Rocinante, my '85 GM LS

[Big Rectangular Car]

Her name is Rocinante because she reminds me of Don Quixote's old but reliable gray horse.
She was given to me by some friends, who were moving out of state.
Zero rust, and when PO had a collision with another car, this car had no damage, while the other was a total write-off!?
Also has a nice finish, though the nose has pockmarks and some areas where paint chipped off, from years of road debris.





Here's the supposed damage to the rear drivers side wheel well. Can you find it?

[boXman]

Nice car!

[zwack88]

Wow that thing looks really clean! I like it. You planning on modding it?

[FatNasty]

Very nice, it looks familiar

[Big Rectangular Car]

Mod it, eh? You mean turn it into a Donk?
Or maybe turn it into a hybrid.
Seriously, keeping it as well preserved as I can afford to is my goal.
Right now it's due for a tune-up. The air filter is rather old, and sticky. Not to mention the breather filter is soaked in oil. Gack.
There are a couple of known problems, one is the transmission, which in spite of being serviced regularly, is giving me the occasional hesitation between gear changes, especially when the engine is first started in the morning. It acts as though there isn't enough fluid, but there is.
Maybe it's my imagination, but if I have the gear lever in D instead of the auto-overdrive D, it doesn't seem to have any trouble.
The other is the A/C is not cold, though I haven't checked it myself yet. It was redone a couple years ago for the new refrigerant. It might possibly have a leak somewhere. Not that I need A/C here much, being on the coast, 50-70 F year round, but if I took a trip inland this summer, I'll need it. It gets over 100 F on occasion in Salinas Valley.

[Big Rectangular Car]

Very nice, it looks familiar

I see! I like the wheels you have, there.
My son wants to modify the car, "make it look gangsta'", he'd even pay, but I said, no, of course. I'd like to keep it all original, since the original stuff is in such good shape.

[Grand Marquis GT]

That hesitation problem is probably caused by a TV lever grommet being missing...

Someone post a pic of it!!!

[Big Rectangular Car]

I take it one of these is the TV cable... I'm not familiar with Ford products, yet... :P

[Archangel]

This car doesn't have a TV cable, but uses a solid rod instead - the rod connected to the lever where cables for the gas pedal and the cruise control servo also connect to. The plastic grommet of this particular car in the pics seems in pretty good shape, is that your car?

[Big Rectangular Car]

Yes, it is.
The PO said he had the transmission serviced regularly from when he got it off his mother in 95, and it was serviced by Ford before that. The PO thought it was possible the transmission is just getting old, it has 187K miles on it. I thought if there's any simple preventative maintanance to be done with the transmission, I'd be happy to find out what it is, and do it. If the trans wears out, then so be it, since I'll still be getting my money's worth. Definitely worth replacing the transmission in this, down the road. I just hope not too soon, I have been babying this car, so far.

[p71towny]

Nice ride, and welcome.

[grandpaslincoln]

Nice!

[Big Rectangular Car]

Aargh!

I just found out the name Rocinante is taken. Not that it's a problem with having coincidental names on vehicles, but this is the name of John Steinbeck's truck in his book Travels with Charley.

http://www.steinbeck.org/Rocinante.html

Problem is, I live in Steinbeck country. Everyone will think I got it from Travels With Charley, and I'm not crazy about Steinbeck...

I think I will name her Milagro, instead, which is "Miracle" in Spanish. Then again, maybe I should look that up, as well.

[Big Rectangular Car]

The name has stuck, so it stays. Never mind about Steinbeck, I have more important things to do, like getting my beebee her tuneup.

[Grand Marquis GT]

Fuck Steinbeck! lol