weirdest problem you've ever had ?

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Jan 7, 2012 | 02:13 PM

#16

ben73058

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Joined: May 2010

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From: Austin

We just had a fun one as we are de-bugging our 1950 F1. It would start up great & run like a champ. You'd get about a mile down the road & the brakes would just gradually come on by themselves until we had full lock up -usually inthe worst place to break down. You couldn't even roll it off the road - Wait 15 minutes or so & it would drive great & repeat the same symptoms a mile or so down the road. We bled the system again, took each wheel off to see if the calipers were sticking, ground downthe pads a bit to get more clearance, disconnected the e-brake....

The rod going from the brake pedal into the master cylinder was a millimeter too long & slowly pressed on the master until pressure was enough to stop the car - then let off after about 15 minutes. Got some help rebuilding the brake/master cylinder set up with a shorter rod - Victory... What a pain.

Ben in Austin

Jan 7, 2012 | 06:42 PM

#17

GLR

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Joined: Sep 2003

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From: NY and VA

Ran across this while working at a gas station. Similar problems as others, car would start up, go down the road then sputter and die like it was running out of gas. After numerous fuel pump replacements and carb rebuilding, we dropped the tank and found someone had shoved plant leaves in the gas tank. They would wrap around the pick up and starve the engine.

Jan 7, 2012 | 08:32 PM

#18

bobbytnm

Roast em' if you got 'em

Joined: Mar 2005

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From: Rio Rancho, NM

As a teen I had a 67 Dodge Charger that would occasionally die on me. Is pent allsummer running the thing around town with it randomly stalling. The danged thing was a wonder car.....it was a wonder if you would ever make it home.

It turned out to be a small tear in the fuel line near the fuel tank. I guess it would occasionally suck air and I'd run out of gas. I messed with that thing for 6 months before finally finding it

Bobby

Jan 7, 2012 | 11:14 PM

#19

Jeff and Nicolle

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From: Pekin, IL

I installed a new radio in a car of mine(Yes it was a Ford) I got done and went in the house for the night. Looking forward to the new tunes, I took off for work the next morning and it didn't work...hmm...
Got home that evening and started troubleshooting, but I turned it on and it worked! So I started looking for a loose/bad connection...found nothing. Went in the house called it a night. Repeat next morning. Kinda like the movie "Groundhog Day" long story short. I tied a wire into the door light switch and it only worked with the door open!

Of course when troubleshooting and installing, the door had to be open to lay on my back and hang my legs out the door area...

Jan 8, 2012 | 03:11 PM

#20

eman92082

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Joined: Apr 2007

Posts: 2,063

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From: Valley Center, California

Had just finished rebuilding and installing an FE in my 76 F-150. Fired it up and it was missing on one cylinder..... Spent about 20 minutes looking around trying to find the problem. Ended up putting my timing light on each wire until I found the cylinder that wasn't firing. Looked inside the cap and realized a conductor had not been inserted during the injection mold but the plastic had filled the cavity and it wasn't obvious to me.

It is now a pencil holder in my shop......

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Jan 8, 2012 | 03:45 PM

#21

Justin16

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Joined: Sep 2010

Posts: 64

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From: Southern Black Hills, SD

I had a 79 Ch*vy pickup that I dropped the fuel tank on trying to figure out the fuel guage. After a put the tank back on the truck would run great for awhile and the act like it ran out of gas, then start back up and run fine again. I was thinking I knocked something loose in the tank but couldn't find anything. After a few weeks I noticed one of the rubber fuel lines was bent a little sharp. Once it got enough suction it would essentially kink the line off and the truck would die. The suction would stop and the line would unkink and allow it to run until it happened again.

Jan 8, 2012 | 03:51 PM

#22

bobbytnm

Roast em' if you got 'em

Joined: Mar 2005

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From: Rio Rancho, NM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff and Nicolle

long story short. I tied a wire into the door light switch and it only worked with the door open!

Of course when troubleshooting and installing, the door had to be open to lay on my back and hang my legs out the door area...

LOL! that cracks me up! I've done similar things, its nice to know I'm not alone....

Dawg!! wow, that is a goofy problem. That would have taken a long time to diagnose, you just don't expect something like that.

OK, here's another. When I was working at a Cadillac dealer a lady brought her car in for the AC not cold enough. She bought the car new approx 6 months before she brought it in. I hooked up my gauges and the pressures were great, not a thing wrong with it, but it wouldn't cool. I drained the system and pulled the expansion tube figuring it might be plugged or something....nope, it looked good. Evacuated it and recharged, still poor cooling.
After messing around with it for several days, checking air mix doors, etc, I was finally able to fix it by ripping the dash and airbox apart and replacing the evaporator. It turned out that the evaporator didn't have an internal baffle in it to push the freon through the evaporator tubes. Basically the freon would enter the evaporator and then go right out the outlet tube. The lady had bought the car in late fall and had never used the AC until the following spring so she hadn't noticed for a long time

Bobby

Jan 8, 2012 | 06:30 PM

#23

topmoo

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Joined: Aug 2003

Posts: 3,222

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From: Houston

My first car, back in 66, was a 56 Chevy convertible with a 265V8. I bought it for $250 and drove it for four years, and a couple of the years it would not start. We had to push start it every time. I couldn't figure out what was wrong and didn't have the money to take it to a mechanic. Finally after two years a friend suggested that the coil might be weak. I got a new one and it worked perfect. Two years of push starting it helped me get much stronger though...