fiat spider

So I decided it was time for the extended freeway test drive. Destination: my doctor's office, to drop off some paperwork. Before I even got 300 yards away I noticed I now have a leak in the heater control valve. Coolant in the cabin. Yuck. When I stopped fiddling with it, the leak stopped. And continued when I fiddled with it again. So I stopped fiddling with it. I also discovered very very quickly that I need to rebuild my brake system. Brakes not so good at stopping from higher speeds. The car seemed to be doing well till I got off the highway and sat in traffic for a bit...and it just died. I pulled off the road and sat for a while. It started after a few attempts.

Bailed on my test drive and started driving it home. And it died again. At first I thought it was fuel loss or something, but I could feel it this time, it was ignition related. This time, on the side of the 15N, in rush hour, during a traffic jam. I let it sit for a while. I didn't know what was happening, but I figured something was overheating and needed time. I called a tow truck in the mean time. And took a bunch of pictures of the excitement. People started zipping by at 85mph on the median, narrowly missing my little car. A motorcycle cop started writing tickets. Yes! Thank you! It was great, he would see people doing it before they got to me...they would see him and dart back in traffic, and then he would just walk into traffic, right in front of the offending car and yell at them, forcing them off the road. It was fantastic! Idiots.

After a few close shaves and the realization that my risk of ending up in the hospital again was going up fast, I decided not to do any road-side diagnostic or repair. I think it was the electronic ignition overheating. I gotta figure out why. I bet it was the ballast. I never found any, and I bet it's hiding somewhere. Either that or it is just getting hot and I need to relocate it.

Gotta figure out this starting crap too. It takes forever. Maybe the timing is off, it used to fire up on the first try. Hopefully, rebuilding the carb will fix it. It is pretty dirty.

It's kinda neat to sit on the highway and watch the commotion. Some people yelling at other cars, some people singing, some look asleep or dead, some daring in and out, and a few, smiling at me. I took a few cool pics before the tow truck came. I realized that my car looks really cool from a low rear corner angle. Even the sky copter came to watch.

Well, at least I figured this out before I made a time-sensitive trip. This one cost me about 4 hours.