Advice needed Berlina advice

[Marcus Alley <alley@domain.elided>]

Howdy,

I'm pleased to report that Ben Dixon had made it back in one piece to
the SF bay area yesterday.  After two months on the road in the '74
Berlina they all were looking good (travelers and car) and had plenty
of stories to tell.  Hopefully he will enlighten you more when he gets
back; as of this morning they were off to New York and points north
east.  The best story involved the PO's wiring job for his radio; as
the harness started to give out, the car would spontaneously try and
start itself at various times.  The problem was finally diagnosed when
a small fire broke out on the way to Reno.  Needless to say it was
quickly extinguished and all on that front is well again.

The car performed admirably, but after ~5K km it's kind of tired and
in need of various things.  I was hoping to get some advice on a
couple of issues:

1) The backup indicators are permanently on now.  I'm assuming that
   the reverse sensing switch is stuck.  Isn't this located on the
   transmission?  Is it tough to fix, or should it be replaced
   altogether?  Or is there something else wrong?

2) The car has developed a noticeable pull to the right, mostly under
   low speeds, and quite significantly under braking.  I'm a total
   suspension newbie, and so I'm not quite sure what to look for as
   the source of this.  I imagine that the front end will need to be
   aligned, but I would also think that something must have
   precipitated this degradation. And I think this was just recently
   asked, but is an alignment something that could be handled easily
   at any generic mechanic?

3) Lastly, the car needs some new tires.  Any recommendations on
   general purpose, daily driving tires for the original 14" wheels?
   I know this point has come up before too, but I'm looking for
   recommendations on places to go in the Peninsula/South Bay area... 

Thanks a lot!
Marc
Palo Alto

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