Departure Eve

So tomorrow evening, my brother and I shove off for New York City, starting point for the sojourn to New Orleans. It has been interesting getting this little POS running. Now, at least, I can exchange smug glances with fellow Toyota (especially Prius) drivers with our fuel sipping cars, understanding that we're saving the planet and all. It's a Toyota thing; you wouldn't understand.

When the little bugger fired up when fuel was sprayed in the carb a couple years ago, after 'rusting' peacefully for 15 years, lovingly watched over by barn vermin who used it to store nuts and nesting debris, how could anyone say no? About $800 later (including a new set of tires), and unknown man hours, and unknown hours picking other's brains on such a technological relic (no computers controlling anything! How can it function?), it is back on the road. I had hoped to keep in the spirit of the event and keep the repair costs under $500, but that didn't happen. The lowest point had to be when it wouldn't start after cleaning the carb the second time. When, wracked with desperation, I feebly pulled the carb off again, the intake manifold had standing gasoline in it. In any vehicle, that would qualify as a little 'too rich'. A gasket around one of the jets had completely given up and shred itself, pouring fuel down its gullet. The highest point was catching myself thinking, while driving it to my parent's place, 'This is almost nice.' It is definitely a more rustic automotive experience, and it isn't even an old British roadster!

The major repair areas were:
Brakes (new calipers, pads, wheel cylinders, shoes, master cylinder)
fuel lines (rubber line zip tied to bottom of car)
fuel tank refurbishment
carb cleaning and replacement of certain gaskets
exhaust system.
Sealing of trunk holes.
New plugs, wires, coil (which was arcing badly).

Fuel economy has improved from the first full tank, when I ran it out of gas after 180 miles, ironically enough right next to a gas station. That worked out about 15 mpg, which would be a bit low. After replacing some tattered gaskets in the carb, the fuel economy jumped to 20. After fixing the master cylinder piston to brake booster rod clearance so the brakes were presumably no longer dragging, it rocketed to 26, about what it should be. It got 27 on the trip to my parents.

Hopefully, the 'Where is Tojo' page linked on the right will be updated throughout the trip with links to maps of our position real-time-ish. We shall see.