This sounds like a new problem with my '60 Galaxie. It has a 352 cid V8. When going up hills on the interstate, if I try to accelerate, it coughs once or twice. I was thinking I need to adjust the 2 barrel carb. Maybe the problem happens when the secondary kicks in? I know the previous owner replaced the carb. Based on the rich smell of the exhaust I don't think he properly adjusted it. Thoughts? ... View more

Bought a 2004 Dodge Ram pickup in "as is" condition. The car salesman showed me how everything worked including the heater. When I got it home I found out air only came out of the dash vents, and it would not select either the floor vents or the defroster vents. With the aid of the shop manual, I was able to determine the plastic diverter door was broken inside the heater. I would have to remove the airbags, drop the steering wheel, remove the A pillar covers, remove the radio, remove the glovebox, drop the dashboard, then disassemble the heater.  When I started this job I discovered that someone had tried to do this without the aid of a service manual. I could see where they took a sawzall to structural steel that held up the dash. They also managed to cut some other wires by accident. When they tried to remove the airbag controller, they bent some pins on the connector, then plugged it in again causing a 12 volt short circuit the vaporized some pins. Apparently, they gave up and reassembled the mess. I spent four full days on this job. Eventually I was able to get at the heater and replace the plastic part. I also was able to repair the airbag controller. No wonder they sold this truck "as-is". ... View more

I occasionally have had to take my 1941 Plymouth on the Interstate to go to car shows. At 60 mph, it is a bit scary with the narrow tires and high center of gravity. And the flat head six gets quite loud revving that high with only a 3 speed manual transmission.  My 1960 Galaxy handles the highway better. When it was built, the Interstates were numerous and the speed limit was typically 60 mph. Still, it does rev quite high with only a 2 speed automatic ... View more

in the late 70's, I worked for a company that made and installed robots used to weld on auto assembly lines. At the time Chrysler had started to use galvanized sheet metal in the lower portion of the car. Supposedly, one problem the robots solved was that spot welding galvanized metal resulted in the release of carcinogenic fumes that would be detrimental to human welders. The article makes it sound like Japanese cars were way ahead of American cars. I remember my brother bought a 1980 Honda Civic. We live in Connecticut were they use plenty of road salt. Within about a year the tops of the Honda front fenders were completely rusted away. There was a hidden warranty that he used to get them replaced. After several more years the car was so rusty that he could not open both doors at the same  time because the car would sag, and you could not close the doors. I am pretty sure that car had no galvanized metal. I bought a new Plymouth Horizon TC3 in 1980. Chrysler was using galvanized panels. My car suffered absolutely no rust, and eventually went to the junk yard more than 10 years later due to an accident. ... View more

I bought a car on eBay and thought I was skeptical enough. But I still bought a car that looked like it had good tires. It did... but they were four different manufacturer's radial tires. There were other problems too that I anticipated. All-in-all I am still happy I bought it because the price was low enough, but I did have to put in a lot of work on it. ... View more