88 Stock SR5 - Berkeley CA

[Petros]

Have you been in contact with Ned Whiting (list member fawmaine)? he expressed an interest, and I would consider driving it to Maine for him if he pays the driving expenses, after I give it a good mechanical once over for the road. this would get the car to him, repaired and for almost half the cost of shipping it, and my wife and I can enjoy a cross country road trip in the deal (neither of us have been to Maine).

I know I can get it there, we just have the work out the details.

[hberdan]

I would consider driving it to Maine for him if he pays the driving expenses, my wife and I can enjoy a cross country road trip in the deal (neither of us have been to Maine).
I know I can get it there, we just have the work out the details.

ROAD TRIP!!!
LOBSTAS!!
LL BEAN!
MAINE!

[dlb]

how does ll bean figure into that equation?? is it some movie quote that i'm not down with?

[BerkeleySR5]

Good, not so good and ugly of the car. (The following list may not be complete.)

The Good: Never was in any collision. The paint is all original. The clutch was replaced about 3 years ago. The brakes are good. All doors fit and operate relatively smoothly. Windows roll down but both front mechanisms are worn. The car has 141K miles. The tires are new. (sigh)

The not so good: left inner tie rod is loose. Needs replacement very soon. Distributor O-ring leaks oil. Valve cover gasket leaks oil. Radiator is dubious-shows "stretch marks." Transmission output shaft bearing is noisy. Interior dome light fixture is broken. And the original radio is on its way to dying. (The internal light is burned out and the memory for pre-sets is shot and will no longer remember the selected stations overnight.)

The ugly: The carburator leaking internally and at the throttle shaft. Cylinder 2 has weak compression due to worn rings. Cylinder 3 has virtually no compression - probably due to bad valve. The emission control computer occasionally fails. (I have a spare.)

Nothing was done between smog test 1 when it failed as a "gross polluter" and test 2. Test 2 was performed by a "Gold Shield" test station. This is one of the few test stations authorized to make smog repairs. I don't know what they did to tweak the car to make it improve a bit. But even with the possibility of a state subsidy to make repairs, they recommended against it on the ground that it wouldn't be economical.

I'm not sure what the issue with the thermostatic air cleaner was. This smog stuff is beyond me. But I'm sure that it wasn't a missing hose. My own mechanic would have found that before the car went for the first smog test. (In our area, all cars have to be tested at independent test only stations. Our own mechanics can not do the testing. And only the "gold shield" test stations can do emission systems repairs if a car fails as a gross polluter which ours did at the first test.)

We can get $1000 from the state fund to retire this car. So, we're looking for at least this amount to sell it.

[Petros]

None of those repairs are a problem for me, and the condition of the rest of the car would make that price well worth it. It probably would be a questionable buy if you had to pay a repair shop for all that work to be done, I can get all of that fixed in a Saturday, except perhaps the worn rings (which I do not think is critical for reliable driving). But likely if the number 3 exhaust valve is bad, the number 2 (and all of the others) are not far behind, and a good possibility for low compression in the number two as well. Pulling the head and rebuilding the head is a major repair, but not too bad for me to do in my well equipped home shop in an afternoon.

I have a question about the trans output bearing: do you think it could be the drive shaft carrier bearing rather than the trans out put bearing? I have never seen (or hear of) the out put bearing fail, but I have seen the drive shaft carrier bearing fail a number of times. It would likely sound similar. Either is very fixable (and in fact I have the parts in my home shop already to go).

If Ned is willing, I would be happy to get the car to my place and do all of these repairs, and than plan a cross country trip to deliver it to him in Maine.

I am not really profiting from doing all that work at all, but if he is willing to pay the costs to fix and drive it there, I would be happy to do it. It is not too often I get to take cross country road trips at all (some of the most enjoyable travel I have ever done, including the surprises), and to have someone pay the costs, than I would be happy to do it.

And I would be willing to do it just to keep another one of these great little 4wd cars out of the crusher. It is a shame to crush such a great car for the sake of a just a days worth of repairs. If the car was a total rust bucket, or need a lot of costly bodywork, it would be different. But that is clearly not the case here.

[BerkeleySR5]

I only know what our trusted mechanic tells us about the transmission bearings. As the car has aged, it has become noisier than it was in the past. But the process has been so gradual over now 23 or 24 years that we have a hard time remembering exactly what noise came when. The SR-5 has never been a very quiet car even brand new.

No, we don't have anything resembling a formal offer to buy the car. We have put in an application to the State of California's buy back program to "retire" the car for $1000. An application does not commit us to sell it to the state. Nor does it commit the state to buy the car unless it meets its functionality requirements.