Glory Days

[68 Ford Stepside]

Ranchero50: Thankfully, I never had to stuff plastic worms in a leaking boat yet. Thanks for posting. Have A Great Ford Day!

[Cipher43]

I am fairly new here and not that old like blue said but most of the vehicles I have worked on are pre computer rides.

I was in need of a 4x4 to make it through the winters so I started looking and decided to buy a 1978 bronco. The motor had 20k on it and the body was decent..... but the wiring was a cut up patch job nightmare. I figured I would be able to fix it though so bought the thing for fairly cheap. The first year I had it the thing started amazing and ran great all through the first winter and into spring. Then one day I was driving it slow and decided to jump on the gas and it bogged down and died but started right back up. from that point on if i jumped on the gas or turned to the right it would die on me but immediately restart and run like a top again. That went on until winter and then that winter it would fire right away but then not run and after that it would act like you flooded it and wouldn't start. So most of that winter it sat because I had changed the cap and rotor and spark plugs and wires and made sure the electronic ignition was in good shape and it still wouldn't run consistent. It had the essentials to start when i would test it (suck, bang, blow as my dad used to say). When spring came I figured I would try working on it harder and fix the problem. One day it finally did it when I had time to work on it and it wouldn't start at all and I was at a friends house and he helped me. We went through and diagnosed all the things we could thing of and as luck would have it he touched the wire that feeds the coil just the right way that day. The plug was loose from the previous owner modifying it and was just touching the end of the solenoids plug and essentially jumping the gap unless I turned right or jumped on the gas and opened the gap up.

The moral of my story is if you buy a vehicle with a wiring nightmare, look through all of that first and you wont have thoughts of setting your bronco on fire.... as much haha

[68 Ford Stepside]

Thanks for posting Cipher43. Good Job. Have A Great Ford Day!

[68 Ford Stepside]

Because of health reasons I can't be on the computer 24/7 so at times I might not be able to thank everyone who post on this subject, but I do appreciate & thank every single one that does. The married ones too.

[68 Ford Stepside]

About thirty five years ago, I had a good friend bring over his car for me to check out. He said it was missing on one cylinder & he had pulled off one wire at the time until he found that #3 wasn't firing. He then had removed the intake & the head. There were no burnt valves to be seen, so he took it to a machine shop anyhow & had the head reworked. Arter reinstalling the head & starting the engine, it was still missing on # 3. He was at the end of his rope.

He raised the hood & I looked at the # 3 intake runner where there was a vacuum nipple with a rubber hose going through the firewall. That hose had a three inch slit in it at the firewall & was leaking vacuum. My good friend slammed the hood down,went home & never to this day has mentioned that car again. Have A Great Ford Day!

[71Prerunner]

What about lessons "learned" in the old days? My second bump (wrecked the 1st) was a 2wd SWB with no motor or trans. I bought a complete 2bbl 390 and was given a 3 speed with a floor shifter. It ran GREAT but would over heat quickly. All my friends and neighbors gave opinions but nothing worked. One summer night about 9:30 pm I drove it to the car wash (3 miles) and was checking to see how bad it was overheating. An old guy washing his Granada came over to see the truck. I explained my issue and he look at the motor for 30 seconds and said "pull the fan off and on the back you will find the letters F-R-O-N-T stamped in it, try it that way." and walked quietly away.

Lesson learned!!

[Mancar1]

Have a lot of great memories, but I am living my glory days as they come. I am enjoying reading this thread.