In consideration of the above,..this day was spent as a peace offering between us. That translates directly to I didn't spend any time in the garage except this last hour.
The bugs keep going away,...others keep popping up.
#1. I have a bad light switch. At least I think that's what it is. It is the switch that came in the Ron Francis kit is all I can say about it,...One minute you got lights,..the next second, you don't. Push it back in and pull it back out a few times, and the lights might work, or they might not.
All I know is that it's a pain in the ass to get to, and I haven't got a freakin clue what it looks like as there are a few different models to choose from. If The one I have is the one that Summit sells ala carte,..then it isn't the best switch as per the reviews.
I drained some coolant and removed the T-stat. I put it in a pan of water on the stove and checked to see if it was opening and closing like it's s'posed to. It works exactly like it's s'posed to.
That leaves that stupid 1/4" line that bypasses the T-stat to blame for not letting the water get hot in the engine as air moves past the radiator...So,...I plugged it.
I put it back together and test drove it. Problem was,..the damn lights were flickering on and off, so I kept the car close to the house...(Still dangerous because it was too dark to see) I basically used street lights to see.
Everything mechanically seems healthy..the car blazes the tires still, and looks like it reaches and stays at 180 degrees.
I don't know if I said it last time,..but the inlet filter was 50% clogged w/ crap that must've been in the tank. Only thing I can think of is that it's welding scale that came off the inside of the welds where I put the inlet fittings, and sealed the old sending unit hole shut. The pump isn't making a bunch of noise right now,..so maybe that will be the tell tale when that filter needs cleaning.
So I gotta pull the dash partially apart to get to that freakin light switch. I'll start w/ the minimum access option first before I end up having to go to the extreme route of removing the dash top. I'm hoping that I can just remove the trim pieces that sandwich the grille mesh, remove that grille mesh, and hopefully have enough wire slack to get at that freakin switch from the front.
Like I said,..If I can get this mesh to pull forward enough to expose the whole switch top,...I'll be OK.
If not.....