Bought a spare car - Escort
I diverted a few dollars from my Mac Mini fund to buy a third vehicle. I wanted something that gets better mileage than my 4.3l truck that I can drive around for errands.
The target: 1989 Ford Escort LX 5 door w/ 5 speed manual tranny. 138,000 miles, one owner, rustbucket, damaged rear passenger fender & bumper (it had a tussle with a 1971 Nova, Nova 1 - Escort 0 ) and some general maint.
I paid $100 cash as-is. So far I've replaced the read drum brake shoes, both parking brake cables, got 'em all adjusted, replaced the RP taillight, the bumper, and the rear trim piece that goes between them. And a set of front tires that were pretty worn from draggin around two partially locked up rear tires.
It still needs to have the tach fixed, and the shift light is burnt out. It should pass state inspection as it is now.
On the drive home I had thought it was my in-exerience with a manual that caused all the hardships with getting going and not killing it. Now that I've got the brakes taken care of it drives much easier, thought the tranny is still crappy. The motor is fairly smooth and running well for being over 15 years old and so many miles.
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Just yesterday I had to do so
Just yesterday I had to do some work on the family Escort - either that or not make it home from vacation.
Before we left, I noticed a couple drops of fluid under the car, and traced it to a small leak in the transmission lines going to the radiator. Meh...fix it when I get back...not the first car I've owned that's leaked fluid.
So...made it up north to the parents cottage, stopped in to see them mid-week, and noticed little droplets on the back of the hatch. Oil, blown up from under the car. Oh, bugger.
The leak had grown, probably from bumping over the railroad tracks that criss-cross the road to the cottage like a DNA chain. Now there's a constant drip, drip, drip and a 20-minute drive half-empties the tranny.
I had my Dad drive me to the Crappy Tire in Orillia, and I bought the largest transmission cooler they had. I mounted it in front of the rad, and snaked the lines through to the transmission lines, bypassing the built-in cooler completely.
Made it home safely, though I still need to do a full change of the fluid. Not the best way to end an otherwise great holiday, but it worked out a *lot* better than being stuck at the side of the highway.
So that's my Escort story. The car I picked up almost a year ago, a 1995 with a 1.9l engine. Wish I'd got a standard tranny ;).
I had to do a lot of body work on the sides. I don't know about earlier years, but the 1995 rocker panels seem designed soley to take in water from the wheel wells, and hold it until it rusts through.
I found This Site which was handy when I first got the car.
BTW, I don't know how much it will help your tranny, but on my Geo Metro standard I switched to a synthetic fluid, and it made the rough transmission slightly less rough.
Re: Just yesterday I had to do so
Not a fun story! If you hadn't noticed and taken action you might have had some half-shafts frozen in place, and a very sudden stop...
You might pop questions to ax0n. He's got a 1995 w/ manual tranny.
There seems to be a rash of rust on those things. I know to check the rear strut mounts for rust, as they can rust right through and punch a hole to the interior.
www.feoa.net is good too, I see they've got a link to it on the Wagon site too.
If it is low, I might try the switch. It couldn't make it much worse, unless it totally kills it. Getting into 1 or R is kinda tough at times without a bit of grinding. Gotta hit the slot right on and it's not bad. Very wobbly shifter. When I went to pick it up, I jiggled the shifter to see if it was in N, it was in gear, but had so much play I assumed it wasn't. I let the clutch out and it died.
The owner thought I was trying to get moving, but I was just going to let it sit and run for a minute. I'm not _that_ dense on using a manual, I know to let it out a bit slow and give 'er some gas.
Lost my first post! Ack! I
Lost my first post! Ack!
I failed the inspection on the headlight and the outer tie rod end on the drivers side. GOt a replacement bulb for $7.99 and the end for $4.99. Thy'll be installed and reinspected soon enough. If I can get paid for my greenies.com work, I'll have cash to pay for the licensing.
Installed parts Thurs. got a
Installed parts Thurs. got a re-inspection on Fri. and licensed it before the 3 day weekend hit. Whew! Managed to get paid for the consulting, and work Sat. for an extra day's pay. Turns out I'll likely be working on Mon. too... Well, it's not too bad since I'll be up by $300 this week. That's about as much as I've put into the car. Now I just need to baby the damng clutch along so that it doesn't totally dies before me an ax0n can try to replace it and the one in his '95.