Urgent questions

[byoshida@zygote.hsc.usc.edu (Benton Yoshida)]

Hey experts:

        I just got through taking a look at an '81.  It seems in pretty
good shape except two things have me worried.

1.  The car's speedometer is way off.  On the freeway, it indicated 85mph
when I was actually going an estimated 60.  It was similarly showing about
65 to 70 when I was keeping up with traffic on a road which usually flows
at 45-50.  He's changed from 13" rims to 14" teardrops with 60 series tires
which he claims are larger in diameter than the stock units.  He says he
thinks that this accounts for the speedometer differential even though I
know that a larger outer diameter should lead to a lower indicated speed.
Any idea what's going on here?  I forgot to check if the speedometer needle
was just displaced by 20mph but I don't think so.  I wasn't thinking so I
didn't check the tach too carefully but I think it was indicating around
2500 in 5th on the freeway which is in the ballpark for the stock tranny.

2.  When I fired up the car from cold, the tach showed around 800rpm but
when it warmed up it indicated almost 1500.  He says that the mechanic told
him that there is some problem with the cold start valve but that it would
cost $400 to fix so he didn't do the fix.  Could some quick fix to get
around a bad cold start valve produce this symptom?  I thought the cold
start valve was just a fancier injector--I can't believe this is a $400
part, even with labor.

Of course I broke the one cardinal rule of buying used cars and I went to
take a look at it at night.  But it looks clean (however the steering wheel
is offset about 30 degrees although I didn't detect any pull to one side)
with 110,00 indicated miles and an asking price of $900.

I want to take a look at it Sunday morning and possible make an offer to
him.  Should I pass or play?

Thanks for any help, benton--------


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