Maintenance Horror Stories

So against my better judgement I recently purchased a 1982 Ford F-150. Realizing this was going to be a "beater" work truck, I wasn't too picky about condition when I looked it over. I actually ignored all the advice I would have given myself when looking to purchase a car. Heck.....I didn't even check the oil before I handed over the $1,200. It ran, was as simple as they come, so I bought it.

Then I got it home.......

My LORD this has been a poor neglected truck. I changed the oil---- about 1 qt. of La Brea Tar Pit-- type ooze came out. The dipstick tube was full of sand, and rust--- I don't think anyone had CHECKED the oil in years!

Cap and Rotor---- incredibly worn, so much so that I can't believe this thing moved under it's own power.

Fuel filter---- nasty and brown!

Spark plugs-- so rusted in place I needed a breaker bar to release the last one. Fortunately it didn't shatter, and actually came out. These plugs had to be 5-10 years old!

Once I'd completed the tune-up the trusty old truck thanked me by running very smoothly. It still needs some TLC, but has risen from the near-dead.

I feel like I've saved a dog from certain death at the pound. It really is a tribute to the Ford 300 Cid I-6 that it could run under these conditions, and I'm very lucky it turned out ok.

So anyone else have hideous tales of neglect and mistreatment from former owners?

Joe Gearin wrote: So anyone else have hideous tales of neglect and mistreatment from former owners?

I uhh...

Well, my daily driver MX6 has been through the wringer. I'm something like the 15th owner and it's been totaled twice. (No exaggeration.) Going through the whole list of things that made me say "What the actual berkeley?!?!?" on that car would be a whole thread in itself.

Now i'm building mndsm's 1988 MX6, and it's pretty much the same story.

The scary thing about these cars, much like your truck, is that they RAN. And ran DECENTLY.

I'd show you a before and after picture of my 1993 blue Miata, but you guys would probably cry. Maybe Yamaha could post a picture of it, since it's sitting in his barn.

The Escort? Had ONE LX hub/rotor on the passenger front. Always wondered why it braked funny. Oh yeah... because that rotor was 1.5" smaller than the other side. DERP.

In reply to Joe Gearin:

Good work on bringing it back from the dark side. Body looks pretty decent too, around here it would be swiss cheese.

The Ford 300 is one of my fav engines, damn near bullet proof. IIRC, being an '82 that would have a single barrel Carter carb, they like to vibrate themselves apart, might wanna check the torque on the carb body screws.

Nice score

Thanks--- my POS truck actually has an Edelbrock 2bbl and an Offenhauser intake!

It seems that at some point the truck was owned by someone without a total cranial anal inversion!

It made it to Jax and back the other night (about 170 miles) without incident. I think this old beater may turn out ok!

Now I'll need to learn a few country songs......

I was naming a segment for my show, "shop horror stores." you should sponsor it.

Bought my Lima Ranger for 650 and blew the clutch two weeks later. The stage three sure makes it fun to drive. Replaced the rear main seal and it's still leaking. Likely a crankshaft wearing into the block. It's not too bad yet, but I'm complating upgrading to a 2.9L. Had one years ago and loved it. I'll wait for the Lima to die first. 260k miles down....

College girl was sellng this E30. Her boyfriend replaced the metal fuel filter with a plastic one meant for a tractor. The plastic ball swelled up like a baseball and the paper element got sucked into the fuel line.

It wouldn't start, I told her that was bad. She looked like she wanted to cry and asked if I would think about $400.

Sure.

She asked me to come inside to look at paperwork and the shop manual; the living room looked like a sound studio. Boyfriend's a musician. I told the BF that I had a ______ bass guitar. Someone left it 8 years ago in military barracks, I don't know anything about it; but he knew the name.

F-Yeah! Dude, I'll take the bass and $200 for that car!

Done.

Cleaned up pretty nice.

Need more piks of truck ! Cobra 129 and what you thinking for CB handle ? I have a dog box that will fit perfecto in that .

Nice score 914!

CB handle huh?..........come to think of it, the truck could use a big whip antenna.... and maybe a set of those Yosemite Sam "Back Off" mudflaps!

Got ta have dat E Z Rider Rifle Rack.

Karl La Follette wrote: what you thinking for CB handle ?

Monkeyboy here. I need a new transceiver for the Ranger, both 2 and 11 meters.

...and one dem sweet racks.

Right after my g/f bought her 1800ES in 2004, we decided to do some maintenance to it... one of the first things she bought for it was a K&N air filter. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with EFI era 1800's, the air filter is located behind the grill in a true cold-air-intake set up. It's really quite a good design. Accessing it, however, is a bit tedious. The plastic grill is held in place by some obscure clips that are tricky to get out. I can imagine for the typical mechanic of the 70's, it was essentially inaccessible.

After a good bit of head scratching I finally got the grill off. The wing-nut holding the cover on the housing was rusted in place and needed vice-grips to slowly spin off. After what felt like hours of cursing and swearing, we feasted our eyes on this:

No, that is NOT an oil-filter element. To this day we wonder if that air filter was original to the car.

first, congrats joe, that truck looks pretty decent.

many years ago i replaced leaking intake gaskets on a guy's 2.8L S10. when i pulled the valve covers, they weighed about 25 lbs each because they were solid with sludge, except for the grooves that the rocker arms cut into the sludge. i told him i had to add $30 to the total because i had to change the oil and filter twice, and he said "You had to change what?"

I have seen a tractor that when the plug oil was pulled nothing came out, even though the dipstick showed full. Three hours later there was a 3 to 4 inch PILE of oil in a bucket.

My friend bought a 98 tdi beetle with 290k on it, and it was only on its second timing belt (overdue since 160k). It also had a brand new transmission because the previous owner drove without changing or checking the fluid until it died, and the passenger side mirror was held on with a tennis ball sized wad of what I am almost certain was mint chewing gum. After all the nasty stuff was fixed it was fine though, the engine was actually still in really good shape.

I bought a car that turned out to have a loose carburetor. It did a pretty good job of simulating a Toyota Prius / mid-80s Audi. This happened in city traffic about 5 days after I bought the car.

In fact, everything under the hood of that car seemed to suggest that it was the product of "My First Long Block" by Fisher-Price.

bearmtnmartin wrote: I have seen a tractor that when the plug oil was pulled nothing came out, even though the dipstick showed full. Three hours later there was a 3 to 4 inch PILE of oil in a bucket.

....and I hadn't changed the Ranger's oil yet...