I bought this Little car as a temporary beater but its grown on me and I want to fix it to daily driver level. I wrecked my ranger a few months ago and needed a ride until deployment. I figured spending 600$ on a beater was smarter than spending the same on a rental. After searching Craig's list for a while looking for something running, tagged and in budget this is all I found. I had heard the stories about Pintos cathing fire and done research into the matter a long time ago out of curiosity, so I figured if would be safe enough. I'm glad I went ahead and got it.
There are lots of issues with her and shes right terrifying above 70 mph, but I have gotten to work and back around the times. that's about four hundred miles. here a summery of the good and bad of my car.
Good:gets me .a-.b, averages around15-20mpg...that might be bad for a four banger but its better than I expect of a car this old. I can park in ridiculously small spaces, lots of cargo room, fun to drive in a frightening sort of way.Engine starts easily enough. window glass if flawless. doesn't burn oil or leak water. came with four new tires.
Bad:doors are so loose I can put my pinkie through the cracks had to put a rag on the latch posts to stop the rattling. differential was leaking but I think I have that fixed with new silicon gasket now. manual rack and pinion steering sends shock waves though my hands on pavement irregularities ...kind of like a go karts wheel feels on off road. Car dose take some time to get to 60mph, Around 70 a combination of steering shudder and rear end hop and side to side movement makes for a scary ride...I haven't seen if it can go faster than 73. at idle the engine shakes enough to make rear view mirror shake fiercer than any sub woofer, glovebow and steering wheel can be seen shaking, steering wheel has around a quarter of an inch excursion in its shaking. I have checked to see if it was something obvious like swapped plug wires. lots of minor/cosmetic issues that don't worry me like the engine tremors or high speed handling.
I believe this car can be made into a good daily or at least backup river with some work. Ive got it to where its not leaking fluids and the breaks function properly so now I just need to work on drivability issues
Questions for any one who would please answer:
is this much shaking normal or harmful for a 2.3L engine?
Should steering wheal jerk and shake on every dimple in the road at freeway speeds? Ive never driven non powered steering or anything this small before so I don't know if this is normal.
Is rear end hop and side jumps normal for these cars above 65mph?