Wrenching To Distraction

With the death of Dingus, I've been looking to distract myself from thinking about him.

For the record, it appears to have been aggressive pancreatic cancer.

Nothing we could have done and the apparent symptoms are nothing then everything.

We're devastated.  It's been a shitty year so far.

So I decided to clear the pile of parts I'd bought for The Beast starting with the strut mounts on Saturday with assistance from JT and Marv.

It solved, to my amazement, a steering wheel vibration from 60-75.  I was braced for no changes at all and got the problem cured.  It's obvious that every single joint on the front needs to be replaced before too long.  Lots of cracked boots but no looseness... yet.  Happily, no single part is too expensive or hard to replace.

The first mount took us about an hour and a half.  The second just half an hour.

Experience matters?

Sunday I decided to install the upgraded "silver box" I'd bought from Australia months ago.

 

This took four and a half hours to get done all by my lonesome.  The decision to put it in was the result of a wild hare up my ass.

It took longer because I was frequently consulting the service manual and taking breaks from the 90+ degree heat with decently sticky humidity.

My radio has gone from an AM/FM with CD to AM/FM, CD, Bluetooth, and (very dated) Nav with USB and 3.5mm Aux input.  The Bluetooth means I can make calls hands free and stream music from the phone, perhaps even XM.  The USB means I can plug in my long neglected iPod Classic.  The 3.5mm aux means I can play anything that uses headphones; the downside is I have to run it from the device and not from the head unit.

One unexpected feature is the ability to store up to 15 CD's onboard the silverbox.  They have to be CD-Audio formatted, and they take forever to load, but it's kind of a neat feature.  Not sure what I'll put there because all of my music fits on that iPod.

Part of the disassembly process was removing the shift knob.  The plastic was worn smooth, and the factory part is unavailable and rare.  A nice leather knob is available for a Pontiac G8 that drops right in, so I did!  Huzzah!  A bit of style and comfort is added for little money!

One feature that is absent is XM.  I plugged in an antenna to the appropriately colored antenna plug and no XM options appeared on screen.  Not unexpected, considering there's no XM down-under, but hopes were dashed.

The new box has provision for a back-up camera.  I have not yet decided where I want to put the camera I've bought, so I haven't routed the wires yet.  Soon?