I left home. Fine.
Started tooling down 101. Fine.
Got about half was through Marin Co. and all my instruments started
to die. Indicator lights flickered on and off (I forgot what some
of them meant. They are not labelled, and I never had an owners
manual). I pulled off the road and discovered that my oil pan
gasket was now leaking very well indeed. I spent about 1.5 hours
poking at connections under the dash and tweeking the pan bolts.
Well... I think I found what was shorting under the dash, and the
instruments seemed to behave. The pan leak was annoying, but not
anywheres near being critical (the Aston takes 12 qts of Castrol).
It was Palo Alto or bust. The rest of the trip was uneventful.
The instruments only sputtered a few times more - no big deal.
Gawd, wos it hot! The Aston is equipped with a non-optional heating
system called: dual exhaust pipes run near the floor pan with
inadequate heat baffles and insulation. The passenger window was
stuck in the closed position (of course). I compensated somewhat by
increasing the airflow underneath the chassis :-). Got to Palo Alto
quite late. Mostly, I sat in the shade, talked, ate, and drank Newc'y
Brown. I did, however, get one of the black "LUCAS Prince of Darkness"
T-shirts to commemorate the event.
All in all, a good time. Now - on to the repairs!
Regards,
Ron Knipper
DSC Optilink
707 792 7238
knipper@optilink.com
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