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| Fiero kept, another Fiero acquired... (Page 2/13) |
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RWDPLZ
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FEB 27, 12:50 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]:
She can't get into trouble with 102 horsepower (or whatever it is),.. |
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It's 92HP and 134TQ, and I got in PLENTY of close calls with trouble.  I figured out quickly when you have no power, you need to conserve as much momentum around corners as possible, meaning mastering braking, figuring out the racing line, and driving at the tire's limits of grip. The rack and pinion steering in the Fiero provides plenty of feedback, and you can tell when it's about to let go.
https://www.thedrive.com/ne...with-the-least-power
When I bought my Subaru STI, even with 305HP, my favorite part of the car was the Brembo brakes. Every time I thought I was approaching that car's limits, it turned out I was nowhere close.
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blackrams
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FEB 27, 09:35 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]:
She can't get into trouble with 102 horsepower (or whatever it is), and she'll end up learning stick. Plus, she's expressed interest in racing, so I'll try to get her into SOLO events that we can drive to. I think it'll be fun. |
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Learning a manual is great, she'll be able to drive just about anything and most of her friends won't. But that can't get into trouble idea is wrong. I assure you she can if, she leans that direction. I've told the story many times of owning 22 different 88 Fieros. There are reasons I had so many, some of which is my two kids. Son wrecked and totaled three different Fieros five times, daughter wrecked and totaled three all on her own. Yeah, the wife blames me................... 
Rams
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Notorio
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FEB 28, 09:37 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by blackrams:
Learning a manual is great, she'll be able to drive just about anything and most of her friends won't. But that can't get into trouble idea is wrong. I assure you she can if, she leans that direction. I've told the story many times of owning 22 different 88 Fieros. There are reasons I had so many, some of which is my two kids. Son wrecked and totaled three different Fieros five times, daughter wrecked and totaled three all on her own. Yeah, the wife blames me...................
Rams |
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Your son wrecked and totaled three (3) different Fieros five (5) times ... meaning, he was in fifteen (15) different accidents?? Methinks I misunderstand ...
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82-T/A [At Work]
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MAR 03, 09:10 PM
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Ok, wish me luck! I'm picking it up tomorrow! Going to be towing it with my 2015 Ford Edge Titanium with the 3.5 DOHC V6. It has a built-in factory Class 3/4 hitch with built in wiring.
The relays and / or wiring on my Class-4 hitch with my Crown Victoria are no longer working, so I won't be towing anything with the Crown Vic, and my Explorer has a Class 2, and U-Haul, even today, won't rent trailers to Ford Explorers older than 2010 (I have a 2009).
It'll be a 3-4 hour drive each way.
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blackrams
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MAR 04, 08:22 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by Notorio:
Your son wrecked and totaled three (3) different Fieros five (5) times ... meaning, he was in fifteen (15) different accidents?? Methinks I misunderstand ... |
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Probably not stated very well. Sorry about that.
To further explain, my son had five wrecks in Fieros. Three of the Fieros he wrecked were totaled by our insurance, he bought them back, repaired and put them back on the road. The end result was a total of five totaled Fieros. I hope that explains it.
His decision to repair his totaled Fieros because Dad wouldn't give him another. All of his cars were stock (4 cylinder 5 speed), he always wondered why his Dad wouldn't let him drive any of the V8 or Supercharged cars.
Rams[This message has been edited by blackrams (edited 03-04-2023).]
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maryjane
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MAR 04, 10:58 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]:
Ok, wish me luck! I'm picking it up tomorrow! Going to be towing it with my 2015 Ford Edge Titanium with the 3.5 DOHC V6. It has a built-in factory Class 3/4 hitch with built in wiring.
The relays and / or wiring on my Class-4 hitch with my Crown Victoria are no longer working, so I won't be towing anything with the Crown Vic, and my Explorer has a Class 2, and U-Haul, even today, won't rent trailers to Ford Explorers older than 2010 (I have a 2009).
It'll be a 3-4 hour drive each way. |
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You'll be close to max, depending how much the trailer weighs and assuming the car weighs 2600 lbs..
https://letstowthat.com/ford-edge-towing-capacity/
But, most of us that have done a lot of towing usually go over the recommended load.
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82-T/A [At Work]
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MAR 04, 11:09 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by maryjane:
You'll be close to max, depending how much the trailer weighs and assuming the car weighs 2600 lbs..
https://letstowthat.com/ford-edge-towing-capacity/
But, most of us that have done a lot of towing usually go over the recommended load.
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Thanks MJ, that's good to know. My wife's car is the 2015, with the 3.5V6. It came with the Class-3 towing package. Has some driver-assist features such as anti-sway, and a few other things. It says 3,500 pounds. So assuming this 85 2m4 SE w/ 5-Speed is about ~2,600 pounds, I should be comfortably under the 3,500 towing range. I'll respect the 55mph on the way back with the car, but on the way there, I'm doing 75 with the empty trailer. I leave in 30 minutes, have to drop the daughter off for Girl Scouts. So she'll see it in the driveway when we pick her up.
EDIT: Oh yeah, no idea what the trailer weighs. I've used these before, and have had to move them around on my own. I'd guess ~400lbs. Only website I could find that even mentioned the weight, said they were 1,600 pounds... which is completely absurd. It was an AI-generated webpage, so it's confidently wrong about almost everything on there. I'm sure it conflated the largest tow trailer to that of the 2-wheel dolly. I've flipped them before (in the backyard I mean, with my bare hands), and I absolutely could not have done that if it was 1,600 pounds. It definitely feels like ~400 pounds... maybe closer to 350lbs.[This message has been edited by 82-T/A [At Work] (edited 03-04-2023).]
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82-T/A [At Work]
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MAR 04, 10:33 PM
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No Fiero... Tow-Dolly Acquired... 10:00 AM
Fiero Acquired: 8:45 PM
Overall, pretty pleased... and I was VERY surprised at how well the Ford Edge handled towing the car. It felt labored with the tow dolly, but then with a car on the dolly, it didn't feel any different... except for the fact that it didn't jiggle and make all kinds of racket.
The car turned out to be a pretty complete / nice car. It's got all the usual "Fiero" stuff... I mean, it looks, SOUNDS, and definitely SMELLS like a Fiero. It has the rusted out battery tray, bent clutch pedal (which prevents it from properly catching). I also think the clutch master cyl needs to be bled. The wiring is not the greatest, but it's all complete. Looks like someone used garden hose (or something similar) to do the under-body heater core lines. Some other odds and ends that are very "Fiero," but other than that, very solid. No damage that I can see anywhere, paint is very good (I think it's a repaint in the original color), has a new clutch. It runs and drives, and no frame rust at all.
I also got with it a massive storage bin of parts. Lots of new parts in there, some old "spares." But lots of new parts including two clutch master cyls, and a bunch of Fiero Store catalogs and parts still in the Leader Industries packaging ... thought that was pretty cool. I also got three huge binders full of receipts from since the dawn of man. There was also a copy of the 1984 Fiero Service Manual, and a Hayes and a Chilton's repair manual.
I killed the battery because I put the parking lights on while it sat on the tow dolly, so now I'll have to leave it parked there (in the road next to the park, which is directly across from my house when I step out my front door).
I got a lot of waves, thumbs up, and other hand signals that I can only assume were either encouragement, or rage... but I'm thinking the former.
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82-T/A [At Work]
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MAR 05, 08:53 AM
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So, I got it off the trailer this morning. Started right up. It spits out a ton of water out the exhaust pipe, but that could just be because it was raining on the way home, and the Fiero was going backwards. I drove it around the block, and ... hahah... the suspension DEFINITELY needs to be fixed. I think the tie-rods in the rear are completely, I mean, completely shot. At one point, it felt like I was driving down the road (at 20 miles an hour, mind you), sideways.
It's a VERY solid car... and I'm NOT concerned at all because I plan to go through it completely.
I think though, my biggest problem is trying to figure out what to do first. I don't want to do ANYTHING until my daughter gets back from her Girl Scout camping trip, but I'd like to set up a "plan of action" for how we can go through the car. First would be that I'd like to go through the car with her to identify all the things that's wrong with it, so we can start making a parts "check-list."
Normally, when I would get a car like this, I'd just tear the whole thing down and completely restore it from the ground up... but that's always been very costly, and sometimes unnecessary... and it can become discouraging as well since you see what's a completed car now, to something where parts are all over the place and it no longer looks like a car.
With that thought, I'd like to address this from the perspective of repairing the systems one by one. I remember watching a TV show on SpeedVision many years ago. It was some guy who was restoring an older Packard... that, like this car, was solid... but just needed everything fixed.
So first I thought it might be reasonable to address the things that involve "safety" ... my thoughts on this are:
1 - Brakes
2 - Suspension (maybe do them at the same time as brakes)
3 - Fuel System
4 - Replace the battery tray (teach my daughter how to weld)
And then when that's done, we can start tackling all the other things, like the insane high-idle when you first start it up...
Thoughts?
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maryjane
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MAR 05, 09:20 AM
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Glad you made it without a problem. Yes, those dollies, like most empty trailers make a lot of racket empty, and like to wander around a bit. My cattle trailer made lots of dang noise empty but quietened down a lot once the cows were loaded. I hauled a 73 Ventura from Lafayette La to San Angelo Texas on a dolly, which included I-10 right thru the middle of Houston and then San Antonio. Wasn't fun, but I was pulling it behind a big U-Haul truck. Long 600 mile trip to make and be able to NOT get in a position where I had to back up.
Sounds like (hopefully) it was well maintained except perhaps the heater core lines, but that's easily remedied.
Battery tray no problem and the high idle may be vac leak or temp sensor or dirty IAC, but they do tend to idle around 1500 at start anyway.
I have never pulled a Fiero on a dolly but have seen it done and they loaded it just as you did up on the dolly but needed to take some of the fascia off to do it..
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/.../HTML/095106.html#p0
Did you have any trouble getting it all the way up on the dolly??
Do move it tho, before one of those tall ugly things sees it and decides to fall on it...
 [This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 03-05-2023).]
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