Faults:
Problems? Well, it does have that tendency to catch fire. The carb and fuel intake is all right next to the wiring harness and many electrical parts. Not a stroke of genius on these old Fords, but common problem for many I've heard. Mine caught fire 4 times over my years owning it. I carry a fire extinguisher to drive. If you don't, it always likes to burn parts that are no longer manufactured, and this results in many hours at the junk yard.
It's hard to start. More than the ordinary warm up time for a carbureted vehicle. It likes to stall, especially in the first 10 minutes of driving it. This is probably because I have it timed a little under manufacturer spec, because that's the only way I can get a 1975 boat-car to pass my state's emission requirements that were designed with fuel injectors in mind.
General Comments:
CARRY A FIRE EXTINGUISHER WITH YOU ALL THE TIME.
Other than the carb catching fire and being much too close to electric parts to spark it, it's a very well designed, posh, comfortable, smooth-riding car, after the first 10 minutes of it warming up. If I don't do this on mine, it stalls; like I said above, it may be because I've got it timed a little low to pass emissions.
It was $800 when I bought form original old-man owner. It's army green. I re-did the vinyl top with some green-brown plaid material and some polyurethane that I touch up yearly (like a deck).
The 8-track works!
I've never had to put any major $ in it, the engine & tranny still going strong, actually so are the alternator, battery, coolant system, shocks, struts, and things you expect to go bad.
I did have to do a little exhaust work, change the brakes, spark plugs, and other normal maintenance.
Only problem was that when it started to have undetectable carb issues, this caught it on fire. First time I thought I had found a leak in the fuel line, so just changed that & the filter while I was there. It happened again a month later. I replaced a bunch of hoses that got melted, and replaced some seals in the carb.
A month later, flames again. This time it burnt up a no longer made wiring harness that was a pain to figure out how to reproduce. Rebuilt the whole carb.
It happened again (damage minimised due to fire extinguisher always in floorboard now). Replaced carb with junk yard one that I put a new kit in. Good for a couple months... but my family kept riding me about not driving my Granade (well, what else will everyone call my army green spontaneously combusting Granada) now that I've got kids, so I sold it.
7th Dec 2014, 04:39
These engines have carburetors. Mechanics who can fix them are still out there. Look harder, and you'll find them. The bigger problem with one of these cars is the fact that they were way slow by 1981 standards (66 MPH 1/4 mile), let alone today's standards.