This is probably a long shot but I'm wondering if there are any board members in the Ripley/Fairplain WV area. The short version of the story is that my wife and I bought a 2nd vehicle ('04 Mountaineer yay Ford!) while we were visiting my in-laws in NC and while we were driving it and my Neon home, I killed my Neon on I-77 near the Ripley/Fairplain exit in WV. We packed everything into the Mountaineer and headed the additional 200 miles home with the Neon still sitting in the Speedway parking lot.
The dilemma I'm faced with is this. The engine is dead, I ran it hot and tried to push for one more exit. It started rattling, losing oil pressure and finally coasted to a stop at the entrance of the Speedway with a cloud of blue smoke. Trying to crank it over it sounds like there's no compression at all. The car has 201k miles, the body is rough and the car isn't really worth the expense of getting the car home (200 miles) to just s it here.
I've called all the nearest junkyards in the area and no one has even been interested in picking it up. I thought I would post here and find out if there's anyone in the area who would want this thing to s it. I'm not in a position to go get the car and the longer it sits there the more likely it is to become a problem. Being that we just bought another car I'm not in a financial position to pay $350+ to have it towed here, either. Basically I want rid of the car. I do have clear title and keys for it in my possession.
Anyone in the area that could help me out or does anyone know how I can get rid of this car from 200 miles away? It has a new-ish battery and also four aluminum rims to sort of bump up the s value.
Howdy y'all. It seems as though I don't post here anymore unless I have a non-fox-cougar/t-bird related problem but the truth is that my own fox t-bird has been sitting for the better part of a few years. I has a shame
Anyway, the current fiasco I'm dealing with has to do with this new Genie garage door opener I scored for only $80.... I started the install only to find that the "truss" that may or may not actually hold my garage roof up is heinously low compared to the height that my garage door opener must sit at. Basically this: The horizontal "beam" (read 2x4) in my garage needs to be sectioned out to allow the garage door opener to hang high enough to allow the door to open to the fullest and NOT hit the garage door opener track. I have a Genie 1/2 hp screw-drove door opener, and even mounting the "screw drive track" right against this 2x4 of the 'truss' it is still too low. My question is this:
Can I section out the horizontal section of the truss and box-frame it up with more 2x4s and still prevent my garage from collapsing while giving the nice new Genie door opener room to operate as it's intended? The garage is a cheap, pre-fab sort constructed in the 60's at the earliest. It is comprised of a cement pad, a perimeter of cinder blocks (the threshold of the man-door is easily 8" off the ground) and cheap wood siding and framing consisting entirely of 2x4's.
Hey all, if I remember correctly, there are a few folks here that are good with lawn equipment and small engines. What I'm dealing with is a troy-bilt chipper vac with a tespoogeseh 5hp horizontal shaft engine. the problem is that it won't start warm unless you gag it with starting fluid. The carb was thoroughly cleaned by myself and supposedly rebuilt by another neighbor (this unit belongs to another neighbor) though I did find today that the float bowl gasket was improperly seated. The plug is new and clean... Still to no avail it will start fine from cold but once its warm its game over. The engine runs great once it is running handles a load fine and idles smooth.
Well, as some of you may or may not remember, I made the mistake of purchasing a new car back in '05. It was a Dodge Neon. Now it's nearly paid off, and to be brutally honest, it would've been reposessed by now if it hadn't been for getting help from family members with the payments, especially in this past year or so. But now that it has 126k and is about 5 payments from officially mine, I'm looking ahead. I've said up until recently that, as much money as has been spent on this car I'm gonna drive it until the wheels fall off. But I'm re-thinking that logic. Right now blue book on the car is pretty abysmal. And I've already decided that until I can really really afford it, I won't be buying any new cars, or financing any used ones for that matter.
With that in mind I was just checking craigslist the other day, for poops and giggles you know. And I came across a pretty beat '94 BMW 351i Convertible. It looked exactly like the one that I'd had as a 1:18 die cast model when I was a kid and something clicked. Even in the rough shape this one was in, $1800 seemed like not a bad deal, but looked like more work than I was ready to get into. Not to mention that I probably won't even start looking until I have my Neon back up to par and ready to be sold, etc. But it didget me started on researching the 3-series Bimmers, particularly something like a 325ic. The year range probably around the late 80's to early 90's. Seems like a 'needs work' condition one sells for aroun $1k or so. Even ones that look like this:
Even the ghastly 'diving board' US-spec aluminum bumpers don't bother me. I like the thought of the I-6 and a 5-speed in a RWD car with IRS. I guess the reportedly good handling is why BMW now calls thier cars 'The Ultimate Driving Machine'.
So, does anyone think I'm crazy? I know I've read that these cars are maintenance intensive but what's some maintenance compared to $200+ a month just to keep owning a car?
Is it stupid to think about buying one of these and driving it daily? It certainly wouldn't be an Auto-x, race or show car, being a convertible.
Anyone have any thoughts or insight on BMWs? I have Bimmer Feevar!!1
Hi all... I know it's probably been close to a year since I've posted anything or even lurked. I haven't touched my car in just as long either. No job means no extra money, for anything. Anyway, that's it for my exciting news, I need taken to school in an electronic fashion.
A month or so ago the stylus on my record player broke off and I just recently discovered I had some extra money in paypal, so I found a cheap replacement on eBay. Put it on yesterday to discover that the tuntable doesn't... turn. As far as I can remember, the only problem with it before was the needle, so I took it apart, being five years old, the warranty was long gone anyway. After some poking and prodding I came to the conclusion that the main (only) drive motor for the turntable was getting it's ~ 12v DC, when it's supposed to (when the tonearm is moved from the rest or when the "start" button is engaged, but the motor doesn't turn. Here's a picture of the motor in question:
What I ended up doing, which I now regret, was unsolder the resistor/thing you see attached to the small circuit board on the base of the motor and instead wiring the black & red wires directly to where it seemed like the two brushes connect at the end of the motor. The thing (I know it's either probably a resistor or a capacitor of some kind maybe?) has four pins on it, I unoldered them all, thinking that, because I have all of about 2 45 RPM records that I could live with it going one speed. Well, my plan sort of backfired. Now the thing spins at approxamately 10x the normal 33rpm speed... I haven't counted but it's fast.
Ok so I figured I could remedy this by purchasing a simple rheostat/potentiometer from Radio Shack. Bought a 3W/25ohm 330* sweep rheostat. Multimeter tells me that it does indeed lower the voltage, but even turned all the way down, the platter still spins WAY too fast.
SO, in short, what I'm asking is... is there any sort of resistor I could put in line with the power to the motor or across the two terminals? Would that bring the whole speed down some? As you can see I'm probably the last person who should be messing around with this, but so far I've only spent $6 and even with the cost of a resistor or something like that, it'll still be cheaper than a new turntable.
Ok, I'm attempthing to fix this laptop for my wife's aunt and the story is that she somehow put TWO passwords on the thing and doesn't remember what the other one is. I got the Supervisor password unlocked but I can't seem to get the one that's locking me out of the hard drive (HD0). I left the computer sit overnight with the CMOS battery out and it still hasn't cleared the password. I also looked all around the motherboard and pretty much took it completely apart trying to find a three-pin jumper setup to clear out the CMOS memory. Any ideas on how I can reset this password?
PS - It's a model 9550 with a 1GHz P3, 256 MB RAM, etc.
OK... it's been quite a while since I've even really touched my t-bird, much less done any real work on it (read last cat jam). But I've had it outside for the better part of the summer at my mom's house and with the recent rain I decided to move it back into the garage the other night before the bad bad weather starts. I get it into the garage and I notice that my car has grown a tail.... that's right, there's a gas tank strap sticking out behind the car. Now these straps were in great shape (the bolts even went in & out without breaking off) a couple years ago when I had to replace the fuel pump. I didn't get under it to inspect, but it's probably safe to assume that the bolts and the 'pad' things they bolt into are rusted beyond usefulness. I'll fix this the way I have with my past TWO thundercats and just use some allthread rod and big washers inside the trunk floor... along with some new straps of course.
What I'm trying to gauge is... does this happen to everyone? I've had four fox cars, one of them was an LTD... had one '84 TC, one '84 Cougar and my current '85 T-bird. With this one, they've all officially had gas tank straps rust through except for the LTD. Share your thoughts/experiences...
Is this a common or even feasible cause of rear end whine? I really hope so, this is my 2nd 8.8" that's made this noise. It's a constantly-increasing gear whine. (Increasing with wheel speed, that is) It's most evident under moderate acceleration. Hard acceleration and it quiets down (or the exhaust speaks up?). You also notice it on deceleration with the car in OD, even louder in D, you get the picture. This rear end's been sitting for a few years and I'm hoping maybe it's just lost some of the fluid through the vent or something because I paid a LOT for it. I wasn't patient enough to check the fluid level at all since I've had the axle... yeah, dumb I know. But I'm wondering if I dump it out and put some 75w140 in it if I might notice a difference? Oh, it also has 4.10 gears too.... are they just a noisy breed?
I need some experienced ebay advice... I made a big big mistake. Recently I listed a fox Capri spoiler from an old RS that I've had sitting around. Good news... it sold for about $50. Bad news? I somehow estimated the shipping at $30. Actual shipping cost? $90 - $200. Any ideas what I can do? I AM NOT paying to have this thing shipped.
Once I got my t-bird running a couple weeks ago I went a bit overboard and decided that I'd install my 3g without any harness kit or real idea what wires went where. Well, turns out I must've shorted something out because now, with the old alternator back in place (just for now till I find out if either of my 3g's are any good) it's not charging. I've found though that the alternator will start to charge if I momentarily jumper the positive battery terminal to the field terminal on the back of the alternator and will stay charging until the next time I start it.
So... what did I short out? Is there a fusible link somewhere along the way there? or did I kill my old voltage regulator again?
PS - Sorry if it's been asked didn't have a lot of time to search.
Seems like I bent my old one taking it off the old pump with the wrong kind of puller and now it throws belts left and right. My car's an '85 5.0, anyone have a pulley?
Prepare to get your asses beat! Nah, not really. I'm stopping in to say 'hi'.
'Hi'
And give some of my intarweb friends an update. I'm married now, for three weeks as of today, officially and so far it's going well. Anyway, since I met her, my wife (wierd to say it still...) has been telling me I need to fix my t-bird as it's been in the garage since about this time last year. So I'm gonna blast my way back onto FTBCF and post-w up some questions once I figure out exactly what it is I need to get finished on it. I spent tonight swearing about brake lines and painting brake calipers... anyway, just re-introducing myself as I've been on hiatus since CJ last year.
It's a little different from the video that circulated a while ago of someone trashing a Cougar. It's kind of a shame they're beating on a running car, but hey, to the rest of the world, it's no more than a 20 year old beater.
I need a Cougar head emblem, similar to ones found on C-pillars. Condition does not matter. It's going to be used as a sort of a stamp. See further details at this year's CJ dessert table.
After reviewing my finances it looks like I'm not going to be able to get my car back together before the Jam this year. I still need the rack & pump, all the brakes, tie rod ends, struts, shocks and to run new brake lines. I might still show up a while to see folks, but my car will be a no-show.
If I could ever get a reasonable amount of money for the car & the parts I'd probably sell it all because at this point in my life I have no room for a 23 year old car that needs so much work. :disappoin
