something occured to me while i was in a thread about power windows.
The power window glass poping out was my very first repair on my cougar.
It was'nt this cougar but an 84 which i purchased in 89, burgandy inside and out :bowdown:
this happens to be my very first repair i can remember doing to my cougar.
anyone recall thier first time fixing something broken on your tbird or cougar only.
not general maint like brakes,ler,, and all that. I mean something that went foul and you dove in blind not really knowing what you were getting into.
The sway bay and endlinks were mine. I had a broken endlink on the drivers sie that was completely missing it's upper end, made some wonderful noise too! But I decided to start with the upgrading so I went to summit racing, bought a new Addco sway bar and Energy Suspension endlinks. It took me three different times putting it up in my friends garage to get it right. Kept forgetting things like greasing the urethane bushings and not puting washers in where I should have. And now, just over a year later, I gotta get under it and do it again (hurray for py energy suspension endlinks) :crazy: :shoothead . May just upgrade again to a bigger bar and Prothane bushings :dunno: .
frist repair i had to do on my 83 was roter.
the guy that had said it ran fine but after he tryed to fire it up it died.
I check the car over and payed 400 for it then went and put the car in my name got a temp plate went to parts store and got 2.99 roter came back took the cap off and fired it up. The owner then tryed to stop me and say he wanter more now that it ran. I shoulded him that car was now in my name and drove off. he droped from 800 to 400 when it would not run.
Now i have a 85 T bird and frist repair will be to do a big tune up.
5L go bye bye 351 go in, Hope to be up and running by sunday with the drive train of the cougar in the T bird.
i wouldn't know because everything ive done to my cougars ive known what im doin. i know a little bit bout body work so when i get around to it with this cougar id say its that. but doin plugs on a 5.0 on the pass side is a pita!!!
the secondairy electric fan on my turbo coupe. dam thing went during the hottest part of the summer and started over heating back before i had all my tools.
On my first test flight, after buying the car and getting it home. I was on the way to visit my brother about an hour away, when the car's alternator pooched on the freeway. Durring that repair, we also found out the starter was junk, so we had to change that too. Now, I say we, becaue I never really dive into something without my big brother standing overy my shoulder, directing me.
Like Scott my first Bird repair had to be a window fix... The first TC I bought at auction($1500) back '96 looked good, but turned out to have about 6-8 things wrong.
Since it came from auction, I couldn't drive it first. On the way home I found the seat would not adjust, it wouldn't run under boost, and had a bad axle, in addition to a noisy cam(all on a 92K mi car). Also knew about the window, as it was already down inside the door. So I dove inside the door, did the RTV trick and everything was fine(till the passenger side came off 2-3 weeks later) :mad: .
Most of it's problems I had delt with before on the 2.3 '87 Mustang that was my driver. It did take a week or so to figure out low fuel pressure(bad pump), was the reason it didn't like boost.. After I had it all fixed and running great, I sold it for $2800(didn't like the color)and started on another one, 12 TCs and four 5.0 Birds later(five if you count my converted TC), there ain't much I haven't seen or done.....
lol...at least 1 window in every tbird i had (4) as soon as i got them home. in one of them it was a battery, starter, starter selanoid, aternator and cables at the same time. another was the exaust. cd players in all of them as well. any car i buy used with some age on it gets a tune up and fluids right away.
My first repair was the EEC-IV computer in my old '84. The car started acting strangely, cutting out and messing with me severely (this was back in 1987, BTW). My folks helped me buy it used with 36,000 miles on the 3.8, and luckily we bought the extended warranty for it, which got used big time trying to hunt down the problem. Turned out to be a faulty EEC-IV which a good number of early 1984's and even some 1985's had. The shop manager told me they usually conked out between 40K and 50K miles...I was at 46K. After that was changed everything ran beautifully. A year or so later the distributor had to be changed. Then a tie rod let go (sealed-for-life junk....CARM ;) ) but it was at low speed and no accident occured. Other than the C5 trans going out (replaced at a shop), all I ever did to that car was basic maintenance. Never had one bit of major problems with it, not even the head gaskets.
my 85 t has non power windows.
Come to think of it it has nothing with power its a plane jane with a 5L
No tilt no power seats Nothing :)
87 T bird to 83 cougar back to 85 T bird can we see a trend here?
First repair on my bird was figuring out why it wasnt getting fuel, someone pulled the line off the tank in an attempt to siphon out the gas :rolleyes: First major repair was replacing the passenger spindel after one of the rusted in bolts got rounded off trying to do the brakes. Ratchet set, BFH, and an hour later it was all good. The windows in my car are riveted to the plastic 'holders' so no glue to mess with :p
I was sitting in chemistry in high school when I got called down to the office. I was told that my car was "leaking some kind of green fluid". I went outside to find the water pump leaking antifreeze like nobodys business. I had enough in the resevoir so I pleaded to be let out so I could try to nurse the car home. Luckily they let me go and I soon made my first repair. Keep in mind that I had just bought the car and being 16 and having the car for less than a month, I had never done any kind of repair work. All I really knew how to do was oil changes, plugs and wires. But all went well and I have learned a whole lot over the last four years.
troubleshooting a TFI/stator issue on my 84 bird in 1987. the car had 85,000+ miles on it and that was the only repair I did on it besides normal maint. It did have a bad IAC which was fixed under the new car warranty in late 84 or early 85. I traded the car for my 88 sport since i wanted to move up to a V-8 from a V-6 and could afford a better optioned car.
I got to find out a lot of things we all now know for myself like how to pull EEC codes the fact the caliper bolts were torx despite every part guy wanting/insisting to sell me hex even though I insisted it was torx or something similar etc etc
My first cougar, the 86 LS that I got for $200.00
The car was my friend's and her father was fixing it up for her (he is a mechanic at one of the local ford dealerships) She got the car from an old lady, but her grandmother passed away or something and she got an almost new car for free. The cougar had some issues, so I got it cheap. Had my friend Steve Nappy (head mechanic at a ford dealership) help me with the repairs.
-Electrical problem - turned out to be a short because her father neglected to connect the ground behind the full digital cluster after doing something back there.
-Digital dash - needed new sockets (all but 1) and a full assortment of bulbs. Of course sockets were a pain to find (spent an entire afternoon looking for em and got one here and there)
-Heater core - of course it puked. While I was in there I also changed the evap. core.
-Brake line - repaired the brake lines that were leaky
-PRND1E - re-attached the cable for the gear selector... man if you guys saw that... picture my feet on the back deck and my head under the pedals.
-parking lamp lense - the first repair I did 100% by myself... replaced the parking lamp lense in the front pasenger side bumper.
Man I wish I still had that car. But if I didnt I would've never got my '88...
plugs ,wires, rotor, cap, pcv valve, valvecover gasket, brake line, blah leaky radiator hose
My first big repair was the headgasket on a 3.8 and was a success. But that engine did not lasted long after that I bent a rod and now the replacement is a 5.8.
My first repair on my 84 was the voltage regulator. I was probably 14 at the time and my dad had to go to work so he gave me the part said go find it on the car and change it.
The first repair on my 86 turbo was the cooling fan switch. I found out that was bad when I was driving it home from the guy I bought it. About 10 minutes down the road I see the temp just keep going up. And that switch was a pain to replace. I had to go out and buy new sockets since I didn't have a deep well that big and Autozone gave me the wrong sensor the first time.
Jim
Finally remembered what my first repair was on one of these! TFI module on my red 87 3.8. I was 17 and the car had 48000 miles on it. My uncle walked me through it. Even back then (1993) he said it was quite common on these cars.
My first was a tranny leak on my old '85. The thing was g tranny fluid, and after running it completely dry a few times I decided to pull the tranny and replace the front seal. I got it out and saw that not only was the seal gone, but the bushing was worn and the converter was scored. A speedi-sleeve fixed the converter, a new seal was put in, and it went back into the car. I then dropped the pan to replace the black, tar-like fluid that was the result of running it dry a few times. I found that "bobber" in there and went to every tarnny shop in town before getting an answer as to what it was for. I put the pan back up, filled it with fluid, and started the car up only to see fluid STILL g out. Down came the tranny again, where I discovered the case had a crack in it. Completely disgusted, I slapped some JB weld on it and put it back in. 70,000 miles later I traded the car in without it ever leaking another drop.
Mine was either the inertia switch or the power window motor. I can't remember which came first as they were in the same summer. I had no idea what I was doing on either of them though.
My car is a repair with in it self. but the first thing I remember fixing was the alignment. I bought new tires for it a week after I bought it. Installed and balenced the tires myself and aligned the front end myself. didn't come out perfect because I ran out of adjustment on camber though. but it didn't squel the tires going in a straight line anymore.
Fluid swap and tuneup. My first repair on the '85 T-Bird had to be the Heatercore. Then immediately after the heatercore was fixed, it was able to build pressure in the coolant, and it blew out the water pump. Not my most fond winter memories ever, but I got to get intimate in a hurry with my car.
First I tightened up the vavle covers because they were complety loose and all the oil was running out everywhere. Then was the driver side window would not go up, the the driver side locking mechanism, then the ignition control module. And the list goes on...
My first repair were those whitewalls in my avatar photo. takin a girl out about 3 weeks after i got it and came outside to a BIG (like quarter size big) hole in the sidewall. they blew out....... in a parking lot at night :crazy: ......... and i couldnt find the spare,its really well camoed in the side fender like that. well an extremely wise old man came over and 5 seconds later i was puttin it on.
(now there are tiger paw GTS's on it ;))
I have had my new toy for about two weeks. The lady had it parked under some trees in her back yard and the paint looks pretty rough. I tinkered with it for a couple days after she priced it to me, and decided it had enough potential to take it home. The alternator went kapoot on the way home, and I had replaced the PCV valve before leaving her house. The back seat was full of cobwebs and dust 1/8 inch thick.
Plugs, wires, cap, rotor button, egr valve and sensor, alternator, pcv, I'm in it for about $600, but figure I'm way ahead right now. Once I have it running right, minor body work, new paint, tires, wheels, etc. and I'll be in over my head before long... :giggle:
Taking myself back to high school days, before I sold my '68 Stang.