AT Tires R Pod 171 |
Post Reply | Page <1 456 |
Author | |
StephenH
podders Helping podders - pHp Joined: 29 Nov 2015 Location: Wake Forest, NC Online Status: Offline Posts: 6326 |
Post Options
Quote Reply
Topic: AT Tires R Pod 171 Posted: 23 Jan 2023 at 7:49am |
The Pinto I had was a manual transmission. I never had any problems with it and while it couldn't keep up with my brother's Mercury Cyclone, it was still world better than the Corvair's 2 speed transmission. I do know that VW had the same swing axle issue. As I said, I did not understand what had happened until I read Nader's book. I think that the extra weight of the 6 vs. 4 cylinder engine and the extra length behind the rear wheels in the Corvair made it even more vulnerable when compared with the Beetle. Both were better off when GM and VW eliminated the swing axle.
As for the Honda CVCC wagon, the transmission never gave me problems (manual). The clutch cable, OTOH was something else. I had to replace it (think super heavy duty bicycle brake cable). There were other problems such as a float in the carburetor that sank. The Honda dealer wanted to replace the carburetor. I found a mechanic who rebuilt it for a price I could afford. Later, the head gasket needed to be replaced and CV joints also. Still, I drove it for about 75,000 miles and then my brother drove it for many more. It was really a good little car. Dodge Omni was my next one. We bought it from my Father in Law. and the Army shipped it to Germany for us. We drove it for about 5-1/2 years there and sold it to another Soldier when we came back. Then we had a Chevy Lumina APV. I liked the composite body that didn't dent when car doors hit it and didn't rust. I think I was on the third brake booster when we sold it. The driver's seat elevating mechanism also broke. That got shipped to Hawaii and was left there. Then we got a Ford (out of) Focus. It must have been a Monday or Friday vehicle. We sold it when we had it into the shop for the seventh time for the airbag system. It would show the light that the passenger airbag was disabled when my wife was in the passenger seat. They replaced just about everything in that system but the airbag. It also needed a new transmission during the time we owned it. Then was the 2009 Escape. It was okay but it convinced me that I don't like sun/moon roofs. It was otherwise okay, but we sold it and bought a 2016 Escape with the 2l Ecoboost engine when we got the RPod. I thought we were going to be getting a Casita, but turned out I got scammed. All's well that ends well. I am sure we are happier with the RPod than we would have been with the much smaller Casita. The accident with the icy road in Wyoming is why we now have the Frontier. I liked the Escape's Ecoboost, but the tiny gas tank meant a stop about every 100 miles to fill up with premium. The Frontier doesn't do so well at high altitude, but it does not need premium gas.
|
|
StephenH
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,... ouR escaPOD mods Former RPod 179 Current Cherokee Grey Wolf 24 JS |
|
jato
Senior Member Joined: 23 Feb 2012 Location: Kewadin, MI Online Status: Offline Posts: 3252 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 23 Jan 2023 at 7:55am |
Even that sweet '69 Corvette that I had to sell to 'upgrade' to the Gremlin had its issues. The one that really was a bugger was the location of the starter motor, this Vette had a 350 hi performance 350 HP. If you turned the motor off while on a hot summer day, you would literally have to wait 20 minutes or more to start it again. Unfortunately the starter was located about 1 - 1.5" away from the exhaust manifold and with that amount of heat, the starter would be too hot to turn over until cooling off. Fortunately my smarter and older brother came up with a solution, being a tool and die master he made and installed a heat deflector between the manifold and starter - it made a world of difference! He should have gotten a patent on it and a lot of Vette owners would have been much happier. Also with all that weight in the front IF you were attempting to back out of a 1" snow covered driveway with the slightest of incline, you would find yourself stuck, the rear tires would spin but the car would not move in the least. I would throw a couple of sandbags in the back behind the seat to help but now there would be absolutely no room to carry anything, except in the passenger seat. One thing that was really sweet was the light monitoring system that was on the console, by utilizing fiber optics you could, from the seat, observe all your lights, park, headlights, hi-beam as well as tail lights and even the license plate light, pretty cool.
|
|
God's pod
'11 model 177 '17 Ford F-150 4WD 3.5 Ecoboost Jim and Diane by beautiful Torch Lake "...and you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free." |
|
GlueGuy
Senior Member Joined: 15 May 2017 Location: N. California Online Status: Offline Posts: 2653 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 23 Jan 2023 at 11:14am |
I bought one of the first Chevy Vegas off the line, but we got the "GT" model that had the extra-large radiator. The cylinder walls were some kind of silica-embedded aluminum to avoid having pressed-in liners. Turns out that a large part of the original problem was that the "stock" radiator was about the size of a Sears catalogue, and that one of the primary failure issues was the engine running too hot and compromising the silica cylinder walls. We drove that Vega for 6 years without trouble and sold it with 90+ thousand miles.
|
|
bp
2017 R-Pod 179 Hood River 2015 Ford F150 SuperCrew 4WD 3.5L Ecoboost |
|
GlueGuy
Senior Member Joined: 15 May 2017 Location: N. California Online Status: Offline Posts: 2653 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 23 Jan 2023 at 11:17am |
IIRC, GM fixed the original issue with the Corvair suspension in later models, but by the time they did that, the damage to its reputation was irreparable. There may have been a similar situation with the Pinto, but I don't remember.
|
|
bp
2017 R-Pod 179 Hood River 2015 Ford F150 SuperCrew 4WD 3.5L Ecoboost |
|
GlueGuy
Senior Member Joined: 15 May 2017 Location: N. California Online Status: Offline Posts: 2653 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 23 Jan 2023 at 11:20am |
The biggest issue with the Gremlin (for me at least) was that it was just about the ugliest thing I've ever seen on four wheels with the possible exception of the VW Thing.
|
|
bp
2017 R-Pod 179 Hood River 2015 Ford F150 SuperCrew 4WD 3.5L Ecoboost |
|
offgrid
Senior Member Joined: 23 Jul 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5290 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 23 Jan 2023 at 1:54pm |
Hey now, I agree about the Gremlin but the Thing is beautiful in it's utilitarian way, just like a Jeep CJ is. And still looking quite close to the WW2 military Kubelwagen it was derived from, you can paint it gray, get a Wehrmacht Oberstleutnant uniform, and become a WW2 reenactor.
|
|
1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold |
|
Post Reply | Page <1 456 |
Forum Jump | Forum Permissions You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot create polls in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum |