here is a list of vehicles that have black boxes to record data in the event of an accident http://www.winxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=040921ED-BlackBox

 

Last sunday i had my 95 Rover Disco to 127 mph, it's a 4.6 engine with cam, chip, headers,5-speed, lowered street vehicle that turns. My 68 F 250 has been clocked at 136 mph, California Highway Patrol on radar and get this, no ticket. This officer was a old iron Ford nut and it was 5:30 AM in the middle of Somewhere in Egypt. If i had a black box recorder it would read like "MADD MAX"!
Carl...........o&o>................

Edited for language.....if you have to disguise a word to bypass the language filter on here it doesn't belong. The F word will not be tolerated in any form.

 

Wow, GM=Big Brother. Of course Ford is slowly coming onto the scene too.

I think my practice of buying older vehicles in good condition and fixing them up is looking better and better.

 

the link wouldnt work for me. i think im safe , having '93 ranger/taurus. i wonder what effect it would have on those vehicles by disableing it. i already dont like the keys with computer chips in them that cost a fourtune to get another key. one of my favorite trick is to cut off the square head of the key and slide the teeth into the lock cylinder. looks like theres no keys in it, but you can twist the switch and go, forget about keyless entry, ive got keyless ignition! i do leave enough metal past the teeth sticking out so that i can pull out my "key" if im parked somewhere where i might be worried about it. all in all there is just too much computer garbage on cars these days. i just may have to get another '71 beater bronco, no power nothin'. but nothing there you couldnt work on either. with 4 wheel drum brakes and no power booster, talk about anticipating stops! better have a working horn and a heavy pipe bumper.

 

people that are scared of electronic "garbage" are only scared of it because they don't know how to work on it. Thank goodness when the old timers that are scared of electronic "garbage" die out. Then there will be no need for mechanics but just technicians like myself that know electronics and don't fear electronic "garbage" like fuel injection. (sigh) boy i tell ya nothing I'd rather do than mess with a carb all day long to get it just right. While my neighbor with fuel injection garbage rides off into the sunset.

 

Yea people are scared to work on it, but that link was talking about cars recording data about how you drive (such as but not limited to your speed). Maybe it's not the original intention but that data can be used against you in the event of a crash.

I've read articles about that happening, it was a guy who crashed a Grand Am IIRC.

 

yeah black boxes are over board but i was responding to the guy up there that said he wants to buy old cars because the new ones have too much electronic "garbage"

 

dang gm loves them things. i was watchin the history channel last night and in europe they are startin to use computers to keep you away from followin to close (tailgating) by radars sencing distance and then applyin brakes and activating an alarm, they also use the radar to sence vehicales in blind spots.

those are the some of the reasons i buy old iron and give them modern comforts like my 72 f-150 that iam building (just got it) not shure what happend but on of the rods is sticking out the side of the block, i am going to go with power everything and a 460efi and a/c

 

i am more against the "black boxes" than the other things like fuel injection, it just that things were much simpler then, now when you work on something you need all this expensive test equipment, and if you dont do it for a living its quite a chunk of change just to get rid of a check engine light. theres benefits to new technology shure, but there's the downside also.

 

I like the older autos because they don't loose 1/2 their value in 3 years. The fact that many things at some point are easier to work on is great too. The whole thing of modifing the rig to be fun and unique is more of the joy.

I have a 69 that is getting a 429 and hope to figure out a megasquirt controller for FI through a spyder style manifold. Still doing a lot of reading and head scratching but it looks like a good thing.

No I don't like the big brother type black box.

 

holiday 187 :

You can have all the electronic doo daas and widgits on your vehicles that you like but I will stick to the ones with nothing but electronic ignition modual and nothing else .

On my last job part of my responsibility was overseeing a 3 bay auto shop where we serviced public vehicles as well as between 65 and 85 3/4 ton 4X4's that were working the oil patch .

I had three of these qualified automotive technicians and one apprentice in my shop and the latest computer diognostic equipment linked directly to Ford , GM
and Dodge .

These guys amounted to nothing more than parts changers and could not diognose anything on a bicycle unless the computer told them what was wrong .

Once the problem was found and the replacement part decided the vehicle usually sat in the yard if it was an electronic related part becouse they are all made off shore and there would be none available in North America today as the direct links would tell us .

All these additional electronic components has a shelf life that the manufacture can determine , usually within weeks , when they will fail . Just like a cell phone they can determine within hours how many minutes it will function before failing . Just after the warrenty runs out . On today's disposable vehicles I guess this does not really make much difference as something else will kill them in the same amount of time any way .

I have a '78 F 150 4X4 , 351M that has always got 16mpg on the highway and the wife's '86 Chrysler 5TH Ave. 318 that runs right around 27mpg .

When all this additional electronics adds better fuel milage than the minute difference it has now and it lasts as long as my vehicles have without failer ,
I would consider a newer one but untill that happens I will stick with what I have and my 67 year old mechanic down the way that can lift my hood and tell me of my woes with his ears and experience .

 

you can have the old cars I only like new vehicles.........I wasn't born by 78 anway and in 86 i was only 6 years old. I'd rather a fuel injected engine anyday over a carb. I know how to work on them but I don't choose to. And by the way those people you were ******* in the your shop will work longer thn you will. Quite simply they are where cars are going and you are where cars have been and have moved on. Those old cars can only last so long before they are gone forever. And hey if demand doesn't kill them off emmisions will and I can't wai for that to happen.

 

Jerry, you said you'd like an electric ignition module and nothing else? You're gonna have a big problem starting that big 460 by hand crank, with no starter and all.........

I strongly agree with holiday on most aspects. I don't think that the carbureted engines will ever die out completely, there will always be a few who will keep theirs. But.....I really don't think manufacturers make parts with the intention that they will fail.........Todays cars are much more reliable than any of the older carbureted engines. With an older car, you can troubleshoot the thing for hours and still not figure out what's wrong! Normally, a trouble code can at least point you in the right direction.

 

Don't even have a computer on my 92. whats on the list I can't access it.

 

holiday 187:

My '78 F150 was totally restored from the frame up 2 years ago for $7000 which is $600 less than I paid for it new in '78 . Also only 1/7 of the price of a new
wannabe truck .

The Chrysler has 63,000 mi. on it and should be running fine at 27 mpg long after your present vehicle has been made back into Pepsi cans .

I layed two of the technicians off before I retired so they could find employment at a dealership working on the flat rate book for half the money they were making and hired two real mechanics that cuold change a transmission under a service truck in the mud if it was required .

I do know your philosophy though as I have two sons 36 and 31 that both learned to drive on the Ford and now dig out their cell phone to call a tow truck and mechanic if their vehicles stop and the gas guage does not say "E".

Neither has owned a new vehicle in the last 10 years that was not recalled several times to finish building it or have ran for 18 months withiout having some kind of break down .

They have both spent 3 times the money that I have invested in vehicles in my life in the short careers that they have going so far and have a lot more of them to purchase yet when they are worn out every 2 years . They are also members of the generation that the auto makers have convinced that 20 mpg
in a Honda is good milage .

I have never had a problem having repairs or work done on my old ones , as there is usually at least one shop in every community that specializes in these vehicles and they do a better job and charge less as they do not have to support an overhead that includes all the diagnostic computers and constant upgrades they require to keep operating .

I can buy every part on the F150 still now after 26 years because they were so well made in these years that millions of them are still on the road . Try buying every part for any 5 or 6 year old vehicle out there now and see how much luck you have . as I pointed out it is difficult to get parts for new vehicles now , especially GM as they are all made in Mexico or Brazil or overseas for the electronic components .

I have learned a few things over many years involved with the service and repair of vehicles and one of them is that a vehicle for me is to take me from A to B and back as well in relative comfort with some good tunes as economically as possible and over the long term I have accomplished this as best as can be expected .

I do not need my vehicle to tell me when it burps or farts or what time it did it, nor do I need it to tell me what temperature it is outside or what direction I am travelling or lock the doors for me or most of the things that have been added to require all the extra components and get someones hand deeper in my pockets even after I've paid twice what they are worth in the first place for one .

I do like fuel injection if it could be purchased without beimg tied into every moving component on the vehicle the way we used it on the first ones but not now .

Each to his own I guess but my new old Ford costs me about $112.00 a month to operate and that includes the insurance . The truck had turned just under 1,000,000 Km before rebuild and someone tries to buy it every time I park any where so I guess I'm not the only one who can see the light .

These old 4X4's are selling for at least double what they were worth new and mine was appraised higher than that . Mine ain't for show it is a daily driver
winter and summer and has spent half its life off road mudding , hunting and pulling a few stumps and chebby's when necessary and when someone builds
anything relativly close to the same again I will buy one but I don't think that day will ever come unless I considered a Hummer .