Hello List,

As some of you know, last February, my old '87 Syncro committed the
unpardonable sin and broke it's 3rd gear synchronizer at a time when I had
other financial obligations. That coupled with a body starting to be
consumed by rust, led me to drive it to the junkyard. It was quickly snapped
up by someone else and gone the next day.

I missed it, and started to look for a decent replacement, finally found
another '87 in mid-June. Talked to the owner, got some pictures of what I
wanted to see for sure, and decided to buy it sight unseen. Made
arrangements to fly down from Pittsburgh PA to Pensacola FL with my son on
the 25th, took a rudimentary canvas tool bag suitable for replacing cooling
hoses and changing plugs, points, oil filter etc. Checking that bag of tools
at the airlines was another wonderful story...

I think that Syncro wanted the heck out of Florida. My son Pete and I got
there last Friday afternoon. I did a quick look-over (after all, I had
already paid for it), replaced the rotted breather hose between the breather
tower and the intake elbow I had seen in the pictures, started her up and
followed the seller to the courthouse to have the title signed over. On the
way over I noticed that the idle had a mind of its own, but it settled down
after a bit. I decided to leave sleeping dogs lay, and have a look at that
throttle switch when I got home. We did the deed at the courthouse, said
goodbye, and headed west, then north on I-65, making Birmingham Alabama at
about 8:30 PM Friday night. Next morning we were up at 5:30 AM and on the
road at about 6:15, up the length of Alabama, then Tennessee, Kentucky, and
finally Ohio where we picked up I-71 outside Cincinnati and then on to
Columbus and I-70 to I-79 in PA. We got back to Zelienople at about 9:15 PM,
a long drive, never over 4000 rpm.

 I really hadn't expected an immaculate van, and I wasn't disappointed. The
odometer was inop on the way home, but judging from the mile markers and a
fudge factor, I'd say it was getting around 20-21 mpg. I'm still running
around on the last fill-up from Columbus.

Sunday afternoon, I decided to look around the engine compartment a bit.
Wow, look at that, the throttle switch plug is disconnected, and look there,
so is the O2 sensor. Of course I did have to remove the throttle valve to
adjust the throttle switch (too much oily goo), but with all connected, gee
it runs a whole lot better.

I'm just amazed that it ran as well as it did for 1050 miles (more or less).
I had been prepared to flat-bed it home if needed. Like I said, I think it
wanted out of Florida!

Dave