Just Another Day in the Life of a Car Guy...

[philminotti]

Two years ago, I was out for a Sunday drive in my Cobra.  Ambient temp was warm, maybe 82.  About 30 minutes from home, my temp gauge started creeping up from its normal 180-190.  Naturally, I ignored that little voice in my head until it hit 205.  Just as panic set in, the temp shot up to 220 and I saw steam...I quickly pulled into an abandoned lot, not noticing a 3 foot diameter puddle.  It was not a puddle.  It wasn't a pothole.  It was a sinkhole over a foot deep and I crashed right through it.  The impact tore off the lower radiator hose, instantly dumping all the coolant.  Oh, and bending a rim.  My electric fan relay had burned out. Moral: listen to the little voice.

[Mbowling]

Another one of mine.... ‘92 when I was racing sprint cars, it was the last race of the season and I only had to show up at the track to be track champion.  It was about a hundred miles to the track and we were on our way.  I’d had numerous troubles with the Michelin xch4 tires I’d bought, belts would break, tread would separate, I thought I was buying decent tires when I bought them. My brother was driving and I’m in the back seat.  About 1/2 way to the track I felt the vibration and before we could get stopped the RR tire slung about 2/3’s of its tread.  No big deal, fire up the compressor on the tongue of the trailer and got it changed quickly.  We went 11 miles and I felt the vibration again, before we could stop another tire slung about 1/2 it’s tread off.  No more spares and I’m gonna miss out on the track championship because I can’t get there.  After a few minutes I said let’s go, the carcass still held air and we had about 25 miles to go.  We made albeit a little late. Track championship secured & I borrowed a spare to get home on. I bought new Goodyear’s the next week & never had another problem

[BattlestarGalactic]

Old vehicles and break downs.  Hmmm, got a few stories through the years.

'69 F100/428.  Started having random issues.  It would start to cough and go from 8 cylinders down to 1-2 and not run at all.  Would never figure it out.  Typically would "fix itself" and make it to where I was going.  One day, it didn't.  Was couple miles from home, pulled into grocery store lot.  Neighbor just happen to be there. Gave me lift home. I got Mack out, unloaded wagon from trailer and went down and fired truck up and loaded it.  It was fine from then on.  I still have never figured out what did/was failing.  That was many years ago.   I would swap ignition parts, coil, dist, etc and could swap back and it would run just fine.  Hmmmm.

Few years back, it's midnight, coming home from buddies place and I hop on the highway and black car starts stuttering and stalls.  It has snorted a few times before getting on highway, but thought I could make it home.  Nope.  Called buddy, he comes down and I ask if he has a strap?  Yup.  I told him latch to his hitch and I will hook to car.  We drug it up the highway(no flashers on a '64) with a 4ft strap.   All I saw was his taillights. I told him to leave his flashers off because they were blinding me.  I get it home and remove blower to see the points are junk.  It made it 13 yrs.  I hit Azone and install new parts.  They last about 100 miles before condenser lets me down about 20 from home.  No way to keep it running I have it towed.  By the time we unload it, it starts enough to drive it into the garage.  I through an old rusty condenser on it and drove it for years.  A few years ago I say screw the points and install a Unilite conversion I had.   That lasted ONE summer.  Last spring, the day I unloaded the black car from the trailer(winter storage) I take it for a cruise.  I get 15 minutes from home, it dies, hard.  Ya, Unilite failure.  My free towing can't seem to get me a hook, so after 2 hours I take a shot at driving it home.  It runs, so I make quick short blasts and shut it back off before anything gets warm again.   Home sweet home.  I then get a crab cap tach drive distributor set up for it and runs better then it ever has.

Rusty tank on black car, I have always runs an extra plastic filter back at the tank.  Replace it randomly for the last 20 yrs with no issue.  Until last summer.  Seems the last time I couldn't get a clear filter so I got a metal one.  Yup, you can't monitor how full it is.  I was out for lunch on a Saturday and it starts to stumble and run out of gas(clear filter up front runs dry).  After sitting for 10 minutes it would fill up again and go 1-2 miles before stalling.  Once I get it home, I cut that filter open and it's packed full. No wonder it would run out of fuel.  I have since put a clear filter back on and have plans to just put a new tank on the car.

Don't get me started with Mack stories.  I usually don't fret over break downs and vintage equipment.  I usually get it handled, though it may be a slight PITA at the time, the vehicle gets home again.

[blykins]

I've never had a Ford let me down. 

Had a '73 Vette and a new Mallory distributor/coil leave me stranded though. 

[shady]

At least you looked cool setting along the road. (cough, cough)... never figured you as a..a...Mallory guy.

[WConley]

At least you looked cool setting along the road. (cough, cough)... never figured you as a..a...Mallory guy.

Speaking of Brand X's on the side of the road, I used to do hot weather testing at Arizona Proving Grounds while at Ford.  We would do the Davis Dam run with our test cars, which was a LONG brutal grade in 115 + temperatures.  Often there would be a dyno trailer hooked to the car.  These trailers were just what they sound like - Big generators driven by the trailer wheels with banks of resistors on top to dump the energy.  You could dial in whatever load you wanted.

We would often see coolant temperatures exceed 240 - 250 degrees, but our Fords took it quite well.  I do remember one glorious day as we rolled past a team of Buick guys with their hoods up spraying steam.  There were plenty of single-digit salutes exchanged as we passed 

[Falcon67]

Update to my post - yep, the bracket and the top bolt are still on the old trans.  Still have the shifter hanging in the shed too.

[fryedaddy]

I bought a new ranger in 1987,drove it 19 years to work and back.only put battries and wiper blades and front brake pads on in the first 19 years.the front brake pads lasted 135000 miles and the shoes on the back are still on it.its a 4wd and the general tires that came on it lasted 80000 miles.i gave it to my son several years ago.now has over 300000 miles on it.best little truck i ever seen

[Falcon67]

I keep making noises about a Ranger extend cab as a race car for the wife but so far she's not having it.  We've had two Rangers, should have kept the last one.  Great little trucks.  The 4.0 towed a race car on an open trailer, 5000 lbs worth.

[Stangman]

Hate to talk about it but Oct 2019 at the end of the track throttle stuck at 120, got it slowed down to maybe 80 before I went off the track and ramped two dirt mounds and almost crashed into a dump truck. Banked it hard to the left and came to a stop semi safe. To boot it was my fault air cleaner gasket got sucked into secondary Venturi and jammed the carbs open. Very exciting!!!

[frnkeore]

I also have a wheel bearing story:

I was a mechanic, when I got drafted and my MOS, in the Army, was as a mechanic. When I got back from VN, in July of '67, I bought a '64 Fairlane, with a K code engine and top loader. I had to report at Ft Lewis, 1200 miles away, from SoCal.

For about the last 200 miles, I could hear the rumbling of the LF wheel bearing but, I said to myself, "I'll make it". I did get about 15 miles from there, before the inter bearing seized. I pulled over and I always carried a small tool box, pulled the wheel and saw I couldn't do anything with it.

Left my wife in the car and walked to a phone booth, called a wrecker and after he got hooked up, I asked him where a good place would be, to take it. He took me a shop and they cut the bearing race off, let me fix it, in their parking lot and didn't charge me!!! I did have to pay the tow truck but, I was very happy!

In about '71, I stop after work and got beered up, with the guy's. I had my '65 1/2 K code Mustang, pictured in my avatar. About 3 blocks from home, I was in 2nd and reved it and popped the clutch. The U-joint broke and left my drive shaft on the street, had to walk the rest of the way.

[Barry_R]

I have plenty of car breakdown stories.  But the best of them (and there were several) are from a long time ago now.  Back in my street racing era it was a fairly common deal for me to have to call my long time friend "Dr Tim" and wake him up in the single digit hours of the night.  My car would have scattered something - U joints, axles, engines - whilst emptying out a nitrous bottle in a scruffy neighborhood or industrial park somewhere in the city.

He would roll out of bed, hop in his truck.  Drive to my parent's house where I kept my trailer in their backyard.  Wake one of them up to get the keys so he could move a few cars.  Snag the trailer and drive down into the "hood" to meet me in some parking lot somewhere to help winch the wounded machine up onto the stretcher and bring it home.

[Falcon67]

I can identify with Dr. Tim - I used to be the one that got the door knock at 2:30AM "Johnny spun out and hit a curb, can you come get him." It was like Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry some weekends.  The totally folded up right front suspension on David's dad's 62 Falcon was one that didn't get repaired by morning. 

[brettco]

 I had a throttle cable break on the way to work on a mile long bridge one morning.
  A sammy hagar cassette case under the idle adjustment screw was about 4500 rpm- perfect! I slammed gears and rode the brakes to work but had to cycle the key on and off at stop lights.
 The sheriff next to me at the stoplight thought I was insane to rev my engine to 4000rpm  next to him waiting on a green light especially since my headlights also cycled on and off too- the sun wasn't up yet.

[Art67]

About 15 yrs ago, I flew to San Diego to help my son move back to Iowa so he could go to grad school.  He had two vehicles, a '99 Ranger and '06 Fusion.  After he picked me up from the airport I thought there was extra noise from the left front of his Ranger but chalked it up to some uneven tire wear, big mistake.  We traded off driving both vehicles on the way back and on my turn going into Las Vegas, I noticed increasing noise from that front end, was worse when swerving to the right.  We got to the motel, settled in and then went to nearest parts store, got inner and outer wheel bearings.  Next morning, a Sunday, went looking for shade since it was August and pretty hot, found an industrial park and a building facing west and great shade right next to the building. We started pulling out my sons limited tools and fortunately, jack stands. All went well until trying to get the caliper bracket off and the little 3/8 ratchet didn't have enough leverage.

Just then, a guy came out the front door and asked what's up?  I told him the situation and he asked if we needed any tools.  He came back with a length of pipe to slip over the ratchet, wished us good luck and said just leave the pipe under the bushes by the front door.  He said he came in to work just to get ready for a convention set-up his company was doing later that day.  We ended up having to replace the inner bearing and race but got it done.