Okay, so I just started delivering pizzas in the GL-10 again, and its time to get the girl in better shape than she's been. I am cleaning the car, and doing alot of routine maintenance and preventetive stuff, and I have a few points to relate, and invite comments on.. along with asking a few questions at the same time.

 

First up is a reinstall of my 90 amp maxima alternator, didn't think I was going to need it but now I want it.. I am adding a few auxiliary power circuits. Anyone know what kind of wattage a single filament tail light style bulb draws? I need to get an idea what kind of amperage the silly car topper is going to draw because I am dovetailing the wire for that into a switch in my car.

 

Hopefully in all this wiring madness, I will also pull the stereo out and get the front speakers wired up again. IIRC, the gray pair of wires were the ones for the front channel.. I abandoned the stock speaker wires for the rears, and have left the front unhooked. If/when I get around to this, I will take detailed photographs of "how" I installed the stereo, because a couple people have asked me about it and its something of an accomplishment.

 

 

I bought some cheapo radiator flush solution, and tomorrow while I swap the alternators I am going to swap the heater core hoses, and run with them backwards for a couple of days. Come Sunday I plan on blasting the block with a hose, draining, then running the solution through and draining again, restoring heater hose orientation. The core has been gummed up for a while, and I am not just putting up with it for another winter like I did last year. Winter isn't TOO brutal here, but when driving is my job you better believe I want a quick defroster. Any thoughts?

 

I have nastiness in my almost new radiator, because I still haven't flushed the crud out completely from my bad headgasket episode. The water was muddy from bubbling; I have flushed a couple times but only with fresh water. This time its for real. Once I run the chemical flush through, I am going to rinse freely, then probably run for a little while with clean water before draining and replacing with pure anti-freeze. I want to get a good shock treatment of pure anti-freeze to help dissipate any issues caused by using pure water for the last year.

 

 

I am also thinking about taking the air handler box apart and cleaning the heater core, and AC evaporator coils.. but thats something of a project. I know I get major results cleaning the crud from the coils of my window-mount AC in my bedroom every year, so I am wondering how dirty these could be. I DO smoke in the car, as did my brother before me, so they can't be too pretty.

 

 

I've also noticed a bit of squeakiness that seems to accompany the steering wheel action.. I may be wrong, and I'm going to do an underbody chassis/suspension inspection soon anyhow, but where in the steering column might there be a carrier point that could use a little lube?? any ideas on this? Obviously I am going to investigate thoroughly myself, and I know to check the little U-joints in the shaft, but I thought I would throw it out there to see if theres anything subtle I might want to attend to.

 

 

Finally, My power steering pump has leaked very badly for some time, and its gotten worse lately. I haven't even LOOKED at this yet, so for all I know it could be a loose clamp or fitting, but it leaks down from the back of the pump and all over the engine; most of the oil leak "gunk" that has built up in six months is based on ATF from the power steering pump. What might I be looking at, and how difficult might it be to rebuild this pump or reseal it in some fashion? The steering pump is not covered in the FSM fragment that I have, so I am kind of in the dark on this. Any chance that a fresh JY car might have a good steering pump, if it looks OK?

 

IF you read it all, thanks. Any answers, advice, or comments are welcome.

its not THAT epic!! I broke it into nice easy to digest paragraphs, i highlighted the real questions in bold when I could.. no thoughts or answers? :-p

you ever get hit on delivering pizza?

omg... That was a lot of words mate.. You love your essays eh?

 

taillights should be 10watts each, 20 divided by 12volts = 1.6amps plus or minus .4 I reckon from loss in wires and differene in volts.