Winking spider

[Pottree@domain.elided]

Took the "new" 91 USA spider on a shakedown cruise this weekend after tending 
to all the obvious things that needed doing, attention, or standard 
maintenance.  

It ran better and better, which I initially attributed to the salubrious 
effects of an Italian tune-up.  Earlier today I learned that the ECU on 90 
and newer cars (e.g., newer than I've ever had) "learns" from the type of 
driving done and has a memory of the past 50 starts and how much load or 
demand was placed on the system and how, and slowly adjusts itself 
accordingly.  Disconnecting the battery cancels out this memory and the ECU 
starts recording from scratch again.  Interesting!

Well, the battery was disconnected last week, first to be replaced with a 
fresh one, and next for a little welding work that needed doing, so I guess 
the car is still in its educational infancy.

It ran very well but presented 2 mysteries:

First, sometimes when accelerating at about 60 - 70 mph and also pointing up 
hill, the check engine light winks on momentarily.  Other than that, it never 
goes on.  As it's intermittent, everything is running fine, and it blinks out 
in about 10 seconds, I attribute this to something having to do with the 
indicator circuit (e.g., a weak ground that only wobbles loose under specific 
conditions), rather than anything about the engine.  Any thoughts?

The other mystery has to do with the radio.  When I bought the car the radio 
was working (that is, it got one station very well and no others, since the 
antenna is broken; the cassette player worked OK).  Since the battery was 
disconnected, the radio went into stolen mode.  I was given the code by the 
seller (assuming it's right) but no radio manual (although I have one on the 
way from a private source).  The big question: what's the procedure for using 
the code to revive the radio?  Someone told me to turn it on, punch scan or 
band and then enter the code.  I don't see anything called either scan or 
band on the radio.  Is this some secret handshake operation like setting the 
time on one of those damn digital watches?

Charlie
AROSC

87 75 Gold  FOR SALE
84 GTV6 
91 spider "little smartie" 

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