[T3] The road trip blues

[Daniel Nohejl]

We made it home at around 9pm yesterday without the other shoe dropping: not a single other miss. Though in the 1k miles since Madison, we accumulated a laundry list of things to address, 2 of which we’ve already gotten to:

1. We had to reconnect the hot start relay. On two occasions, the starter worked after a highway run and that was when we turned off the car, waited a few seconds, started it back up for a few seconds, and then turned it off again. The wasn’t foolproof b/c on one occasion we tried this right after shutdown and the starter didn’t engage at all. Relay is on now but we haven’t done any driving. I hope this works, b/c solo bump starting doesn’t sound like much fun. 

2. In Madison, I thought I heard a loose valve on the 3/4 side of the motor. We checked the valves and they were fine. After 1k miles, the sound turned into a loud metallic clanking which would go away if I pushed against the muffler with my boot. Turns out, we have a huge exhaust leak out of the clamp/donut/ring on that side. The rear of the heater box is black with soot. While the exhaust is tightly secured everywhere else, we can rock it such that it slides fore and aft on the heater box pipe there and that seems to be the source of the noise. While the clamp is tight, it’s awkwardly situated over the joint. Since I have a spare, I took off the clamp to check things out and the donut and ring are fine. We put some FLAPS exhaust leak junk and a new clamp on it and we’ll see how it goes for now. 

This is the stuff….probably crap, but after years of exhaust leaks at these clamps, I want to get some flanges welded onto the HB and muffler and this might be an adequate temporary solution:

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/versachem-muffler-repair-tape-10270/10491320-p?c3ch=PLA&c3nid=10491320-P&c3apidt=23534088816&gclid=Cj0KCQjw24nNBRChARIsALldLD2LL1f8kmwISWqSK6bM2MnO1oLKdfsozGvR7RviPQMe534UFYHxHboaAjwHEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

3. Our steering box has been on the edge of taking a dump and now it has. It thunks loudly and it has a weird “skip”, especially when turning right. Got under there today and there was no play in any suspension part but for the output shaft of the box which thunks loudly when the wheel is turned all the way right. I put my hand on each part while Jessica turned the wheel and it’s clearly the box that’s thunking. Much less so to the left if that means anything. 

4. Suddenly, upshifting into 3rd gear is strange. Sometimes it goes as smoothly as usual and other times there’s resistance and the trans thunks very loudly when it goes into gear. No grinding, just a slight bit of resistance and a thunk. If I spend a second or two in neutral between 2nd and 3rd it shifts smoothly. Synchro on the way out?