your first repair

Topic: your first repair (Read 3330 times) previous topic - next topic

your first repair

March 11, 2005, 12:45:19 PM

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.

Re: your first repair

Reply #1 – March 11, 2005, 12:54:55 PM

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)

:shoothead . May just upgrade again to a bigger bar and Prothane bushings

Re: your first repair

Reply #2 – March 11, 2005, 12:56:19 PM

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.

Re: your first repair

Reply #3 – March 11, 2005, 01:14:07 PM

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!!!

Re: your first repair

Reply #4 – March 11, 2005, 01:16:24 PM

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.

Re: your first repair

Reply #5 – March 11, 2005, 01:19:12 PM

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.

Re: your first repair

Reply #6 – March 11, 2005, 02:22:55 PM

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)

.

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.....

Re: your first repair

Reply #7 – March 11, 2005, 02:32:43 PM

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.

Re: your first repair

Reply #8 – March 11, 2005, 02:43:17 PM

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.

Re: your first repair

Reply #9 – March 11, 2005, 02:59:50 PM

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?

Re: your first repair

Reply #10 – March 11, 2005, 05:25:12 PM

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

Re: your first repair

Reply #11 – March 11, 2005, 05:44:22 PM

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.

Re: your first repair

Reply #12 – March 12, 2005, 02:19:13 AM

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

Re: your first repair

Reply #13 – March 12, 2005, 03:22:44 AM

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...

Re: your first repair

Reply #14 – March 13, 2005, 01:49:21 PM

plugs ,wires, rotor, cap, pcv valve, valvecover gasket, brake line, blah leaky radiator hose