Posted on 12/07/2019 12:56:06 PM PST by DUMBGRUNT
“We’d raise our hands and be told, ‘Don’t be naysayers.’ We got strange comments,” one engineer claimed. “It seemed the ship had sailed. After that, if you ask questions, you’re accused of mutiny, so you put your head down and make it work. Good people tried to make it work. But you can’t violate the laws of physics. It’s a mechanical catastrophe.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thetruthaboutcars.com ...
I call mine
“ Titanic”
8 ft. Bed with
A Lear cap and
It will tow a house.
All I’ll ask of it is
To Get my ass
Out of California!
I believe you are being a bit hard on Mr Tucker39.
Guessing that you have had little interaction with gearheads?
“tranny” is an everyday component of the vernacular.
As in, the body is a little rough but the engine and tranny feel ok...
Homonyms, nothing to get your undies in a bunch.
I love the F150s. Maybe I’m lucky, but they have been very reliable for me. My first auto was my dad’s 1975 F150. As a teen I drove and abused that beast camping and off-roading. My current daily driver is a 2013 F150. Just change the oil at 70% life like clockwork. Solid.
I see way more old F150s than Dodge’s.
“My first new car was a Ford, back in 1978”
my first car was a low-mileage 1970 Mach I ...
1. the brakes were utter shit
2. the shift linkage slowly and constantly bent, and had to be constantly adjusted until the adjustment rod got used up and the linkage would then need to be replaced
3. several valve lifters squeaked from lack of lubrication and had to be replaced, but apparently there was one that couldn’t be replaced without pulling the head
4. several of the spark plugs were nearly impossible to replace
4. but worst of all, it never would start when it rained because moisture would condense under the distributor cap
I’ve never bought another American-engineered car since then, and never will ... US car makers lost me forever because of the total junk they made in the 70’s ...
I think you’re the one who looks stupid. I have never, ever heard a master mechanic yell “the transmission is shot.” It’s “the tranny’s shot”.
Also, English should always be capitalized when speaking about the language or when speaking about the people of England. Stupid.
We had an ‘09 GT/CS. I LOVED that car. Had to trade it for an F150 when we moved to the mountains, these roads would have destroyed it. I wish I had it back.
I’ve driven only Fords for 25 years and I’ve never had any of these troubles. My ‘79 F250 Powerstroke still works great, I won’t give it up. I did have to have the front end rebuilt at about 125K, ball joints, tie rods, etc. Cost me a grand. That was the worst thing.
Yep, our ‘13 F150 is awesome. The Coyote motor is great.
Yep. Years ago wind star tranny let go at 40k. Recently wife’s escape tranny bucked wildly at 35k. Lucky was still in warranty. No more ford
Toyota Highlander with 270 k has had exactly 2000 dollars in repairs. Excellent value though it is long in the tooth I still drive it daily.
Don’t want to know your mechanic on a first name basis??? Best consider a yoyota!
Grant you that the Grand Marquis is a stone cold winner.
I hope it works out for ya.
I will never buy another ICE vehicle unless its a real classic like a Duesenberg or a Peterbilt.
Possible i may buy the Tesla Cybertruck or the next best offering. I like what they offer in the Atlis, if it happens.
Getting off of fueled vehicles, screw Saudi oil.
That is an incredibly STUPID design. What was wrong with waterpump,alternator,power steering pump, and a/c compressor being powered from the outside of the engine on a central shaft and a serpentine belt threaded through all of the above, with differential tension on the belt being maintained by a replaceable spring loaded belt tensioner.
SOOO much easier, and one only has to keep an extra, new serpentine belt in case the old one breaks or wears out— and you’ll know right away if it does.
We tracked the customer's mileage and had repeats about every 100k miles which was about every 8-10 years.
Commercial vehicles (limos) was about 250-300k in 3-5 years.
Did not take us long to start buying up Towncars & MK VII's. Towncars 1990-1997. MK VII's ran 1988-92.
These vehicles most never had a major problem (transmission) until 200k +.
The TC's in this year range could get up to 30 mpg (pre alcohol). I picked up a 1997 TC and a 1990 MK VII. The MK VII got 32 mpg pre alcohol.
Note that all Lincolns cars 1988-97 weighed 5k lbs. Even the MK VIII 1993-1998.
The MK VIII was nice but high maintenance (but less than a Cadillac of any year).
One fault of the MK VII was the Hydro Boost brake system...no redundancy. When it failed, you had no brakes. Mine failed.
From a client phone call a year prior, I had the info to make may own brake system.
The key was a 1993 Mustang GT brake vacuum brake booster (new) and related year Crown Vic master cylinder. Made my own brakelines but had to get brakelines couplings from salvage years from Mercury V8 Cougar. The MK VII proportion valve was machine down for standard brakelines fittings.
The replacement system worked perfect and looked Factory in the engine bay.
The MK VII got Old Timers from 7 computers failing at the same time @ 170k and the 1997 TC at 345k due to lack of money in 2009 (the start of the Hussein O. years).
During my shop years, a 100k TC or Grand Marquis could be had for $1k.
Many young people were calling me wanting to know how to raise a front wheel drive Cadillac for fitting their 22's.
I told them anything can be done, IF you had enough money. *Go buy a TC or Grand Marquis for your 22's.
**That's Grandma's car!
Over time they realized that Caddy's and 22's do not mate.
I felt that I helped to drive up the price of used TC's and Grand Marquis.
re: “Personally, I would favor a central hydraulic pump driving four hydrostatic slave motors”
Fluid friction in all the lines/plumbing is an efficiency killer ...
Great post, “Deaf”! Have a 180 TC that still runs, has all the bells and whistles of the day, leather, heated seats, landau roof. Huge motor, and does get 30 mpg or so using non-ethanol 93 octane. Dang heavy, as you say.
It may be worth the effort to keep it going, though the a/c refrig is way past the many system changes to now. Think it must have been R-12?
Funny stray thought, most Americans don’t know that Amtrak has a special waiver from EPA... and uses R-12 as its A/C refrigerant. Can see the labeling on the sides of compressor tanks. Incredible. Way better than 134a.
At times I would like to have a Dodge Monaco like Hunter had or Lincoln like Cannon.
Then I come back to reality.
I owned a 2012 Mustang GT for
2 years and 40,000 miles. Not
one single problem with it.
It was a great car, and very
fun to drive. It died an early
death from being parked it a low
spot during a Houston flood. I
now own a 2014 GT. There’s 40,000
on it now, and again, not a single
problem with it.
Ford replaced the clutches in both my 2017 Focus and my daughter’s 2015 Focus. Shuddering and shaking on slow speed acceleration especially on inclines were the symptoms. I still have had a grinding like noise on the left front wheel almost since I bought my 2017 Focus that the clutch replacement didn’t fix. I like my Focus especially the gas mileage, but have nagging suspicions that more transmission problems are in store.
Even worked on one engineer's vehicle in the parking lot of a Dearborn MI plant.
After multiple phone calls, one guy revealed that he was a lawyer and wanted us to figure out why a Ford engineer was crushed under his MK VII...curiosity killed that cat. He did not know of the time delays for making height changes and he did not beat the 5 second delay.
The MK VII also had a ten step Self Diagnosis test that told you nothing. On the Net, I coined that a Stupid Pet Trick.
The MK VII also had one major symptom that the suspension computer was failing in the 1988-90 years...Linda Blair is in control of your car.
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