FormulaNova said..

UncleBob said..

FormulaNova said..

Phezulu1 said..
My MIL had one. The bane of my life. Check if the alternator is covered in oil, Ford saved 2c on a dodgy o-ring on the power steering hose which then p1sses oil onto the alternator frying it. This was told to me by a guy at spares shop when I bought a new alternator from him, he even had a special hose upgrade kit for the problem it was that common. Also as mentioned, ignition switches die, there is a guy on gumtree n Perth who fixes them, Frank Hauptle , you take the car round to him, he strips out the Bosch ignition barrel and puts in his doctored one. Takes 15 mins and never gives sh1t again. MIL has Corolla now and life is good.

I think people give falcons and commodores a bit of a rough time. These are cars that are meant to be big enough to meet the market demand, also good on fuel, be decent enough during the warrranty period, but then kept alive for decades as they get passed along the chain of successive owners.

Someone was telling me about how wonderful Volkswagen is, but show me how many of them that are regularly in service after ten years, have affordable spares, and then compare that to falcons and commodores. I exclude Magnas from this list as Magna owners are the desperate of the desperate! ;-)

Desperado here, had my manual (yes, manual) magna now for 20 years, have not had to spend a cent on it mechanically outside of regular maintenance, no rust and long legs when on the open road. Beats the crap out of it's predecessor, a VL holden that slowly but surely fell to bits from not long after the warranty expired.

Ha

I am just taking the mickey. I had a colleague that had a 3L Magna and swore by it. so they can't be too bad.

I just seem to take notice of the ones that I see on the road that are uncared for. I filter out the ones that are taken care of. so its probably more of a reflection on the particular owners than anything else.

Assure you, no offence taken I was doubtful prior to buying it but soon realised that they can be good.
Mabee Holden should have done a fact finding journey to Mitsubishi and learned what quality meant.

Harrow said..

Tamble said..
I had a Datsun 1600 in my younger years where that was the only way I could start the car for about 6 months.

6 months...LOL

Reminds me of a mate that had a leaking radiator in his 70's Corona but was too poor or cheap to get it fixed. He used to carry about 8 litres of water with him in the back of the car, and every 15 to 20 minutes or so would stop and pour in a litre of water. He did it for months, it was hilarious driving anywhere with him. Can't remember if he ever got it fixed or killed the engine by overheating.

I had a mate that witnessed the NRMA man turn up, tap the alternator in their family's Gemini with a hammer and fix whatever was wrong. (Not charging?). all the time after that, no matter what happened, his response would be 'hit the alternator with your shoe'.. It was so frustrating when things had nothing to do with the alternator.

To be fair, I had a problem with a Ford Escort where despite him not knowing what was wrong with it and not knowing how cars work, he suggested push starting it, and it worked. In retrospect it made sense why it worked, but it was still annoying that he guessed right.

sn said..

FormulaNova said..To be fair, I had a problem with a Ford Escort where despite him not knowing what was wrong with it and not knowing how cars work, he suggested push starting it

If it was an early Ford Escort, most likely LUCAS electrickery.......pushing is probably a more reliable method of firing up the engine

Ahh, Lucas, the Prince of Darkness

No, in this case it was a wire from the starter motor which was disconnected. When normally cranking the engine, there is a wire from the starter to the coil to deliver maximum voltage to the coil. When cranking the voltage from the battery drops to something like 6v due to the amount of current drawn. This wire delivers the 6v or so to the coil, but when normally running there is a resistor in circuit to keep the voltage to the coil around that value.. Without that wire the coil doesn't get enough voltage to fire.

Despite my mate knowing none of this, when you push start the car, there is no cranking, therefore the coil gets its 'full' 6v and the car fires.

I don't miss the fun of old car electrics at all, but it is cool when you are driving around at that age.

Harrow said..

FormulaNova said..
I don't miss the fun of old car electrics at all, but it is cool when you are driving around at that age.

I used to like the fact that in my HQ I could literally lay on my back, across the floor pan, in front of the front seat when installing wiring for stereo, driving lights, etc.

Now, to get your head under the dash, you end up suspended like a bat, lying inverted on the reclined bucket seat. Or else in some horrible position breaking your back over the door sill.

My old 1975 manufactured DJ5 jeep was even easier - sliding doors with no sills and a flat floor with virtually no trans tunnel.
There was enough space behind the flat steel dash that I could sit on the floor with head and shoulders in there ripping out the dodgy ex US Postal Service wiring!

mine started out like this one below, but the mirrors, smog pump and all its associated pipework, cat + exhaust, roof vent, sump heater, miles of chewed up wiring and bracketry for radios and mail trays all "fell off".
Rusty bits removed, back lower edge of doors were radiused to match the rear wheel arch, repainted, better radiator, simplified exhaust, hatch in roof for kid with spotlight..
I could lock the doors back and legally drive with them open - or take them off altogether.


Mine, as soon as I finished bolting the door handles and seats back, in it was off to get rego'ed