Had my first few little puzzles with the car this weekend. The first was with the reverse lockout. Turns out that if the steering column cover rotates counter-clockwise too far then it screws up the geometry of the lockout linkage and allowed me to move the shifter out of reverse. So I let out the clutch in "neutral" with the reverse bar on the Muncie still engaged... chirped backwards and stalled.... uh what?! After a few hours of research, putting the car on jack stands (before I had driven it more than around the parking lot), and learning all about how the Hurst shifter linkages work, I confirmed everything was tight and properly adjusted in the linkages and then found the twisting-column "bug" somewhere on one of the forums. Twisted that column all the way clockwise and it's good as new... No idea why it's rotating - maybe there's a missing screw or pin or something? For now it's a handy antitheft device, so long as someone doesn't try to put it in first and reverse at the same time
Second little puzzle - I went to unscrew the antenna to put the cover on the car, and turns out the whole antenna mount assembly was loose, so it dropped into the fender and disappeared. With some magnets on sticks and some wire, I finally found the little pivoting washer that grabs the antenna body under the fender and pulled it out of that tiny crevice above the rocker.
Amazing how quickly you bond with a car when you're wrenching on it more than driving it in the first 48 hours
