A post a day......

Mustang Adventure Time! Or, the Test Drive....of DOOM!

I've had a rough idle in my GT that I haven't had a lot of luck tracking down. My next attempt was replacing the PIP, so I picked up a Napa MP716 stator today and decided to rebuild the distributor tonight. Bad part about working on an engine after driving home from work: it's HOT! Got a couple of minor burns I'm nursing now, just couldn't get a good grip on the distributor bolt..... The distributor came apart real easy; checked for play in the center shaft and there was none. Put the dizzy back together, set the timing back to 10* BTDC and went out for a test drive. Car is already running better, but I want to get it up to freeway speeds just to be sure. So off I drive to the nearest on-ramp. This is where things went wrong, and I'm not talking about the Mustang.

For those that don't know, I live in Los Angeles; right at the intersection of the 10 and 405 freeways. My usual freeway test drive is: hop on the 405, exit on to the 10, and take the next exit back to surface streets and home. A quick jaunt, but it's more than enough to test things out. So I get on to the 405, and suddenly traffic starts slowing down. At 11:00pm, traffic should at least be moving smoothly even here in LA. Nope, I forgot that there's construction going on at night when the fewest people are (theoretically) driving. The exit to the 10 freeway is blocked off. No problem, I'll bypass the 10 and take the next exit off the 405 and turn around. BAM! More traffic. I sit through that and find out the exit I want is ALSO closed. I begin to wonder what deity I annoyed today. The following exit is open, but all the cars that wanted to use the last two closed exits are using that one AND the next two. I'm not familiar with all these exits, so I skip ahead to the next one which I know has an on-ramp nearby that goes back in the other direction - back home. Exit is completely empty. I turn left from the light at the bottom of the ramp, turn the corner and $h!t!! MORE construction! I am livid at this point. To make it worse, the ramp I wanted I can't use! It's open, but the construction won't let me turn left. Fine. I keep going, figuring to turn around as soon as I can. No such luck, there aren't any places to turn around. The street runs parallel to the freeway, so I eventually give up on turning around and just look for the next on-ramp. I find it, take the corner and...IT'S CLOSED TOO! AAARRRGGGHH!!! Resigned, I keep going and cross over the freeway I've been trying to get on to for a while. Still no place to turn around. I am finally able to turn left, which takes me back over the freeway again - and I find myself on the Mulholland Drive bridge, the one that closed down the 405 for a weekend so half of the bridge could be torn down. I forget my frustration temporarily as I drive over the bridge, there's not much to see but it's kinda neat anyway. I keep driving down Mulholland Drive, figuring it will meet up with Sepulveda Blvd and get me headed back home.

Oh, I was so wrong.

I admit, I'm not familiar with this area of Los Angeles. After a bit of driving, I don't see Sepulveda Blvd so I pull over. Time to use the GPS in my phone to get me home....and realize I left my phone at home. Just a quick test drive, right? Sigh. I reach for my Thomas Guide (a really excellent and highly detailed local map) and find where I am. I see it intersects with Sepulveda a ways up (wrong, I misread the map - Mulholland Drive goes OVER Sepulveda), so I keep driving forward. And drive. AND drive. I get to the scenic part of Mulholland Drive, a nice winding, twisty road with a beautiful view of the night lights of LA. Foolishly, I keep going. The road heads upwards; I get worried when the road narrows and the yellow lines are so faded I can't see them anymore. Eventually, the road takes a sharp right and is now in better condition, so I figure I must be close now. Downhill I go, passing some really nice and expensive homes. I already knew something was wrong, but I was enjoying the nighttime drive. Now I know I've gone WAY too far. I pull over again and read the map VERY CAREFULLY this time. Obviously I've screwed up, and I'm not sure exactly where I am now. So I turn around to retrace my steps. Another fun drive back down Mulholland Drive, across the freeway, all the way back to that one on-ramp I couldn't turn left into. It was open (THANK GOD) and in about 10 minutes I was finally home.

The PIP was the problem. The Bassani mufflers are still nice and loud at WOT, but they're...more refined is all I can describe it as. It's quieter as well, runs nice and smooth now. This whole mess was about 20 miles round-trip, and I hardly made a dent in the gas gauge. Got one heck of a story out of the trip too, so it wasn't all that bad in the end.