After market parts

["Paul Irvine" <kcabpilot@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've mentioned this before concerning after market gaskets and such but
here's the latest. I bought a new ignition switch for my 72 Spider. I won't
say who I bought it from because I figure that regardless of who it was I'd
have gotten the same product. Anyway, when I installed it I was a bit
concerned at how loose the terminals seemed to be but it seemed to work
okay. That was before my steering box broke, which is a totally different
Project Alfa saga but anyway, I had to pull the steering column out and
disconnect the ignition switch and when I hooked it back up I had some
serious problems. As soon as I hooked the battery up the starter began to
crank.

Well, to make a long story short, the switch - which wasn't exactly cheap by
the way - is a pretty shoddy piece of work. The materials seem to be okay
but the assembly process is definitely sub-par. Those loose terminals are
certainly a map towards possible disaster because inside the switch there
are very close tolerances and jiggling some wires with the switch off and
the car in gear could very easily result in the engine starting and your
Alfa driving off towards whatever lays in it's path.

I thought of sending it back, maybe I should have, but after disassembling
it I decided it wasn't anything that a judicial application of some good ol'
JB Weld wouldn't cure. Besides - if I'd sent it back they'd just sent me
another one of the same quality.

Anyway, beware if you've got one of these things.

Paul Irvine - Antioch CA
Project Alfa
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