Delurking/misc

[bstrub@olympic.net (bernard strub)]

Hello, all.  I am one of the lurkers not normally heard from on this list.  I 
felt it better to watch for a while before jumping right in.

First tale.  Today, when I got in the car (87 4Kcsq - velly velly stock), the 
durned radio antenna wouldn't go up.  I could hear the little motor 
working away at it, but no lift.  Grumbling, I drove silently to work. After 
the day's efforts, I went back to it, and manually pulled the mast up.  The 
radio worked fine, so I left it.  Went shopping, and noticed the little motor 
working its heart out with car shut down. Grrr!  Tried unplugging the 
electrical lead - and found out that it is an _amplified_ antenna.  Here in 
the hinterlands, radio no workie without good antenna.  Grrrr!  After getting 
home, and being (brave? unconcerned? stupid?) I decided to dismantle the 
thing and find what was wrong.  Turns out that two of the tiny gears within 
don't agree on a meshing location.  I snipped the motor lead, and 
reassembled.  Radio workie dandy, mast is now manual.  Tomorrow, a call to 
(XYZ Dismantlers) should bring another with an application of $$.  Moral:  
Unplugging the antenna only worsens radio reception.

Second.  Comment on the heaters in 4K's.  Mine will do feet to well done 
within ten miles.  Yours must be sick.

Third.  Air vents - I am on my third german car (74 Opel Manta, 84 Jetta GLI, 
Audi) and all of them have had the cold air central dash vents.  I got used 
to them, so much that on my z-car, I miss them.  It must be a german thing.  
That's ok, too....

Last.  Lots of people seem to like the 4K's (me too!), and are looking for 
MORE POWER (me too!).  I have seen or heard of several with turbos in them 
(10v and 20v), but I prefer norm asp for the throttle response.  Are there 
any other successful types of swap?  V-6? VR-6? Or maybe dependable HP mods? 
One guy I talked to was going to bore his out to 2.5 l. Is there precedence? 
What kind of power increases can be had from the 5 cyl. without destroying 
its good points (smooth, torque, reliable)?  Inquiring minds wanna know...

All for now

>>>>>Bernie
87 4Kcsq  and lots of other thangs...