Your best (or worst) "car" moment?

Discussion in 'General Maverick/Comet' started by xpsnake, Sep 20, 2004.

  1. MountainMav

    MountainMav Member

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    Location:
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    72 Maverick 250(soon to be 347)
    Worst: My brother(11) and I(14) were changing irrigation pipe in one of the hayfields in my grandparents old 85ish datsun pickup. At any rate as we get ready to leave the road goes through an irrigation canal. I'd been used to going through it with the f150 so I figured I'd go for it... bad idea. not halfway through it gets stuck and just spins the tires.. we try to bounce the rearend and push it but no go... so we walk 3 miles back to the house, get the f150 and a cable and drive back. I(very naively) wrap the cable around the front bumper of the datsun and hook it to the ball of the big truck. I ease out the clutch and the datsun starts to move..then wham... The cable slices through the front bumper bending it in half and sails forward cracking the back window of the f150 ... needless to say I learned to always hook up to the frame.
     
  2. CornedBeef4.6L

    CornedBeef4.6L no longer here

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    Best firing up the motor in the mav everyday. Worst setting a customers jeep on fire helping another tech get a broken shock bolt out. Damage headliner and rear carpet. :rolleyes: :49:
     
  3. Aeon 71maverick

    Aeon 71maverick Member

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    Location:
    Brookings, SD, USA
    Vehicle:
    Maverick, 1971 2Dr, Green. HighPerf 302 & TCI C4. Interior Black.
    Worst moments: I can't pick. heres a few outlines.

    1 night of partying+4 friends+1 sharp '83 2dr cougar. I had finished probation earlier that day (highschool days). avoided BIGGG trouble with jonny-law only by an act of GOD. only to find my self going mudbogging in an over loaded cougar with wide tires.

    played "dukes" on gravel piles the grader had left on the road (only way out way over and out) in that car also.

    black ice+one 83 cougar (converted to carb & points (couldn't figure out ca emissons/computer))+bad brakes+bald tires+gasoline tanker gushing it's load on the gound after tanker slid into ups truck. I can't stop, can barly slow down without spinning out, car has tendancy to skip/backfire etc. could have died.

    i think that cougar wanted me dead,hurt,or in jail. seriously. couldn't have cared less to see it go to a junkyard with 2 cracked heads, no bearings, and more water than oil in the crankcase.

    ALL TIME worst (in retrospect, cause they involed my mav) both winter in SD both times blizzards, both times I-29 was a sheet of ice, both times commuting back north to watertown for tech-school after weekend in brookings, both times lost control due to manual tranny on ice. just a hickup of the L6 (prone to this by nature), or twitch of foot, I never figured it out. next thing i know in fishtailing around, can't correct (wide ratio manual steering) no i wasn't over driving. 40 mph tops. both times.

    once i spun a 270 between the guard rails on a bridge (less than a foot to spare or total the car). ended up in ditch. 2 "soccer moms" in a minivan stopped and pushed me out THANKYOU LADIES.

    other time i fishtailed under same situation in about the same stretch of I-29. 3 options: 1 hold on, and get too close to overpass abutments (couldn't see 'em but knew they were "up there a bit") 2 let her got to median and risk overshooting and a headon or being hit while waiting for a tow. 3 take the ditch and hope i survive (posibilitys of ending up in a ravine and freezing to death, rolling car, ect) well i took the ditch after pulling from a 90 degree slide. got down safe and easy. tried to ease back toward the road, found myself at a 45 degree or better slide through heavy snow and over rough ditch. felt my baby trying to go up onto the 2 passenger side tires and roll. but it didn't (kept my foot in the gas like the hi-po in drivers-ed said). stopped, got out, had a smoke and though "i was REALLY close to rolling that" looked around and realized i stopped a foot short of dropping the passenger side rear tire into a cement culvert and snapping the axel. (had that happened at that point in the car's life, i couldn't have fixed it and would have had no choice but to junk it.

    a "good" story-but kinda bittersweet
    The last proof that my MAVERICK LOVES ME AS MUCH AS I LOVE HER. i had put off driveing north to tech-school over that Ill-fated I-29 until monday am. it was the end of X-mass break, my first girlfriend (highschool)(ended a couple years later with her cheating on me in my own house) had to go back to job-corp on monday, and I to tech-school. so i spent another night with her "no sleep 'per-say'"(yah it was worth it at the time) i 'woke' in the morning to find fog as thick as pea-soup. and JUST enough time to make the 1hr drive at 75mph (speed limit). oh $&!# i said. grabbed a thermos of java, said a heart wrenching goodby, said a prayer for our safe travel (her to rapid, and i to watertown) and left @ 75. i could see a few feet in front of my bumper and no more. prayed and cried and cried the whole way north. and rolled into class @ 8am as disheveled as possible, hickies on my neck, smelling like.........

    So, i think this maverick loves me as much as i love her (car)(have no gf).

    later, matt & aeon
     
  4. cdeal28078

    cdeal28078 Member

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    Great thread. I guess the worst time for me was in high school. I was picking up my buddy one morning and making a left hand turn. A guy late for work was passing a couple cars and did'nt see me. He nailed the front left fender, tearing my grill up also. This was in my 71 F100 that I'm still driving at 41years old.
    Best times.
    My dad traded a camper shell and $400 for a 64 GTO for my sister to drive. It had a 400, 4 speed plus posi-trac. We were all in the car when dad was taking us for a drive in it. He was telling my sister how strong it was. We were sitting at a stop sign. He punches it while turning left and the posi brings the rear around on him. We were all over the road. I think I saw the same mailbox 3 times. lol
    After he got it straightened out he looks at my sister and says " See"? Like he meant to do that. lol
    Another time my other sister's boy frind had a 67 Fastback Mustang with a real 427 2 fours and a 4 speed. This car was all primer and bondo but when you opened the hood it was beautiful. He took me for a ride I still remember today. I still don't understand how that car hooked up like it did but I swear the front end felt like it came off the ground in 1st and 2nd. That car was brutal
    clint
     
  5. stmanser

    stmanser Looking for a Maverick

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    my worst moment was when i was about 5 years old..

    my dad had a 76 dodge duster...and my mom and i went to the grocery store...i tried to open the pass door and it always had a problem sticking....my mom said never mind come out my side...

    we went into the grocery store and got some groceries...and i climbed back into the front seat through the drivers door and my mom piled the groceries between her and me and on top of me....
    so we are driving down the road...about 2 mile trip to the house...and going around a corner i remember seeing ground...air...car....ground..air..car...car...air...ground....or something to that effect....i came to a rest in the gutter with groceries all over the place....and my mom ran back to me....i dont remember being hurt....i laugh at it too...

    i guess we kinda forgot to close the door all the way....


    the other memories i have of the 70's are when i used to stand up in the front seat while driving down the road..... no seat belts were ever used back then

    that scares me....i could have easily died if we had an accident
     
  6. Phyphor1

    Phyphor1 Member

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    Oooh, can I play, too?

    Back in 2000, I was with my aunt and my cousin out in Georgia (we're from California.)

    The vehicle: 1976 Dodge Tradesman

    Packed full of folks, 2 teenagers, 2 kids, my cousin (in his wheelchair, he's a quad, ) my aunt, and myself in the passenger seat...we're on the highway from Macon heading into Atlanta, when we hear that funny sound of tiretread a flapping....then BOOM, that sucker blows right out, and that friggin' van started jumping arounf the lane. Bad thing was, we were doing like 70 and between 2 diesels. Right when that tire went, everyone (who'd been talking loudly) immediately shut up, (and I began looking for my seatbelt, stupidly, I'd left the damned thing off, never did find it, just braced for impact) Wellll...we pull over (we know the drill, that was the third out of 5 tires that sucker blew off on that trip, ) and the 2 teens get out, while I'm tending to my cousin. Well, I was in the back with him, when we feel the van lurch and suddenly drop. :eek: My cousin's first words out of his mouth was "go out and make sure nobody's dead. "
    Well, luckily, they'd jumped away from the Dodge Van of Tire Destruction +5, and were unharmed. UNLUCKILY, tthe stupid flipping bumper jack had pretty much exploded, so we were screwed with a capital S. I got on the CB, and started asking for help from someone, but nobody came for about 3 hours. Finally, a mexican (or cuban) guy pulled over, and worked for like an hour, digging the hub out of the dirt, getting a jack under the beast, and getting the spare onto it. Then the guy wouldn't take the money we tried to give him (it got stuffed off into his toolbox in the back of his truck, man, that guy worked pretty hard, no way we were gonna let him get by unrewarded, )
    The next 2 bad tires weren't so bad, the first one went out in Kansas (threw a chunk of tread into the underside of the van, but kept it's air, so we easily changed that in (ironically) a used car lot. The next one was in New Mexico (by this time, I'd gotten to be a pro at doing the "run your hands around the tread and feel for anything odd" trick, and found it....the tread had started parting, so we swapped that sucker right there in the motel parking lot.

    The NEXT car moment (and the last, for now) was just 2 days ago. Riding back from my cousin Brenda's house (after working on her comp) at like 11:00PM, I noticed that the flippin' Hydromatic was slipping on the 2-3 shift. I said "You might wanna get that checked... "

    Little did I know.

    Well, we get halfway between Visalia and Tulare, and all of a sudden, that bastard just WILL NOT SHIFT INTO 3rd. We limped into Tulare in 2nd, and I had her pull over. I pull the dipstick, and the fluid was black with metal CHUNKS in it, not particles, CHUNKS. (There's no magnet in the bottom of the pan, )
    Well, we limped it back to my house, before the trans completely failed, but not by much....by the time we got to my pad, it was running at about 5,000 RPM in first, doing like 5mph.

    Needless to say, that car got junked.
     
  7. Jamie Miles

    Jamie Miles the road warrior

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    I gotta ask, how many spare tires did you take!? and damn, were they all as old as the van? :biglaugh:

    How the heck could you have so many flats? Thats a long way, but geez. :coco:
     
  8. 77mav302

    77mav302 Member

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    worst moment I had my kids with me and we stopped at their grandmother's for a minute I turned car off and left them buckled in with the older one (then 6) sleeping in the back seat, run in to deliver a message, yell in house but get no answer so go from room to room looking for someone, meanwhile my almost 3 year old gets out of his seat while leaving it buckled and gets behind wheel and plays with shifter. I didn't know until then that the shift lock didn't work and you could move shifter with key in off position. they rolled away just as I was coming out of the house and ran after them as they went down the driveway the car turned and hit a tree just before they would have gone down a very steep 150 foot bank. he jumps in the back seat and claims to know nothing while his sister is still asleep. thank god they hit the tree and I never leave them in the car without older supervision anymore, no matter if I know we'll only be a minute.
    Best moment was this spring when the car I use for my high school drag racing team broke into the 11's with a 11.78. previous best was 12.008. still not screaming but with underprivileged high school drivers thats moving considering they've never experienced a "real" fast car. they only know what they watch on TV and play on video games, to be in a car that fast is the best "drug" for them.
     
  9. blugene

    blugene Senior member Supporting Member

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    How the heck could you have so many flats? Thats a long way, but geez. :coco:[/QUOTE]

    They probably bought tires at Pep Boys:rolleyes:
     
  10. 74merc

    74merc computer nerd

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    I'll remember some more later, but in 98 I was working as a mechanic, we were doing an engine and tranny swap for my boss's dad. Pulled the engine/tranny from his Buick and we were replacing it with the engine/tranny from a worn body Cutlass.

    We had the front wheels up on blocks, pulled everything from the motor, unbolted the tranny mount, ready to pull. I slide under on my back, chest touching the floorpan, to pull the driveshaft and the car comes down on my chest. Luckily, the two guys I worked for were HUGE, so they grabbed the front of the car before it fell completely off the blocks and pulled it up enough for me to get back out.

    Oddly enough, that wasn't the worst... I did the AOD swap in my Comet with the tranny from an 85-86 Crown Vic and was told the Mustangs had the 50oz imbalance and the Crown Vics kept the 28oz imbalance until the late eighties. So, after dropping the C4 on my arm (kinda hurt) manhandling the monster heavy AOD into place, bolting up the flywheel, etc, finally after 8 hours getting everything ready to go, I crank the car and it shakes like hell.

    dropped the tranny again, swapped to a 164 tooth 28oz flywheel that I already happened to have (pure luck), and got it going.

    another really bad moment, driving back late at night after a long irritating work day, just got the AC working, the cars running great. I slow down to make the turn into my driveway and the car stumbles and pings, pull up to park and it starts puking coolant like crazy. Just when you think everything is right...

    Just a few of the good ones, after a few weekends and afternoons of building my dad's 350, we drop it in and crank it up. Nothing like doing it right and having it purr like a kitten.

    Another, the first time I fired up the Comet with open headers... wow, that was a difference... woke it up real nice...
     
  11. Phyphor1

    Phyphor1 Member

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    Just one. Bought the first tire in Wichitaw, Kansas, and drove all the way from there out to Georgia. Went from Eulonia (That's about 55 miles south of Savannah, ) to Baxley, and on the way back, the 2nd tire spun the tread off. After that, the other 3 went, as I described. Needless to say, the used tire guys loved us.

    We also lost the ground in that f****** van, and the turn signals. That van had an excellent motor, strong as hell, but the rest of it just fell off, including the wheelchair lift (which we wound up putting a ratchet onto the shaft, and just hand ratcheting my cousin out with, )
     
  12. ford84stepside

    ford84stepside Lone Wolf

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    I had a 92 T-Bird sport a few years ago. It was a 5.0, automatic, red with black interior. It had started giving trouble starting, hit the starter and all you got was the solenoid clicking. Some idiot was trying to help my wife get it started one day and tapped on the battery cables with a tire tool or something and it started just fine, so from then on when it wouldn't crank, she would get the lug wrench out and hit the cables and crank it. Sometimes when she tells me something when I'm out on the road I forget about it by the time I get home. Anyway, one Sunday evening I'm getting ready to leave out and she's fixing to go to church and the car won't crank. I say, its probably the cables not makeing good connection so I procede to open the hood and check it out. Sure enough, the cables are a little corroded so I loosen the clamp and start to twist it off of the post. All the beating on the cable has unbeknown to me broken the post to case seal. When I twist the cable, the whole post twists with it and POW!!!! The plates in the battery short out together and I get hit by acid and plastic from an expolding battery! Lucklily, only one piece of the case hits me in my left eyebrow, leaving a 2" cut. I was more concerned about my eyes and after a roll on the ground, I ran to the outside water faucet, plunging my face under the water to wash away the acid. My wife calls 911 and paramedics arrive a few minutes later, after a quick check out they decide to transport me to the emergency room. No problems with my eyes, quick thinking probably helped there, but I did end up with stiches in my eyebrow. Now I never twist a battery clamp, and I always wear glasses, bi-focals because my arms aren't long enough anymore, any time I'm working with a battery.
     

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