
  • I plan to replace the regulator and see if that helps - the Haynes manual says to do this first since you have to replace the regulator when you replace the generator anyway...
• Weather Stripping
  • The weatherstripping is all cracked and dry and has holes; I need to replace almost all of it.
  • In particular, I ripped the weather stripping off the driver's side door when trying to make it close properly, so I definitely need to put that back on. I tried once but had a bad time with the weather stripping glue.
• Glove Box
  • The glove box disintegrated one day when I tried to open the hood.
  • I bought a new plastic glove box from West Coast Metric, but it has none of the holes required to mount the hood-opening lever.
  • I still have to drill out the rivets from the old mounting and figure out how to disconnect / reconnect the cable without locking the hood forever by accident =)
  • I have taken the old glove box out.
  • I re-attached the glove box door to the body (there was only actually 1 out of the 4 original screws).
• Replace Hoses
  • I already replaced several cracked/loose hoses, but there are more. I'm a little worried by the damp cloth surrounding the fuel line, so that's my next replacement.
  • While under the front hood, I noticed a potentially leaky fuel-fume-recovery hose, so that one is definitely pretty high priority! I don't want no stinkin' gas-tank fire!
• Windows
  • Both driver's and passenger's windows squeak and tend to catch when you raise and lower them. I looked at the driver's side mechanism and it looks like it's totally junked up with old grease, so the solution is probably to take the window mechanism completely out and clean it and grease it properly. Since I don't want to do without windows for any length of time (at least not during the winter) this one will have to wait until I'm biking again.
• Rear Defroster
  • The relay for the rear defroster is hanging in space, instead of attached to the fan housing. Someone shortened some of the wires, so it won't make it all the way to the bracket any more.
  • The ground for the relay was missing. After looking unsuccessfully in the engine compartment for a convenient place to get a ground, I finally ended up running a wire to the left rear light assembly, since there was an unused ground terminal post there!
  • After putting a new fuse in the fuse holder, there was current to the defroster; it still doesn't work very well but now I suspect it's a problem with the wires on the window.
• Misc
  • The washer motor has all sorts of gunk on it. No clue what it is but it points towards the need for a full under-dash cleaning spree.
• Engine Compartment Lights
  • Peg's Jeepy has an awesome light under the hood that lights up the whole engine compartment when you lift it up. Unbelievably useful at night.
  • Bob Hoover wrote about how he did it in his VW's.

Things already done

• Dome light
  • The spring in one of the contacts in the mirror assembly is no longer springy, so it wouldn't make contact. I just dumped a bunch of solder on the contact on the light so that it was high enough to touch the contact. This is a relatively high-maintenance solution, since the solder is soft enough to get molded out of shape and I expect to have to re-do it soon.
  • There was no light in the holder when I bought the car, and the local auto parts store didn't have the exact bulb with the pointy ends. I bought one with flat ends and bits of wire on the ends and bent the wire a bit and force-fit it. I think it was for a Chevy or something, but at least I have light now.
  • The driver's side switch was broken, so the light wouldn't come on even after the above two steps. I finally found a bug switch, but it's a single-pole switch with one big terminal post instead of the Ghia double-pole switch with 4 tiny terminal posts. However, since the other pole of the Ghia switch is for the door buzzer and I don't particularly want a door buzzer, I figured I'd just go for it.
• Emergency Brake
  • While parking in San Fransisco, I was being too paranoid about making sure the brake was on, so I pulled it up really hard. The center pushbutton went "sproing" and shot out of the middle of the brake. I had pulled it off of the ratchet and the pushbutton and piece attached to it relied on being on the ratchet. I dealt with not having a ratchet for a while (I could still manually push the little metal piece into place to hold the brake) and then finally re-installed the pushbutton by pulling the brake up as high as when I broke it and wiggling all pieces until they went together...
• Sun Visor
  • I walked out of work one day and saw the Driver's side sun visor just hanging down, not attached next to the mirror. It turns out the little plastic piece to hold it in place had disintegrated.
  • I tried super-gluing the pieces back together, but after it fell apart twice more I gave up on that, and tied the visor to the screw with string.
  • I finally found West Coast Metric, which actually had the right part for a reasonable price and ordered one... 2 days later, I was in sun visor heaven!
• Driver's side door
  • The driver's side door didn't close all the way; you could unlock the car by just bouncing against the door since it would wiggle the locking mechanism.
  • I removed the weather stripping in the incorrect notion that it was causing the problem.
  • I then realized that the strike plate could be moved and bought a big ol' phillips screwdriver and moved it, and now the door closes properly.
• Windshield Washer
  • There are several leaks in the system, including one in the steering-column switch and one before the pressure-sensitive valve that can nearly empty the spare tire.
  • I bought a pump ($14 at Kragen) and mounted it on top of the horn attachment. I mounted a button under the dash in front of the fuse box (invisible from a seated position) and now I have power washers!
• Brakes
  • Someone looked like they were going to pull out in front of me on my way to work on 2/8/96. I slammed on the brakes and the pedal went to the floor (but I stopped!)
  • I discovered that the brake line through the passenger compartment had burst only after buying a rebuilt master cylinder. Luckily, Kragen took it back. I replaced the brake line but nobody had time to help me bleed it... then when I did get a hand we couldn't bleed it.
  • Took it to a garage and they bled it for $30.00 -- too much, but at least I have brakes again!
• Engine Trouble
  • It doesn't like to idle sometimes. Carb adjustment doesn't seem to do anything predictable.
  • Sometimes after it is having this trouble the fuel filter has no gas in it, so I bought a new fuel pump but haven't installed it yet.
  • Installed the fuel pump. While trying to remove the old plastic spacer, it broke and left half of it in the engine. After trying many many things to get the half out of the engine, I finally bought a tap set and tapped threads into the plastic piece. Pulled right out. The new fuel pump didn't help significantly.
  • Rebuild the carb. This helped a lot, the stalling is cured but the carb adjustment is still a little iffy, I think there's something wrong with the volume screw.

Summary of "Things Yet To Obtain"

• From a junk yard
  • Clock / Fuel Gague instrument cluster
• From a parts store or catalog
  • New carpet (or parts thereof)
  • Voltage Regulator
  • Weather stripping
  • More hoses
  • Lights, switch and fuse for under-hood lights
  • Dash cover (between instruments and luggage compartment)