<VV> Questions from Repairs

[Jeffrey B. Aronson]

1. The very day I bought my Monza last September, the directional lever 
fell off in my hand. Living on a small island means you don't really 
have to use your blinkers but i did order a new unit from Clarks and 
finally installed it today.

Some of you experienced folks made obtuse remarks about "the joy of snap 
rings" but claimed otherwise, the job was not hard. So today I tackled 
it. I used a bay in my local mechanic's garage and his steering wheel 
puller. Sure enough, when I pulled the wheel and horn assembly, I found 
the tiny screw that holds on the lever. The plastic cam unit was broken 
at the lever area and at another spot. Too bad - the wiring looked 
great. In removing the entire unit I found I had to whack the bearing 
with a hammer in order to expose the snap ring. With a couple of awls, I 
got it off.

Then I went to install the new unit. The diagram in the service manual 
was a help, but not complete to the task. The snap ring is not even 
shown! And it seemed impossible to expose the groove on the shaft for 
the snap ring with the new assembly in place. Everything else fit 
tightly and snugly, and after wasting nearly an hour trying to expose 
the groove without breaking anything, I simply put everything back 
together, including the snap ring. The spring between the bearing and 
the horn contacts seems to hold everything in place anyway and the 
directionals/horn work fine.

So how are you supposed to get the snap ring in place?  Does it matter?

2. My 110 hp has about 120,000 miles on it. I've not driven it far or 
hard for any length of time because of its home on this small island. 
However, I have noticed a sheen of oil that seems to come from the 
dipstick tube. It's always wet around there when I drive the car. It's 
not very much, but it does move down to the right side of the engine, 
near the carb. The left side is completely dry and dusty - no oil sheen 
at all.

The air filter was replaced about 500 miles ago. The filter is clean. 
There is a little oil sheen inside the air cleaner assembly, but not 
very much. The PCV tubes seem open and clean. If I lift up the cleaner 
cover after driving the car I will see some crankcase "smoke" coming up 
from it. I don't seem to use much oil but then I can't drive the car 
very far or fast at once - the island is just too small.

Can the grommet around the dipstick tube fail? The seal looks ok but I 
wonder if it's leaking around it.

Any hints for me?

Thanks,

Jeff Aronson
Vinalhaven, ME 04863

'66 Monza Coupe 110/4
'66 Land Rover Series II-A 88" [2]
'80 Triumph TR-7 Spider