How do I become "that guy" who when told to bring a tow truck after purchasing a car, brings a tool bag and gets the car running 15 minutes later and drives it home, even when sitting for 25 years. What does the person go through to wake the car up and get it running so fast? What process or steps do you have to go through? I am going to try and get a mustang running so I can drive it home instead of towing it, what do I do? It's been sitting for at least 25 years, there is one parked next to it which has been parked for 6 years, I might buy both and drive 'em home. Do you do anything different if it has been sitting less time than another? Thanks!
Put a good battery in it. Make sure the fluids are up. Crank it up. check for spark& fuel. If there are any issues, fix them. Check out the brakes. get them working you're gonna need them! Drive home.
Bad brakes and stuck clutch on standard shft cars are about the only thing that might kill the drive-it-home idea. That and bad tires I should say. I have done it but never without replacing at least one wheel/tire combo. Better to bring a good set with you on work day.
I think yer motor hath a myth. Could very rarely happen. I did this, but it took me 3 days...and I still should've towed it.
I am one of those guys too...but one thing is to hear it run in 15 minutes and another is to drive it after its been sitting for 25 years...basically what it takes is experience...learning from mistakes. A big mistake would be to try to drive that car for any distance before going over it with a fine tooth comb...too many things can go wrong...the brakes will undoubtedly be gone for one... The six year parked one...not so much drama, that one might be closer to drivable..
"You can Trust Your Car, To the Man that wears THE Star......The Big RED TEXECO(ho)! STARRR..." "Happy Motoring Starts At The ESSO SIGN " _____________________________________ Don't have a Ford Anymore, Don't live .......On A HILL ! Smoke'
Do Not Run it on the old tank! Car had an empty tank, parked for 13 years. It had acually evaporated over time. You filled it up and figured you had dilutted any small amount of fuel enough to be safe. The new fuel disolved the solids left after the old fuel evaporated. When gas breaks down, it separates into it's component parts, including polymers (think plastic). When you try to burn old fuel, these polymers go in and burn OK. What you don't realize is that these polymers are coating the exaust valve on the way out, melting into a film that stays on the valve stems when they cool. Next time you run the engine, the process repeats, adding another layer of film. Before long, this coating on the valve stems is too thick for the valves to operate, they start to stick. You add some fuel system cleaner thinking you need to free up some sleepy valves, but you just add to disolving more polymers in the old tank, run it some more and add more film to the valve stems. Before you know it, you have stuck 6 or 7 valves, bent all the pushrods and you're on your way to the machine shop for a valve job and some new valves. Trust me, I know this...
You can also be "that guy" that will not listen to advice from us old farts and ends up on the side of the road or in a crash. just tow it home where your tools are and you can do it right.
That's like asking how to cure a sick person in 15 minutes. It depends on what's wrong. Sometimes your mother will give you an asprin. Sometimes you have to go see a doctor who's been through 8 years of medical training, who will hook you up to specialized machines costing hundreds of thousands of dollars (CAT scan, X-ray or MRI). Obviously the doctor is going to want to get paid a lot of money for going to school for 8 years and he is going to have to pay for the machines he had to buy to see inside you to figure out what's wrong. It is the same with old cars. Some reasons they won't run are simple and your mom can tell you how to do it. Maybe it just needs a new battery, for instance. Some problems are more serious and take expert advice and specilized equipment - such as an engine that doesn't have any compression in 2 cylinders. The difference between cars and people is that sometimes cars simply aren't worth fixing when you can find another. There is no secret way to get a sitting car running. If it were easy to get running, it wouldn't have been parked there in the first place. The owner would be driving it around. Judging by some of your other posts, I'm guessing you have never bought a car yourself. Therefore, take someone who is experienced at repairing old cars with you to look at it. The chances of YOU finding a car that's been sitting for years and years and driving it away after only 15 minutes of work is almost zero. The reason is, the seller would have to know less about cars than you do, or else he would have fixed it himself and been driving it, right?. Since you don't know much about fixing cars, it's unlikely for YOU to find a seller who knows less. That's not an insult. You may be smart but probably just haven't had a chance to work on cars much yet. Old cars are old. That means they are worn out after being used for a long, long time. They will take A LOT OF WORK to get back on the road. Once you have repaired it enough to get it on the road, all the other parts in the car are the same age too, so they are also old and worn out. You will have to fix them soon. They will break and quit working. They don't want to, they can't help it, they're just worn out. It will take A LOT OF WORK to keep driving it. You sound like you want to walk up to an old car, spend 15 minutes (very little work) and have a cool looking old car to drive. I would suggest you try a smaller project first. Try getting an old garage sale go-cart running. The things you learn by repairing it will apply to cars. More importantly, you will see if you enjoy WORKING on cars. If you do enjoy it, go on to bigger things. If not, you're only out the price of a go cart. Cars cost thousands of dollars. If you don't enjoy WORKING on old cars, you won't enjoy owning one. If you do enjoy working on them, you'll enjoy owning them. Right now all you have is your imagination. Buy a go cart and get some facts. If you can get it running, you can sell it for a profit and put that money towards a car. Good things come from work. The only thing that comes from wanting without work is more wanting. Good luck to you!
A car thats been sitting 25 years has bad brakes and questionable brake lines...... Drive it without going through them and you are going to have problems........ Think about it..... Be safe and smart ........tow it.....
ditto on that ! I would even try driving a car home that sat for 25 years or more. Tow or trailer it home, then get it running and stopping .
I thought about messing with an 86 parts truck so I didn't have to tow it. Ended up towing it anyway, but later after I pulled the engine, I found out it had bad crank bearings. The guy told me it had only sat for a year. Turns out he was full of **** and I was too for believing him.
25 years! That means bad rubber brake hoses, radiator hoses, heater hoses, filthy gas tank and lines, ****** seals leaking, bad master cylinder, bad wheel cylinders, tires, carb, plug wires, ignition woes, etc. Should change oil first and any number of things. It is possible to start it with priming the engine, you might get lucky. But you should not even think of driving it home, too many things to ruin, including lives when things like brakes don't work. I towed a barn find home a week ago or so, sat for 10-15 years, maybe more. I have just driven it around in a field a bit, it isn't running right (carb) and I won't trust it on the road until the brakes are all freshened up. Do it right and you'll be happier!
tow it home.its worth it in the end.plus i hate working on car outside in the weather.pull it home put in garage take your time check everything
i would tow the car home . 25 years of inactivity is too long to trust that the brakes will last the trip home if they work at all . to get it running i would at minimum clean and regap the points , field strip and clean the carb , replace the rubber fuel line between the carb and pump , clean all major electrical contacts i.e. battery , starter soloniod, starter, coil , alternator/generator, and regulator . lastly i would run the car off of a boat tank instead of the tank in the car . oh yea it wouldn't hurt to oil down the cylinders .
you know you might get it running and be able to drive it BUT if stopped by cops they might inpound it ? and it might not be able to get it back PLUS i know of a old car that was able to drive home / about 1/2 way there a big old snake slitterd out from under the seat and was not happy !this was his supper vehicle /lots of mice in there ! think about that ! good luck !
Too high a price to be Mr. Cool for a day. Listen to the good advice from these guys. I bought one that had sat for 10 years. Put a hot battery in it, topped off all the fluids, aired up the tires, fired that muther up, and drove it on the trailer. That's how you do it.
there's a heap of good advice for you here buddy - take it! Cheaper to hire a trailer you can hitch to your own car, than end up a statistic!! rodl
I know this thread is old and I'm not planning on driving anything home like I wanted to when I started this thread, haha. But I am helping a friend out with a new project he acquired. What do you guys mean by soaking the cylinders, what all does this entail? And what are we soaking it with? Sorry if it's a really stupid question but I'm learning..
When engines are stuck you can soak the cylinders with any number of things...pb blaster works if u plannin a complete tear down...soaking with oil works too...just pour it in the combustion chamber at let it sit on top the piston and continually tey and work the crank back and forth and hopefully it will break free Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app
Join the Auto Club and get it towed for free. When I think of the cars we drove home years ago with 1 brake working, bald tires, no lights, no muffler or towed home on a frayed rope with a brown cardboard "IN TOW" sign I shiver and shudder we didn't kill someone. With the traffic the way it is and the cops the way they are today you would have to be nuts. If you want I can tell you how to have the motor eating out of your hand in a few hours. Have revived a few oldies that were out of commission for up to 30 years, have only been stymied once and that was a Land Rover that was left outside with no spark plugs or air filter, the motor was seized so bad a safe cracker couldn't have freed it, other than that if it will turn over and has compression it will run.
I bought a car on eBay one night that didn't have a bid on it, and was ending in a few hours. I was drinking a little at the time. Long story short, I was awaken by my wife early the next morning with her asking me: did you buy a car on eBay? Anyway, it was a 66' Olds one owner. The owner had p***ed and the car had sit for over 30 years. When I got it home the motor was lock up. I replaced the water pump, radiator, put some mystery oil in the cylinders. Waited about four days, and with a new battery it cranked up. Been driving it every since with no trouble..
So You have to consider youre trusting the car. You also have to consider trusting anyone who has worked on it. DONT DO IT. Ive bought cars, trailered them home and found some very scary "fixes" and half finished jobs - finger tight master cylinder - finger tight suspension bolts - gutted carbs - differentials missing parts with the axles put back in, u joints with broken off bolt heads. Figure if the car is sitting, someone tried to fix it before they pushed it outside, they got frustrated and said screw this at some point. What did they not put back together?
The Jalopy Journal
