Darned car!

[Boogerschnot 12]

So on my way to work this morning driving down the I-5 I noticed a little steam/smoke coming into the cab from somewhere,, it was very light so I say to myself,, " we've got smoke!!" and drove the rest of the way to work (about two miles). Parked the car and left it running, opened the hook and saw more smoke and lots of mist, which was tranny fluid flying everywhere.. The rubber cooler line to my radiator had burst and was shooting tranny fluid all over the fan and ground.. IT was pretty cool... So anyway, I guess I have to get another piece of rubber line and replace that before I can go home today.. At least it wasnt anything bad.. Anyone else have fun stories about their mustang mishaps on the way to work?? oh,, and I work on the San Diego naval base,, so there is a trail from the gate to where I parked my car..

[69BossMach1 10]

Stories? You want Stories? I gots lots of friggin stories with my Mach 1..... LOL

 

One similar to yours with the tranny lines: I have to install some temporary tranny lines until my new steel lines came in when I first restored my car. It just so happened that my daily driver took a shit about a month before I was completely done with the Mach 1, so I had to drive it as a daily for a while. Anyway, so I put some plastic pressure fitting tube and fittings on the tranny to radiator and drove it for a day or 2, no problems. Well one day I'm on my way home from college and sitting at a stop light, all the sudden; POOF!!!

I'm encased in super thick white smoke that I can't even see the hood through... I had to actually turn the car off to let the smoke clear a little and then limped it over to the side of the road. Well the tie I had holding the lines off the header let loose and the line layed on the header and melted, spraying tranny fluid onto the header like a faucet....

Got the steel lines in the next day thank goodness.

[JC69Stang 0]

In my 65 stang the motor mount decided to break while flying down the road, that caused the fan to cut my tranny line and there was white smoke everywhere. Lickily my brother only live a couple miles away so I walked to his house and got the car fixed.

 

Pretty exciting when you cant see at 65mph or so!!

[Boogerschnot 12]

I just went out and fixed the line during lunch.. Only took 15 minutes or so once I got the line and fluid.. and she's back like new,, only not.. I did notice that the fluid somehow managed to cover pretty much the entire car while I was on the interstate.. there are dark shiny spots and specks all over the dull paint all the way back onto the tail light pannel..

[Infinity 10]

Not a tranny issue, but I found out last week that if the float in the carburator doesn't float, bad things happen.

 

I left work in my 69 and noticed that every time I left off the gas pedal, it wanted to die. I thought that was strange, but kept driving. Then I started to smell gas. That got me worried so I pulled over. i am very glad I did becuase when I pulled the aircleaner off, there was gas all over my engine pooring out of the carburator. I would guess that if I had driven too much longer and it got really hot, my call to AAA would have been to 911 instead!

 

Josh

[d.reese 13]

Talk about white smoke, how many lost the shift modulator valve and been pulled over for smoking! I told the "DUDE" I quit smoking 4 yrs ago! I had no idea when I left the light, all he could see was SMOKE! HaHa!:surrender:

[bnickel 10,004]

i've had my car for 24 years and don't have a single story like any of these....:tongue:

[Cheo69GT 1]

Not a tranny issue, but I found out last week that if the float in the carburator doesn't float, bad things happen.

 

I left work in my 69 and noticed that every time I left off the gas pedal, it wanted to die. I thought that was strange, but kept driving. Then I started to smell gas. That got me worried so I pulled over. i am very glad I did becuase when I pulled the aircleaner off, there was gas all over my engine pooring out of the carburator. I would guess that if I had driven too much longer and it got really hot, my call to AAA would have been to 911 instead!

 

Josh

 

Oh yeah, I'm familiar with that! I knew something was wrong, but I was on I-10 heading home from Phoenix, was fine at 75mph so I went the 100 miles home, soon as I hit my exit, car died, at least I knew what was wrong so it didn't need a tow, just a BFR. I also dropped my clutch linkage on the same insterstate in the middle of nowhere, had to pull off in the median and use a piece of wire I found on the ground to put it back together, needless to say, I carry a full assortment of cotter pins with me now!

 

Not a 69, but my 85 GT blew the heater core at 90mph on the Autobahn, now that was fun! Luckily, no one was in the passenger seat!

[Trinitys 134]

Damn....what base? I was at 32nd street with my car for a while! I also worked over at the sub base for about 3 years....02-05. I don't have a fluid story but i limped from Rosecrans to the back gate and to the top of one of the parking garages on the sub base with a broken tie rod one time......B might remember that.

 

So where are you stationed? what's your rate?

[ForceFed70 14]

Letse.

 

The worst for me was just after the T5 swap. Sitting in 6-Lane stop and go ,bumper to bumper traffic when the clutch cable let go (melted). I was sitting at a light, so it basically dropped the clutch on me. Damn near rear-ended the guy in front of me, luckily the light had changed and he had started to creep forward. Then I had to cross 2 lanes of stop and go highway traffic with no clutch. When I did get off the highway, I was in the worst possible part of town, and hard to wait 1hr before the tow-truck came.

 

There was also the time I went to go on a 1st date with this girl I had just met. Of course, I had to take the mustang... bad idea. I threw an intake valve rocker on the way there and I had to start our date off by phoning her and telling her that I wasn't going to make it. Luckily she came down to where the car was broken down and we waited for the tow truck together. Turns out we wern't right for each other anyway, so no biggie.

[d.reese 13]

Ya know this is why we use to hang out in those parking lots till 3 AM! We saved plenty of that .37 a gal gas telling your buddies and listen'en to all theres. Yea we still bitched about some oil embargo and the freakin cost of gas, but to tell ya the truth those were the good old days!!! Ya'll keep it up, this how we learn from others exsperience's!

[bnickel 10,004]

Damn....what base? I was at 32nd street with my car for a while! I also worked over at the sub base for about 3 years....02-05. I don't have a fluid story but i limped from Rosecrans to the back gate and to the top of one of the parking garages on the sub base with a broken tie rod one time......B might remember that.

 

So where are you stationed? what's your rate?

 

 

tie rod? don't you mean the strut rod? i do remember the strut rod fiasco.

 

pretty much anything you can think of that can happen to a mustang while driving has happened to me, except any major wrecks in it or anything in the middle of nowhere on a long road trip, it's never left me stranded very far from home.

[Trinitys 134]

your right....DUH. For some reason.....I don't know why but I was thinking strut rod and I typed tie rod :001_huh:

[70Mach03 12]

I've got a few over the years with all three of the 1970 Mustang's I've owned.

 

On my 1970 428 SCJ convertible I was trying to figure out why I was losing engine oil so fast many years ago. There was also a fine oily mist on the front bumper and grill which didn't make sense. Finally with the engine running and the hood up I was looking for the source of the leak and a very fine spray hit me right between the eyes. There was a very small pinhole in one of the oil cooler lines mounted in front of the radiator. It only sprayed when the engine was running and it was so fine you couldn't really see it. Took the line to a hydraulic hose shop and they cut the ends off and pressed on a new hose.

 

I owned a 1970 Grabber Package Mustang for 22 years since it was new and it was my daily driver for 20 years. It had 32 miles on it when I bought it new and 186,000+ when I sold it. I knew that car like the back of my hand. Any unusual sounds, smells, or noises and I was scanning all instruments, both hands locked on the steering wheel, and foot off the throttle. It always got me home. However one time I was traveling down the interstate doing about 70 mph with my then two-year old son (he's now 25) sitting in his carseat on the pax side. Next thing I know the engine rpm is going up and the car is slowing down. No amount of throttle will get the car going and I'm thinking the automatic transmission has finally let go. It probably had 120,000 miles on it at the time. Then I looked down and noticed that he had reached over with his foot and pushed the C-4 T-handle from the Drive position to Neutral with his little toes which were still wigglying. I smacked his little leg good as he had nearly given his then "young" dad a heart attack (LOL).

 

My present 1970 Mach 1 finally got me about six months ago. I had driven to a car show about 15 miles away. It was about 10 miles of interstate and the rest on secondardy roads and through neighborhoods. As I was getting off the interstate I couldn't downshift my T-5 tranny from fifth gear. It was stuck good. Riding the clutch at 20 mph in 5th gear was exciting as I kept slowing to catch all the traffic lights green much to the disconcern of the people behind me. I was doing okay till I got into my neighborhood. I actually "coasted" through a few stop signs at about 15 mph in fifth gear as traffic was clear and I kept hoping I could make it home. The clutch was slipping and smoking till I had to stop at a stop sign near a church which was having a funeral and all the traffic was letting out. I sat there stopped for about five minutes till traffic cleared and I slipped the clutch to about 5000 rpm in fifth gear to get the car moving and drove the final two blocks to my house. As I coasted up my driveway into the garage I was pulling a contrail of white smoke like a Boeing 747 at 35,000 feet. The burnt clutch smell was horrible and I set up fans in my garage to blow the smell out. The next day I removed the console and shifter and found a nut had backed off a shifter stop and fell into the gear shift pattern jamming the shifter in fifth gear. About a week later after a new clutch and resurfaced flywheel I was back in business. I guess you could say there were two funerals that night, one at the church and one in my garage for the deceased clutch in my Mach 1.

[jmlay 80]

Back in 95 I bought my Mach1, R code. At the time it had a 351C. I drive it around the DFW suburbs a few times, but it was 24+ year old car... I decided I was going to take it up to my old stomping grounds, SE Iowa, & have a friend do some work to it prior to putting it in a resto shop, reto shop screwed me but that is another story for another day.

 

Anyway my family lived ~ 100 miles away from the bulk of the rest, NE Mo. My dad & I wanted to take it down & show it off a bit, I think more so my dad than I. On the way down I was coasting down a long hill when all of a sudden it lost all power & sounded strange as could be. I pulled over to he side of the road & cranked it but no ignition. Luck enough for me we were smart enough to bring a tow rope & we towed it the last 50 miles....

 

To shorten a long story we found that the roll pin holding the distributor gear had been sheared off. I assume when I let off the throttle at the top of the hill the CAM walked forward & jammed the gear. I have since heard that there was a common problem with the balancer on the Cleveland's where this would happen. This happened one more time & I "parked it". This is where the resto began.

 

Mike

[bnickel 10,004]

your right....DUH. For some reason.....I don't know why but I was thinking strut rod and I typed tie rod :001_huh:

 

 

yeah i figured as much. i do that a lot too, think one thing and type another.

[bnickel 10,004]

Back in 95 I bought my Mach1, R code. At the time it had a 351C. I drive it around the DFW suburbs a few times, but it was 24+ year old car... I decided I was going to take it up to my old stomping grounds, SE Iowa, & have a friend do some work to it prior to putting it in a resto shop, reto shop screwed me but that is another story for another day.

 

Anyway my family lived ~ 100 miles away from the bulk of the rest, NE Mo. My dad & I wanted to take it down & show it off a bit, I think more so my dad than I. On the way down I was coasting down a long hill when all of a sudden it lost all power & sounded strange as could be. I pulled over to he side of the road & cranked it but no ignition. Luck enough for me we were smart enough to bring a tow rope & we towed it the last 50 miles....

 

To shorten a long story we found that the roll pin holding the distributor gear had been sheared off. I assume when I let off the throttle at the top of the hill the CAM walked forward & jammed the gear. I have since heard that there was a common problem with the balancer on the Cleveland's where this would happen. This happened one more time & I "parked it". This is where the resto began.

 

Mike

 

 

i sheared a roll pin on the dizzy gear once too, but it was because one of the oil pump bolts backed and caused the pump to cock sideways and jam the pump drive shaft which caused the pin to shear. this was the same motor that blew up that i had a buddy build the motor because i didn't have time to do it. the oil pump bolts should have been my first warning that there were other loose bolts, namely the rod bolts, but he was a professional mechanic and engine builder so i trusted him to do it right......never again will i have someone else build a motor for me.

[stangme 105]

a few of you may have heard this story, but I'll repeat it just the same. About twenty years ago, I rebuilt the motorcraft 4100 carb, and after install was tuning it up, no matter what I did, I could not get it to idle right. My wifes brother who knew the car better than me was over at her folks house, so we jumped in the car and headed out. Went about two blocks and it died at the light, light turns green and I'm cranking away, when it turns yellow the engine fires off, I drop it into gear and stand on it to beat the red. I roar down the road as best as I can with an engine thats missing on four of the eight cylinders and get up to the next light, shift into neutral and just kept it revved up. We are third in line and this camaro pulls up beside me, he starts revving his engine wanting to race, and my wife is laughing her ass off because I'm just trying to keep the car running. The guy next to me is getting pissed thinking my wife is laughing at him, light changes and he would have been off if not for the two cars in front of him too. We finally make it over to the folks place, her brother works on it for awhile and finally gives up, still can't get it to run smooth. Both of us are standing there looking at the car, wondering what to do next when he leans in and as he puts his hand on the coil the car smooths right out. The damn wire had backed out just enough so it was only making partial contact, but still looked like it was on all the way. Needless to say, from then on I always checked the coil wire.:tongue:

[69stang 11]

About 3 years ago, when I first got into cars and got the mustang, I did a road trip from Florida to Jersey. Once in jersey, I noticed the inside of my rear wheel well was wet, and saw fluid everywhere. Seeing how this was the beginning of my car journey and knew next to nothing, i brought it to a mechanic. He says its the wheel cylinder etc, tells me it will be something ridiculous like 1500 to fix. They told me it was ok to drive just to fill up brake fluid if the pedal starts getting soft. Seeing as I didn't have 1500 available, I decided to drive it home and bring it back after getting a loan from my parents. I start driving and all of a sudden i see my back tire and axle bounce next to the car, hit the side than continue bouncing forward, as i come to a screeching stop.

 

So it turns out it was gear oil, not brake fluid, which from what I have heard any decent mechanic should have been able to tell the difference, and I almost died because the one i went to didn't. Needless to say, I never went back.

[69GT 0]

Maybe 5 years ago I was driving back from a bon fire at the beach, and as Im going 65 on the freeway home I hear a horrible rattle coming from the engine bay. I babied it home and popped the hood to find that my fan was wobbling all over the place. I could grab the fan and move it just about any direction I wanted to. Turns on the bearings in the water pump decided to give out. Luckily it didn't take out or even scratch my radiator. Next day I got a new water pump. Pulled the old one off and a number of bearings came rolling out of the water jacket.

[Boogerschnot 12]

Damn....what base? I was at 32nd street with my car for a while! I also worked over at the sub base for about 3 years....02-05. I don't have a fluid story but i limped from Rosecrans to the back gate and to the top of one of the parking garages on the sub base with a broken tie rod one time......B might remember that.

 

So where are you stationed? what's your rate?

 

Im at 32nd Street Now working at TSC (FTC) and Im a FC2, CIWS Tech..