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Crap, my car broke on me, lol

S

Starfury

Well-Known Member
So this afternoon I was driving down the road a few blocks from my house when I hear a 'CLANG!' "What the..." As I come up to the light and go to shift out of third (remember, 3sp m/t)...the clutch pedal falls to the floor. "Uhh...crap." I pulled off into a parking lot right next to Napa (ironic, considering I work there) to check it out. Took me a second to figure out that 3/4 of my clutch fork pushrod was missing, and apparently lying somewhere up the street. Explains the clang and the lack of clutch actuation. Had to call AAA to get my car towed the 1/2mi back to my house.

Upon inspection of the broken pushrod (I walked up the street and found it), it appears that it had been slowly approaching its doom. Only part of the break was clean; the rest looked like it had been worked at and exposed for a little while.

Oh well. Replacing the pushrod isn't a big deal (and it gives me an excuse to replace the z-bar bushings), I just have to find alternative transportation to school Monday and possibly Wednesday.

This should be a lesson to anyone who daily drives their car in college. It will break at some point;)
 
"Starfury" said:
This should be a lesson to anyone who daily drives their car in college. It will break at some point;)
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Or just daily drives in general! I keep good towing insurance coverage and have had to be "rescued" more than I care to reveal publicly. ~cry
 
I've only had to be towed twice. Once when I blew my radiator up (it was leaking and I knew it, and even had a replacement already), and then again today. Normally it's pretty damn reliable, but it's the little things you don't see/catch...
 
"Starfury" said:
I've only had to be towed twice. Once when I blew my radiator up (it was leaking and I knew it, and even had a replacement already), and then again today. Normally it's pretty damn reliable, but it's the little things you don't see/catch...
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OK, I'll share the embarrassing details. The first time (I think), I got towed because my ignition switch stuck and my coil exploded all over the engine compartment (it's full of this liquid grease stuff?). The second was the solenoid in another car (no tools, little kid in the car seat, parking lot of the DMV), sigh... There was another time, but I can't remember what the deal was then. The last time (earlier this summer), I had carburetor/float issues with gas squirting out all over the intake manifold (this was the exploding coil car again). I managed not to get towed the time the clutch pedal broke up under the dash at Costco, and there was another incident in the parking lot at my work that got fixed after a couple of trips home for tools and to the parts store.
 
YOu know that is very interesting. I see tons of these mustang engine shots and several of them have the coil standing straight up or upside down. I have read guidelines for installing coils and you are not supposed to put them straight up. I wonder why more coils do not blow up but I hear all of the time about failures of coils. I suspect that many owners get all fancy and change the position of it so that the oil inside does not sit where its supposed to to keep it cool. Anyways, what year is that cougar?
 
Tad, Glad to see that this happened close to home. Can you imagine if you had been up here visiting me? :icon_jokercolor:
 
Heheh....yeah. Worst case I'd just have to rig up something with some all-thread.

Fordification, I don't recall my MSD coil recommending any specific orientation. I don't see how straight up would be bad, as it would keep all of the coils covered in oil (most coils are oil-filled for cooling purposes).
 
Towing.... I'd rather not go into all of the circumstances, but lets just say that the local 24 hour tow service is on my cell phone speed dial. Eight times in the last 18 months? Clyde (the driver) and I are on a first name basis.

Coils.... The NIB MSD Blaster coil I installed in my sons Ecar was mounted laying on it's side on top of the intake. During a test and tune drive one day the car just quit. I thought it may have been out of gas as the tank was reading a little low. I went and bought a couple gallons of gas, and the car started right up. One mile down the road the car quit again. Tow truck called. When we got the car back to the house and off the truck, I tried starting her and she fired right up. WTF? I started to think about the coil and installed another off the shelf one. The same thing kept happening... the coil would heat up and the car would quit. After a half hour or so, the coil would be cool and the car would fire right up.

I called MSD and the first thing the tech asked me was "how was the coil mounted?" When I told him horizontally on the intake, he told me that this was the problem and I needed to buy a different MSD coil, one that was designed for horizontal installation. Standard MSD coils are oil filled, if the coil is mounted on it's side, the oil leaves an area of the internal windings exposed. This exposed area can overheat and the coil eventually quits. MSD sells a gel filled coil that he recommended. I installled it and the car has over 5000 miles on it without repeating the malfunction.
 
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