Some updates

This past Monday, I drove the Milano to work as I do every week day, with out issue. I left for lunch and the shifter was incredibly hard to move. I was very worried. I had drove the car up on a curb and crawled under while a coworker went through the gears. I could see no obvious binding in the isostatic linkage.

Later I removed the center console to look at the shifter bushing, only to find a riveted rubber boot. So after work I jacked up the car in the parking lot and removed the heat shield between the body and cat. I could see the rubber boot came off the bottom of the shifter, I liberally squirted WD-40 and the car shifts like butter. I was planning on properly greasing the bushing last night, but I ran into some problems.

Last night I wanted to replace the thermostat and grease the shifter bushing. I started with the thermostat and managed to shear on of the bolts. I decided to press forward, as I knew I needed to modify the thermostat housing for the thermostat I purchased. Proper thermostats for the Milano are $60, as the housing and thermostat are one unit.

The thermostat I purchased at Autozone is for some model of Ford, I am unsure of the actual application. Autozone sells it in their interchange, but it doesn't fit the housing as delivered.



The Milano thermostat housing and thermostat are one unit. The ears that hold the thermostat into the housing must be removed and machined flush with the housing. The ears are circled in red in the above photo. My precision machining consists of a cutoff wheel and die grinder. I love my air compressor.

I was unable to find the required M7x1.0x55mm bolt at Autozone last night. I went to home depot this morning and found a M7x1.0x50mm that will work temporarily until I can source a longer stronger bolt to replace the one that sheared and the other two as well.

The car heated up much quicker this morning, no leaks, and the car hovers just over 175F on the gauge. Hopefully tonight I can properly grease the shifter bushing.

This past weekend I cleaned the heck out of the oil separator between the valve cover and the intake. Oil was not separating and pooling on the air box cover. No more leaks from there now, much better.

I also I have a pigtail for the distributor hall sensor, so I can finally finish the Megasquirt harness.

A supposedly functional a/c compressor is also in my possession, purchased very cheaply from a 24 Hours of LeMons team. I'll bake the receiver dryer and see if I can't get cold air to come out of the vents soon.