Re: '89 200 TQ woes (Update)

[Todd Joseph <todd@ConnActivity.ConnActivity.com>]

>Just bought this car and love it even though it has a few problems.
>Hoping someone out here can help:
>
>(1) Squirrely front end.  At a minimum, it needs an alignment.  Can
>    someone recommend a good place to take it in the Boston (Needham)
>    area to have the front end inspected and proper action
>    recommended?

Nothing done yet.  Any recommendations out there?  Don't have any
yet...

>(2) Emergency brake not working.  This did not bother me too much as I
>    figured it's a 5-Speed and I could leave it in gear instead.
>    With the car in reverse, turned off, and parked on a hill, the car
>    moves an inch and a couple of seconds later moves another inch.
>    If left to it's own, the car would continue to inch down the hill.
>    Why/How would this be happening?  The car runs and shifts *very*
>    smoothly.  How tough is reconnecting the emergency brake?

While I had the dash apart to fix the heat, I pulled up the plastic
covering the handle for the emergency brake.  Noticed that if I pulled
the handle really hard the emergency brakes held pretty close to good
enough to keep the car from moving.  So, does this mean that the cable
is just loose or is it a symptom of needed a rear break job?  If I
should tighten the cable, how do I tackle that?

>(3) No heat.  No A/C.  When I adjust the temp all the way from HIGH
>    to LOW, the air starts blowing out the vents on the dash rather
>    than the Defrost.  So, I know that this flap in the heater box is
>    working.  Need to investigate some more.  Will repost to anyone
>    who's interested when I resolve it.

This was an adventure.  Contacted previous owner who told me that his
"mechanic" had resolved a problem with the A/C by blowing air with a
compressor into the drainage for the A/C.  Yikes.  I pulled the
passenger side wiper and pulled up the firewall cover to get a look at
the back of the heater box.  The lever which regulates hot and cold
was stuck.  Having done a few 5000 heater cores, I figured that I
would have to pull the heater box out to resolve whatever was wrong.
After I did this, I found the there is a little motor on the driver's
side of the heater box in the 200 (my 5000's did not have this) which
moves the hot/cold lever back and forth and it was not working.  I
pulled the little motor and replaced it with my old standby, a choke
cable -- with a nice mount on the drivers side on the left side of the
center console.  Using my choke cable, I can adjust temp between hot
and cold.  Yippie.  

Will probably never try to fix the A/C.

The heater box was *very* clean.  Not even a hint of Antifreeze.
Suprised me as the car has 170K miles on it...

Todd
todd@connact.com