September 30, 2006 Needed a car to take cross-State to pick up 1/2 beef at the family butcher's. Hello, fuel economy! The car behaved fairly well, though it _is_ small and the lack of interior space is definitely noticeable on a long trip like this. The tires are also obviously in need of some attention, there was a pronounced shudder at speeds much over about 65, feels like out-of-balance tires, maybe exacerbated by weak shocks (struts). And, the AC didn't work. I could feel the compressor kick in but then it cut out immediately and wouldn't come back, probably the Klima doing its thing. Will have to dig into that. So, not a perfect trip, but adequate. The brakes were fine. Fuel mileage was about 36 going over, there was a pretty noticeable headwind. The car's still a bit twitchier than I would like, but it's probably as good as it's going to get unless and until I do some wholesale front suspension work.
I don't know why, but the radio antenna is again not working. Kind of a bummer on a road trip, no antenna means no reception outside of the city. Oh well, it's not like I really need tunes in order to drive (unlike some people). October 1, 2006 Return trip pretty much the same as yesterday's. Fuel mileage was about 42 coming back. Starting to look like 42 is its best number. October 5, 2006 Pretty cold morning, the rear window was all fogged up. Too bad the rear defroster isn't working! October 7, 2006 Pulled out the antenna again. Seems to be getting signals from the radio and switch, something must be wrong inside again. I opened it, and after much fooling around came to the conclusion that the protective series diode, same manufacturer and appearance as the dead Zener from before, was also flakey. Flexing the board in the area would let it work sometimes. It was _not_ the solder joint, it had an internal crack or something, it could have been stress-induced from when the Zener shorted and blew the trace on the board. I paralleled a junkbox diode with the flakey diode, but on the back side of the board, and the antenna started working properly again. (Removing the old diode would have been difficult due to the heat sinks on the board and the general tightness of the layout.) So I reinstalled the antenna, but left the trunk liner out just in case it flakes out again soon. It needs a new grommet anyway. October 8, 2006 Checked the fuse box. F6, the rear defroster fuse, was dimpled on one end and not making good contact. Common, one usually replaces the fuse in this case. I burnished the ends and turned it around since the fuse was otherwise in good shape, then the dash switch light started working. That fuse box lid is the _worst_ piece of crap design I've ever seen! It took me 15 minutes to get it back into place. Even removing it is difficult. The secret to removing it is, again, to first remove the relay box cover immediately in front of it. The glued-on relay box cover hinge ear had started to come loose, so I dribbled cyanoacrylate glue into it and hit it with accelerant. That firmed it right up. -- Jim
