This happened before back in '93, and at that time the plastic repair part that was sold as "the one" did not fit. So, I made up a fix that involved using nylon tube, washers and snap rings, which lasted 18 years. I have not crawled under the dash to look yet, but suspect the link to the driver's side has fallen off. I just hope no damage happened to the links or anything else. Thinking back on it, it was getting kind of sloppy sounding of late, and I probably should have checked it out before it broke.
I was driving to a customer's up in Hagarstown, very close to Mason Dixon dragway where the Mid Atlantic/Eastern slant six races have been held the last two years, and it started to rain. Fortunately I drove out of the rain fairly soon, and managed to get home and swap cars after the appointment.
Is there a good fix now. Does anybody make the right connectors? Or, is there a better fix than factory? Thanks for any advice.
On the positive side, I had made that trip 2 weeks earlier on my way up into the mountains to vacation in a Scion with a small 4 cylinder engine.What a difference! The Scion would not get up the mountains without shifting out of overdrive. It just seemed to beat it to death. By contrast the slant just walked right up them in 5th, often maintaining 5 inches of vacuum up the hills. I was able to keep it out of boost always if I wanted to. For mountain driving that slant is a honey.
And here is the kicker. Round trip was 90 miles. I filled it up before and after, at the same pump of the same gas station, and the math worked out to 27 mpg. That is a high for this particular engine and induction set up. The Scion did no better going up into the mountains. Of course it did yield 38 mpg coming back down, and this trip in the Dart was both up and back down. And, the Scion gives me 28 mpg around town, which the Dart would never do. So OK the wipers broke, but the car ran great.
I had made that trip earlier in the year in my brother's v-6, 5 spd Mustang, which I like very much. However,his car would not ease up the mountains the way the slant did. 4th gear was often required if the speed dropped below 60. Gearing and torque are just not as good as the slant 5 spd. I would be happy driving his car on a regular basis, however. It is sweet.
Sam
|
