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Well, tiny backstory first; i purchased this car from a 56yr old from rochester, ny. He claimed to be a master mechanic and that i will be the 4th owner of the car. Told me it has 62k miles on it so and and so on. Well, he lied through his teeth about nearly everything. Glad i only paid 600.
i spent 3 house with a shop vac, cleaning out the filth and nasty. Still needs major help on the interior.
the brakes are funky, pedal has a great deal of travel before it does anything but when it does, it stop the car asif you hit a rhinoceros.
the car was left in my driveway by the person, woth no coolant, low on oil and DESPERATELY needing an oil change and with a elephant size fecal matter on the back seat.
3 of the windows do not go down, unless you manually put them up and down.
the driver door needs a new bottom hinge and upholstery. Theres a lot of work to be done but hopefully itll eventually come together.
so heres some photos if they even attach
Out of curiosity and forgive me if this is a stupid question, do i need to bleed the brakes on this car when changing front pads?
i never do it on any other vehicle but then again, the other vehicles i work on are much newer..
I don't think that a 1988 had ABS brakes so you can push the brake calipers back and install the new pads. Also you need to be careful pushing the piston back, Chrysler used plastic pistons in some calipers.
Well, i didnt end up doing the pads. Got the first wheel off and realized the jerkoff that sold me the car lied yet again. The pads that are on the car are meaty and look relatively new. Didnt even have any dust on em.
glad i went out there though, i found a fairly significant oil leak while looking over the brakes and the sway bar. Which isnt even mounted on the driver side smh... my guess is the oil pan gasket is gone. There was oil on my driveway which tells me the leak is fresh and not residual crap. Theres a lot to look at with this thing so im sure ive still not noticed everything wrong.
Well my local mopar guru came by and looked over the car. To my surprise, its not nearly as bad as i had originally thought. Cost of repairs is sitting around $100 right now so if that pans out then ill be content
So after a strenuous 45 minutes fiddling with a simple oil change, i was able to replace my thermostat and water outlet. I noticed that the hose is a bit too loose for my likeing however. Tomorrow ill have to run it to check for leaks as i ran out of daylight to actually finish. Praying that it doesnt just **** oil or coolant everywhere when i crank it over. Im supposed to take the car tomorrow to run errands and im still not sure im comfortable with doing so. Rear brakes still need adjustment and double checking plus i still need to replace all my ground wires, including the ground under the body which im not even sure where it used to connect. Smh. With the temperature dropping its becoming more and more difficult to work on the car and of course l, the days i actually need a hand; no one is around.
just a little quick update on the stain folks. Ill be back again probably tomorrow for a post start up, post
Id also like to know what i would need to get rid of the crapy lean burn system and approximate cost. Ive read threads on it but im still quite confused. Any help is greatly appreciated
Your correct on the rear axle and you need to check the fluid level in it and if memory serves me it holds less than a quart of gear lube. So fill it up.
Your correct on the rear axle and you need to check the fluid level in it and if memory serves me it holds less than a quart of gear lube. So fill it up.
noted; will be doing so shortly when i replace gasket. Hope it hasnt been cooked. Would be cool to open it up and find sure grip hahah
Well, just got the car off the lift. Things are worse than they appear, im looking at about $600 in parts alone and thats going the cheap route. As far as im concerned, I made the wrong call buying this car. Yea the body is in great shape for being in ny its whole life and being 30 yrs old. But everything else is beat. The best part about this fifth ave is the engine. Despite its leaks, it still runs.
the diff its oddly still in good shape. The front u-joint has a little slop in it, the trans needs a new filter and gasket for the pan, it needs a new oil pan and gasket, passenger lower ball joint, rotors, torsion bar mount on friver side, sway bar links, fuel lines, brake lines, drums and shoes plus hardware, parking brake cables, power steering lines and probably a pump, the egr tube in the third cat needs to be welded in or something, the master cyl leaks from the caps for some stupid reason and one of the gas tank straps isnt bolted all the way in the front and it doesnt look like it can be. And thats just for me to drive it safely. Comfort wise, all the windows except front pass need something (they go up and down on their own or by hand) the driver seat seems to wobble a bit forward and back, the driver interior door panel is all futzed up and good lord the headliner is awful.
oh little things such as headlight adjusters and brake light wiring aswell.
the previous owner did a real number on this poor car and I for one can not afford to make this a project. He sold me the car promising a running driving reliable car and what i got was a junkyard worthy pile of steel.
You paid $600.00 for it with a running 318. a lot of your issues can be fixed with junkyard parts. If you do the work yourself it won't be too bad. If you got to pay someone, shop hours aren't cheap. You eat a large pizza one piece at a time, the best I can tell you is make a list. Fix what you can, fix what it needs to be safe. I drove on a leaking tranny for half a year before I could get to that fix, I added "stop leak" occasionally mixed with Dextron III or whatever was handy and worked. Start hitting junkyards.
On the other hand, you can probably make your money back parting it out. A running 318 is worth a couple hundred bucks and scrap steel is up a little, you can sell a lot of stuff on the car. If you need transportation now it doesn't help. And on the other hand, look what you learned from your new project. Did I ever tell you about my first "project" car 22 years ago? Or my last truck I bought. You own it, so you can dump it or fix it. I think for another grand over a month or so, you might have a fair old car for transportation. And while the parts aren't all that cheap, there are other cars which could cost you a lot more - say Fiero anyone?
think fuel line, brakes, steering and then leaks. See what you can do. On the other plus side, at least where I live, cheap to tag and insure. You aren't making payments. Or just park it and put a mongo thumping stereo in it. Sell it to a kid in high school.
And you learned some guy claiming he is/was a "master mechanic" was a liar or otherwise debilitated, because no way am I believing it.
Humm.... $600.00 bucks... Sounds about fair to me.... How long would you say, you would need to drive it to get your moneys worth out of it? At this point?
11-02-2018, 11:16 AM
