That slot on the Center Cap is suppose to align with the notch on the wheel so that proper clearance is provided for a small pry bar (most use a small screw driver) to remove the center cap w/o incurring any significant damage to the wheel or center cap (I've got a set of small plastic pry bars in the trunk so as not to do any damage to the wheel or center cap). And that notch on the wheel is always directly opposite the tire valve stem. I can always tell when a Seller (Private or Dealer) isn't aware of this when that opening with the Center Cap isn't directly opposite the valve stem. I'm not saying that the Center cap can't be installed in any orientation on the wheel, but the Factory did try to make it easy to see where the Center Cap was supposed to go when pressing it back on the wheel (M60A3Driver shows this in his post on replacing the wheel logos). Note: One also sees that the grooves on the wheel spokes align with the notches on the Center Cap when the cap is properly aligned.) Makes for a much better looking wheel when everything is like it's supposed to be! IMO

 

Excellent observations!
The engineers must have designed this before lunch.
Liquid lunch that is! LOL

 

I are an inganeer!

 

Cars were assembled in Europe!

 

Germans drink beer for lunch and breaks; Buy it in vending machines.

 

Been There; Done That! Companies I worked for 'back-in-the-day' bought nearly all of their manufacturing equipment from European suppliers. Many a trip to Europe to be present for Factory Acceptance Tests before authorizing shipment.

 

When I was stationed in Erlangen, Germany they were redoing the pointing on the bricks of our barracks.
Three stories up. The guy at the bottom would load the beer and food onto the pallet and the guys on the scaffolding would hoist them up for lunch!
Party on dudes! LOL

 

BLOWER MOTOR RESISTOR REPLACEMENT PART 1 OF 2
"Resistance is futile." Svengoolie has been watching too much Star Trek! LOL
September 17, 2024 I replaced the blower motor resistor today. It was a very easy task and it took longer to take the pictures and edit them for these posts than to do the job!
The post is in two parts because of the 10 picture limit. I found a couple of surprises along the way!
Here are the usual pictures with descriptions. Hopefully this will be helpful for people who have never done this before.

 

BLOWER MOTOR RESISTOR REPLACEMENT PART 2 OF 2
"Resistance is futile." Svengoolie has been watching too much Star Trek! LOL
September 17, 2024 I replaced the blower motor resistor today. It was a very easy task and it took longer to take the pictures and edit them for these posts than to do the job!
The post is in two parts because of the 10 picture limit. I found a couple of surprises along the way!
Here are the usual pictures with descriptions. Hopefully this will be helpful for people who have never done this before.

 

CABIN AIR FILTER REPLACEMENT
"Breathe, breathe in the air..." - Pink Floyd
September 17, 2024 since I was replacing the blower motor resistor today, I thought it would be helpful to show how to replace the cabin air filter as well.
I had already replaced Svengoolie's filter about a year ago, but if it helps someone it's worth it.
This is also an easy task and doesn't take very long to do.
Just be prepared for what may come out when you take the filter out!
Here are the usual pictures with descriptions. Hopefully this will be helpful for people who have never done this before.

 

Great DIY write-up! When I changed the blower resistor on my 2007 Coupe, I don't recall needing to do this step. Same for the cabin filter change.

 

Nice write up. One suggestion, although it's probably too late now, but since you got all the way to the blower resistor, you might want to drop the blower motor and clean the fan blades (There probably is a mouse nest in there as well since you found mouse debris in the cover). If I remember correctly, it's three more bolts and a little bit more swearing to drop the blower motor. Another way to clean the blower fan or at least the stuff in the fan cage, is by removing the top cowl (same one used to remove or replace the siren) since the vent on the passenger side has a direct view into the blower motor fan cage.

 

You're correct, it's not necessary, but I'm very cautious about breaking anything plastic! LOL
By the way, that vent cover was the first thing I had ever replaced on my car. The original was missing the screw.

 

That's a great point. I used a vacuum with a hose that I use to clean my dryer vent, nothing else came out.
It only takes a few minutes, maybe I'll drop it next week just to be sure.
Thanks,
John

 

LED license plate lights caused a lot of trouble!

Svengoolie owes the forum a beer! September 27, 2024

I went to a local car show to help raise money for a local police officer's family.
It was dark by the time I left. When I turned the lights on I had no dashboard lights and I didn't realize it at the time, but no license plate lights.
When I got home I did a search and found a post about a bad fuse (# 11)in the dash fuse box could cause that issue.
Sure enough the fuse was broken. I replaced it, turned the lights on, and no dash lights and now i noticed the license plate lights were out.
Then I remembered someone else in that thread had mentioned that a bad LED had caused a short. When I took the LED bulb out of the license plate light, one of the chips had fallen out. That was the cause of the trouble!
Luckily I still had my original bulbs. I replaced them and the fuse again, now it all works again.
Thank you to the two members who posted about this problem!

 

Crossfires in Amish Country

Svengoolie meets his relatives! October 4th - 6th, 2024.

My girlfriend Kathy and I (I am Giovanni Pace on the face book Crossfire forum page) took Svengoolie out to Sugar Creek, Ohio for our first ever Crossfire event.
It was 8 hours out from New Jersey to Ohio and 9 hours back thanks to a ton of traffic. It was worth every minute of it and we had a great time!
We met such great people who were very welcoming and made us feel like family.
John and Terri did a great job hosting the event and were very helpful with any questions we had.
We stayed in a converted train car at the Sugar Creek Village Inn. At night many of us would hang out on the large porch and share our experiences.
On Saturday we had lunch at the Dutch Valley restaurant and there were about 40 cars there from the U.S. and Canada!
I was amazed that Svengoolie was the only base model there! It was great seeing so many cars and the different ways people made their cars unique.
I would like to also thank the people and businesses that donated door prizes for the lunch raffle and goody bags.
We are looking forward to try to make the Athens meet or go back to Sugar Creek next year as well as any other events we can attend.
It's so great to meet the people that you interact with online in person. If you haven't gone to an event yet, go to one! The Crossfire family is made up of wonderful people!


The Crossfires at the Sugar Creek Inn. The train cars we stayed in are in the background. There is also a regular hotel

Another shot of the inn from Factory Street. The big porch was great to hang out on at night and share stories.

We were in the middle of the pack as we were heading out to dinner Friday night.

Dinner was fun at "Hog Heaven" in Dover Ohio. We took over the parking lot!

More Crossfires on the other side of the restaurant.

We were cleaning our cars on Saturday morning and an Amish man in a horse and buggy came through!

Lining up at lunch at the Dutch Valley Inn.

the cars just kept coming in.

Even more Crossfires!

Svengoolie (in the middle) hanging out with some friends. I wonder if they were speaking German? LOL

 

Great pictures, thanks for sharing. Did you change to the Limited wheels or did the prior owner?

MY BAD, I WAS THINKING OF THE SE.

 

I have been attending Crossfire events for 17 years and yes, always a good time and a great bunch of people.
I hope you will come to Athens, Ohio next year.
I'm already registered for Athens 2025 on Facebook and I will be attending for my 3rd year in Athens next year.

 

That was the only SE there as well. I would have figured there would have been a couple of more base and SE's.

 

I'm pretty sure that we'll be going. I'm looking forward to meeting you and other owners that we haven't met yet.
I know many of the people at the Amish Country event said that they will be going, it would be nice to see them again.