Well,
I just bought a 78 Pinto for 335 total, and I think I got taken... On the way home it died cuz the battery, and alternator was shot... The radio was shorting out, as the wiring on it was screwed up... I just got the car to Cottman transmissions, and there was no dipstick, and they told me the tranny was toast, the engine has excessive blowby, and almost all the body is rusty... I have replaced the alternator, put the battery from my Dodge Omni Turbo in it, but the hold down broke, and the battery hit the exhaust, and now leaks.. I have replaced the LF fender and put 13's on the back, but the speedo is still 5 mph off( was 10 mph off before) replaced the hood, and am about to replace both doors, and the RF fender.
All this, and there seems to be almost as much rust underneath as my old 1986 Honda Civic had on it... Also all the emmissions have been ripped off of the car, and it leaks oil badly from the pan.
Oh, and there's a broken leaf on the RR leaf spring.
I have alot of spare parts, but no knowledge to repair the rear quarter panels, and no money to replace the engine and transmission..
That and I cant weld, so I'm gonna have a time strengthening the frame on it... I've only had this car 4 days, and I already feel about it the way I have been feeling about my Omni Turbo restoration... PISSED!!!!
If anyone lives around me, or can help me out on this car in way of info I will REALLY appreciate it..
On the bright side, ti runs better than the Omni Turbo, as it will run for longer than 2-3 minutes.
Sorry to hear that. To put a positive spin on things, it ONLY cost you $335. It could have been more. You could always use it as a parts car. A replacement engine from the junkyard should be dirt cheap.
Does the transmission shift bad? I have had bad experiences with tranny shops when I was younger. Back in the early/mid '70s, it seems EVERY tranny shop in this area preyed on kids that didn't know much about cars. If you got $u©kê®ëd into their shop with a "coupon special" for a trans fluid and filter change, you would ALWAYS get the bad news...your transmission needs rebuilding. I rebuild my own now.
Well,
The problem with the transmission is it does not shift unless you have it in the gear below drive on the shifter.. I don't know why, but it refuses to. After it goes into 2nd I can then get back into drive so it can shift into 3rd, which it barely finds... It also slams into gear when I select what gear to be in.... As for the engine, I 'm pretty sure I can find one for about 75 bux, less all the accessories, which are all good. I am pretty sure I can find a tranny for it also for the same price.
On these cars though what would I need to do to strengthen the frame?? It isn't as bad as the guy at Cottman said, as later on I jacked the car up by the unibody, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.
Also, what cars have the c-4?? I'm pretty sure what it is, being a 78.
I know what your feeling. >:( :( :-\
Look at another "good" thing is that from what I can tell, the rust isnt as bad as what my wagon has. I wouldnt worry about the speedo for now. Ive read on another Ford dedicated site that Ford speedos can be off by as much as 7 mph. Im not sure how true it is. Think of this though. I used to work with a guy that had a pevious job calibrating new speedos that went to Ford and some of the stories he told about how he would do it hung over or still drunk from the night before (he was a singer and guitar player for a band that sounded a lot like Metallica), made me wonder.
Anyway I had almost no welding experiece when I started the wagon. Oh that reminds me. Everthing Im doing to mine is just practice for when I get a good body. Maybe you can do the same. If I was closer to ya Id give you the 4 speed out of the wagon and help you swap pedals from a junked car.
Have you changed the tranny fluid? Im not sure if you have a vacuum modulator on the trans , but, if all the emissions are gone than the vacuum hose going to the modulator might be gone too.
Stock engine swaps are pretty easy with Pintos. Id say you can do a swap in a weekend.
Hang in there.
QuoteEverthing Im doing to mine is just practice for when I get a good body.
Pete: Maybe if you'd work out a bit more and stop drinking beer and stalking people at the library....
;D
Matt: Sorry to hear about your experience. Pete's right, though. A straight-up engine/tranny swap can be done in a weekend...even if it's your first time. Just read through your manual's removal procedure several times before you do it. The first engine and tranny I ever pulled from a car was in a salvage yard. I suggest you pull the salvage car first (if you go to a yard that lets you pull your own) so if you damage the car somehow it's no big loss (nor is it your car). Then you know what to look for/do when you pull the drive train on your car.
On the bodywork, get some door/window screen material. JB Weld (it's a two-part mixture you can get at an auto store) the edges of the screen to the back of the body panel behind the large rusted areas. (Sand out the rust area first.) Now you have something the Bondo can grab hold of. Bondo, sand, paint.
On the "frame," check out the various threads dealing with sub-frame connectors.
If you want a C4, look for one out of an 82 Mustang 2.3, I got mine for $75 bucks. Bolted right in.
Thanx for the input on tranny & engine replacement... I'll end up holding it together with gum and duck tape..lol
Anyways, I did fix a problem that the car had, called THE WRONG SHIFTER!!!
The guy put a shifter from a mustang in it, and it didn't really fit in there.. I went to the junk yard and got one from an LTD. I had to remove the part the linkage goes to, since on the LTD it was a cable shift, as opposed to linkage shift on my Pinto.
I have to make a couple minor adjustments, but it'll work perfectly... It even fills up the hole that was there in the floor.
If it still won't shift heck the vacuum modulator on the side of the tranny. that will make it shift hard ¬ go into drive.
Quote from: straw boss on August 23, 2004, 03:36:24 PM
If you got $u©kê®ëd into their shop with a "coupon special" for a trans fluid and filter change, you would ALWAYS get the bad news...your transmission needs rebuilding.
This isn't limited to tranny shops. I've found out a good amount of auto repair shops are really into unethical high pressure "upselling" of repairs that aren't really needed. Yes, they do look for certain individuals to prey upon.
Until I ended up living in an inner-city apartment with street parking I ALWAYS did my own work, except for the rare need for machine shop work. By no means am I a professional mechanic, but I certainly know when something is wrong with my vehicle and how to figure out what is wrong, and specifically what needs to be repaired or replaced.
It almost every place I have taken a vehicle to be aligned dreams up some story about how bad my shocks are. If I tell them they have been replaced they want to know what brand so they pop back with a reply about how crappy that brand is and I need to replace them again. I told one place I would replace the shocks at home. They insisten an alignment wasn't possible with bad shocks.l
I needed the tranny fluid and filter changed. I also have a leaking extension housing seal. I found it would be impossible to have only those those items serviced. They insist that I probably need a new tranny because I have 128K miles on it and the extension housing seal is leaking. I took care of the fluid and filter myself in less time than it took to argue with these places that I only need A and B done. I will replace the extension housing seal myself.
I goofed. I failed to check the front brake pads and wore down one of the pads and scoured the rotor. Not really a big deal. I took my Ranger pickup to four different places. The estimates ranged from $480 to $650. Figure in the costs involved. $200 for a set of rotors and $50 for brake pads. (The average $100 fee for front brake service would be the cost of brake pads since the new rotors do not need to be turned). Generally you would expect new pads and rotors to run a total of $300 to a high of $400. The fact that the metal backing on the pad scoured the rotor must have made them think they could inflate this price based on "neglect. Again, the only item damaged was a rotor (the other side was due for replacement anyway). The detailed estimates included bogus charges such as $148 wheel bearing repacking fee (I'm not kidding!!) and. $40 to $60 for a brake fluid flush. One place insisted that the calipers needed to be replaced because the heat from the bad rotor made it hot.
Jesus!! How much do people spend for repair work they don't need?
Yeah Bill I know what you're sayin...
Unfortunately I noticed the tranny IS slipping before it shifts to 2nd, so I'm gonna grab another tranny for it... Funny thing... My dad hated me getting the Pinto, but he's even telling me how easy this car is to work on, as he still remembers changin the engine in a day outta the 77 wagon he used to own... Even he says I can have the engine & tranny changed out in a weekend without working on it non stop.
Sounds like I might just end up doing that then :)
Poison Pinto made a very good point to me...With all the parts he gave me including the oil pan that just got installed on the car today, I didn't really get ripped off as bad as I thought.. Yeah the car does have its share of problems, the worst being the tranny going out, but all in all it's goin to be ok.. I'll get it fixed up, then drive it all over the place, and show it off.
Hey all,
Latest update: After deciding to put a newer fuse box in my car I started to cut the wires on the old, and splice in the new... It actually fit in perfectly, and when I got done I had a newer style fuse box... Now I can use regular fuses as opposed to the glass fuses, which I'm happy about... Anyways, Before I did this conversion the fuel gauge never worked, and I assumed it was because the sending unit was bad... Guess what... it wasn't... I turned the key on after the fuse box conversion, and the fuel gauge worked perfectly... It read 3/4 tank, and I just had put about 7 gallons in it a few days ago... the Mean Green Machine is really coming along!
what did you get the fuse box out of?
It came out of a Ford Fairmont, but any newer model Ford... Escort, Tempo, LTD, etc.. up until about 91 would prolly have a fuse box that will fit.. It's not too hard as you just have to match wires up and cut one at a time...
I have a sandblast and paint shop,and Im a body &paint man.forget the welding of your body and go to a fiberglass shop and buy a fiberglass primer,there are a few kinds,the one I like is called 8084,you put the 8084 on bare metal then fiberglass over to patch holes and will even hold 2 pieces of metal togeather as strong as if they were welded.then just body fill over the glass,you will have a great looking car when your done . Larry