Well, today started out okay.
Went back to the tire shop. They put the car on the rack to redo the alignment. Got it all done then went to balance the front tires. Rut roh rorge, the front right is damaged. Nice big flat spot on it. No problem my buddy tells me. He gives me two VERY nice used tires. Balanced out and ready to roll.
So now I still have bad vibrations, but not from the front end anymore. Seems to be more centered underneath. I am thinking the drive shaft might have some issues now. Anyone have input on that one?
Go to other shop (another buddy/trader of services). Order up struts and brakes. Get it all done, and I take it for a test drive. To kind of give you some background, Shields Blvd is known for massive speeding. 6 lane divided street with nothing but business' lining it. So anyhow, I get her up to about 75 (the shop is at the south end of this one mile stretch). See the red light...see a big dually, start applying pressure to the brakes. Now, it is kind of funny that it is all behind me, but I was on the phone with the mechanic that did the brakes. I called him because he keeps talking about getting a fox body. So when I left the shop I did a nice smoke roller on the NEW tires. So I called to ask him if he like the *gift*. Recap: see the red light, see a big dually, start applying pressure to the brakes. My next comment on the phone is "Holy shit, I just lost my brakes". Phone was tossed down, I swerved around the dually, tried pumping the brakes and then finally, a half inch from the floor, I get pressure. I jam it down and go sliding sideways through the huge intersection almost taking out two other cars in the process.
Now, I know this will sound weird...but I seriously looked down at my pants because I could have sworn I pissed my pants. No wetness, restart the car and very...very slowly pull into gas station. See phone, hear voice, pick it up. George is still there. I tell him I will be back in a minute.
We aren't sure what is wrong. We know we pumped up the brakes and had pressure after everything was done. So we check the fluid level. No fluid. Add fluid and try to pump brake again. Squirt, squirt, squirt on the ground and tire.
We put the car on the bay...lemme rephrase. I went and pissed while he racked the car. Pull the tire, notice copious amounts of brake fluid all over the inner fender well. After checking the brake line, I notice a nice wear spot where the rubber line joins the metal line. In this wear spot was a nice hole where the line has busted through. While replacing the strut, the mechanic must have shifted the metal part of the line where it connects to the caliper because it was sticking out 1.5 inches far the than it should have been, which is why it rub on the tire.
Ordered a new set of brake lines for the car.
Drove home very slowly.
Stopped at a friend's house. He is a know it all when it comes to Mustangs. In a good way that is. I wanted to tell him my buddy was selling a notchback and to spread the word. I talked to him a bit about things I was looking for since he has a nice pile of parts always laying around. I picked up a battery tray and went home.
I pop the hood when I pull in so I can change the tray and guess what I hear? A loud hissing sound...and then I smell the antifreeze. Yep, radiator is busted now.
WTF else can go wrong with my car in 4 days. I drive the damn thing for 8 months with all kinds of bad shit and I don't have any broken parts or major issues. I spend money, trade services, spend lots of free time working on her...and she does this to me.
Anyways, here are some pics. I was going to link each one in this story...but now I am to depressed.
There is a couple of pics of my fix for the bad connector plug that goes into the ignition. When this gets loose the engine cut outs and you lose all power. $10 for a new plug...naaaa, 10¢ for a zip tie.
The last pic is where everything got wet from the antifreeze shooting out.
Don Manning