Breakdown nightmares!

[Barnfind46]

When I was a young man I drove old trucks out of necessity. They were cheap and plentiful. My knowledge was limited but I was good at figuring things out so it never bothered me to take off with or without tools or a plan. Now I am a little more cautious. Last year I was forced to drive my '68 C-20 every day to work. My daily driver developed a rod knock and work was 30 miles away. Some would say "No big deal." but this truck had been sitting for four years and had a lot of stuff wrong with it. I thought it was a good opportunity to get the bugs worked out of it. I worked on the brakes and tuned it up and was on my way! Not! First day I made it to work but the truck died on me 5 times. When I got home I tore the carb apart and found debris and goo in the float bowls. Cleaned that out and a new fuel filter. Headed to work and Turn signals quit working along with more stalling. Headed home and pulled the tank. Sock on the end of my fuel pickup was gone and junk in the tank. Ran to Summit for a replacement. Went to work the next day. Truck dies on the way home in rush hour traffic. Are we having fun yet? This went on for six months. Don't get me started about the starter issues! By the time I had my Daily driver going the truck was 30% new parts. I now can drive it and not worry.......much. How many of y'all have nightmare breakdown stories?

[rpmerf]

This is why I've always had several vehicles. I have 2 I can drive to work legally, and 1 with historic tags. Really shouldn't be an issue if I had to drive it.

Your story reminds me of an episode of RoadKill. Like they say, the only way to get it right is to drive it.

I've been lucky enough to make it home most times. It does seem like the vehicles always need something else fixed, but that's how it goes when your fleet is half 350K+ mile vehicles.

[jkeady]

When my wife and I were dating, one of our first ‘tests of compatibility’ (that is, will we kill each other when forced into close quarters for a longer period of time) was a week long camping trip in my Chevy with a topper on the back. Drove from southern Oregon down to San Luis Obispo and back. Shockingly, the truck performed flawlessly and I have since marveled at how brave / dumb I was to have put so little mechanical prep into the planning. Actually, there was almost no planning and it’s a miracle we survived

Fast forward a few years and I’m showing off my new free Toyota van that “just needed a fan clutch”. We’re along side the road on an unusually warm Mother’s Day waiting for (of course) my mother to come pick us up, her rapidly-spoiling basket of goodies in the van’s back seat, all because ‘bad fan clutch’ was really ‘rapidly failing head gasket’ and the van was only good for about 75 of the 120 mile drive to her house. Looked like a real master mechanic then.

Edit: Nice truck, rpmerf!

[rpmerf]

Thanks! Not sure if I have any more pictures of it hosted. I'm at work, so most image sharing sites are blocked. Sounds like yours is similar.

[Barnfind46]

I also took my camper to a state park about 50 miles away (Same truck) and had the u-bolt that holds the lower control arm in place let go and nearly wrecked the truck and camper. Wife was with me! She still loves the truck but that is because she thinks I can fix anything.

[webfoot]

I think most of these trucks you're going to spend a good chunk of time bug hunting on unless they were already a DD, but then again who knows what exactly the owner of the DD did to it.

[outfield]

I was down at the Oregon Coast with my first 69 K20, my girl friend, now wife was with me. The clutch pedal suddenly dropped to the floor, and stayed there. My dad was a truck driver, and always talked about shifting without using the clutch, I got real good at it that day. Was able to drive to my girlfriends Grandmothers about 40 miles, make a couple calls, find a new clutch pivot ball in Tillamook Or, pick up the part, borrow tools and fix it before driving home to Portland. That was about 1983.
My current '69 K20 was acting up like it was starved of fuel, my wife and I were going to an evening street market event. Figured out the fuel line was pinched, nothing a zip tie would not fix.
Good times...

[Barnfind46]

I love that parts are cheap and the truck is simple. Replaced the engine a few months back and was out about $2200.00. Can't do that with a late model!

[Coley]

Well, with very little effort and insight and forethought you can eliminate probably 90% of the failure points in these trucks if you intend on stretching out past a 50 mile drive.
That is the great thing about them.....super simple so problem points are usually easy to see or hear....and arguably fix and replace.....unlike new vehicles.
We could probably all get together and organize a 'Top 10' list of upgrades or pre-checks to set the odds high that the trip will go well.
hmmmmm:
1) Fluids...check the fluids. ALL OF THEM...engine, coolant, transmission, differential, grease the lower end...ALL OF THEM...and while you under the truck look/check for trouble...muffler? mt clamps? broken wires or lines or?
Also, what condition is your radiator in? original?....small? leaking? ...don't know?....lol
2) Ignition...Plugs? Wires? Points? (hope not..lol), condition? new? 10 years old? ...never touched it? or?
3) Charging System: working? wires tight? frayed? checked? when was the last time anything was replaced?....1995? lol
4) Starting System: slow?.....sometimes? never a problem?
....ok, there are certainly more (fuel/carb/etc) ....but those are a quick few...but you would be surprised that well over 1/2 of the guys who have these trucks do not, in all likelihood...check or go through this stuff....lol.....at least on some occasion, ...ask me how I know, lol

All good
Coley

[rpmerf]

Had something similar happen once. 95 Dodge Spirit. The springs in the clutch broke and wedged themselves between the flywheel and clutch plate. Shift without the clutch, shut it down at lights, start the car in first. Drove about 20 miles in the city that way.

Trying to think of some other 'fun' issues...

87 Daytona Shelby Z. Fresh rebuilt engine, take it out to seat the rings. Stop in a parking lot. Engine is on fire. I forgot to tighten down the oil inlet to the turbo. Luckily it burned itself out without issue. Fun fact: if you run into a Pizza Bolis and say "My car is on fire, do you have a fire extinguisher!?" People will look at you like you have 2 heads.

Wife's Integra (now my DD) loved blowing radiators and hoses. Can't tell how many I've replaced in parking lots.

Overall, these trucks are simple, but it seems like there hasn't been a time since I owned it that I am not working on fixing something.

[truckster]

First date with my wife was in my 64 Chevy pickup. We got to the movie theater and it just refused to start, even with jumpers. I finally got a push start. We had a lot of opportunity to talk, and she got to see how I handle pressure and I got to see how she handled an awkward situation.

That's still a fond memory for us, even after 35 years of marriage.

[Stocker]

After decades of faithful service, last year my K20 gave me fits. The troubles started when I decided to finally revive the long-dead factory A/C. After many trips to 3 different shops over several months, and 3 new compressors, it's working. Added pusher fans to help it work better.

Since the alternator was now maxed out and starting to make noise, I upgraded it. But the electrical system decided to cram way too many electrons into the battery and smoked some wiring. More trips to the shop, another alternator, 3 different voltage regulators, and it's still overcharging. In the city once and it fried the fusible link, in traffic, and I was lucky to coast into a parking lot. Temporary fix got me home.

Got some great advice here on the forum and upgraded the wiring and installed a new internally regulated alternator. I *think* everything is finally in good working order but I won't know for sure until the truck gets out of paint prison. Hopefully soon!

[Grumpy old man]

All we used to do was carry some basic tools and a new set of points and a match book in the glove box and drove them cross country . Now it's a big deal to drive a fully restored or finished resto mod on the power tour with all the modern conveniences , AAA towing and a cell phone .

[Coley]

I don't think I would ever even leave on a trip anywhere....without making sure my facebook and twitter accounts were fully up to date on my phone.


....lol, .....sorry I completely lost my mind for a moment there....I don't have accounts on either of those websites or applications

...but I would bring my cellphone on a trip, although I doubt I would use it much which would be business as usual for me/us.

All good
Coley

[Overdriven]

Fuel gauge in my 67 didn’t work when I got it. The truck came with a jerry can in the bed because they thought it looked cool and I thought of it as my reserve if I forgot how far I drove. Well I went for a cruise one day after work and ran out of gas blocks from home on my way back. No biggie I have a full jerry can! Except that I couldn’t get the fuel system to prime before the battery started going dead. I blame the boat water separator/fuel filter the previous owner (a boat nut) installed. Thankfully pouring gas directly into the carb got it going a couple times and it eventually caught before the battery completely died. Removed that boat stuff the next day, still haven’t gotten around to the gauge.

Having the roll pin for the 3ott shifter fall out while trying to shift into 3rd on a freeway on ramp is fun too. Or the time the roll pin fell out (noticing a pattern here) of the vent window lock and it went bouncing down the road. Thankfully I was able to retrieve it and yes I fixed it.

[HIGHWAY BY THE SEA]

Here is MY breakdown story:
Back in 1992 I owned a very–used(up) 1979 Buick Regal coupe. A few weeks after I bought it, I decided to drive myself and a friend to the Anderson Jockey Lot Flea Market, which has the self-proclaimed title of “The Largest Flea Market in the World”. I had noticed that the “Alt” light stayed on all the time, but since my step-mother had a 1980 Buick that had the exact same problem, I chalked this up to a manufacturer’s defect.
We set out, and after an almost two-hour drive, it started raining. I turned on the wipers, and after a few minutes the wipers acted as if they were struggling to move, then they eventually stopped. And that was not the ONLY thing that stopped. Shortly thereafter the Buick died right there on the highway. We managed to coast off of the road, and popped the hood. A Good Samaritan stopped, gave us a jump, and we were on our way again.
We did not even make it five miles, and the Buick died again. We coasted it onto the side of the road directly in front of this house that had lots of livestock in the yard (mostly poultry). The rain had stopped, and we were only several miles from the Jockey Lot, so we walked there all the while concocting a plan to get the Buick running again.
My friend was more mechanically inclined than I, and he diagnosed the problem as the alternator. So our plan was simple: We get to the Jockey Lot, find and buy an alternator, tools, then get back to the Buick, and install it. We arrived there, and then began the hunt for an alternator.
The Jockey Lot is indeed large, as it has hundreds upon hundreds of selling booths, so we figured that SOMEONE had to have the part we needed. We found some used tools (channel locks, socket wrench, two sockets, and a screwdriver) bought these, and continued searching. We walked for a long time, but in that whole huge place we did not see anything that even resembled an alternator on any of the tables.
As we passed this one particular table, I noticed several Dungeon and Dragons lead figurines on it. I decided to stop looking for the part for just a minute, and began looking at the collectable figurines. The seller asked me if I wanted to buy the figurines, and I replied that they were nice, but they were not what I was really looking to buy. He asked me what I was looking for, and I replied, “An alternator for a 1979 Buick regal with a six-cylinder engine.”
He then spoke words that were the absolute LAST ones I was expecting to hear. He said, “I have one”. He then turned and opened the door of his van that was parked directly behind him, rummaged around for a few seconds, then approached the table with the EXACT alternator that we needed! My jaw DROPPED, as did my friend’s. He told me that he had bought it for his van, but it drew too much power. Knowing that I only had about $5 in my pocket, I asked him how much it cost. Imagine my surprise when he said five dollars! Not only that, but he gave me a written receipt and guaranteed that it would work.
Feeling like the two luckiest people in the world, we bought the alternator, and tried to come up with a plan to get back to the car. We were quite tired from the hike from the car, then searching the vast flea market. We happened to run into an Anderson County deputy sheriff who gave us a ride back to the Buick, and we set to working on it. We managed to get everything loose, and removed the alternator.
About this time a huge flock of geese left the aforementioned house that we were broken-down in front of, surrounded us, and began honking at us so LOUDLY that we had to shout to communicate with each other.
I then discovered that we were lacking the correct-size socket that we needed to install the new alternator, so we tried to figure out how to get one. About this time the owner of the house walked out to see who was marauding his loud geese, and fussed at us for terrorizing them. I explained to him (very loudly) what we were doing, assured him that we meant his flock of geese no harm, and asked to borrow a particular sized socket so that we could fix the Buick, and be on our way.
He very grudgingly and griping went into his house, returned, and handed us the socket we had asked for. After he left, his loud geese followed him back to the house, making the whole area quiet and peaceful again. Well, we tried the socket that he had loaned us, and what do you know? It did NOT quite fit! After all of this, we were no better off that we were before.
We tried to use the channel locks as a substitute, but the bolt that held it together was loose, and it would not grip anything correctly due to the looseness. Knowing that the “Goose Grouch” would likely not help us with anything else, we tried to figure out what to do next. It was then that I noticed that the socket that he had loaned us was the EXACT size as the nut and bolt on the channel locks! I used the borrowed socket, and tightened the channel locks, successfully fixing them!
We used the fixed channel locks as a socket substitute to correctly secure and install the new alternator. We returned the socket to the “Goose Grouch” and both got into the Buick. I inserted the key, and turned it. ***CLICK*** Uh oh! No other sound! I tried it a second time, and the Buick fired to life! The ALT light went off for the very first time since I had owned this car, and we drove the two hours home without any further snafus.
This is an unbelievable story I know, but it really happened! What are the odds that out of the hundreds and hundreds of tables at that flea market, we stopped at EXACTLY the one that had a (hidden) alternator that was exactly the one we needed? If not for those figurines that caught my interest I would NEVER have spoken to the seller about any car parts since he had none on his table. Also, what are the odds that the “Goose Grouch” loaned us the wrong sized socket for the alternator, but it was the right sized one to fix the loose channel locks, which allowed us to fix the Buick and be on our way?
We talked about this one for years, but since we are no longer friends, I have not spoken of this in some time.

[Stocker]

That's quite a story, glad it all worked out OK in the end. However.... what are the odds that replacing the alternator actually fixed the problem?

[Barnfind46]

Great story Highway! Surprised the battery had enough juice to start it. I was driving home one night from work in my 50's pickup and had a loose engine wiring harness touch the headers and melt down. It shorted out and the engine shut down.I raised the hood and the harness was glowing.I yanked the battery cable out of the cheap add on end and the damage was done. It was dark and all I had was a little moonlight to work by. I carefully separated the melted wires and wrapped the alternator wire with tape. I then reattached the battery cable and nothing shorted. I hit the starter and it started right up! I carefully drove home and unhooked the battery. Next morning I had to build a new harness. After that I had at least 1 good flashlight in the truck.