misc.

[Mike Arman <armanmik@n-jcenter.com>]

1) ((Applies to 5K series)) Thanks to everyone who sent dead thermoswitches
for autopsy and possible reincarnation. Opening them up is not difficult -
just carefully pry back the brass crimping - use eye protection! - and slip
off the plastic cover. Could be resealed with epoxy or J-B weld, but not
worth the trouble.

Unfortunately, what's inside appears to be unrepairable: two pc boards, one
with a surface mount chip (utterly, totally unrepairable), and everything
soldered together in a dense mass.

Conclusion - even though some earlier posts have mentioned resoldering
several of the connections, unless you're REALLY bored, have NOTHING else to
do, and are hopelessly, terminally anal retentive, go buy a new sender. If
you look around, you can get them for about $40.

Functions of the sender are a) runs temp gauge, b) AC cutout if overheat, c)
runs overheat warning light. No connection to CPU, so no effect on startup
mixture, etc.

2) ((Also 5K series)) Question: Does the power steering pump rebuild kit
come with the reed valve for the pressure relief port? What's in the kit?
Hal the on-board computer is nagging me again, and my local Audi guru (who
is very sharp and very reasonable) says it is time for me to do the pump
overhaul. (Dave, you're out of Pentosin again. No, Hal, the resevoir is
full. You must be mistaken, Dave. Look a**hole, my name isn't Dave, and I'll
drown you in the goddam stuff if you don't shut up. Glub.)

3) Importing London Taxi cabs. $43,000! Whahoo! I'm in the wrong business!
(Discount currency exchange). Trick here is to buy a 1967 or older London
taxi cab (available for about $5,000 in UK) because these vintages are
pre-emissions, pre EPA, pre everything, and are almost identical to the
newer models anyway. Uncle Sam's army of gummint bureaucrats are not
interested in these old cars, and they can usually clear customs with few
problems (YMMV - widely!). One thing you MUST repeat ****MUST!!!*** do is to
save EVERY scrap of documentation you can, send everything certified, return
rcpt requested and make copies of everything. 

I imported a 1968 280SL some years ago, and about a year later I got a very
nasty letter from the EPA ordering me to present my car to them in
Jacksonville TO BE CRUSHED!!!! Like, tomorrow AM, because I hadn't complied
with EPA requirements. I had kept their release forms from a year earlier,
sent them copies AT ONCE!!!! and that's the last I heard about it. Then I
got my heart started again. Whew!

4) Comment about "Chelsea blossoming". I want to state right out front that
I have no use whatsoever for Slick Willie or President Hillary, I wish they
had lost and gone quietly back to Arklahoma (or wherever), and am a
convinced Republican . . .  BUT that comment has got to be the tackiest, no
class-est, cheapest snide remark I've heard in many, many years. How would
you like to be a teenager growing up being followed everywhere by secret
service guys packing guns? She didn't pick her parents, but for the next
fifty years or so, every time she gets mentioned in the news, she'll be " .
. . daughter of President Bill Clinton . . . " etc. Real good for her own
identity, right? Give the kid a break - she's not part of this. (Switching
out of Rant mode. Click.)


Mike Arman