Since the return of my evacuation from Hurricane Katrina which made landfall on 8/29/05 my baby has been parked pending service I've put off because I had what I call the party bus (Ford Windstar) to drive around in until I got around to getting my baby back on the road. It is time to bring her back to life. Needless to say the battery was dead and some undesireable critters (wasps and spiders) have/had moved in. I purchased a battery charger the other day, filled my battery with water, and charged it up for over 10 hours. Now what I need to know is before I put the battery back in and try to start her up is there anything else I should do as a precaution to start-up since its not been cranked in roughly 10 months?
I feel a lil bad about having her sit there for so long, but ever since the Hurricane life has not been business as usual, plus I need new seats and the van has been way more comfortable on ma chubba butt than my 3000 is. I plan to keep this thread open and post to it as I go along, because I have amassed a stockpile of parts over a couple years now and compiled a list of maintenance to perform so I'm hoping someone will benefit from this thread and hopefully (if you've been following that other famous Hesitation thread) I will finally (after years) resolve my hesitation/sputtering problem in doing all this as well.
List of maintenance I plan to do that I can think of at the moment:
Remove/Replace master cylinder assembly (Brake light on and this was the main reason I stopped driving her around; I'd already flushed the lines well and properly bled the system, but from another thread a friend tells me it sounds like the MC. I have the MC rebuild kit so away I go). If this doesn't do the trick I'm leaning towards the brake booster next cause I don't know what else it could be.
Replacement of the A/C Clutch only (Hopefully I will not need to do more than that to resolve my A/C issues)
Repair of smaller radiator cooling fan and wiring (I think this is called the A/C fan) - Note that I really believe this was/is the cause of my hesitation and sputtering as the positive and negative sheath was removed from the wiring at a "bend point" from having been bent too much or too hard over time. The positive and negative wires would arch because they had no proteciton on them and I believe that is when I'd experience problems.
Doing a vacuum leak down test and installing new IPO silicon vac hoses
Resetting base idle after leak down test reveals leak; which I will confirm before installing the new vac hoses
Finish installing BigTyla's grounding kit (2 cables I couldn't figure out where they went)
Installation of APEXI Power Intake filter (removal of resonator setup) and new air pipe
Seafoaming of the Engine (Intake and Oil) and Tranny
Installation of BigTyla's tranny cooler setup for my ATX
Possible new front seats installation
Aesthetics:
Getting the yellow funk off the headlights with some plastic polish and if not that then some other plastic resurfacing kit
Repair/resurface/repaint a nice big slit in the rear bumper with a bondo resin fix kit
Probably see if I can learn how to polish my own rims
Install new center caps on the rims and maybe put a cool mitsu sticker on them.
I'm more of an "all at once" type of guy and I'd like to get all this done in a day, but its just not possible and not right to do so seeing as I'd need to drive the car for about 50 to 100 miles to let the seafoam do the work before draining and refilling.
Lata, ProwlerGT
"Those who know me, know my real name and more importantly how to say it right." ThinkAbtIt on AIM | searcherrr on Yahoo IM | Email in profile
Last edited by ProwlerGT : 11-29-2006 at 09:54 AM.
Reason: better title
I'd try to find a way to prime the oil system so nothing breaks on startup. Not sure how it's done though. Fresh gas is a plus also.
I agree. He could just disconnect the coil and crank it over for a few seconds to get the oil to start circulating.
Also, I would take off the air filter, and air filter tube and blow them out with an air compressor. Check the Throttle body, etc. Especially if you said there were bugs afoot.
i have nothing to say except that IAC writeup i just spent 15 minutes reading was the funniest shit ive ever read in my entire life... i was literally LOLing and ROFLing no joke ... funny shit
This is likely responsible for all kinds of funky IDLE shit with regards to air intake shit and fuel shit and stuff that makes your engine put put putter.
about damn time you get to work on the car. lol you got so many parts just put the batt in and start it.. what ever breaks you have a spare sitting around anyway dont ya :P... DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT get the plastic polish crap from advance auto.... first they do not give the 100% money back gaurentee and secondly it scrapes the hell out of the lens. BTW anyone have two '02 intrepid front lenses for sale? offer still stands if you get it running before the next evacuation to bring it up here and all the parts :P we can do it here.
user3977 good ole buddy - If I am still at that point by the time I have to evac I should just put myself under the guillotine..... but seriously if I still haven't finished everything I need to finish then I will come up there pending whatever my parents decide to do on the evac. BTW - I was hoping you'd see this thread.
HEY da rest a U's ! Thanks for the feedback !
I had a thought about the coil idea. What if instead of removing them I just cranked it once or twice and immediately (within a second or two) turned it off? Then on the third key turn let it run? Does that sound just as safe as the "remove the coil" idea? or no?
Thanks for the compliments on the story. LOL - I had fun making it and its great to see people still get enjoyment out of it and perhaps learn a few things too.
Last edited by ProwlerGT : 11-29-2006 at 09:59 AM.
HEY da rest a U's ! Thanks for the feedback !
I had a thought about the coil idea. What if instead of removing them I just cranked it once or twice and immediately (within a second or two) turned it off? Then on the third key turn let it run? Does that sound just as safe as the "remove the coil" idea? or no?
Here is an idea prior to that one.
Take 3 quarts of oil out (if you aren't planning to drain and refill with new) and toss it on the stove to heat it a little. Remove the valve covers and take the warm-to-hot oil and pour it back into you engine to let it filter down onto the surely bone dry cams and passageways.
Good idea, no? Probably a pain in the ass though..
Take 3 quarts of oil out (if you aren't planning to drain and refill with new) and toss it on the stove to heat it a little. Remove the valve covers and take the warm-to-hot oil and pour it back into you engine to let it filter down onto the surely bone dry cams and passageways.
Good idea, no? Probably a pain in the ass though..
Good idea, yes. Pain in ass yes. Likely to do it? No. Its cool though cause its the kind of idea I'd come up with if I had more experience as a mechanic. I might wait till it gets really hot outside though and start it up in the mid-day heat. We've been getting the 90's here lately. I may do the draining idea and heat it up on the stove and pour it all back in the engine oil hole.
Anybody else? So far user3977's idea is the easiest and most tempting... lol - just start it.
Last edited by ProwlerGT : 11-29-2006 at 09:59 AM.
$40 nes with hookup's games are: super mario bro's with duck hunt, link, top gun, rc pro am, fighting golf.
$60 atari 2600 games are: solar fox, space invaders!, space war, yars' revenge, kaboom!, pac-man, raiders of the lost ark, asteroids, chopper command, defender, E.T the extra terrestrial, golf
$60 colecovision games are: venture, smurf, lady bug, mouse trap, donkey kong, cosmic avenger, decathlon, super action baseball. I have three nes and a few more atari's and a 7800 atari and two sega's with 32x adapter doom game and more
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