RIP

On the 9th day of the 6th month in the year of our lord 2006, The Silver Bullet was officially retired from use.

Yes ladies and gentlemen The Silver Bullet, the car that brought me home from the hospital, received my license in, and took to college, was taken to the scrap yard yesterday as payment for a few parts for another 240 that the family has acquired.

I never even got to say good bye...

Stupid other car...

328,600+

Well I've been doing a lot of work on The Chiseled Brick since I got back from Michigan, so for the past two weeks my primary mode of transportation has been the ol' Silver Bullet and I must say it's been a joy.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

Brakes

Well The Silver Bullet got a brand new master cylinder because the old one decided it didn't feel like working anymore. I don't have a whole lot of details on this one. Sorry folks.

Close call

I went home about two weeks ago to hear that the beloved Silver Bullet may be going to a better place, here is it's story.

One morning my dad went out and tried to turn the car on. As is customary the car turned on; however, the starter didn't disengage. This wasn't the only issue. Sparks and smoke started coming up from the transmission tunnel, obviously not a good sign. I didn't have enough time to look at it while I was home, but a few days ago I got a call saying that all was right with the world. Turns out that the switch which allows the car to start while in neutral or park only had some chrome shavings fall in it and short it out. The switch was removed, cleaned, and reinstalled and as stated above all is right with the world.

A few issues found and solved

Well... We thought it was the end. The steering was getting screwy, the brake failure light was on more than off, the brake power assist was intermittent at best, and the car's body certainly didn't see new found hope.

Have no fear!

First Steering...
Turns out the pulley on the steering pump was loose and not the belt wasn't really tensioned very well. This was taken care of by fabricating a tensioner. A few days later the system was 100% again.

Second breaks...
I had figured that all of the break problems stemmed from a leak in the vacuum system, while is part of it, it wasn't the final nail in the coffin. Upon inspecting the underhood and depressing the brake pedal multiple times my Dad (the current driver) noticed that the main vacuum line running from the intake manifold to the brake master cylinder was collapsed. A few dollars later the breaks are better, but not 100%. There are still some leaks which cause intermittent problems.

319,000 and doing fine

Last week The Silver Bullet once again became my primary car because The Chiseled Brick had a few problems. I won't go into them in detail, but I will say that The Silver Bullet is doing great as always. The only problems I came across that aren't rust related are the following:

1. The radio doesn't work
2. A major vacuum leak causes the breaks to be a bit weak at times. While sitting at stop lights the break failure light will come on.