Car Repair of the Day

1984 Fiero Clutch Pedal

I spent the better part of an hour and a half today lying on my back and underneath the steering column of my 1984 Pontiac Fiero today replacing the clutch pedal you see above.

When Pontiac first released the Fiero, they used an aluminum pedal, which over twenty years tends to bend through heavy use. The U-shaped bend at the top of the pedal is supposed to form a perfectly shaped square-U.

Fortunately, replacement clutch pedals made out of solid steel can be had for $30, so replacement came down to spending the time in a rather uncomfortable, tight position in order to fix the problem of my clutch not releasing properly.

Virus Causes Recent Increase in Politcal Spam

If you’ve been receiving a large number of political spam written in both english and german in your email, with subjects like “Dresden Bombing Is To Be Regretted Enormously,” “Armenian Genocide Plagues Ankara 90 Years On” or “Dresden 1945,” it’s probably due to someone with your email address in their contact lists being infected with the Sober.Q virus.

According to c|net’s News.Com, the virus is designed to turn infected machines into automated spammer machines in order to spread hate mail throughout the Internet.

As always, make sure that your anti-virus software is up to date, but be careful about the types of email attachments you open. Additionally, you can scan your computer for free through online tools provided by the major anti-virus developers, such as McAfee’s Freescan.