just thought everyone could say things that were done by the previous owner that were dumb.

for my truck the pervious owner:

1- cut off the parking brake cable at the rear drums and held the parking brake lever up with zip ties
2- broke one of the rear windows and replaced it with some plexiglass that is glued in. also tinted this plexiglass to match the rear window. took my gf hours to scrape off, lol. thanks sweetie.
3- took the spare tire out and left the spare tire holder locked with a padlock and no key. gonna have to cut that off.
4- replaced the bed with a bed that has molding on a truck that doesnt. at least its the same color.

why cant ppl just do things right the first time. ohhh well.

 

put sheet metal screws in the firewall to try to cure the firewall flex
an ingenious trailer brake wireing system that i had to rip out and do it right/caused all the lights to short out
a tool box but not mounted. so it slid around on the way home
the shift lever on the transfercase upside down so 2hi was at the seat/ fixed it
a radio but only 1 speaker from a house system behind the seat/put in a kenwood headunit this christmas with 4 good speakers

thats about all i can think of

 

Some people do things in the haste of the moment and don't bother to go back and fix them.

I am sure we all could site examples of the same stuff; but, what would be the point.

All you can do is grin & fix it!

 

Throttle lever and choke held on with zip ties

Entire wiring set going to starter cut through (all wires spliced shoddily back together)

Automatic transmission shifting rod held on with zip tie.

No air cleaner

Carb leaked gas on headers when applying gas ("Well that's not so bad" was the answer...)

Cut a 18" x 18" square hole out of the bed to personally weld a gooseneck hitck to the over-axle crossmember. In a F250. Covered bed with a plastic liner to hide the massive hole.

Used hoses with bolts to plug vacuum lines. Didn't even seal around all the bolts.

Cut vacuum line to dash somewhere underneath the dash. I'll have to dissemble the dash just to find the line

And now the best part--these were all on the same truck

 

1984 F-150:

Previous owner fixed the no-charge problem by replacing the regulator. Only problem, the truck has an idiot light, and the regulator he installed used the gauge! No charge indicator working when I got the truck. Took awhile to figure that one out. This same mechanic caused the fuel gauge to burn out at this time.

Same truck, same mechanic. I was noticing what I thought was drive-shaft imbalance at about 65 mph. Found out that instead of pulling the driveshaft yolk bushing out of the transmission before replacing it, he just drove it further into the transmission. This also caused the speedometer gear to wear out. That one cost me, as they had to tear the transmission down somewhat to get the bushings out, and clean the metal shavings out of the case due to the thing spinning on the output shaft for 50,000 miles.

All other work was done properly. It has over 300,000 miles on it now.

 

I'm driving arount looking at a hole cut in the cowle so that someone could lub up the wiper linkage.I guess screws were to much trouble to remove, or only had tin snips in tool box.
Chris

 

1) wrecked it hard

2) welded the front frame horn back together (a booger weld, but it's holding)

3) rear ujoint on the rear driveshaft spit out the needle bearings, wore thru the cap, and started to wear on the yolk

4) the coors light beer cap on the shifter handle is a plus

5) pulled the smog pump and brackets, but didn't plug any air tubes

6) cut the vacuum hoses, had a zillion vacuum leaks

7) wore the passenger side spindle bearing out of gease, it spit the needle bearings and ruined the hub

8) a radio was just lying in the dash (no wires hooked up either). I doubt that it was "the" radio

9) cut off the running boards and left the brackets??

10) has currently spilled more oil than the exxon valdez (got to luv ALL the seals leaking)

 

Covered a hole rusted through the floorboard by screwing a piece of antifreeze jug down with sheetmetal screws.

Welded the rear axle yoke to the pinion shaft because it kept coming loose

Ran a vacuum hose to the rear axle vent because the axle seals kept leaking even with new seals

squished silicon around the rear oil pan gasket seal to make it quit leaking

Oh wait- this is about previous owners... I did all this.

 

ouch was the truck free or something? lol.

 

The right vent window was sealed with gasket seal so it could not be opened. That and the undercoating did nothing to stop rust - maybe it made it worse.

 

Filled rust holes with "great stuff" foam sealant. (truck looks like it has somthing growing on it).

Replaced broken power window with manual one on DR side, but then used the power window door skin, and just stufffed all the switches into the door.

bolted taillights to the bumper, after trying to cut a hole in them with a torch, then giving up.

Trying to make the truck better by just cutting off all the rusted sheetmetal (there was no metal from the molding down. the filler tubes were just kinda hangin there)

 

The rear tank rusted out and the "Nut" re-plumbed the fuel lines to do away with the rear tank. He wound up with fuel pump hooked to the return line and wandered why his fuel mileage dropped to 3 MPG. and why he always smelled gas.

 

Finger tight steering link nut with one half of a bobby pin through the hole. Plastic bottle cap for a PVC. Speaker wire for the stop lights. Converted to an automatic transmission with a stupid floor shift conversion. The shift conversion hit the seat so he put in bucket seats. The buckets caused a space problem with the steering wheel so he installed a small wheel and a plastic horn button taped to the column. Truck was not drivable without power steering. But the best one so far is front disk brakes conversion with a single chamber MC! I haul my old trucks home on a rollback after this.

 

That's me, along with some of the most jerry rigged wiring I have ever seen. After year I am still tracing stuff down.

 

On my 'replacement' truck that I got last fall, here's a list of what I found:

Brake springs missing on one side.

Holley carb installed that had no business being in this truck.

Fuel line at gas tank replaced with clear plastic hose.

Aux transmission cooler disconnected and bypassed. No idea why, as I found that the cooler is working just fine after I reconnected it...

Radio had been removed, and reinstalled, using solid 'doorbell' wire.

Hole in floor fixed with a license plate.

Rear taillites glued in place. This will be fun when I have to change the bulbs!

Tail gate screwed closed. All that was wrong was the latch mech. in the center of the gate. Took about 10 minutes to fix.

One universal joint on the driveshaft had its hold-down bolt JB-welded tight because someone had stripped the threads on the strap.

Transmission modulator was defective, leaked ATF, so owner disconnected and plugged with a screw, the vaccuum line. Didn't shift worth a dang.

Classic: The radiator and heater core were both mush, so the previous owner would add a tube of stop leak when one or the other started dripping again. I found SIX empty stop-leak tubes under the seat! When I dumped the anti-freeze, I flushed and back-flushed everything for the better part of the afternoon. First, the radiator starting seeping from the core, then the heater started dripping allover my newly scrubbed vinyl mats. I eventually replaced the water pump, too, and flushed the block getting chunks of stop leak to come out... I've changed the antifreeze twice, and still can see flakes of stop-leak in the water.

He also removed and lost the kickdown rod that makes the transmission downshift when you push down on the pedal. That one was a dealer item for $$!