America should abandon auto manfacturing alltogether!

[AutoliteParticipant]

Anonymous wrote:

Someone once told me that there were a handful of 8Ns from the factory with the V8,not sure if thats true but those V8 8Ns look like fun!

Ford 8N V8 conversions were somewhat popular but it was never really a Ford factory product. They were actually dealer installed.

“Funk” was a failed aircraft manufacturer that sold conversion kits to allow the Ford 239 CU. ‘Flathead’ V8 engine to be installed into the 8N tractor.

http://www.oldfordtractors.com/funk.htm

Today, you can still get conversion kits for the old Ford Flathead V8 installation but enthusiasts have installed modern OHV Ford, Chevy and Chrysler V8s. There are even a few guys who’ve installed the old Lincoln Flathead V12 engine.

But it’s all for show really. The Ford tractor N-Series drive line behind the engine wasn’t really designed to handle much more power than what was provided by the Ford factory installed in-line four cylinder Flathead. Which was actually the original engine in the 1928 Ford Model A… 😀

[sidecarParticipant 35868]

Faust For Science wrote:

When the collapse happens, people will find workarounds to repair and work on modern vehicles.

On the contrary, when the collapse happens carburetors will be worth more than gold.

Autolite wrote:

To be fair, it’s mostly market driven.

Then why is the market moving to used cars, even though that market shift has driven their prices up to near that of new? Seriously, have you seen the prices of used cars lately?

[AutoliteParticipant]

Anonymous wrote:

Hey Autolite, I’m a small tractor guy,

I’ve been wanting to get into lawn tractors for a few years now. Man that looks like fun!

I have one Sears Craftsman for yard work but I’m currently looking for a new engine for a Sears Craftsman LT1000 that I intend to use as a dedicated ‘hauling’ machine.

I might have already posted this but my ‘dream machine’ would be this JD lawn tractor with the Ford Flathead V8… 😀

[AutoliteParticipant]

sidecar wrote:

On the contrary, when the collapse happens carburetors will be worth more than gold.

No s~~~! I had an old Ford/Holley ’emissions’ 4V carb that was a complete POS. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to rebuild it (base was physically damaged) or just buy new.

The new replacement carb was priced at over six hundred dollars… 🙁

[AutoliteParticipant]

Autolite wrote:

Seriously, have you seen the prices of used cars lately?

No. I have had a tiny fleet of old cars for many years and plenty of spare parts. I don’t plan on needing to actually buy anything else ever again. I certainly wouldn’t want to have to…

[Anonymous 42]

Autolite wrote:

The new replacement carb was priced at over six hundred dollars

Get the new carburetor, the butterfly shaft is tight and doesn’t leak air, want a blue printed engine to purr like a kitten new is a must. Rebuilds are not new, they’re rebuilds.

[Anonymous 2]

One of my most frustrating times was with an 08 Ford F-150. The taillight went out at a car wash when my daughter was 4yrs old. We were inside the wash and the trutk wouldn’t go into reverse. Finally I had to call a tow truck and he said it happens all the time. If a taillight goes out its a safety feature and the truck shouldnt be driven. Real safe that I’m stuck in town with my kid. Screw you ford. Just FYI their mustang transmissions are made in China. The prices have skyrocketed and the cost to build plummets. No thanks.

[AutoliteParticipant]

Anonymous wrote:

Get the new carburetor, the butterfly shaft is tight and doesn’t leak air, want a blue printed engine to purr like a kitten new is a must. Rebuilds are not new, they’re rebuilds.

That indeed may be true but for me it just wasn’t affordable. I ended up rebuilding the carb but now it just sits on a shelf. The vehicle that it was intended to be used on was ‘beyond economical repair’ and I had to abandon the whole project… 🙁

[AutoliteParticipant]

Anonymous wrote:

One of my most frustrating times was with an 08 Ford F-150. The taillight went out at a car wash when my daughter was 4yrs old. We were inside the wash and the trutk wouldn’t go into reverse. Finally I had to call a tow truck and he said it happens all the time. If a taillight goes out its a safety feature and the truck shouldnt be driven. Real safe that I’m stuck in town with my kid. Screw you ford. Just FYI their mustang transmissions are made in China. The prices have skyrocketed and the cost to build plummets. No thanks.

I’m a Ford guy but my product loyalty doesn’t extend past anything built since ’86. So “no comment” from me on your ’08… 😀

[PuniShredderParticipant 2268]

I disagree wholeheartely. The most trouble free vehicles I have ever had have been AMERICAN MADE TRUCKS. I’ve had VW…NIGHTMARE!! My wife has a Toyota that I have put $3K into recently. All cars are similar in quality nowadays do to advances in manufacturing and engineering.

I do agree that newer vehicles are NOT easy to work on yourself however.

Be professional be polite but always have a plan to kill everyone you meet.

[AutoliteParticipant]

Anonymous wrote:

Just FYI their mustang transmissions are made in China. The prices have skyrocketed and the cost to build plummets. No thanks.

I remember reading that so many parts for the last of the Ford Crown Vics were built in Mexico that technically the cars should have been classed as ‘imports’… 😀

[sidecarParticipant 35868]

Autolite wrote:

No. I have had a tiny fleet of old cars for many years and plenty of spare parts.

I’ve been looking to get a new company van for things that aren’t big enough to need the cube truck (which is a pain in the ass to drive in the city). I figured something like one of the old boxy Subaru Forresters or some other mid-size SUV would have enough cargo space while still being small enough and fuel efficient enough for in-city driving.

I thought I could get a decent slightly used Forrester for about $5k to $10k off the new sticker price. I was wrong. Instead I was finding five year old 2012 cars going for $20k. The base MSRP on a 2017 is only $22,500, and I don’t even like the new models. Some of the used Forresters were going for thousands more than that. And this is not just for the Forresters. Used cars across the board are going for ridiculously high prices these days. The only exceptions are electric vehicles and hybrids. Those depreciate alarmingly. One dealership had a fleet of barely used Leafs, all with under 10k miles, going for under $4k each. Original base sticker on those: about $35k. The f~~~? Evin with pristine batteries they only go about a hundred miles per charge. You could not pay me to own one.

[AutoliteParticipant]

sidecar wrote:

Used cars across the board are going for ridiculously high prices these days.

Many years ago I used to bid on and ended up purchasing a few ex-federal government vehicles. You could actually get a fairly decent and well maintained car for under a grand but that was over twenty five years ago.

Today, I still track the government vehicle sales on-line but I don’t even bother placing bids anymore. The prices have sky-rocketed astronomically just during the past few years.

It scares me to even try to imagine what the dealerships are asking now for used vehicles…

[sidecarParticipant 35868]

Autolite wrote:

You could actually get a fairly decent and well maintained car for under a grand but that was over twenty five years ago.

Yeah, those auctions used to be a good deal, but they are now all dominated by high volume brokers who all bid to within a thousand or so of blue book because they’re just going to flip them and take a few thousand in profit off each. And if they aren’t bidding on a particular car, avoid it as well, because it’s probably a lemon. They probably know something about that particular car that you don’t.

Autolite wrote:

The prices have sky-rocketed astronomically just during the past few years.

Meanwhile the local dealerships have acres of unsellable 2017s that all look alike.

[ABParticipant 762]

Made me think of this 00:50

That’s like Cadillac making a car that last’s for 50 years; and you know they can do it. But they ain’t gonna do nothing that f~~~ing dumb. S~~~, they got metal on the space shuttle that can go around the moon and withstand temperatures of up to 20,000 degrees. You mean to tell me you don’t think they can make an El Dorado where the f~~~ing bumper don’t fall off? They can. but they won’t.

I’m not a petrolhead so I’m not in the best position to discuss cars, however it’s comparable to most modern technology. Think cell phones. They have a shelf life of around 2 years. Then they break and need to be replaced. The Nokia 3310 was built to withstand an extinction level event; now they can’t make an iPhone that lasts a year without needing to be repaired. It’s a sign of the times; easy exploitation – get you reliant on something, then make it inferior in design so that you have to replace it over and over and over.

No-one's yet explained to me exactly what's so great // About slaving fifty years away on something that you hate // About meekly shuffling down the path of mediocrity // Well if that's your road then take it, but it's not the road for me.

[Anonymous 42]

Anonymous wrote:

Finally I had to call a tow truck and he said it happens all the time. If a taillight goes out its a safety feature and the truck shouldnt be driven.

So if a tail light goes out in a blizzard it’s safer to freeze to death? Why couldn’t they just have the flashers automatically come on instead of killing the ignition? Ford’s idea of safety is to see how many people they can burn or freeze to death!

FORD:

Found
On
Road
Dead

Fix
Or
Repair
Daily

[Anonymous 0]

Anonymous wrote:

Rotor79 wrote:

Finally I had to call a tow truck and he said it happens all the time. If a taillight goes out its a safety feature and the truck shouldnt be driven.

So if a tail light goes out in a blizzard it’s safer to freeze to death? Why couldn’t they just have the flashers automatically come on instead of killing the ignition? Ford’s idea of safety is to see how many people they can burn or freeze to death!

FORD:

Found
On
Road
Dead

Fix
Or
Repair
Daily

FORD= F~~~ed Over Rebuilt Dodge
DODGE= Dear Old Dad’s Garage Experiment
You can see why Fords are such junkers, haha! Joking, I have had my share of Fords and what ever cross breeds they are in, like Mazda. I am not a die hard fan of any of the big three’ newer things, but my old Chevrolets have always been good to me. At heart I am all about the Oldsmobile.

[AutoliteParticipant]

Anonymous wrote:

FORD= F~~~ed Over Rebuilt Dodge

Ford Trivia: The very first cars sold by Henry Ford weren’t actually Fords but were in fact assembled and built with Dodge parts. Look it up! 😀

I’ve driven Fords all my life and I’ve found that the vehicle quality and engineering was widely inconsistent. Engines like the 390 V8, 302 V8, 351 Windsor, and the 200 in-line 6 cylinder where far from being power houses but they were bullet proof. You just couldn’t kill them.

However engines like the 3.8 V6, the 400 V8 and the 351M V8 were absolute f~~~ing boat anchors. It’s like when they have a really good, reliable design, future engineers come along and see badly they can f~~~ it all up. It was the same story with the old Ford C4 and C5 automatic transmissions. The C5 was the old C4 re-engineered to become a POS…

[AutoliteParticipant]

Anonymous wrote:

So if a tail light goes out in a blizzard it’s safer to freeze to death? Why couldn’t they just have the flashers automatically come on instead of killing the ignition? Ford’s idea of safety is to see how many people they can burn or freeze to death!

Something doesn’t make sense here. I might try and research this issue. There might be a design flaw somewhere but I find it very difficult to believe that it is deliberate…

[AutoliteParticipant]

AB wrote:

I’m not a petrolhead so I’m not in the best position to discuss cars, however it’s comparable to most modern technology. Think cell phones. They have a shelf life of around 2 years.

With computers I find that once they figure out how to make them work the goal then becomes just making them cheaper and more disposal. I have a very old (over 15 years) HP Compaq Presario 900 laptop that’s still in running condition. It’s actually outlived later models. It’s just too bad that the hardware is so outdated that it will not run the newest software or applications… 🙁

[Author]

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