The Tragic Tale of ElSuperPinto

[MustangIIMatt]

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...0001&campid=5335821607&icep_item=222041986351

Yay! More crap on the way to sit around and collect dust while I do nothing with the car!

Dad said someone rang the doorbell and asked if it was for sale and he told them "no"... I oughtta kick his ass.

 

[IIGood]

He ain't sellin'. He's bluffing. How long has he been hemming and hawing about a new daily to replace that F-150? How many times has he said of a spare parts II, "If only I had the money and a place to park it"? HOW MANY TIMES HAS HE THREATENED TO SELL THE II?

I'm telling ya, he ain't selling.

 

[MustangIIMatt]

Well, the financing with the bank is worked out, and the new daily beater is picked out. If all goes well tomorrow, I'll no longer have a 2014 F150 for a daily beater, I'll have a 2008 Toyota 4Runner with lower payments, the same gas mileage, only 30,000 more miles, 4WD instead of 2WD, and for the love of God almighty, a 4.7L V8 engine instead of that damned 6 cylinder I've been putting up with for 3 years.

The Toyota needs a new left front hub assembly, and could use a ball joint and pair of sway bar end links, and needs a little cosmetic work (rear bumper cover is gonna need some time with a heat gun, some filler, and some paint), but she's loaded, tows more than the F150, is MUCH nicer to drive, and the price is out-freaking-standing.

 

[MustangIIMatt]

New beater/hauler. $8900 worth of V8 4WD Toyoder.

 

[LILCBRA]

Doesn't look like a bad driver! Congrats!!

 

[MustangIIMatt]

Doesn't look like a bad driver! Congrats!!

Thanks. Doing new hub assembly this weekend (had it almost all the way back together and one of the four bolts decided to crossthread... can't find a 12x1.25 tap anywhere in this damned town, mine is locked up in my toolbox 50 miles away, so I'm heading down there (on one of my extended days off for ASE testing, no less) to pick it up. Discovered a previous wrencher didn't install the brake hardware on the left front correctly, so I'm replacing that (how on earth do you screw up two pins and a spring on a fixed caliper?), new timing belt kit (with water pump), RF ball joint, and spark plugs are here (next weekend's project), then it's a fresh set of Bridgestones away from being the new daily beater. I'll have less than $1500 and two weekends tied up in getting it ready, so that'll be a $10,500 beater that would've retailed for $20,000 at my dealership (I love our employee discount plan on wholesale cars!)

They only kicked it to wholesale because it's been in a collision and had the RF innner apron repaired before. At any other dealership I've ever worked at, that would've been no big deal and the truck would've retailed, at the dealership I work for, prior structural repairs, no matter how insignificant, disqualify it from being a retail unit.

 

[MustangIIMatt]

Finished the new hub assembly install, got new tires on it (went with Firestones instead of Bridgestones, same company, different tire), and I've been driving it back and forth to work for two weeks (Still need to do the timing belt, brought tools home for it this weekend). It's a damned good beater truck. Leather, sunroof, amazing heat, and I love that silky smooth Toyota V8. I'll probably always have a Mustang or two around, but I don't know if I'll ever go back to a domestic truck. I'm digging the better fuel economy from a V8 truck with a 5 speed automatic an full time four wheel drive (no joke, it's been the same or better than the average from my 2wd V6, 6spd auto F150 every tank so far!), how solid it feels at 93,000 miles vs how solid my F150 was starting NOT to feel at 61,000 (I bought it new). We'll see. Maybe when the "honeymoon" is over, I'll hate the thing... or I'll love it so much that it becomes a second project like my last "beater" truck (my '99 GMC).

(Pic with the new tires!)

I honestly think the 4Runner and II compliment each other the way the Sierra and II did. I got an awful lot more done on the II back when I had the Sierra as a daily, so hopefully that holds true this time too. Having something more fun as a daily always seems to motivate me more on projects.

 

[LILCBRA]

Glad to hear you're happy with your purchase! My buddy has been looking at some newer versions for the past few weeks. I'm sure if he pulls the trigger he'd be happy too! Congrats on the "upgrade!"

 

[MustangIIMatt]

Timing belt time on the 'yota.

Not a difficult job, just time-consuming.

To be honest, my workload at work lately has been less than stimulating, not a whole lot of fixing anything, just inspections, diag, and maintenance, felt really good to actually tear into something. The II had better watch out. I might be attacking it with tools next.

 

[MustangIIMatt]

It's raining again...

Went into work for 1/3 of a day on my day off yesterday to finish up a Cadillac I didn't get finished Friday morning. Came home to find out I'd been drafted for furniture delivery (Side note, the 4Runner is a pretty respectable tow vehicle). So I think "Sunday's my day... we'll do something on the II, maybe that new radio" (More info here: https://www.stangnet.com/mustang-forums/threads/anyone-else-buy-stuff-you-dont-need.900461/page-7 )

Nope. It's raining.

 

[MustangIIMatt]

Yup... II still sits. That's my dad's Hyundai Accent. Doing the right front wheel bearing.

After a week where I broke two impact wrenches and a socket at work, I came home to do the wheel bearing on the Accent, and broke my press.

I improvised when it came time to reassemble.

The old bearing, a coil spring compressor, and the bracket for an old grille guard for a truck I don't have anymore. Don't laugh, it worked.

 

[MustangIIMatt]

So, an update on where we actually are with the II:

Thanks to @RaggedGT I have a new (to me) Custom Autosounds Mustang radio for it. This has been added to the ever-growing collection of parts that never seem to actually get installed.

The new fuel tank, used fuel filler neck, new grommet, and new fuel sending unit are all ready to install, but waiting on the right combination of energy left after working four nights with an hour commute on either end, weather (for instance, it's raining and in the 30s today, that, nothing's happening to a project car sitting in the driveway in that weather), and other crap that's more important not coming up. Right now, the "more important crap" includes needing to do the tune-up and other 90K maintenance on the Toyota I've been putting off for the last several weeks, installing the new Monster transmission in my dad's Suburban (his original 4L60E suffered catastrophic failure on the highway while towing a trailer a couple weeks ago), and installing new rear shocks on my mom's Taurus (I'm starting to REALLY hate that car).

I've found a glass guy down in Austin that specializes in classic car windshields to do the front an rear windshields correctly in my car (they were kind of installed badly by whoever the previous owner used) so that I won't have windshield adhesive actively oozing anymore. This is back-burnered pending the fuel tank installation.

The water pump is still leaking, haven't taken the 2 hours or so to R&R that damned thing again.

It hasn't been driven in two months, but I did start it two weeks ago, still runs great, still runs way too rich off idle because the MSD Atomic sucks balls, but hey, I should've known better than to buy a fuel system from "Mostly Starts Dammit Ignition Systems".

 

[MustangIIMatt]

I don’t like that you locked El SuperPinto’s thread,means yourvthreat to sell is real-and you maybe already have a potential buyer
I do like being able to ignore your lock and post anyway

Haven't had time to sell the damned thing, been busy dealing with this:

Spent all day Saturday on my back under my dad's Suburban wrestling out the "original" 4L60E that took a on him while pulling a trailer back on January 26th. I say "original" because we discovered during the removal process that we weren't the first ones in there (sloppy/lazy GM techs leave all sorts of clues, like a missing bellhousing bolt, and none of the electrical connector retainers put back through), and that the transmission and torque converter we took out were built 14 months after the truck itself (meaning it had a failure under warranty with it's original owner). Doesn't really matter, my dad bought the thing back in the mid 2000s and has put at least 120k miles of the 166k miles the truck has on it, so he got his money's worth from the original trans (for a piece of 4L60E anyway). All sorts of glitter in the fluid from the old one, and debris in the torque converter. The new Monster trans and Thor converter were filled and fired last night, we'll be going on a test drive with the 4Runner as the chase vehice at sunrise.

Speaking of the 4Runner, it's a freaking beast. Hooked the tow strap from it's hitch to the Suburban's frame to pull it up onto ramps. I put the 4Runner in 4-Low and took the slack out of the strap, and waited for my dad to tell me when to pull it. My dad gave me the signal to go, but forgot to take the Suburban out of park, I drug the Suburban up and onto the ramps with the rear wheels locked up like it was nothing. I love that little 'yota. It's cargo area also made a bitchin' work station for the transmission job on the Chevy.

What happens to the II isn't set in stone yet. I've got a standing offer from a friend that wants the thing, and knowing him, he'll actually drive the hell out of it (he drives his antique Ford pickup, classic BMW, and his new BMW regularly), so I may call him sometime this week and see how serious he is and how much money he's talking.

 

[MustangIIMatt]

Another weekend of zero progress on the II.

It rained Saturday, so I did the subwoofer replacement in the 'yota. Sounds awesome, but I forgot to take pics.

I mentioned the Monster install in pop's Suburban in my last post. It's going back to them after 110 miles of use.

Long story short, Monster, and their warranty is bull.

Just spent the afternoon yanking their turd back out.

 

[MustangIIMatt]

Another weekend of zero progress on the II.

It rained Saturday, so I did the subwoofer replacement in the 'yota. Sounds awesome, but I forgot to take pics.

I mentioned the Monster install in pop's Suburban in my last post. It's going back to them after 110 miles of use.

Long story short, **** Monster, and their warranty is bull.

Just spent the afternoon yanking their turd back out.

Okay, full details on the Suburban's transmission:

We installed the thing on March 12, as I posted before. Did everything by the book, hell, I even torqued the bellhousing bolts to spec. Flushed the cooler and lines, upgraded to the Derale cooler in place of the factory auxilliary cooler as recommended by Monster Transmission, fresh case of Dexron VI fluid, whole nine yards.

We test drove it on March 13 a total of 15 miles or so with me following in the 4Runner. No smoke, leaks, drips, slippage, or any other issues. Checked the fluid at three different stops along the way and let it sit and idle for awhile before checking it one last time, fluid level was perfect.

My dad went to go to a meeting in Waco with it, and didn't make it the 45 miles to the meeting before the "trans fluid hot" warning showed up on his dash. He let it cool off in a parking lot for awhile, then gently drove it back home. The "trans fluid hot" message didn't return, but the check engine light came on. I brought my scanner home from work the next morning and pulled a P1870 (transmission slippage) code.

We called Monster, and they wouldn't even talk warranty because they hadn't received our core yet. We wait for a week for the core to get there, down a vehicle yet again, and then they finally contact us back. Their "3-year handshake WOWanty" is as follows:

Monster Transmission and Performance will pay $50 hr labor and will supply the necessary parts needed for the repair at no cost to you or the client if needed.


If you have access to the parts needed, Monster Transmission & Performance may, at our option, permit you to use comparable parts from your inventory. Please submit the part, as well as the price of the part(s) for review/approval.

Please send an estimate via email for repair prior to performing any work to the unit. As previously stated, we do not pay the following:

• Diagnostics
• Hazardous Waste removal
• Removal & Installation
• Shop fees
• Storage

If I'd read that particular bit of fine print before ordering, I would've ordered from somewhere else, but they make sure that's buried hell-and-gone on their website, and not anywhere near where you're looking at their transmissions.

We take it to a transmission shop I've done business with before, pay out-of-pocket for diag, and their diag is that the transmission is fried due to improper assembly, that it's slipping in 2nd and 4th and isn't locking up the converter. Their only recommendation is replacement or rebuild.

So we call Monster, and they want US to pay round-trip freight on a defective unit THEY shipped us. My dad gets them to agree to pay half (if I'd been on the phone instead that wouldn't have happened, they would've been paying all), so I spent yesterday afternoon yanking their junk rebuild out of the Suburban.

 

[RaggedGT]

That sucks buddy. I’d always heard good things about Monster Transmission. Any chance of a refund/core return and just dealing with a local builder?

 

[MustangIIMatt]

That sucks buddy. I’d always heard good things about Monster Transmission. Any chance of a refund/core return and just dealing with a local builder?

If their 2nd trans is as bad as the first, I'm going to be pushing for that outcome, even if I have to get a lawyer involved.

 

[Noobz347]

I'd have been very tempted to drive through their front store window and leave it sitting on the receptionists's desk.

 

[MustangIIMatt]

I'd have been very tempted to drive through their front store window and leave it sitting on the receptionists's desk.

They're in Florida, I'm in Texas. Not driving that far.

Put the battery charger on the II today. It's going to be 99 degrees here tomorrow, so I don't know how much is actually going to get done (the II isn't in shade), but maybe...

 

[MustangIIMatt]

Monster's new trans is in the Suburban. Shifted fine the 20 miles or so we drove it yesterday. I'll probably drive it the 105 miles round-trip to and from work tonight to see if it's actually worth a damn or not.