Date:         Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:27:01 -0400
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: '78 Chrysler Omni or Plymouth Pacer Sought
Comments: To: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
In-Reply-To:  <4887E1B3.7050203@charter.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 08:58 PM 7/23/2008 -0500, John Rodgers wrote:
>It may come to that, but I sure would rather it be an Omni or Horizon.

John, I owned a '78 Horizon.  The only thing good on it was the
paint.  The engine shook the alternator until the bracket broke
(repeatedly).  When the carburettor froze in the winter the engine
would run away on starting.  No, the throttle plate wasn't jammed
open. Distributors wore out.  The vibration wore the pivot ears off
the carburettor float.  The ECU was mounted, uncovered, in the air
intake, potted in silicone only halfway up the components.  Guess
what happened when it rained...too rich to run above idle and glowing CAT.

There was plenty more wrong with the car (mine had 58K when I bought
it from the dealer, and I put another 25K or so before I gave up).  I
should have paid attention when CU rated the '78 Not Acceptable for
unstable handling (failed their steering-wheel twitch test) -- every
time it crossed a tar strip between lanes on the highway it felt as
though it wanted to go arse-first.  All the plastic trim, steering
wheel etc shrank about 10% in length.  It was the statistically least
reliable car in America at that time.  Blah blah blah.

But my point about all this is that everything hanging off the engine
took a real beating because of the vibration, so I'd look carefully
at any one you come up with.


--
David Beierl - Providence RI USA -- http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage," '85 GL "Poor Relation"