I know nothing about car repair. 17 years ago, when I bought my 77 bobcat, I tried my best. I changed the brakes. Left front took 6 hours, right, 45 minutes. I learned from the first one.
I changed plugs, flushed radiator, new top and bottom hoses, belt, oil and filter. I bought a rebuilt carb exchanged on the net and bolted it on. The engine was piggy, I degreased and repainted it in the engine bay. I removed the seats and installed new carpet kit. I repainted the interior and added a dash cap.
This is all stuff anyone willing to try can do. For everything else I depended on my mechanic. I have had a relationship with this guy for 25 years, I trusted him. That was a mistake.
I have some concerns that I have addressed with him for several years now. Mpg has dropped from 20 to 14. If the car sets for a few days all of the gas drains back into the tank. When I try to start it, I crank for 20-25 seconds for fuel to reach the carb. Even then starting was a problem. He adjusted the choke for me twice over the last two years. It did not help.
His answer to all this was “you can’t expect excellent performance from a 40-year-old car.”
So, I had a new problem, a very slow drip from the lower radiator hose connection. I realized these hoses had not been change from the time I did it 17 years ago. Time to change.
I am handy capped now I don’t do anything myself. I took this opportunity to address the starting issue. I dropped the car off on a Friday evening. That way the car would sit all weekend. That got things moving.
I received a call Monday morning and was told the fuel line was all cracked up and was allowing air in. That allowed the fuel to syphon back into the tank. This is the likely reason for the low mileage. Gas has dumping on the pavement for several years now. The choke was disconnected. Do these things disconnect on their own? Why did he not find this on the other visits when I mentioned the starting issue
Then I get a call “do you want to change out these 42 year-old heater hoses while we are at it? We can’t reach these hose connections with out removing the core, you should put a new one in at the same time.”
Other than the bobcat I have only had newer cars. These are issues I did not need to face on newer low millage cars. I have depended on my guy to take care of me. I had him give the car a once over every year, to keep me safe. He let me down.
Everything is done, the car starts up right away even after a few days. Lower radiator hose still leaks just like before. Anyone have any ideas?
I am open for members to make suggestions of what things, other than normal maintenance, I might have neglected.
This work kept me from getting new tires for the wheels Russ gave me. When at the tire dealer the tec. says, “you need ball joints.” Another issue I have never needed to deal with.
After four months of fighting Firestone and other issues, I still don’t have tires. It turns out I do need spacers. There are none available in town, I need to wait another week for them to ship in. I will keep you all posted on my soap opera.
Bill