Project Alfa Log: July 3 2002

["Paul Irvine" <pi@domain.elided>]

Today I took on two seemingly meaningless but daunting jobs:

The first was to replace the heater control valve on the driver's side of
the heater core. The first time I mounted it I had the cable from the
foot/defrost flapper secured to the valve actuator arm and I was laying
there in this position that has got to be the absolute most uncomfortable
position that you could possibly get yourself into and wondering why this
cable was connected from the foot/defrost flapper to the temp control valve
and why there was this rod hanging loose from the air inlet flapper that
didn't seem to go anywhere.

So I finally figured out that the rod was supposed to connect to the valve
actuator arm and by now I have this two inch deep crease in my right kidney
from laying on the door sill and I'm trying to figure out how the heck I'm
going to get that rod through the hole in the bolt of the valve actuator and
also wondering if the engineer that designed this setup has been murdered
yet.

I finally got it hooked up but only after I had mounted and removed the
defroster duct horn four times and the temperature control valve three
times. I finally found a more comfortable position laying on my back with my
legs and feet pointing aft but then I ripped a half inch gash in my right
pinky toe on the aft upper corner of the door sill getting out - oh well....

The second job was to install the passenger side front upper control arm
limit pad. If you haven't done this lately consider yourself lucky - let's
just leave it at that.

All in all a productive day, one that demonstrates how the little details
can really slow you down, but it felt good to get those two wholly
inglorious jobs behind me.

Paul Irvine - Antioch CA
Project Alfa - http://home.pcmagic.net/pi
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