Between the Mad Scientist's 1970 Ford Maverick and my '84 Mercury Capri, only the Maverick made it to the event. As it turns out, the rebuilt transmission I had placed in the Capri was not rebuilt correctly. Every time the transmission was shifted into park the shift lever would immediately shift down into reverse. Unfortunately I did not realize this until after I had put the whole car back together and had placed the car on the ground! As happy as a baby being pulled from the womb (they scream A Lot), my wife and I ended up having to pull the engine and transmission once again! For fear of inflicting injury to others, I had my wife return the transmission to the repair shop once again to have it gone though. Because of the transmission shops inability to rebuild a transmission correctly and my inability to afford a brand new transmission and have it shipped to me, my '84 Capri never made it to Orland for the car show. (Total bummer for me).
The Mad Scientist did not get off so easy himself. The week before the even the Maverick underwent several issues with its charging system (faulty alternators, regulators, starters, and solenoids). After a week of tinkering, the borrowing of an actual 1970 Ford shop manual, and consulting of auto-parts employees my brother Mr. Bowtie himself solved the issue by simply/accidentally ripping the wire attached directly to the alternator out of their harness. What was an actual accident was eventually spun to be intentional as the wire harness on the back of the alternator was faulty. By replacing the alternators wiring harness and simply connecting the wires directly, the car no longer had issues with its charging system.
The Maverick's issues did not end there. The Sunday evening before the event, the water pump on the '70s Maverick began to leak! After inspecting the pump, it turned out that one of the pump bolts heads had sheared off. The mad Scientist attempted to remove the pump and simply install new bolts, but the broken bolt was stuck inside the timing cover. After calling me, I fumbled around the garage and conveniently came up with a new(ish) 1970 timing cover and other materials. By Monday evening the Mad Scientist had put the Maverick back together and it seemed as though it was running right once again.
On Tuesday evening the Mad Scientist parked his car at a family members home in Orland before the event. Unfortunately, I ended up receiving a phone call from the Mad Scientist requesting the 302 firing order. As it turns out the trip up went well. However, upon starting the car to drive the few blocks into town the engine began acting up. It was making a popping sound in the carb and backfired out of the exhaust. The Mad scientist ended his call by telling me that he had just bought new spark plugs that he was getting ready to put in and that he was going to pull the valve covers next. He never called me back that night.
Keep up with B3R Garage to find out what happened to the Mad Scientist's 1970 Ford Maverick the day of the car show.
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