6 Apr 2024
Towards being a car

Most of the issues I mentioned last time have been resolved.

Went ahead and drove it down to the inspection place (last year for inspections in Texas, unless you're in a county that requires emissions (which I am) and your car is not exempt from emissions testing (which this is)).

The drive was... harrowing.  The rubbing and scraping were nerve-wracking, the car wouldn't idle at stoplights, the speedometer only reads ten miles per hour (regardless of speed), and the brakes are not particularly effective.
Regardless, it passed safety inspection.  They had time to do an alignment as well (which is good, because it really needed it)

While it was on the rack, the first thing we noticed was that a lot of the rubbing and scraping was the rear shocks hitting the little splash-shield things on the rear axle.  Since it was a 4-wheel alignment, they adjusted the pinion down a little and that moved the shocks away from the shields.
I knew it needed an alignment.
Final numbers are pretty close to what I asked for.
Next item on the list:

The tach looks to be reporting half the correct RPMs.

Per the instructions, the two dip switches should be set to UP-UP for an 8 cylinder, but for LS usages it should be set to 4 cylinder, switches UP-DOWN.  Definitely shouldn'e be set to DOWN-UP for 6 cylinder.
.. but the only way I got the correct reading is to have the switches set to DOWN-DOWN, which shouldn't even be valid.
Of course, I had to drop the dashboard to get the tach back in there correctly.
Time to work on the binding in the steering column (because it's most disconcerting).

Took the wheel off and it looked like this plastic cover was broken and possibly in the way.  Spoiler: it was broken, but not the problem.
The trim ring had actually recessed itself into the column and was rubbing on the inside edge.
You can see here where it was rubbing.
I tried just grinding the edge of the trim ring down so it'd clear.  It did not go well.  Luckily I had a spare.

Put some washers between the column adapter and this ring, hopefully it'll keep enough space to not bind up again... and if it does, I know how to fix it without pulling the column.
Another issue while it was apart was on the way back from the inspection, the turn signal lever stopped "latching" in the right-turn position.

I could not figure out how to get this apart so will worry about it later.
Not pictured:

Go back to the previous day (10 Mar 2024)