Well the boy is up in Dallas this weekend spending a few days with his cousin, so it provided the perfect opportunity for me to take the old LTD I bought back in May out for a little run and get its safety inspection taken care of. The first thing that happened is when I put the key in and turned the ignition -- nothing but a click. Drove all the way back to the house and got my jumper cables so I could give it a jump to get it on the road.....

About 1/2 way through my 30-mile loop on some local country roads, the A/C stopped working. Just before I bought it, the previous owner had the system charged and it has been working fine the couple of times I've tried it. However, I have always suspected that I would end up having to stick some money into the system just because it is a 28-year-old car, so this didn't exactly surprise me.....

I got back into town and took it into the place where I get my safety and emission inspections done and had that taken care of. I made sure the guys entered the correct mileage (4267) into the computer so I didn't have any problems trying to title it as a low-mileage car here in Texas. The guys at the shop were flabbergasted at the mileage and condition of the car, and it was kind of fun to talk to them about the history of the vehicle. Before I left, the three mechanics on duty were standing around it taking pictures with their cell phones!

With this taken care of, I decided to drive it back to storage and noticed that it seemed to be driving a little strange, but at first I didn't know if I was just imagining things. Finally, when I pulled up next to the keypad that lets me into my storage unit, I noticed a puff of smoke coming from the driver's side front wheel. I got out and immediately noticed a strange smell and that the tire was really hot to the touch, which leads me to believe that the front caliper has frozen up. At this point I am thinking it has been a pretty crummy day, so I just parked the dang thing and will worry about it later.....

So it looks as if it is going to be a much longer road than I had hoped for to get that vehicle running reliably, and that there will probably be plenty of "Benjamins" burnt up along the way.....

 

So you had some free time, broke some stuff, and then put it away until the next time you have more free time


But seriously, I'm sorry about your bad luck

 

Man that sucks.


Back a long while back I bought a 87 crown vic for a stupid cheap price. The car was in great shape also but the right front caliper kept sticking. Changed caliper, lines master cylinder and bleed it numerous times and could never get the damn thing to stop sticking. Turned around and sold it for 500 more than I paid.

 

Sorry about that David. That comes with letting cars sit so much.

 

Yep -- I've been expecting some of this crap to come up given how long that car sat idle -- I was just hoping it would space itself out a little bit!

One good thing I guess is that I have been debating how much preventative maintenance I was going to do on a purely pre-emptive basis -- I think I have my answer. At this point I am just going to start going down the list and replacing all the factory fluids no matter how good they look!

The other good thing is that I have always viewed this car as sort of a long term project and as I start replacing things there will be less pressure to keep everything factory original. This might actually work out better in the long run as far as the "fun factor" of the car is concerned!

Either that or it will just become a money pit.....lol

 

At least it passed the inspections!

- Jack

 

Yeah -- that pretty much sums it up!

Like my brother-in-law back in Minnesota who has his share of collector cars always says, "Anyone who tells you old cars are fun has never owned an old car!".....

 

Yeah -- I didn't really know what to expect just because we have had lots of changes this year with our vehicle testing procedures down here in Texas. From what the guy at the shop was telling me, any car over 25-years-old will now only have to pass a basic safety inspection -- lights, blinkers, brakes, etc.

 

Found another collector for ya, it would go great with the LTD.




http://www.autobia.com/car-detail/e-...427104439.html

 

Nope -- the LTD is as "square" as I want to get.....lol

That one was about 10 years too late to get in on the whole '70's era vanning craze......lol

 

So I drove over to my storage unit to check on the LTD over the weekend and jacked up the front tires to confirm the brake caliper's were stuck as I had thought. Much to my surprise, both front tires spun freely.....

So do you think a stuck caliper would unstick itself after sitting for a bit, or do you think I am misdiagnosing he issue......???

 

Misdiagnosed.

Hit the brake pedal hard a couple of times while it is jacked up and see if they release.

 

Maybe the nut behind the wheel is bad!

 

So do you think applying the brakes like that will essentially "re-freeze" the caliper.....???

 

It's possible the will freeze again and you will then know it's the calipers.