Sunday, July 5, 2015

Mustang Handover......The Do Over.

After I got back from my ride with Jenny, I called Pertronix and verified that they had found the igniter had failed and were sending me a new one.  I decided to go ahead and get one from the local Napa auto parts store just to have a spare handy.  I also got Napa to replace the voltage regulator for free (the second one), and bought another one of those for a spare.  I installed both parts and the car started fine, so I set the timing of the distributor and then did several test drives with no problems. 

My daughter Karen was up from her home in South Pasadena for a long weekend as part of her annual birthday/father's day visit, and it seemed like a good opportunity to take her for a ride in the Mustang to take the car to Brian and see her brother and his family.  We started out early to beat the heat:


Everything was going fine and we even had time to take a little side trip on some two lane roads just to get off the freeway for awhile.  Then after we got back on the interstate, and still south of Olympia, we came to a complete halt with a closed freeway due to an accident.  After awhile they opened up a detour around the accident and we began to creep ahead, but the Mustang didn't like the slow going and the temp gauge needle began to rise.  So did my anxiety needle.  However, the engine temp seemed to reach a steady state that was high, but not boiling over, and we eventually got past the jam and reached Brian's house, so I guess it was actually a successful test of the car handling a traffic jam on a hot day. 

I went over the procedures for replacing the ignition igniter and the voltage regulator, should those ever fail again:




Then Brian took us all to lunch, after which we drove to the Amtrak station for the return home for Karen and I.


Then Brian and Colin drove off..........the car was his, finally:


Listening to this video, I hear a little bit of fan belt chirp, but hey, it's not my problem now!  It sure has a beautiful exhaust sound. 

After Karen and I got home I went to my shop and reveled in the emptiness of it.