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Post by Jill62 on Mar 17, 2004 19:50:11 GMT -5
I figured why not start a thread where we can share any slips, stumbles, foul ups, errors, or learning curves we've learned along the way with the Meteors. I'll share my most embarrassing moment. This one is going to make me seem like a dork but here we go. It was July and the morning me 'n the caravan of buds and their rides were heading out to GoodGuys. Keep in mind I couldn't remember when the last time I filled up the tank was. Usually if the Merc is shined up the way I want it, I'll only take it out for the weekend shows. So I run a few other errands and hit the gas station last. I pull in, authorize the credit card and start pumping. It clicks off at a few pennies. Hmmm. Then it clicks off around 20 cents. It clicks off at 40 some cents. I try again and give up at as it clicks off AGAIN at 62 cents. (Heh 62 cents, but true story). I get back in and sigh, "Well, guess he was full all along." Let's skip ahead almost two hours of driving later as now I'm a few miles from the Ohio State Fairgrounds for the show. I'm cruising at 60 mph, and now I'm getting some sputtering. It gets worse. I contact the other buddies on the 2-way radios theres something wrong. Then it up and dies on me. After everyone's "expert" diagnosis that its my fuel pump someone offers, well are you out of gas? "Absurd!!" I say, "I filled up before I left!" Skip ahead to me bringing back spare gasoline to the stranded Meteor and THAT being the actual problem. I'm so glad I was comic relief to the State Troopers (who had stopped to help) after everyone telling them I really thought I was going to get from Burbank Ohio to Columbus on 62 lil pennies. I'd also like to thank Vapor Lock for that experience and my broken gas gauge. Let's just say I kept the 62 cent receipt for memories and my scrap book. But that was some great gas mileage no? haha Gal who refills every Tuesday like clockwork now, Jill
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Post by 62mercfan on Mar 17, 2004 19:56:53 GMT -5
i have a similar story...tho not going to a big show or anything. the day i decided the new paint was dry enough for me to drive, i put all the chrome and stuff back on...started her up and took off heading to work to show off to the other hot rodders (i work at a library right now...that was a bit of sarcasm) and see what they thought of the beast...well i get about 1 mile down the road...no cell phone...no 2-way radios...its 7 in the morning on a saturday... i had to wake up a family (and a nice one at that..i think...if i didnt wake them up) and they didnt have any gas... so i used their phone and woke up a bunch of my buddies to come rescue me... by this time its about 8:30 and i finally found one that would be nice enough to come in her pj's and take me to get some gas.. what an experience the first day out.. the gauge still isnt fixed...but i fill up like clockwork as well every friday.
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Post by STU on Mar 17, 2004 20:07:08 GMT -5
Amateurs....I made my first ever dyno run with the emergency brake on....LOL....I made 4 more HP when I released it.....LOL ;D
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Post by Jill62 on Mar 17, 2004 21:46:43 GMT -5
Someone please buy us sorry people a gas can for Xmas.
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Post by Stella62 on Mar 18, 2004 2:26:35 GMT -5
Stu, love that eBrake....but I thought yours didn't work.
Okay, here's my embarassing 2 moments on my Mercury. One was mine the other was just embarassing...no ones fault really; I just felt bad.
First of all, I contacted the person selling my Meteor on a Saturday when I already had 5 cars. I inquired about the Merc and set up a time to come see it. First of all, I live in a very densely populated area, home of Apple computers. There aren't many dirt roads. After passing this particular dirt road that the Meteor was on 3 times, I finally figured it out and drove down the 1 or so miles to the house. This house was really like a Ranger station for the Wildlife preserve(place where we don't build a ton of houses) where my Meteor was in a 7 year coma. I get there and have to have it. He's asking 1200.00. I was going to offer around 300.00, so I went home and called him to make my offer. I was really embarrassed. He declined but used the "beg-for-more-money" tactic. It worked and I gave him 500.00. I felt alot like an a$$ for low-balling him, but afterall, it didn't run, was full of mouse droppings(and the petrified mouse), and the gas tank was almost solid rust. So the more embarrassing part comes when I call my tow company that hauls my cars from various places in the state to my house, Auto Ambulance in Santa Clara, CA. They have a big flatbed I like to have them use. I faxed them a nifty map I drew detailing the one dirt road and the mile of ruts to the Ranger station. They said no problem and quoted me a flat fee. They were picking it up at 8am the next morning. So around 10 I check with my roommate to see if it arrived....nope. Thought I'd check again at 12....nope. Finally while I was away from the phone, the previous owner of the Merc left me a long message at 1pm detailing: 1 hour loading of the comatose Merc, the towtruck driver getting "off-course" and sinking 1 foot into the mud and brush.......and the 3 hour extraction of the tow truck by tractor!! Needless to say, now Auto Ambulance charges me by the hour. I'm lucky they still do business with them.
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Post by Jill62 on Mar 18, 2004 19:31:50 GMT -5
Andrew- As I was reading your story I thought it was going to take a worse turn than that. Does everyone remember that one Seinfeld episode? Where in a moment of desperation Jerry's psychotic mechanic steals the car with an overwhelming sense of admiration. I thought that was you, with a crazy tow truck driver.
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Post by Stella62 on Mar 18, 2004 20:02:40 GMT -5
Ah, yes, I remember that one. Luckily with what I bring home no one seems to want any of it. Actually, I don't know if that's lucky....but anyway, I'm glad the Meteor made it back. At first I had thought it fell off the truck....that would have sucked!
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Post by wcc on Mar 19, 2004 0:02:32 GMT -5
my embarrassing moment just happend today i was messing with my metear in the drive way with some friends "my driveway is more like a parking lot" and since i dont have my lisence "long story" and i wanted to drive my meteor soooooo bad since i havent ever really driven the car other then moving it around in the drive way, so i was moving around with two friends in the car and for some reason just kinda went back and forth and i desided to give them alittle v8 power because all my friends liie import cars so i floored it just for a second and the trottle stuck! and the fence was cominmg up real fast! so i slammed on the brakes and the car died and boy did i feel like an ass after all the talk about how sweet my meteor is and this happens. Its ok thought they still ove my car. lol
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Post by wcc on Mar 19, 2004 0:04:57 GMT -5
sorry for all ht miss spellings
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Post by Tom on Mar 19, 2004 4:46:54 GMT -5
I had gotten my Meteor about a month earlier, and it had sat in the garage until I could get the brakes worked on. Finally headed out on the road with my 11-year-old son to a cruise with my car club one evening. Got the car up to 55 mph and was doing ok, then all of a sudden I hear a whoop clang clang clang. Looked in my rearview mirror to see a dog dish hubcap go flying down the road. Oops! By the time I could get stopped and turned around, I had gone another half mile down the road because of traffic. Then I couldn't remember where the cap had come off, so I parked the car on the shoulder and we started walking the shoulder looking for it. Storm clouds brewing on the horizon. Go some distance, then turn around to get the car and move it down the road. Repeat. Storm clouds overhead. Still no hub cap. Move the car again, and it starts raining. Leave my son in the car now and walk by myself, looking for one lonely hub cap. Finally found the hub cap in the ditch, kinda bent up. Well, you really didn't think I'd leave my poor hub cap out there all by its lonesome, did you? Besides, I didn't know how difficult it would be to get another one. Needless to say, we didn't make the cruise that night.
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Post by 62mercfan on Mar 19, 2004 9:45:48 GMT -5
tom, i've got the same problem with my fullsize S-33 hubcaps...i've lost them a few times each and had to park and go track em down.. they mustve just had a really poor design on those things..i ended up bending out the clip parts to make them a lot tighter and spent about 10 minutes getting each one pounded on....no more problems there...yesss...
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Post by Jill62 on Mar 19, 2004 12:00:18 GMT -5
Doesn't just a dab of Super Glue solve ALL problems? ;D
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Post by sbailey1962 on Mar 19, 2004 13:40:42 GMT -5
i've done the same too, bend the clips up and then spend at least 10 minutes trying to get the hubs back on. I still think that any car looks better in good ole hubcaps than the crap they are putting on the car nowadays... and they are a b*tch to clean
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Post by 62mercfan on Mar 19, 2004 14:41:10 GMT -5
ahh another embarassing moment that couldve actually been a very bad thing... a few months ago i rebuilt the top half of my engine cause it sounded like it needed a valve job really bad (this is when i find out i have 302 heads on the 221...not cool) well after i finally get it all back together i decide to just take it around the neighborhood to see if it'll work...as i'm driving all of a sudden i lose power steering and smell something weird for a second...so i go the 1/2 mile back home and look to see whats up and i realize i had forgotten to actually bolt the pully back onto the harmonic balancer...it was stuck on there so well i didnt figure it out before...and the pulley had come off and burned the belt a little and was there resting between the auto tranny fluid lines....lucky me...shwew..
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Post by ca on Mar 20, 2004 22:53:30 GMT -5
hey mercfan,,, i heard ya ca'nt fit 302 heads on a 221 'cause the stick out too far and hit the block.and yours does what
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