another old memory....

Personal memories from the time when these cars were new (or at least not as old as they are now).
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Dave A
Posts: 160
Joined: Sat May 05, 2007 4:43 pm

another old memory....

Post by Dave A »

I got my first Cortina when I was 14 or 15 before I had a driver's licence or too many clues which wasnt good. The car wasnt new but was about 6 years old and I had it fixed up and was itching to drive it. Me and a buddy decided to head out of town on a Friday night to look for girls in another city. We were about 30 miles from town when the car was seeming loud so I turned the radio up. A few miles later it was getting louder and losing speed. Finally when I had to have it to the floor to maintain speed I decided I should pull over. As soon as I released the clutch the rear wheels locked and I skidded it nicely over to the side of the road and into the driveway of a restaurant. I got out of the car to the newly acquired aroma of burnt gear oil. When I looked underneath I could see parts of the housing glowing red. The fear was on now, not because of the car or getting caught by the cops (that's another story) but about the parents finding out. The next part you wont believe. About 10 minutes later a guy pulls up in a Dodge van, smelled the diff from the driver's seat and tells us that we ran the diff dry and that he had gear oil, tools and a syringe in the back of the van. I slid underneath, managed to get the plug out of that hot diff and added however much oil he had in a small jug. He said he could follow us for a ways up the road before he would have to turn off if we could get it to move. When I got back in it still wouldnt move so i wound her up and popped the clutch and it broke free. :lol: Well talk about a scary sounding diff. We did manage to get it back to the high school automotive shop parking lot. Whew!!! Once there I gave her another snap and finished her off good. Now the driveshaft was turning, grinding and bobbing up and down and the rear wheels weren't moving. By Tuesday we had another diff in her and ready to roll again....never did tell the parents that story. :wink:
Dave A
Posts: 160
Joined: Sat May 05, 2007 4:43 pm

Post by Dave A »

Image
This is a picture of my first car. I had it a long time but I scrapped it in the mid eighties. The first of many Cortinas to follow.
IFHP
Site Admin
Posts: 1634
Joined: Thu May 03, 2007 12:28 am
Location: Olympia, Washington

Post by IFHP »

Dave,

Thanks for the stories and the picture too.
105epaul
Posts: 208
Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2007 8:54 am
Location: London England

Post by 105epaul »

Great story! At least the diffs are easy to change. I had a Mk2 1300 Deluxe as my second car in 1973. My parents made me buy it as they reckoned I was going to kill myself in my first car, a 62 Anglia 105E. looking back they were probably right, that Anglia was pretty rotten underneath and with remould 5.20x13 tyres didn't handle too well. Still it took everything a 17 year old kid could throw at it and came back for me. I had the Cortina for about two years but succumbed to the lure of another Anglia with big wheels, tuned engine etc. But that's a story in itself! I could write a small book with all the stories of my Fords and those of my friends.

Paul
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