Little things can become big things....

In the same vein as the last post, I can't stress enough how important it is to fix little things before they become big problems. Here's a good example. I touched on it before, but it's worth re-visiting. Back in the '90's when I had a custom restoration shop I had a good customer base. They brought me big projects; however most of them got their oil changed at Jiffy Lube, or their tires rotated at Big O. Sometimes these repair places would try to sell my customers huge repairs, and often they'd come to me for a 2nd opinion. One was a guy with a '77 Trans Am. It had a 400 Pontiac backed by a TH350, the standard powertrain that year. ( A 4-speed was a no-cost option ). One of the big tire chains told him he needed a new transmission. I drove the car, and it did shift erratically and very hard when it did. Upon inspection I changed the fluid and the filter. I also discovered that the rubber line to the vacuum modulator was severely cracked and spewing fluid. I replaced the modulator and the rubber line. Now the car shifted smoothly at part-throttle, and under full-throttle would lay 8-10 feet of rubber on the 1-2 shift. I charged him for the fluid change and the modulator and the labor to change that. He was escatic. Instead spending over $1,000 for a rebuilt TH350, which he was almost sure he was going to have to spend, he got off for less than $200. The symptoms certainly indicated that the tranny might be toast-but it turned out to be the modulator-a minor repair. The other case was guy with a 396 Impala. Another shop told him he needed a new engine. I drove the car, and for a big-block Chevy it was definitely a "dog". It couldn't even spin the tires on dry pavement and just fell flat on it's face under acceleration. I did a compression test and all 8 cylinders were within 5 to 10 psi of each other. Upon further inspection I found multiple problems. None insurmountable-the car was just suffering from terminal neglect. The automatic transmission kickdown wasn't hooked up, the carb was way too rich, the timing was way too slow,the plug wires were bad, and the vacuum advance was unplugged, and the points were closing up. I fixed these minor problems-i.e. installed new, properly gapped points and wires, plugged in the vacuum advance, leaned out the carb, set the timing to spec, and hooked up the kickdown. Now the car would smoke the tires all the way across an intersection, get rubber into 2nd, and pull like a Rat Motor should. The owner was so happy that he tipped me $100 over the bill I charged him. He was ready to spend a couple grand or more on a new engine, and got a new lease on life for a couple hundred instead. The moral of the story is fix the little things before they become big things. The guy with the T/A-his bad modulator would have eventually caused the trans to lose enough fluid that it would burn up, and need to be replaced. The guy in the Impala could have limped along long enough that his over-rich carb and slow timing could have washed oil off the rings or caused it to spin a bearing or the cam to go flat. I had a guy with a '74 Nova SS bring his car to me one time. It was a cute Nova hatchback and it had a 350 with a 4-speed. It too, was a "dog" that fell flat on it's face under acceleration, and it sounded like a garbage disposal. It had headers on it and dual exhausts and an Edelbrock Performer intake with a 625 cfm Carter AFB carb. It should have been a screamer. Upon opening the hood I saw the problems. It had massive exhaust leaks. The header gaskets were totally blown out, and whoever had installed the intake manifold hadn't blocked off the EGR!! With massive vacuum leaks like that, I was amazed that it ran at all. I replaced the header gaskets. Edelbrock manifolds usually come with EGR plugs. I had some laying around because I installed so many in my shop. After sealing the leaks and adjusting the carb and timing a little, I went for a drive. Now it would rocket off the line, spinning the tires most of low gear. Powershift, get the satsifying rubber-in-second screech, and keep going. Now it pulled hard to 5,500 rpm, and would spin the tires with ease in low gear. The car's owner was doing handsprings. He couldn't believe the fix was that simple. I had another guy that had a '72 El Camino with a very expensive 383 crate motor that didn't run much better than the tired 307 with a 2bbl that it replaced!! There was nothing wrong with the engine. It sounded badass, and felt like it had a ton of torque. But the car wouldn't run very fast, and the gas pedal felt really, really stiff. I discovered that the throttle bracket was bent and the cable was sticking. So bad that it wouldn't allow the secondaries on the carb to open at all. It was restricted to maybe half-throttle. I got a new bracket and cable and adjusted it so the throttle linkage would open fully. The test drive after was mind-blowing. Now the Elky would literally spin the tires as long as you wanted to stay on the throttle. When it had traction, it was a rocket. I told the owner he'd have to play with launch technique to get the best start, but the car now had more than enough power!  Yet one simple thing was killing it's performance. So don't let something minor cause you a major problem. Mastermind