Made it before the long weekend! I received a nice gem in the mail today: an autographed copy of the new Knight Rider soundtrack album: The Stu Phillips Scores. Stu Phillips is the man who created the legendary Knight Rider theme, and who scored the first thirteen or so episodes before Don Peake took the reigns. Having also scored the 1970s TV series Battlestar Galactica (yes, the original one with the chrome toasters), Stu gave Knight Rider the same orchestral treatment, with some synthesized electronic sound mixed in. The result was a very unique set of scores, some of the best of which are immortalized on this new CD.

It’s all here: From a dry mix of the original theme tune, to the complete score for the pilot and four other episodes, act breaks, and even the “Glen Larson Productions” theme bumper heard after the closing credits. The score for “Trust Doesn’t Rust” is also included, which fans will remember as the episode where the interminable legacy of KARR made its debut. The CD is absolutely jam-packed at a running time of 78 minutes, includes full names for each track as well as an extensive insert booklet with liner notes and comments on each track. This is the nicest soundtrack album I’ve ever owned, and I’m incredibly proud of this one.

Now to burn a copy to keep in the Trans Am, and an MP3 disc for KITT too! All in all, listening to this disc all afternoon was the perfect way to celebrate my first day at my new job, which just kicks all manner of ass. I shall post about that soon, as well.

Formula 350

I have a great idea for a Knight Rider episode script. In it, Michael will go head-to-head against of fleet of crotchety old neighbors whose new community ordinances threaten KITT’s very existence! …Aw hell, that’s not a good idea. Although I will say this; what with the time it’s taking them to get anywhere on that new Knight Rider movie, Hasselhoff will be so old by the time they start filming, battling the neighborhood HOA may be the only kind of action he’ll get to see.

But enough of that. It was a banner weekend for our dear friend KITT. The ‘89 Formula hadn’t been exercised in a while—about a month, at a guess—so I decided it was time to give it a workout. Apple was even amenable to letting me drive her to work in it on Saturday, so I took her up on it. Much to my abject astonishment, after a few minutes of driving, the low-speed bogging/stumbling problem KITT’s been experiencing was completely gone.

This has been the most irritating thing about the car since it began cropping up shortly after I purchased it. I did take the car to WOT a couple of times today, which I have not done since I put a new battery in it. Dropping the hammer is like a secret handshake that tells an un-schooled ECM how to behave, so that might have had something to do with it. But at the very least, it seems even more possible now that my suspicions about the computer being the culprit were right. The car has proved to me all weekend long that it can “straighten up and drive right,” so to speak, which makes me think its misbehavior was due to the computer playing some kind of fool game with me. (How appropriate that I call the car KITT—its ECM already has an attitude!)

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I think KITT is getting more Christmas presents this year than I am. Seriously though, I finally have the Formula back at home, and it’s worlds better than it once was. It stops like a brand new car (and it does it in a straight line, too). The exhaust has a deep, deep growl but isn’t brash and loud. It doesn’t rattle and bang around constantly (although I can hear some part of it vibrating sometimes when a certain RPM sets up a resonance). The gas tank is new, so no more leaks—and no more fuel odor and horrible mileage. I just filled it up, so we’ll see how long a tankful of fuel lasts.

The main cooling fan relay seems to be working again, and while the stumbling/bogging problem is still there at low RPMs, it’s a lot less obnoxious and embarrassing now that it’s not broadcasting its flaws through that loud exhaust. Definitely more manageable, in other words. The shop also washed the car, put on some tire dressing and even cleaned and vacuumed the interior. Now that’s service. But when you pay the shop as much as I did, it’s a nice thank-you. Anyway, I’m enamored! When I picked the car up, I could barely get it to start. That old battery—better than four years of age now—was really on its way out. I’d known it for a while, but it was to the point where it could barely crank the car. So we stopped at Sears and picked up a brand new battery, which I installed—now it turns over much quicker.

I’ve attached a few photos of the car’s new exhaust outlets; check ‘em out below.

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Although I figured they wouldn’t even be open today, I received a call this morning from the shop that’s been working on KITT for the last few weeks. Apparently they’re all finished with everything. They just need the catalytic converters I ordered so they can finish up the exhaust system. But everything else is done—brand new brakes, new gas tank, new relay for the main cooling fans, and best of all (IMHO) the new Banks exhaust system (from the cat back) is installed and ready to go.

The Catco factory replacement dual catalytic converters I ordered from Summit Racing should be here on Wednesday, and includes everything from the I-pipe to the manifolds. That’ll make for a complete exhaust system replacement from the manifolds back. I can’t wait for this. All of this work will solve five of KITT’s big problems all at once. No obnoxiously loud exhaust, no banging pipes against the rear valance, no awful gas mileage, no fuel smell all over you after driving, and no overheating. Rock on.

Obviously I will post more about this when I pick the car up. I’m hoping it’ll all be done next Friday!

<shuffles papers> I’ve just been handed this official report regarding the state of the Formula, and the repairs it’s going to need. I’ll now read you the contents of that report, because I’m a dork.

Brakes are toast!
The entire braking system on the car has basically been shot to hell and back, and then shot to hell a second time. The front calipers are blue from heat. The left front caliper is frozen. The rotors and lines need to be replaced and the fluid has been boiled, no doubt, so a complete system flush will be necessary. We’re looking at about $1,000 to repair. “Seriously, we don’t know how you made it here,” quoth the mechanic.

Main cooling fan isn’t running!
KITT’s illustrious previous owner jury-rigged the main radiator cooling fan such that you could turn it on/off via a switch underneath the dashboard. Not a bad idea, except it’s a pretty ghetto installation. Well, that switch stopped working a while ago. Turns out the relay blew, and apparently the fan isn’t working anymore as a result of it. Stupid crap! Rather than do any expensive, invasive rewiring to return the car to stock conditions, I’m just gonna have ‘em replace the relay to get it back in working order.

Fuel tank is cracked!
Hmm…so that’s why the car gets 7 MPG and reeks of fuel! To say nothing of the propensity to blow sky-high like a cheap Fiero 4-banger, this needs to get fixed el pronto. It’ll be about 2-3 hours of work and requires that the exhaust system be removed. The shop is going to scour local salvage yards in an attempt to find me a used tank, which will save me some dough.

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KITT is in the shop! We dropped him off about an hour ago. In the process of getting all the way downtown to where the shop is, I came up with a solution to the strange “mystery smoke” and “burning odor” riddle that surfaced during my last couple of rides. The answer was veritably thrown in my face, in fact.

I’ve always known the brakes on the Formula were lousy, because the car would hurl itself to the right every time you stopped. In fact, the brakes were one of the three items I asked the shop to fix today. But I didn’t realize just how bad it had gotten. Originally I thought the car was burning oil, but then I realized it didn’t smell like oil, and the smoke seemed to be coming from below the front of the car. So then I guessed it was transmission fluid burning, which really frightened me. Thankfully, I discovered that it’s not the transmission at all.

The left front brake is roasting itself into oblivion!

I believe the problem is that this particular caliper simply isn’t functioning much at all—or, more specifically, how well it works changes each time you push the brake pedal. Sometimes, after you stop the car, the left front brake doesn’t disengage. As you drive, the brake remains partially locked and cooks itself. Then when you stop, the massive friction heat generates all the smoke and burning odor that I often smell. The problem got so bad today, I was able to discern it was the brake because the damn car was shimmying wildly and pulling to one side while I was driving, and then I noticed that sometimes the engine had to work pretty hard just to get up to speed. That’s because it’s trying to work against one of the brakes! Crazy shit. Anyway, the shop is gonna fix that, so it’ll all be good.

Now, it’s time to go have lunch, and then play the copy of Halo 2 that I picked up last night. We got home at around 1:15 in the morning (there was a bit of a snafu because my preorder was so old they misplaced their copy of the slip), so all I was able to do was read the manual before I fell asleep. Now, with today’s chores done, I’ve got the rest of the day to play the game. Rock on!

Ever since last October, when I bought the ‘89 Formula I plan to convert into a KITT replica, the car has been in need of some work, particularly with its fuel injection system. I attempted to have some work done once, but money has been scarce (or funneled away to other projects), meaning I haven’t been able to devote the large chunk of change it’ll take to really nail down all of the problems the car has. That’s about to change—in fact, it’s do-or-die time for KITT. He’s going downtown to the city’s oldest car repair and restoration center next Wednesday.

The fuel injectors are gonna be fixed. The TCC is gonna be fixed. The tranny drain valve leak is gonna stop. And the brakes are gonna start working correctly. All of this stuff equals the minimum requirement I have for KITT’s continued occupance of space in my garage (well, okay, my parents’ garage). I don’t have one clue how much it’s going to cost, so I’m making a list of all the top-priority big stuff I need done, and will ask for an estimate on each item. Then I’ll do whatever my $1300 budget will allow. Hopefully that money will go a decent distance.

Kinda got freaked out this past weekend when I took the old car out for a spin. It hadn’t left the garage in probably a couple of months, so it was long overdue. The old battery barely cranked it over, but I got it started, and was soon cruising out on the road. The oil pressure seemed pretty high at first—like about 60 PSI—but I figured that was normal for a stone-cold engine, at least until I smelled the strong aroma of something burning and saw wisps of blueish smoke coming up from the cowl induction scoop. Then I began to wonder just what was going on. I headed home immediately.

A couple minutes later, as I was still en route back to the house, the smoke was gone, and the smell had diminished almost completely. I checked it out back at the house and could find no evidence of leakage, and the oil and tranny fluid levels weren’t low. In fact, the oil level might have been too high—but the pinched dipstick tube makes it almost impossible to read the oil level. (Something else I want fixed.) The oil press had come down to around normal by this time, so I didn’t think it was related. Still, WTF was burning, and why? The other thing was that the engine seemed abnormally hot; I couldn’t even touch the metal knob on the tranny fluid dipstick.

No idea what that was about, but I’m planning to take the car out again tonight—just for a spin around the neighborhood—and see if it behaves abnormally again. I plan to at least mention these symptoms to the shop next week and tell them to keep their eyes out for anything that might have caused such behavior. That’s about all I can do. I used to try to ascertain what was wrong, then advise the mechanics accordingly. Well, I’m done with that. So far I’ve just wasted money and steered people in the wrong direction, so now I’m taking it down a notch and acting like any other ignorant driver: Here’s what the car is doing, please correct the problem. It’s clear I’m not much of a mechanic, and with very little money to risk wasting, I’m not going to pretend otherwise.

As my friend Pooch mentioned the other day, it’s the cars with character that are the most fun to drive. That’s precisely why I love the Formula so much; it’s got more character than my other cars combined, but damn—it’s got to get to where it’s drivable without the constant weirdness. I’d drive the car every day if it wasn’t 1) unsafe and 2) potentially damaging. When it gets so it isn’t, then the fun will really begin.

You guys are gonna like this one!

I just got this in the mail today! Another member of the KITT replica community produced a run of about 100 of these incredibly accurate license plate replicas, so I decided to grab one—even though this is the sort of “finishing touch” accessory usually reserved for once you finish your conversion, I couldn’t wait. After all, these may never be produced again! He’s tooling up for some KARR plates now, but I’m not a KARR guy—I side with the good guys.

Dig the replica California May 1982 stickers, too!