[Amc-list] Driving instead of wrenching

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

I've been DRIVING the little American all weekend, not just WRENCHING it. 
What a fun car! I guess I like small cars, cuz this thing is small. Parks 
anywhere.

Shifting the T-96 in 2007 Los Angeles is a challenge, and I get a lot of 
a**hole SUVers behind me, blacked out windows, cellphone clamped under 
their ear pull out and zoom by me; sometimes I wave with less than all my 
fingers. Often when I'm actually not even in their way, they just assume I 
will be (sometimes it's true).

The carb flat spot/hesitation right off idle is a PITA. I'll fix that.

I did change the trans oil, surprise, it stopped hemmoraging. It also got a 
lot easier to get into first gear, but 3 to 2 begins to grind slightly. 
(Went from 10W-30 to 90W-140!)

I got a Pertronix module some weeks ago, stuffed it into the rebuild 
distrib I got from eBay (after fully disassembling it to remove all the old 
dried grease and re-lube). I also seat-of-the-pants recurved it (soft 
advance springs).

Pertronix did their homework; I aligned it by eye physically to match the 
old points distrib, and it started right up, and was within 4 - 5 degrees 
of correct. Set to about 8BTDC for now.

I bought their epoxy coil, but one change at a time. I got a 1.5 ohm coil, 
should have got a 3 ohm, but I'll add a 1 ohm resistor.

First manual trans car I've driven in many years, I have to learn smooth 
shifting all over again, but other than N to 1st to 2nd after a light, very 
easy to drive.

Did 20 miles of highway yesterday, ran great. 65mph is fine, in OD, even in 
OD it kept up with LA's Golden State Freewway traffic. I've been very easy 
on the engine, rev no higher than 3000 for now, easy on the slippy clutch, 
etc, but it's got adequate power to get around just fine.

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