whats the oddest old car problem you ever had?

my new dodge pickup project has termite damage.. Alt least it made it easy to get the wood out..

 

Christine!!!!!!

 

Had a 300 horse 350 in my boat. After we moved to Belle Fourche SD there wasn't a lot of boatable water. I would go start it at least once a month. One month fine , next it acts like it is seized. Pulled the heads and one cylinder had a mud dauber nest in it. All the way through the drive, exhaust. manifolds and into the cylinder. Filled it full of mud. Apparentely acid ruined the block. Had to replace it with a ZZ4.

82 Buick stayed in closed loop. Factory service had replaced nearly everything on the car at least twice. Threw it off on a GM tech school. Every student got a chance at it. Asked what happened when the problem started. Ran fine before a leaking temp sender was replaced. Traced out the wires and had continuity between two wire at the computer that weren't related. Split the wire and they were full of coolant and were making a circuit in one of the weatherpac connectors.
A friend bought a Maserati somethin that would start but wouldn't run. The servise center had replaced the rear glass and had drilled a hole for drainage through the wiring harness.
64 El Camino. step on the brakes and the interior lights came on. Would you believe a blown fuse?

 

the wifes old fiat 131 would fall flat on its face while pulling a long grade uphill. never did figure it out,but did the same thing.kept wife,sold car!

 

Had a 69 Firebird and was going down the freeway when the engine went suddenly dead. Checked everything and no go. Finally discovered the plastic cam follower on the points had broken off closing the points. Had put the old points in the glove box saving the day.

Also, had a 57 Chevy in high school. One day coming home like the throttle went wide open. Checked the linkage, springs, etc. all OK Cranked it again, still wide open. Removed the air cleaner and could see one of the*****erfly's laying in the bottom of the intake. Got it home cranking it and shutting it of and coasting.

 

In the early 70's I had a Triumph*****fire. I did a tuneup on it, new points, plugs, timing, etc. Started right up and ran great. Took it out for a drive and anytime I would step on it, it would sputter and runn like***** until I let up. I hadn't touched the carbs or anything but the ignition. Spent hours on it before I remembered I replace a wallered-out screw on the points plate. Took it out and compared it to the old one. The new one was 1/16" longer, just enough that the end of it would hit the hot wire that ran behind the plate. The threads cut into the wire and shorted the points whenever vacuum advance kicked in....

Swapped a boneyard Chrysler 2.5 EFI 4-banger into an early Dodge Caravan that had been carbureted. The computer immediately threw codes saying the MAP sensor was bad. Checked the MAP out with an ohmeter and vac pump, it worked fine. Checked all the wiring twice, nothing. Finally tried blowing thru the vacuum hose to the MAP -- nothing! Some jerk put a ball bearing halfway down the tube.

 

My DD a few years back was a total POS 4 cyl Chrysler. If I topped up the water it would only start on one cylinder, and after a few minutes running the others cut in. Pulled the plugs - back 3 were wet - radiator water. Would start fine if I topped the radiator up after the engine was started. Drove it for a few months more then sold it.

 

74 Chrysler Newport Custom... the car that donated its 440 to my 69 Ford F250 4WD... Just before I pulled the engine out, the starter engaged and cranked the engine when I opened the driver's door ... turned out the engine to body ground wire was off. Evidently the dome light got grounded through the starter when that wire was off.

Different problem - no one has been able to answer yet but I have a theory. My daily driver 69 F100 with 302 and 4speed. A little over 350,000 miles on the truck and ~100K miles on engine#4. When driving at say 60mph and let off the throttle (engine speed is still steady as it is manual transmission), the SW mechanical oil pressure gauge shows a 5psi oil pressure increase until the RPM's drop off. Step on the throttle again and oil press drops 5psi back to where it was (~40psi) . Engine #3 did this too, but worse.

 

Not an old car then, but is now. Friend bought a NEW 55 Ford 2dr Victoria. When goin a little fast around a corner, there would be a big Thump. Had it at the dealer many times, they stripped all the rear seats and door panels. Way up inside the 1/4 panel, found a Coke bottle on a string. The note inside read "Ya finally found it*****ers"...True story......OLDBEET

 

My oddest problem to date is with my 64 Chevy truck. I would try to start the engine and it would keep running after the ignition switch was cut off. I first installed a battery cutoff switch as this was the only way to stop the starter from running until the battery went dead. Replaced the starter 3 times and all wiring under the hood twice. Also replaced the alternator and battery. Finally replaced the worn out old 350 with a freshly rebuilt 350. Hit the starter and cut it off and it kept running...........Considered shooting the truck but decided to wait a few more days. In desperation ordered a new under dash wiring harness and then the truck wouldn't start at all. (had a short in the new wiring harness) Repaired short in new harness and finally solved the problem. The wire from the starter to the ignition switch (old wiring harness) had shorted internally and kept the starter hot intermittenly. Problem solved. Elapsed time = over 1 year.

 

'60 Pontiac had a lot of goofy problems.

a contact in the regulator stuck and it was like a dead short across the battery. I saw what was going on and lopped one of the battery cables right off with some*****s. Ended up rewiring the amp gauge, new regulator, and I had to run jumper wires in under the dash to start the thing - it would not start from the switch anymore. I figured I was lucky, it damn near burned up that night.

Then, the solenoid started to act up. I swapped out starters with a parts car off and on, every other time I had to take it apart and file the copper contact disc flat where it was pitting. Eventually got a new solenoid, but I was good at manhandling a 25-lb starter on my forearms there for a while.

Both motor mounts broke, and it would take off if you hit the gas too hard. I kept driving it with the old mount wrapped in coathanger wire as many times as it would go until the new ones showed up UPS.

Never did solve the low-speed waddle in it, around 10 MPH you could feel it waddle a little in the back. Someone finally explained what this could be and I've forgotten all over again.

The tie rod ends wore out but the only sign of trouble was cupping on the tires and a slight pull to the right. I tried swapping the tires side for side to see if it would help. Bad idea. I had to hold the wheel hard to keep it going straight. Ended up putting the tie rod off the parts car on it - lucked out, didn't need to align it.


The funniest one was an '86 Buick wagon I got off these potheads who had torn the ignition all apart because it would not run. I just got it as a parts car, but figured I would see if I could make it go. Put it together with junk plug wires, cap, rotor, and module I had laying around. Dump some gas in it, it would run a little. Verdict was they had run it so completely out of gas that I had to leave the cap loose so the pump could draw the gas up without trying to create a vaccuum, probably one of the vent lines was plugged. I drove it around a little in a field after that. That's the same one that I found a bong in the driver's seat when I swapped them into another car, and when the second car was junked I took the seats out again and one fell out of the passenger seat.

A similar one, the S10 I have, they'd swapped computers in because sometimes it would refuse to start. After tearing the dash apart to see if the check engine light bulb was bad, I swapped the old computer back in for the hell of it and it started right up. Eventually I discovered that the hold-down bolt for the distributor was loose, and probably just the shaking around of the engine would screw it up enough to keep it from starting. Of course, I still haven't gotten it to run, but the dist. I put in it is a tooth off.

My mother's '95 Chevy truck would occasionally refuse to start and maybe the horn would toot when you turned the key. It turned out to be a bad ground connection to the column.

Another beater, an '89 Ramcharger. Guy had sold it but they brought it back because it wouldn't go. Needed a water pump, too. So I get it and go to take it up to the parts store and sure enough it stops going. The trans was just about bone dry out of fluid. I added some and it shifted funny but I got a couple thousand miles out of it before I sold it. First beater I ever made money on, I had like $140 in it total and sold it for $400. But it got horrible gas milage, like 12-13 MPG with the 360 - out of a 3500 lb truck.


It's amazing to me what really dumb problems have led to me getting cars for next to nothing. There was a Buick I got for free that whoever had it didn't buy enough hard line to replace part of the brakes, I had that one drivable in about a day and for around $20 or so.

 

all problems are electrical..

had the ground wire from the engine block to the frame LOOSEN once.. the car would crank.. but never start.. it wasnt until cranking on it for several minutes.. and then accidently touching the braided stainless throttle cable that i realized that the braid was acting as an insufficient ground for the motor..

1/4 turn on the ground wire bolt.. and we were back in business..

this entire process only took 2 days and lots of guessing at other parts to determine..

 

(1) mud dauber wasp nest in oil passages of 440 crank
(2) burst oil filter 390 Ford
(3) metal chips in electronic dist stuck to magnets on start up.
but my all time favorite was an intermitant fuel starvation problem in a 1979 VW I changed the filter twice I changed the fuel pump, I took the entire fuel system apart five times, then one morning I had the fuel tank laying on the ground and the angle of the sun was shinning in the tank and I could see two little plastic pieces used to hold the plastic float for the fuel gage had come loose and would accasionally float over and block the fuel intake line creating the intermitant problem.

 

Rewired my '49 Plymouth. Soldered every joint. Yes, every*****in' one. Not gonna' have any problems here, nosirree!

About 6 months later, the*****er won't start to take me to work. Everything in the car is all dead. Nothing worked whatsoever.

Get out the trusty VOM; check battery; 12-point-something volts. Check main fuse (everything went thru it); same voltage. Check hot wires to back of ignition switch, volt meter and headlight switch. Same voltage. But nothing works if I turn it on.

Shit, I'm late for work at this point.

Short story long: the fuse had failed, but still looked good; the strip in the middle just barely touched on one end. It had enough continuity to pass 12V without a load, but try and turn anything on, and it just couldn't pass enough juice to run anything.

Moral: do voltage tests WITH THE SYSTEM TURNED ON!

Best customer car problem: cruise control inop on BMW (there's the first symptom!); found water under R side of dash. Turns out stereo shop drilled a hole in the top of the cowl on the L side in a well where water is supposed to drain away - but now it drains into car and runs across under dash.

Best customer car fix: 1300 civic won't run right; has***** in carb. Whole shop has given up as lost cause unless customer (real broke) buys new carb. I step into phone booth and change clothes ("S" on chest; red cape - maybe you've seen the outfit), then whip a box of Ball & Ball carb parts out of my toolbox. I remove all plugs from carb, clean it out, and install replacement plugs for a flathead 6 mopar carb kit. POS ran like a stripe****ed ape (for an old civic) after that.

-bill

 

I spent weeks putting my first flat motor together after several months at the machine shop, and even more time learning about them before that. Got the motor in on Forth of July weekend. Hooked everything up, and , No fire!
Chased all over D/FW for a new distributor cap, points,condensor.( not too many flathead parts around here) Put it all in, and No fire! Started checking old car wiring and second guessing myself with 6vlt, positive ground system, Nothing!
Day 2-- New day. Started from scratch, checked every thing over again,
and started calling friends for ideas. No new thoughts from them. Pulled the distributor out and started taking it apart. No obvious troubles there. Put it back together and back in. Just for grins, I tried again and It started. A day and a half, and I'm not shure what I fixed. Think maybe the point wire was grounding under the distributor plate.

 

Currently our old 88 GMC began having an intermittent wiper problem where sometimes for no reason they will turn on do one swipe and then park themselves. It started last year after the rain, so I figured it must be a short or water getting in somewhere. That theory was gone when it did it a few more times this summer. It's dry and 105 so.... I checked alot but haven't tried tracking down the wiring yet. On the to-do list.

Here is a good one from my Dad....
In 72 he picked up a 48 Chevy Fastback from some tweaker. It ran good but didn't have hood hinges or latch, so he would take the hood off and lean it against the house when he drove it. It ran good but seemed to be a little low on power and used more gas than he thought a 6 should. He sells it to a friend and the engine soon takes a dump. When the friend opened it up he found it was missing a complete rod, piston and the works. It ran smooth because someone had welded weights onto the crank to counterweight the missing rod.

 

I had that happen on a 53 F-100 w/223-6. It did that for about 200 miles then threw a rod. It means either the thrust bearing is shot, or the rod bearings. It means there are serious oil leakage problems!

 

Well, my daughter has a 81 camaro that was running hot, so her boyfriend go a junkyard electric fan and installed it. She came home one day and shut off the car and it kept running for a while. I asked her what was wrong with it and she said "it's been doing that". Well, you probably guessed it, he wired the fan into the ignition wire, and when she shut the car off, the spinning fan became a generator that kept feeding the ignition.

 

got a DUI

 

my car is like that. I did it on purpose to see if the stories were true. i left it like that and get smart**** remarks all the time. i love getting out of the car and two seconds later the car dies. the look on peoples faces are priceless. when they as me why it does that i tell them it is a old car, it's worn out!

 

That's pretty funny, or tell them it runs so good it doesn't want to stop!

 

I'm not sure if it's the same but we had similar problems on the wife's POS Bravada. Sometimes they'd work, sometimes they wouldn't. Other times they'd go into phantom mode like yours.

I fixed it by re-heating the cracked solder joints on the delay wiper circuit board inside the motor.

Didn't need to add any solder to them. I just heated the posts up and it re-melted what was already there and it drew down into the joint. Worked like a dream.

 

I have two....
#1 was a '58 Edsel Pacer. I would wake up and find it out in the street. It would decide to go walkies by itself. It had that electeric pushbutton Transmission shifter setup in the center of the steering wheel. I =was CERTAIN I was putting it in park when I parked it.
One day we were sitting next to the car supping suds and I hear this "CLICK CLICK" sound....and there she goes, rolling out into the street. The Shifter has some kind of intermittant short and it would just decide to change gears on its own. Never did find it.

#2. My daily ride is an '85 Elky. It just hates to turn left. ANTI_NASCAR, I guess. It dies going into a left hand turn. Otherwise it runs great.

Glenn

 

I had an old Ford once that DIDN'T smoke. I thought that was odd. hahaha.

 

'50 Chevy - for first few years I had it, every once in a while it would blow the turn signal fuse only while turning left . Signals worked fine and the simple circuit checked out. I tested and re-tested the switch, wires and housings but still PHHTT' and no signal. I eventually discovered the secured harness to the rear only included two wires - Brake and tail lites. The Accessory turn signals used the original brake wire for the right lamp but for the left turn/brake - there was a third added wire that runs along the frame separately until the trunk and was getting pinched at a point above the rear axle arch occasionally when the frame flexed against the wire and body when turning .

DOHHH

Powerband

 

Not really an odd problem...but a youthfull solution. My first car was a '60 El Camino with a 283. Had a warped deck and would slowly fill the #5 cylinder with water when parked and would lock it up...wouldn't crank. So anytime I parked the car for more than 15 minutes or so I'd have to pull the plug and turn it over by hand to pump the water out, reinstal the plug and start it up. I drove it that way for about a year.

 

Is this the Throttle Body fuel injected model? If so, they have an electric fuel pump in the tank and I believe they have baffles to help prevent the gas from sloshing away from the pump. Sounds like you are missing or have a broken baffle. or..... had this happen on my Cutlass.... the power wire going to the pump is grounding somewhere and causing the pump to shut off momentarily.
Just a few shots in the dark...

 

thanks for all the posts. This has been very entertaining, and educational.
R.R.

 

All my old stuff runs ok, but I am going bananas trying to track down some gremlins in my 97 Blazer.

2 months ago, the radio would come on if you opened the right rear door. That went away not long after.

NOW - Its the damn power seat on the drivers side.

Get this:

1. open drivers door, operate switch. Seat doesnt move. Take switch apart, clean contacts, check with meter, OK.
2. Open rear drivers side door, backprobe the wiring for the power seat mechanism. All ok. Take connectors apart, clean contacts.
3. Go back to drivers seat. SEAT MOVES!!!!!
4. Take tools out of back seat, close rear door, put tools away.
5. Just for fun, check seat. SEAT DOESNT MOVE.

*Shit*

1. Open rear door, check wiring, still getting power. Check connectors, contacts are still clean that I cleaned 10 minutes ago.
2. Go back to seat, seat works fine.
3. Grab tools, close door, put tools away.
4. Check seat, seat will not operate.

*@#%@#$%$%$#!!!!!!!

At this point, I am looking thru the garage to make sure I am not being stalked by someone who is disconnecting the battery when I am doing this*****.

By now, I have spent an hour, nearly upside down, laying on a shoulder that had surgery in April, checking wiring that obviously isnt the problem. Same with the switch.

On a hunch, I operate the seat switch and open the rear door. THE SEAT MOVES!!!! WOOOHOOO!!!!

Close door, seat STOPS MOVING.

by now, I have determined that the seat can only be operated with the rear door open.

The door switch is toggling the power on and off to the seat.

WHAT THE HELL EVER.

Told the mrs, if you want to move the seat, open the door.

"But Why?"

"That's the way the f*****r works. Get used to it."

 

i got up one morning, walked out to the car, put the key in the ignition and it started right up. (i never turned the key...)