Technical Crazy things that have caused trouble on your ride!

My daughter bought a 72 Nova 6 cylinder for $75. Rustbucket but ran ok...for a while. After a while it was running so poorly I took the carb apart. Somebody had jammed a piece of cloth in the br*** seat between the br*** and the carb body to hold it together. I guess they didn't want to buy the proper needle and seat setup and just used what they could find. I cleaned it up, stuck it back in there and she drove it another couple of months before selling it.

 

A while back I decided to buy a second head for my 250 inline six to port out. I wanted more power and had the time and dad has a flow bench to check it on. I added bigger exhaust valves just for the heck of it since they needed replaced anyway. I got some decent flow numbers, somewhere around 15-20% increase on both intake and exhaust. What I didn't notice was the exhaust was flow almost equal to the intake. The truck ran pretty decent with the new head, full throttle felt really good, and around town was good. It wasn't till I headed out on the highway that it got weird. At part throttle climbing a grade, it would cutout and buck something awful. I tried a new HEI module, wires, carburetors, wire harness, even changed out the converter and replaced a bent rear axle just to be sure it wasn't a balance issue. I gave up and reinstalled the stock head, it ran 100% perfect! All I can figure is the exhaust was pulling the fuel mixture from the cylinder when the valves were overlapping causing a huge lean condition. It had to be just the right conditions to happen, and what clued me in was the temp would climb when it was acting up. I ran it for about a year messing with it.

 

Yes... I think I've probably been the "crazy thing" that usually caused "problems with my ride".

@blowby , that gave me a good laugh. Not laughing at you so much as I think I just relate. Young and not quite up to speed yet. LOL... just push the damn thing back in... Hahahaha...

I've said it before I'll say it again. I come here and learn stuff you could never learn anywhere else. Being aware of some of these obscure cir***stances could really come in handy if one of them ever came up.
And you guys make me laugh like nobody else. Hahaha thank you.

 

Never had a headlight do that, but have had it happen a bunch of times on a 1157 tail light bulb. Especially on old semi trailers before we started using leds. Had them when you put on the brakes, all the trailer lights would go on. Other times, turn on the lights and the brake lights would be on like the switch was stuck. We always carried a box of 1157 bulbs with us, those old spring ride trailers rode so rough bulbs didn’t last but a week or two.

 

HAH!

I've always found that the previous owner seems to be the craziest thing done to my, or anyone else's, vehicle.

One of the more full efforts done was on an OT S-10 purchased from a friend. Parking brake was always tight, fully extended cable, and didn't work right. After I bought it the brake pedal started getting longer and longer in short order. Pulled the drums and found the PB cable was tweaked 180° in a 'U' shape to connected to the parking brake lever.
Someone had redone the rear drums, completely flipped everything left/right. So when you braked normally(forward) the adjustment star jack would screw in creating more take-up needed before shoe engagement. Had to take the whole mess apart, bought new self adjusters since I wasn't even sure I had the correct ones, or the correct sides. Took pictures and showed them to the PO told him whatever jack*** he hired to do the brakes on he should get his money back. His wife comes out and chimed up when she saw the pictures, 'Oh, Joe just did some drum brakes recently, he can help you with that!' The silence from Joe was telling.

 

First car was a 67 Impala with a 283 Q-Jet. I didn't know anything about cars. When I made a left turn it would stumble a bit which I decided was fuel sloshing around in the carb (or something like that). Did that for about a year. Several times the car would stall on a left turn but eventually restart. One day I was driving with my best friend down a dirt road and came to an old wooden bridge. As we approached it I bragged how "a Honda couldn't handle this!" and I sped up. Smoke started rolling from under the hood; we popped it and my buddy, always smarter than I about things like this, recognized the problem right away. I didn't have a battery tie-down, and the battery had been installed backwards so that the positive terminal was about 1/2" from the fender lip. Every so often it was bouncing over just enough to short out but that last big bump had lodged it right there. Melted the terminal clean off. To this day I can't remember how we got home.

 

MANY years ago.... driving down the road in a pickup and it just quit. Gauge said I had gas, but no fuel at the carb. [emoji848] ****, checked filter, no fuel. Maybe manual fuel pump. Changed, still no gas. Two piece steel fuel line from tank to pump. Dropped front and blew air thru it [emoji106] good. Dropped back line blew air thru it [emoji106] good. back together. No fuel at the pump... WTF. Took both lines off and ran a small piece of wire thru the fitting. Turns out it was narrower than either line and there was a TINY wad of what looked like paper (spitwad) lodged in the fitting. Back together... no more problem. Now for the confession and the lesson learned. Pretty sure, months prior, I had lost a gas cap. Gone when I went to fill. Soooo, being the brilliant red neck that I am, grabbed a paper towel & stuck it in the hole for a few days, till I could get a replacement cap. Pretty sure tiny pieces of the deteriorating paper towel came back to haunt me. Moral: NEVER stick paper towels or rags in a gas fill hole [emoji23][emoji23]. Go straight to the store & buy a new cap.


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When I worked at the gas station (would have been between 72 and 79), one of our customers bought a brand new Buick. She was always complaining about a "clunking noise) when she went around a corner slowly. It had been to the dealership several times and they couldn't find the source of the noise. I was changing the oil and put the car on the frame contact hoist, as it lifted, it made some pretty strange noises.
It seemed that Buick forgot to put the bolts in the back 4 body mounts on both sides! Had I put the car on the drive on hoist, I may not have seen the problem either. My boss called the customer, she had him call the dealership. within minutes, we had several GM dressed people standing under our hoist. I think GM ended up getting her a different car over that deal.

We were running a car in the hobby cl*** at our local track. About 1/2 way through the season, the car was running strong, then for about 3 weeks we had an issue. About 1/2 way through our feature, the car would start breaking up going down the back straight, stumble through 3 & 4 turn, and run really strong down the front straight and 1 & 2 turns, the break up down the back straight and stumble through 3 & 4, then run great down the front straight. It would do this until the end of the race. It drove us nuts! It was so obvious, every one pretty much could hear it. The only time it acted up was on the back straight, after about 1/2 the race. We enlisted the help of several other racers that were always helpful to us, tried everything anyone suggested, still no fix. After 3 weeks, one of my friends offered to let us use pastor in his back 40. We could run the car hard until we encountered the problem, and could stop and see if we could find the problem. like everyone else in our cl***, we were running dual exhaust to just before where the mufflers would have been. After 3 or 4 rounds of running, having the issue, looking but finding nothing, then run it all over again, I came to the conclusion heat from the exhaust was building up under the car, and must have been getting the steel fuel line too hot. we took the car back to the shop, rerouted the fuel line, and added turn downs onto the pipes. The next week, the car ran strong through the entire race, as it did the rest of the season.
The strange thing was, the week after we "solved" our problem, everyone in our cl*** rerouted their fuel lines and added turn downs, or dumper the exhaust out from under the car.
Even with the 3 weeks of having the running issue, we still finished 9th in the points for the year out of a 44 car cl***. Gene

 

I had a leaf stem get past my air filter and got stuck between the MAF prongs. Fortunately I wasn't more than an eighth of a mile from home but it took me about 10-15 minutes spitting and sputtering

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One that I chased in my Midget racing days was a weird fuel problem, engine blubber off corner after running hard on a short track. we take car to event, hot lap, OK, qualifying OK, started to show up heat race, run feature, end up pulling in running bad, after heat race, changed magneto, fuel pump and checked injection nozzles one of these 3 is the usual culprit in this type scenario. Hmmmmm......... during the week flowed fuel pumps- both good, had mags checked both good so went through entire fuel system looking, found nothing wrong. Go racing, same thing, had me thinking, temp related ? ............. take all fuel lines and looking again for a flapper, borrowed a mag to be sure mine were in fact good, week 3 same deal, WTF. At home in garage finally found it, I had flipped car hard and did not get over to help my Dad to fix car, we let it sit 3 weeks before I got back in it, the flip rang my bell big time and was so sore with a few broken ribs, so when it wasn't running right it was a blessing in disguise anyway. When we put this car together, new ch***is and engine I did the fuel lines, when my Dad repaired car he took seat, fuel lines out for frame/cage repair and when putting fuel lines in he ran return line differently between seat and a frame vertical, the aluminum seat flexed when I ran hard using brakes to set car, hence pinching return line=blubber. I did not see it until I thought whats ??? up, Got to be something with fuel, return line ?, easy fix, got it running, ran great/fast, managed to get on my head again a 3/4 weeks later and that ended the season for us as I was hurt badly from this second event. Life/racing, some days/years are diamonds, some are stones, Lucky for me many more diamonds than stones LOL

 

Broke a rear leaf spring on a 64 Ford Galaxie 500. Pushed the rear end to get the broken spring ends to overlap, clamped two pairs of Vise Grips and away I went... I had a date with an angel and I had to make it happen.

 

This one didn’t cause a noticeable problem, it was on a OT 70’s Buick V-6, pulled the stock intake to swap on four barrel manifold, found one intake port had thick casting flash over half the port. Spent some time with a die grinder opening it up. Some great quality control.


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A couple of know it all 17 year old HS knuckle heads (me and a buddy) replaced the 6 cylinder 3 speed in his '66 Nova wagon with a 327 from the junk yard. Finally got it all in and running but the clutch wouldn't disengage and the Z bar would flex when the clutch pedal was depressed. We being the automotive genius' we were figured the Z bar just needed bracing. So much for that idea. Finally had to tow it to a local mechanic. Car was back later that day. Nothing that installing a pilot bushing didn't fix. The 327 from the junk year didn't have one and we didn't think/know to check.

 

Resistor plugs!

Almost nothing stumps me but I inherited an OT Ural that the old man "tinkered" with. After finally equalizing the carbs until it would at least run, was having a time keeping it running smooth. Finally ordered solid core wires and rebuilt the plug wires. I got solid core wire because that was what it had when I started. It also had non-resistor plugs. And it ran. Not very much power, but it ran.

New solid core wire, new non-resistor plugs. Would not start. But if I pulled the plug wires off the plugs it would start and run. Can't really drive it that way. Finally got enough info from online people and got resistor plugs and it fired right up and practically doubled its power output. Granted it's not much.

 

I had a dead-reliable OT economy car that never gave me any trouble for 15 years. One day it started and as soon as I started releasing the clutch to drive away, it died. It sat like this for 3 months while I tried to diagnose the problem. Multiple people told me to s**** it and move on. This was the only new car I ever bought and it had some sentimental value to me so I hung on. One day my buddy stopped by and we were talking about it. I started it, tried to move it, it died....My buddy says pop the hood. He grabs a big wiring harness connector by the firewall, pulls it apart then re-plugs it back together. Never another problem since.

 

I learned the hard way this summer that you can't trust a lot of brand new stuff! I had maybe a week or so driving my freshly built '39 Chev when headed to a car club meeting on a warm Friday afternoon I suddenly had smoke filling the cabin! I shut the engine off and coasted into an apartment parking lot. Got out to see what was wrong, and there was oil EVERYWHERE! Oil down both front fenders, all down the sides, and a huge puddle about 5' in diameter under the car! I was freaked out pretty much!
I have a one piece fibergl*** hood, so pulled it, and sat it in the gr***, and began looking for a problem. No holes in the pan, or the block, and everything looked fine, except for being drenched in oil! Then I looked at the sending unit outlet behind the intake on the 350 Chevy, and saw the line was gone! A little searching, and I found the black line laying behind the engine. It had somehow simply popped off the fitting!
The line was limp, and soft like a noodle, and I figured the heat had softened it enough for it to slip off. I had the car towed home, and began cleanup the next day. I went over to the parts store and bought a copper line kit, and installed it. But while removing the old line I noticed even when cold it was still soft! It was a hard plastic line when installed, so unsure why it turned to spaghetti?
I've got two other cars with gauges that had plastic lines for decade or more. So I bought 3 copper kits, and swapped out the other two also, just in case.

 

I was driving north, on my way to the Hunter alignment school near Cleveland OH when I noticed the car isn't running right. I pulled over, checked things, no luck. I limped to the next exit and bought a set of plugs and replaced them, still no luck. I finally gave up and was trying to limp my way there when I looked in the rear view and noticed a smoke trail.

A few minutes later I had fixed the wired open choke that ****ed shut, and all was well again.

 

Had a weird squeak in my car on the way to work when I got parked I discovered a baby cat between the grill and the radiator, pulled him out and no more squeak.

 

OT pickup, driving to lunch one day with a friend. Hit a bump in the road, nothing major, but enough to cause the bed to rise and unload the rear suspension. That’s when one of the shocks froze solid, extended. This makes for one very bouncy ride.



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Some plastics handle oil well. Some not so well.
https://omnexus.specialchem.com/polymer-properties/chemical-resistance/mineral-oil-20-c
Good chance that the supplier had the wrong grade.

Cheers,
Harv

 

Guys, your oil is important! I never use plastic or copper tubing! My oil pressure gauges all get Aro-quip. Probably misspelled it. But I always use that racing line for oil lines. Might cost a little more, but it could save your engine and will save you some time, if the other stuff blows!


Like one of the HAMBers here says when he quotes the MoToRs manual:
Let he who is without oil will throw the first rod!
Compressions 9.1





Bones

 

I've a trac-lok rear axle in my 64 Ford and every know and again when it engages the rear end of the car lurches, especially when on the gas and going through the gears. The first time it happened it scared the living daylights out of me, especially when I least expected it. I now know what to expect and how to respond however I've new gears to install and when I do, I'll pull it apart to check things out.