Huge thanks to both for helping with my mother in laws car. aCab helped me get the car towed back to my place so I could figure out what was really wrong with the car. Mother in law was quoted a minimum of $3,000 and possibly more and this car is worth $1,000. Trans took a dump while she was driving and she couldn't put it in any gear. Took her car shopping and that wasn't going to work out either...Given the age and low mileage of her car it was going to be impossible to find what she wanted for basically nothing. It took almost all day to finally show her what I could possibly fix her car for if she wanted to just keep it and save her money.

After a few weeks of working here and there I was able to trace a broken bolt and with the help of Hecash we drilled out the broken bolt and then drilled and tapped for a larger bolt since the one used was no longer available for purchase. Finally drove the car yesterday around town and it shifts like new.

so since I was working on the car she wanted everything taken care of so did a fairly decent overhaul and broke lots of old rusted parts during the process but glad to say I was able to replace and fix everything for under $700 and this car "should" last a good three more years now with little to no troubles.

Thanks again for your help />

Looking forward to dropping her car off later today />

 

Awesome, this community never ceases to amaze me.

 

We've definitely got some amazing people here who gladly help out when others are in need. Nice work, guys!

 

may i ask what kind of car and which bolt it was?

 

its a very SEXY 99 mercury cougar and it was a bolt on the shifter assembly (manual trans). Its a very common issue with this trans between several Ford, Mercury, and Mazda cars that all had this same trans in it. She made it to 70k before it broke so Im confident with the "upgraded" bolt if she can get another 3-4 years I will be happy. She probably only drives 5000 miles a year now. After that the car just won't be worth fixing. I actually didn't want to fix anything more then the trans. This would have only been $100 including fresh tranny fluid.

But I went ahead and replaced valve cover gasket, stripped valve cover paint & re-painted, new front calipers, rotors, brakes, flushed all the fluids, new oil pan, new tie rod ends, ect....the front end got a make over.

 

So like you were saying, you can just split that $2300 saved between Harry and I and we'll call it even.

Glad you got the car running again. It sure saved your mother in law a lot of loot on a car that still has a lot of life left in it!

 

dont it feel good to fix a car for only $xx.xx amount after getting an estimate of $xx,xxx,xxx.xx? its almost a high for me. one of the first times i has the experience was in my 1992 civic. the screw that holds the rotor in the distributor cap was stripped and i couldnt remove it for a tune up. so i took it to a shop ( this was before i became a mechanic) and they told me that since the bolt was stripped, the only option was to replace the entire distributor @ $300.00 plus labor. so i went home and tried everything i could think of to get the screw off. i even tried JB welding the screw to a screwdriver. finally i took a hacksaw and cut a slit across the top of the screw head and turned the phillips screw into a standard/blade screw. then i just used a flat head screwdriver and took it right off. it was pure euphoria.

 

Awesome Community!

 

Nice job, boys!

 

Im on a beach right now sipping on a nice cold beverage while you both decide who's going to get the money...I'm actually spending it and boy am I having fun />