[AT] Yellow Farmall now cold starting

Mon Jan 3 17:25:00 PST 2011

I knew of several people that owned Chevettes, and they all drove em a LONG time.  Our high school band director had one.  I wasn't in band, but one day some of my hoodlum friends decided it would be funny to pick up his Chevette and turn it sideways in its parking space!

When I was in the 9th grade, I had a biology teacher, fresh out of college, and all us boys were in lust of her. I will never forget one day one of us nuckleheads asked her what kind of car she had.  Without missing a beat she said "when I was in college, I had a 'Vette."  Of course our ears perked up.  Then she finished "....A CHE-Vette!!

Al

-----Original Message-----
>From: charlie hill <charliehill at embarqmail.com>
>Sent: Jan 3, 2011 4:18 PM
>To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>Subject: Re: [AT] Yellow Farmall now cold starting
>
>Hmmm,  I guess I really did get the best one ever built!  Mine was 
>completely trouble free.  I've got one more story about it when the water 
>pump went out.  I had driven it to Buffalo NY from NC to pick up a friend. 
>I laid down and slept 4 hours and drove back home.  Just before daylight, on 
>the eastern Shore somewhere in Southern Delaware or MD I got sleepy.  The 
>other occupants of the car, my friend and two small children were asleep.  I 
>stopped in the middle of the road.  It was just coming daylight and there 
>was not another soul moving in that small town on Sunday morning.  I heard 
>something rattling in the motor.  I cut it off, reached down and grabbed the 
>radiator fan and I could wiggle it half an inch or more.  I knew immediately 
>that the bearings in the water pump were shot.  I checked the water and it 
>was still full.  There was no sign of a leak.  I got back in and started 
>limping along for about 40 miles or so then stopped and checked it again. 
>It was still full of water and the play was no worse or better.
>I kept going.  Of course those of you familiar with that area know that I 
>had to go over the Chesapeake Bay Br idge/Tunnel that is 13 (I think) miles 
>long.  When I got out the other end I was in Virginia Beach and it was early 
>morning.   We stopped at a McDonalds for breakfast and coffee.  I figured 
>I'd have to find someone there to fix it.  I checked it again,  still no 
>worse, still full of water.   I decided to keep going because I knew if I 
>could get over into NC that I knew folks along the way.  Well to make a long 
>story a little shorter I drove that thing all the way home,  more than 200 
>miles after I found the problem.  It was still full of water when I got home 
>and the car never overheated.  The next morning I dropped it off at a 
>radiator shop near where I worked.   I told the guy how lucky I was to get 
>it home.  When I went back to pick it up that afternoon the guy said "you 
>don't know HOW lucky you were".  I asked what he meant.  He said that when 
>he removed the water pump it fell apart in his hands!
>
>I guess the good Lord was looking out for me.
>
>Charlie
>
>-----Original Message----- 
>From: Guy Fay
>Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 3:26 PM
>To: 'Antique tractor email discussion group'
>Subject: Re: [AT] Yellow Farmall now cold starting
>
>The parents bought a '79 new. We were in a shopping mall and had just run
>into my grandparents when the call over the intercom came in to report to
>the mall office. The '79 had a dash fire. The insurance company later told
>us the car was basically an incendiary device.
>
>In the largest things hauled department, there were some nutty locals back
>in the early 80s who decided to go cattle rustling in a Chevette. They were
>somehow managing to stuff live 1,000 pound steers into the hatchback. The
>police department kept the method quiet to prevent imitators. I imagine it
>involved sedatives somehow.
>
>The parents brought a St. Benard home from a humane society some distance
>away. He went nuts at the sight of cattle. You can imagine how long that
>ride was in America's Dairyland.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
>[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of charlie hill
>Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 10:20 AM
>To: Antique tractor email discussion group
>Subject: Re: [AT] Yellow Farmall now cold starting
>
>Guy, by contrast, my mom liked my 80 so much that she bought an 81.  It was
>a piece of crap.  They made some changes.  I don't remember exactly but
>something that was mechanical on mine became electric on hers.  She had
>nothing but trouble with it even with it being serviced by the dealer.  One
>day she was driving it down the road and it caught fire.  She pulled over
>and it burned up on the side of the road.  Caught somewhere under the dash.
>Good riddance!
>
>The biggest thing I ever hauled in mine was not the heaviest.  It was the
>main sail boom for a J-30 sail boat.  I put the back seat down, put one end
>of the boom on the front seat against the dash.  It ran between the seats
>and out the rear with several feet hanging out with a flag on it.  Back in
>those days I crewed on that J-30 in a couple of different racing series.  I
>often wound up at some marina with no where to sleep for the night.  The
>back of the Chevette, with the rear seat folded down, the side windows swung
>
>open and the rear hatch tied part of the way down made a fine bunk!  Of
>course I was about 30 then.
>
>Charlie
>
>-----Original Message----- 
>From: Guy Fay
>Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 10:05 AM
>To: 'Antique tractor email discussion group'
>Subject: Re: [AT] Yellow Farmall now cold starting
>
>'80 Chevette was a great car- easier to work on than a '79, there were some
>major changes. I got 187,000 out of one before the back axle fell off going
>down the road. (It only partially fell off- all of a sudden the car refused
>to go in a straight line, rear suspension point in the spare tire
>compartment rusted out, common problem).
>
>I was running an errand for the parents one time in the hills of
>southwestern Wisconsin bring Arkansas tomatoes back to our sweet corn stand
>before the homegrowns had kicked in. Between me, my sister, and the
>tomatoes, we had a thousand pounds in the car. Or maybe it was a thousand
>pounds of tomatoes, plus me and my sister. The two door with the rear seat
>folded down was good for about 80 dozen of sweet corn on a regular basis,
>never did get 90 dozen in.
>
>Worst thing about them was if the progressive carburetor got screwed up.
>Nearly impossible to fix.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
>[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of charlie hill
>Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 7:36 AM
>To: Antique tractor email discussion group
>Subject: Re: [AT] Yellow Farmall now cold starting
>
>That should have read '80 Chevette.
>
>-----Original Message----- 
>From: charlie hill
>Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 8:10 AM
>To: Antique tractor email discussion group
>Subject: Re: [AT] Yellow Farmall now cold starting
>
>Rob I had an 8- Chevette.  It was the standard gasoline version, 2 door and
>stripped down.  I bought it to commute to a construction project.  People
>laugh at them but that was one tough little car.  I hauled 3 other guys with
>me every day.  All but one of us over 200 lbs and a lot of times we had
>heavy tool boxes in the back.  It wasn't unusual for someone to be late
>coming out of the house and I'd have to hustle because if you didn't get
>through the "brass" gate by 7 am you had to go back home and miss a day of
>work.  It would cruise along at 80 mph or better with all that load and
>never complained.
>I kind of wish I still had it.   I got in a wreck with it once.   A garbage
>truck turned left into a side road as I was passing him.  I locked up the
>brakes and hit him in the rear tire of the truck hard enough that the
>Chevette jumped up off the ground and turned about 180 degrees before it
>slammed back down.  I got out and looked.  The front bumper was pushed over
>to the side about an inch but there wasn't a scratch on it.  The garbage
>truck wasn't hurt either, not even a flat tire.  We called it even and went
>on about our business.  Later on I raised the hood and the battery was
>outside of the battery box and hanging by the cables between the box and the
>engine.  Any of you familiar with Chevettes know that there is about an inch
>of space between the sides of the battery box and the hood.  Yet the hood
>wasn't bent and the battery box wasn't broken.  I guess the whole car flexed
>enough for it to come out but I've never exactly figured out how.  A few
>weeks later I got to noticing that the gap between the drivers door and the
>B pillar was less than 1/8", almost touching in some places while the gap on
>the passenger side was greater than 3/8".  It wasn't always that way so I'm
>assuming the wreck "torqued" the whole body yet there were no wrinkles in
>the sheet metal and everything continued to work just fine.  The only repair
>I ever made to it was replacing the water pump at about 100,000 miles and
>one other minor engine repair but I can't remember now exactly what it was
>other than it was hard to get to and I found a guy that knew the "trick"
>making it an easy job for him.   I traded it on an '85 Chevy pickup.  It had
>145,000 miles on it and was still running like a top.
>
>Charlie
>
>-----Original Message----- 
>From: Rob Wilson
>Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 12:14 AM
>To: 'Antique tractor email discussion group'
>Subject: Re: [AT] Yellow Farmall now cold starting
>
>In 1984 I bought a new diesel Chevette and paid $4500 out the door for it.
>Before you laugh it was one of the best running little cars I've ever owned.
>It only failed my twice in the 160,000 miles I drove it. Once while it was
>sitting at work for week while traveling and it was -12 when I got there. I
>jumped it and it took right off. My fault it had and old battery in it. The
>other was when we had record cold here in Ohio, it hit -35 and the little
>car sat out with a block heater. I went out and hopped in it and the shocks
>didn't move. I cranked it up and she fired up. It rattled but it was
>running. I went back in a told my wife I was off to work and headed out. I
>made it into town and onto the freeway when the fuel started gelling. It
>made it off the freeway and that was it until it got above zero a day later.
>Around here the only thing with a block heater standard is a diesel and no
>one ever orders a gas vehicle with one.
>Rob
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
>[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Ralph Goff
>Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2011 8:54 PM
>To: Antique tractor email discussion group
>Subject: Re: [AT] Yellow Farmall now cold starting
>
>On 1/2/2011 7:05 PM, Frank wrote:
>> That's funny....every car in Montana has one...........or a soft plug
>> heater....
>>
>> I even have one on my Deere 60
>>
>> Frank
>>
>>
>> Back in the late 80's I owned a diesel VW Rabbit. Our home in Harford
>> County, MD did not have a garage so the car was always parked in the
>> elements.  During really cold times, starting was difficult. The regional
>> rep for VW lived several houses away from us and suggested that we get a
>> circulating tank heater.
>Even more so up here in Canada. A vehicle or machine without a block
>heater is generally not going to be used in winter time. I don't have
>one on my swather or combine but really don't ever want to have to run a
>combine in sub-zero temperatures anyway.
>Most of the newer fuel injected gas engines start very well in extremely
>cold weather but I think they are better off to have a few hours
>pre-heating with the block heater.
>
>Ralph in Sask.
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