[Adam]

I spent all day working on this. I changed the spark plugs (those were the original plugs in there). I've never seen plugs with the electrodes actually worn down so much. There was a noticeable increase in performance with the new plugs. And some of those plugs were really really hard to get to (reminding me of why I'm always saying I prefer cars of the 60s and 70s).

The problem with the parking brake/vacuum switch is the switch. I removed the vacuum line and plugged it, and the sound went away. One of the two screws that hold it in is on top of the column and really hard to get to, so I haven't removed the switch yet, but I have ordered another one.

What I heard bouncing around under the car is an about 1" diameter metal tube which is supposed to connect to the catalytic converters (It has 2 catalytic converters which then feed a single muffler), but is rusted through and bouncing around under there. It leads to a mess of smog hoses on the right side of the engine. I'm not sure what it is or does, but in the Phoenix area all cars newer than 66 need to pass smog, so I need one.

(There is a loophole in that if you register your car as a 'classic' and get special insurance you don't need smog no matter what the year (but it's more expensive and limits how much you can drive the car per year - and seeing I bought this to be my daily driver, I don't want to be limited in how much I can drive it).

I plugged in a loose connector I noticed under the dash when I was trying to remove that vacuum switch, and now I get beeping every time I start the car. It seems to be beeping because it thinks it's out of gas. The display says DTE (distance to empty) miles = 0, even though that isn't the case. For now, I'm just going to unplug that cable again, but I'd like to find out why it always thinks it's out of gas. (The fuel gauge works fine - this is that computer that calculates gas milage, distance travelled, avg speed, ... in the center of that dash that thinks there is no gas)