The Webmaster Zone

Had a bit of a "moment" this weekend! I had gone to North Vancouver to try and get my AirCare emissions certificate renewed. Failed the test, the air leak around the rear carb is to blame I'm sure. The testing people were really nice though, for a change, and didn't charge me the second time I went through. I had retarded the timing and leaned out the mixture but it's the idle test that is causing me grief. Anyway, when I was driving back all this smoke started coming out of the dash! As you probably know, smoke is what powers our British cars, and if you let the smoke escape, it won't work anymore. I quickly pulled off the road and turned everything off. I thought it was the radio, but I soon found it was the headlight switch. I disconnected the offending wire and determined it was the parking light circuit that was shorting out. This caused a light bulb to go on above my head, as I had been moving things around in the boot when I was doing the emissions setup and I had recently had to disconnect and tape up some frayed wires that feed the license plate lights. Sure enough, there were some melted/fused wires back there that I promptly removed from the loop. I'll rewire the whole tail end one of these days, after the leak is fixed! Once that was done I replaced the melted wire coming off the headlight switch and everything was happy again. I also installed one of the bullet mirrors that previously lived on the fenders on the driver's side door. Looks really sharp and helps visibility somewhat, although I have to lean over to get a good view of what's immediately behind me. I'm really starting to miss those hot summer days, driving around with the top down and the wind in my hair!