A week. Seven days. One hundred and sixty-eight hours of the engine not running, Fastback sitting in the driveway like an expensive sculpture, and me slowly losing the thread between optimism and whatever the opposite of that is.

The battery situation from Episode 11 was supposed to be the fix. New battery installed, terminals cleaned, connections verified. I turned the key with genuine hope. The starter motor spun. The engine cranked. And then nothing happened. The engine rotated perhaps one or two revolutions before stopping abruptly, as if exhausted by the very concept of attempting to run. I sprayed starter fluid directly into the carburetor. Still nothing. Not a cough. Not a suggestion of ignition.

This is the moment when a reasonable person calls a mechanic. I am not always a reasonable person. What I did instead was begin the parts shotgun. Replace everything that might be wrong. Scatter enough parts at the problem that something has to stick. It's an expensive form of debugging, but it's a form nonetheless.

The starter motor came out. The teeth on the old starter's drive were worn smooth, rounded like they'd been filed down by time. No wonder the engine wouldn't turn. I'd at least found something genuinely broken. That counts as progress. At least when you pull apart a starter and discover worn teeth, you've got a villain. You've got someone to blame besides yourself.

New starter installed. Then the alternator. The alternator I'd sourced was supposed to be correct for the 289. A 1968 specification piece. Except halfway through the installation I realized the wiring diagram showed something different. This alternator was a multi-wire unit. The engine needed a one-wire setup. I'd purchased the wrong one. Which would have been fine except I was already committed. I removed it. And as I was disconnecting the final clip, a small nut fell from somewhere inside the alternator and disappeared into its internal cavity.

New starter installed. Then the alternator. The alternator I'd sourced was supposed to be correct for the 289. A 1968 specification piece. Except halfway through the installation I realized the wiring diagram showed something different. This alternator was a multi-wire unit. The engine needed a one-wire setup. I'd purchased the wrong one. Which would have been fine except I was already committed. I removed it. And as I was disconnecting the final clip, a small nut fell from somewhere inside the alternator and disappeared into its internal cavity.

By Day 2's evening, I had a new coil, new spark plug wires, and new spark plugs. The engine bay looked like it had been assembled yesterday instead of yesterday plus fifty-eight years. Redneckgearhead appeared on the forum: "Never use a parts shotgun on an engine that won't run. Diagnose first." He was right. He was also not helpful at this precise moment. The community was forming. Master Hack appeared: "Ambitious project, kudos."