[V8] Not many. Or maybe it's heresy.

[Roger M. Woodbury]

Yeah, I actually have the Bentley manuals on the floor right here by my
desk.  I looked through them yesterday to see what would be involved in
doing the rear shocks myself, and then went hunting on line to see what is
available and at what price.  It is doable, and I don't see why I even need
to have a spring compressor...just a jack and a piece of 2x4 to jack the
assembly back into position.  

But I won't have time to do the job myself for at least another month, and I
have thought since I haven't found anything remotely like a replacement,
maybe I'll just drive The Runt -- 1992 Ford F150 shorty plow truck -- while
I await developments.

IF I sold The Mariah and got ALL the money...say, $3500...someone would be
getting a whale of a deal and I would be getting screwed.  The car runs
perfectly, and needs minor stuff...although the rear suspension does need to
be redone...upper control arms and so forth.  But there is no reason why the
car can't go well for a while longer UNDERNEATH me.  

And as a "beater" as we say up here, they don't get any better than The
Black Mariah.

I think I will go to Tire Rack now, and price tires....

Roger

-----Original Message-----
From: Kent McLean [mailto:kentmclean at comcast.net] 
Sent: Sunday, June 10, 2007 1:25 PM
To: v8 at audifans.com
Cc: Roger M. Woodbury
Subject: Re: [V8] Not many. Or maybe it's heresy.

Roger M. Woodbury wrote:
> But The Black Mariah will end her daily driver days on July 1st, unless I
> decide...repent...and do the rear shocks, and spend a bunch of time that I
> don't have tweaking behind the instrument cluster so turn off the annoying
> warning lights that would keep me from being inspected.  New tires, too,
of
> course.  But I keep coming back to the simple fact that the car runs so
> damned well right now that replacing it will be very, very difficult.

Roger,

You'll regret selling the Black Mariah, as any "new" car will also need
work,
maybe more than you realized at first inspection.

The Black Mariah is a known quantity.  Rear shocks shouldn't be a deal
breaker.
The instrument cluster, well, that is a common problem.  If you tell us
which
lights are on, maybe we can help you turn them off; in my mind, it is either
a
(bad) sensor, or bad circuits on the IC itself.  A call to one of the used
parts
vendors (Force 5 comes to mind) might net you a good cluster, and then you'd
only have to deal with the sensors. Or we can identify which wires need to
be
cut/jumped. In the grand scheme of things, it beats a blown engine (or
tracking
down an oil leak. :)

Truth be told, I bought a 200 20V that needed more work than I was ready
for.
I bought a 2nd that was well cared for, and with a new exhaust, I'm happy
with
it for now (it does have some issues that need sorting; warning lights for
brake
bads, brake lights, and emergency brake are the irritating ones; the antenna
doesn't receive stations more than 5-10 miles away; and the headliner is
sagging).  If my timing was really good, I could have saved myself lots of
aggravation and would have been very happy as the new owner of the Black
Mariah.
But my timing is not perfect. Neither is the Black Mariah, nor is any car
you
may replace it with.

So, keep her.  And keep looking for that non-existing perfect V8, or even
the
diesel, to use for the sunny days.

-- 
Kent McLean
'91 200 TQA #1, for sale
'91 200 TQA #2, no name yet
'94 100 S Avant, "Moody"
'89 200 TQ, "Bad Puppy", up in smoke

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