Question about Older model Ford vehicles?

[bersaguy]

How many folks here owned a new Ford vehicle between 1971 and 1979?

[daddyo]

I had a 1971 Ford LTD that belonged to my grandmother. She and my grandfather bought it new. It was a good car. Kinda wish I'd kept it.

[UncleJak]

78 mustang, I was the second owner though Sent barefoot from the hills of Tennessee

[vontar]

wasn't new, but I had a second hand, second hand, rebuilt Ford Mercury Capri and it was parts from a 79 and 80 put put together.

[hipower]

73 Grand Torino Wagon. Yes. A station wagon. I loved it. Rode and drove great. Carry people or stuff. Lumber, paneling, plywood, anything.

It only had one flaw...on a good day, it got about 12mpg. Most of the time it was less, sometimes far less.

But I liked it anyway. My boss at the time was footing the gas bills. I was doing local sales and he wanted me to have something big enough to carry 2-4 people comfortably.

That deal, and the job, didn't last but for a couple of years. So I sold ol' Blue.

[Joe357]

1974 mustang II, bought new, owned for 6 months and that was enough.

[austin7.62]

My grandfather bought a 1973 F100 and a 1979 Bronco new. Both were fun, good lookin', and über reliable.

[bersaguy]

ok , next question? Did any of your vehicles every kick or jump out or park and roll away without any one in it. Reason I am asking is because back then Ford had a design flaw in their transmissions and they knew it just like GM knew about this issue they tried to cover up except Ford got away with their coverup and their vehicles were killing people too.

[Peace]

In the late 70s or early 80s, my grandad's Ford station wagon kicked out of park on the boat ramp. Boat was still attached to the trailer.

 

My grandad told his newly married daughter-in-law to stay in the boat so that he could hand her stuff out of the wagon as it was going down. It started to take the nose of the boat down, so he cut it free (always, always have a sharp knife on your person!), and the wagon and trailer sunk to the bottom of the Tennessee River.

 

Both were later retrieved by a team of divers and a team of tow trucks - it was a hilarious sight as hard hats started floating to the surface when they flipped the car back over. And yes, ... Even the cliche fish draining out of the doors as they pulled the car up out of the water.

 

It was the last Ford anyone in our family ever bought.

Edited May 13, 2014 by Peace

[Sidinman]

Well my first car was a '67 Mustang, lets just say I was hard on things back then. Screwed the tranny up pretty bad so we just swapped it out with wouldn't you know it a '71 C4.

Came out of a Gibson's Department store once and the car was GONE. I thought somebody had stolen it. Mad boy I was Mad.  Well got to lookin around and there it was clear on the far side of the parking lot. Some how it rolled all the way across and never hit a thing.

Edited May 13, 2014 by Sidinman

[austin7.62]

ok , next question? Did any of your vehicles every kick or jump out or park and roll away without any one in it. Reason I am asking is because back then Ford had a design flaw in their transmissions and they knew it just like GM knew about this issue they tried to cover up except Ford got away with their coverup and their vehicles were killing people too.

Yes! My Uncle had a 1979 F100 SWB with a 302 and a C4. It would continually jump out of park. Pappaws F100 was a 3 on the tree, and the Bronco a 4 speed. No issues on those.

[Ray Z]

'70 and '71 station wagons. Neither had the problem you described.

Edited May 13, 2014 by Ray Z

[Guest kingarmory]

I seem to remember that C4's had a weak locking pawl

[daddyo]

Nope.

[vontar]

Never had that issue on any Ford that I have owned so far.  I have also only owned Fords.

[Joe357]

Nope, but as I stated, I only own it for 6 months.

[Schadenfreude]

My dad had a F100 that they sent him a sticker to put on the dash that said always be sure it's in Park & put on the parking brake - dont think it ever jumped out of gear but it was a big block & we burned out many a set of parking brake pads as you didn't notice til you smelled the pads getting hot that you forgot to let off the parking brake

[bersaguy]

Well it was not just the C-4 but the C-6 had the same issue. The only Ford tranny that didn't have the issue was their FMX. Ford had the issue from about 1971 through about 1979 when they corrected the design but during that time between that year span Ford vehicles had either injured or killed about 757 people and Ford did a damn good job of covering it up. This is how I learned of the design flaw. What got me to thinking about this was a post Raoul made about old age and his knees in another thread.

 

 

 

Raoul said his age and his knees gave him issues and I was going to post what gave me issues but then could not  figure out which ones were the worst of my body hurts so decided to let ya'll guess and there will be a prize of a coin from NRA to the winner.   In 1978 while working a runaway Ford Pickup truck came down a hill while running in reverse with no one in it and struck me and then pinned me between it and a brick wall at about 30+ MPH. According to several doctors by any form of imagination I should be dead right now. Paramedics in ambulance brought me back twice on the trip. I under went 3 total abdomen open( 33 inch incision)  emergency surgeries just to save my life. Had more bad wrong with my body then good. List according to doctors after a 2 day examination of the damage to me.  Left leg broke in 3 places, Right leg 2 breaks, left and right arms both broke in multiply locations, 4 vertebra's in back fused together (still) 4 ribs broken loose from breast bone and two of them went through left lung clasping it, Spleen ruptured and hemorrhaging (repaired in 1st surgery to keep me alive while giving me 23 units of blood) Bruised liver, Bruised Kidney's, Heart bruised, Concussion, 2nd Surgery day 3 remove ribs from lung and pin all 4 back to breast bone so lung could begin to heal and if would not heal would be removed but it healed. 3rd Surgery day 8 to repair nickle size hole in large intestine and finish doing exploratory to check previous repairs and see if they could find anything else wrong. Once they were kinda sure they had everything on the mend I was put in drug induced coma and remained in it for 39 days with all broken bones still unfixed. Decision was made to give body a rest while in coma and they were sure I was going to live. They said was no since in repairing broken bones if I was going to die anyway. Once out of Coma all the bones that were clean breaks had began to heal and they had to re-break them to fix them correctly. The fractures according to x rays because I was not moving while in coma were healing on their own pretty close to correctly. (PRETTY CLOSE!!) Entered St Thomas hospital April 17th 1978. Left St. Thomas Hospital November 23rd 1978. After leaving the hospital over the next 16 years I underwent 3 more open abdomen surgeries to repair things that had been weakened from initial accident mainly inner abdominal wall which on the 6th opening in 1994 the doctor had to implant 28 square inches folded and double layer of Mylex Mesh was stitched into place with stainless steel thread which became my new inner abdominal wall thus making me 100% disabled and was told by doctor to go fishing cause work was over. Now the good news I got back in November 1978 from doctors was because I was a young healthy strong man I would recover well and should not feel any after effects of the broken bones till about age 50 to 55. Great guess by that Ortho Surgeon. Began having joint and bone issues about 52 and really noticeable by 55. So I will leave it up to ya'll where you think I might hurt when I wake up in the morning and stand up. Lets see who wins the  M1903 Springfield Rifle NRA Coin by guessing the closest.............. :up:    Oh Yea the last doctor that put the mesh in told me I was a walking friggin medical miracle to even be alive and I told him yea, I have heard that a few times before............. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Mike A]

My first car was a hand me down 1970 Ford Maverick in which the tranny had been replaced with one of the problematic ones (think it was a C4).  The thing would jump from park into reverse upon occasion.  Here's the scenario:  car dies at a light (whenever anyone complains about they don't build 'em like they used to I remember some of those '70s and '80s models although this was a good vehicle for the most part other than the transmission), place car in park to restart, rev engine to keep it running, bam...into reverse.  Luckily the few times this happened to me there was no one behind me.    

[Grunt67]

71 LTD, 73 LTD, 75 F150, 78 F150, 78 Bronco. Other years as well. Ford thru & thru.

[E4 No More]

ok , next question? Did any of your vehicles every kick or jump out or park and roll away without any one in it. Reason I am asking is because back then Ford had a design flaw in their transmissions and they knew it just like GM knew about this issue they tried to cover up except Ford got away with their coverup and their vehicles were killing people too.

Goes earlier than that. My FIL had a 70 LTD that would kick out of park when you shut the door too hard. It did it on me when I parked in their driveway on the hill. I shut the door and the car rolled down the rather steep hill, across the street, and into the ditch. Fortunately, there was another hill on the other side of the road with no driveway. Scared the crap out of me!!

[bersaguy]

Yep, I can remember many times hearing about people being injured and quite a few people being killed including a lot of children being hit and run over by them. I did sue Ford Motor Company and actually won the case but still got screwed by them in the Supreme Court in Cleveland Ohio by of all people Henry Ford III when his 6 attorney's could not win the case against me and 1 attorney. We beat them in every level of every appeal court we went to all the way to the Supreme Court and even beat them there until Henry Ford III scared the Supreme Court Justices with what I called Black Mail speech to the court. But even with his speech to the court I was still declared the winner. Just didn't get awarded the 2.7 Million we were suing for. I got $1.00,  yep One dollar awarded to me to prove I bet them by the court. I felt more sorry for my attorney than I did myself because he was the one footing the bill for it all to fight them. But in the end he got paid and nailed Ford in the process. During Mr Fords speech to the Supreme court Justices he admitted that ford did have an issue but that it ad been corrected in the 1979 vehicles and that all of the owners of older models had been made aware of the problem and mailed out stickers to everyone telling that how to make their cars and trucks safer. Now you must remember these are the Jimmy Carter years and the economy was in  the cellar and Reagan had been in office a short time and was trying to get the economy back flowing again and this is were he beat me out of my money. He told the justices that at the present time there were approximately 3,000 cases pending in lower courts that had never made it this far and if the court were to award me 2.7 million dollars it would set a flow of cases moving through the court system and if Ford had to pay all the the cases pending in lower courts that Ford Motor Company was prepared to file bankruptcy rather than pay out all the money. At that point Ford Motor Company would be forced to lay off about 60,000 employees which would trickle down to all the companies that Ford Motor Company buys parts from and with the economy so fragile right now it could be devastating to what President Reagan has accomplished in his short time in office. So I got awarded $1.00 to prove victory and a big disappointment to not only my lawyer and I but all of the cases pending in lower courts that were watching my case. About a week later my lawyer called me and asked me if I would have a problem  with him sharing all of the discovery we used to beat Ford and I said nope. He said I have a couple attorney's that are willing to buy it and he would split the money with me and I told him to sell all he could and keep the money because he spent a lot and he earned what ever he could get. By selling our discovery it enabled the cases in lower courts to begin to move up the ladder and Ford began settling them out of court with people rather than face all the court proceedings and having to pay all those high dollar lawyers they had every time. So in the end I have no idea how much Ford ended up paying out over the long haul but in a way. I felt like I had a victory in the end................. :up:

[E4 No More]

I wasn't aware that anyone but lawyers could address the Supreme Court.

Edited May 13, 2014 by SWJewellTN

[bersaguy]

I wasn't aware that anyone but lawyers could address the Supreme Court.

Well I guess it's not what you know but who you know because he sure did request to address the court and they allowed him to do so......... My attorney did object but it was over ruled and the Justice of the panel in the center said he wanted to hear what Mr Ford had to say. I know it was a bluff and I think most everyone else did also but They were not willing to take the chance I guess. He did raise some good points about the economy and did a good job of selling it to the court but Hey,  I did Win!!!!!

[mootw]

1979 Ford F-100.  This one has a manual transmission--3 speed on the column.  I've owned this for about 2 years now and have never had a problem.  Parked in gear with emergency brake applied.

 

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