June 9th, 2002 - Last night I went to take my sister Michelle for a ride in the car, since she's never been in it. When I turned on the lights, there was no illumination in the instrument panel. I was less than happy. It occurred to me that when I hooked the stereo up, I had transposed the + wire and the ground, so many that blew a fuse. I bought new fuses, and replaced the fuse in question. Still no lights. I took the entire speedometer part of the dash apart, to see if I had burnt the bulbs or something. The bulbs were fine. While I had it all apart, I was able to clear the lens/window thing which I was happy about. It had been cloudy. Turns out it was just dried on dirt. I checked to see if the new fuse was okay, and it was blown. I realized something must have been messed up with the stereo. The wire that I was using as a ground wasn't the ground, but rather the night illumination wire for the old stereo! Mystery solved! This was all fine and well... my friend Jimmie came over to help me try and fix that. Afterwards we took a spin in it and went out to eat. It was stalling when I was stopped, or in Reverse. My step-dad adjusted the idle, but now it was stalling again. We'll have to see what that's about, and have the exhaust system replaced as well before I take it for the safety inspection. As I went to take Michelle for a 'lil spin in my car tonight, the bulb went on the left side of my speedo... so now I can't see what speed I am going unless it's 40 and above! Ha! ====================================================================================================== June 11th, 2002 - I am proud to announce that I now have dual exhaust thanks to Carr's in Rockville $371 bought me the dual exhaust. They did a really nice job. They make everything on-site and weld it on, just like at the factory. This guy says I need to replace both Catalytic Converters though. He said that anything made after 1975 needs to go through emissions. Now, when I was getting the temp plates at DMV, the lady said I DID NOT need to go through emissions, just the safety inspection. The dude at Carr's says they're wrong. I think I'll take DMV's word for it! Hopefully we'll get the ball rolling this week and get it to pass through inspection! ====================================================================================================== June 12th, 2002 - Oye. That's all I can say. Oye. I went for a ride to Tolland in the car last night. Chris took his Harley there, and we met up with his son Matthew at some auction. The ride was pretty nice. I was happy. I love how the speedo display looks so clean and clear now. The car was so much quieter. I kept thinking how the more I drive the car, the smoother it runs. The auction was really lame, so we left before the bidding started. I go to start my car, and it was pulling he same crap it did at the Mobil station in Bloomfield NJ. They were able to jump me, and I got going. On the way home, the Alternator Light went on, so I rolled up the windows before I lost all electrical, and made it home. Currently the car is sitting dead, in the parking lot of where I live.
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====================================================================================================== July 8th, 2002 - Drove the Marquis back from Burhoe's tonight. Got to Grandpa's house. Turned it off. Would not start again. We jumped it, and it started right up. Chris says I should replace it with a really powerful battery. So, I shall do that. The one that's in there is a 655 amp battery. We looked at the one in Grandpa's Roadmaster, and that one is a 955 amp. So, I will start looking for batteries... ====================================================================================================== July 21st, 2002 - It's been a busy few weeks! I did end up buying a new battery at where else? No place other than WAL*MART, of course! It's a thousand CC amp battery and so far, it seems to have done the trick. The Chris's Brown & Starzyk went with me to get the car registered on July 14th. We headed up to Enfield because Chris Brown says that it is the quickest DMV. We got all the way up there only to find out that they do not do full inspection any longer. From there we decided to head onto the Willimantic DMV since it was the next closest facility, and probably 2nd 'easiest' to pass inspection. I was really worried about the engine getting 'too hot' again, and not starting during the inspection, so we took the back roads there. En route there, we passed a black Marquis much like Auntie Ro's was. It was in sort of rough condition, but the driver and I waved and beeped 'hello' at each other :)
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