Hi Y'All, Got a question . I had a 1973 Maverick automatic back in the 80's and I had put it in park while it was running to get a quart of oil out of the garage and no sooner than I turned around the car snaped in reverse and it hit a small tree at the end of my driveway. Thank God it did or it could have traveled into someones house How could this happen?? I know for a fact it was in park. I heard later that Ford had problems like this. Ok, what do y'all know about this stuff?? Thanxs A bunch Zip...
Welcome to the board That was a bit of a problem with that era of Fords ... leave them in Park with motor running, and it was possible that you have it jump into Reverse, especially if the shift linkage was getting a bit sloppy. It is a very good idea to use the parking brake, but even then, brakes are biased to work better in a forward direction. 20 years ago or so, there was a fairly well-seen video of a guy chasing his LTD as it ran in reverse in a big circle. Seems that idle was set a bit high and his jumped out of Park. The car was doing at least 10 mph in a left hand circle for a very long time, and he was having a helluva time trying to catch it. IIRC they had to let the car run out of gas. I know I had seen another instance or two of that back then, too. There was one where they smashed the drivers window in order to dive in to stop it. Trying to jump into an open door would have been hazardous because the car would scoop you up and possibly drag you under.
Thanxs Chandler, I did'nt have a clue as to what happened and at 17/18 yrs old and did'nt know a thing about a transmission, well you can figure out the rest. I will say that eversince this happened I have been so careful as to not leave a car in park while the motor is running How would you know about the linkage needing adjusting?? I now have another Maverick , 1975 that we just went to Ocala FL to get. Here we go again starting over. Thanxs, Zip...
Oh. hello again Mr.Jeff, Thanxs for replying with such knowledge (as always). I did'nt know anything about a cars motor, transmission, etc, etc, etc,,,,Anyway, that was sooo scarry for me and so sad. I wish I had known at least something about what to do and had someone to help me but I did'nt. I wind up selling the car dirt cheap and moved to FL with my ex jackass husband who insisted we take his crap Subaru tiny turd car Ok, I got rid of the jackass (best thing I ever did) got re-married, and been with this one for almost 24 yrs. and got another Maverick. So now it's starting over again. This motor is so very loaded with grease and John & I are trying to figure out WTF happened. The guy we bought it from is really 'out there' if ya know what I mean and we can't get any REAL answers out of him so we are having to do it ourselves with the help of this forum . I'm so appreciative of you & the people who have helped me already. He's already lied about several things with one being that he said he replaced the water pump yet it does'nt look like it at all! It has no breaks and it sat for a year. I'm thinking all the rubber hoses & gaskets will need to be replaced. OMG where do you start?? The radiators out of it but we have a new one to put in. It's over whelming BUT I love this car! Anyway I'm rambling too much. Anyway, I don't leave any car in park while it's running anymore. Zip...:bananaman
Welcome back to the Madness of Old Cars!! I had the same thing happen to me with my white '69 Cougar conv. I put it in park, opened the door, leaving it open, and went to unlock the front gate. As soon as I got to the gate, I heard a grinding noise and watched my car racing down the driveway. I chased it, trying to get around the door to jump in the front seat. After about 100 feet, it turned to the left and crashed into the fence, striking a post and doing over $1000 damage. I was so upset, I sold the car to a friend at a discount. I had owned it for over 7 years, using it as my show car and later daily driver the last 4 years. I had just had the transmission out and was having an adjustment problem with the linkage and had not quite gotten it 100% right yet. Since it was warming up, the idle was fast. Sounds like it must have been a deadly combination, like yours. I used a part of the proceeds to buy my gold Comet GT. How did you find your car in Ocala? I thought I knew where they all were located in this area. What made you choose that car? Have fun with it. Jim
Welcome! I had the same thing happen to my 69 Ford F250 as I ran quickly into a 7 11 way back when . Lucky someone was in my passenger seat or it would have backed right into a gas pump. It was a cheap lesson that day
Reminds me of of one I saw. Car was parked in a circle drive with up a hill across the road from an 8-foot chain link fence. It started rolling down the pretty steep drive following it perfectly. Gathered speed, went across traffic and thru an OPEN gate into the field where it came to a stop without a scratch. Several people were lucky that day.
Hey Jim, Thanxs for responding back! WOW, you to had a helluva time with ur car jumping in reverse and I know that you'll never forget that feeling of again, right?? Since that happened, I will never again put a car in park while the motor is running. Ok, as far as finding my 75 Maverick, I found it online . It did'nt have a pic and the main phone number was'nt right, but had one number wrong. My hubby called the second number which was the guy who actually owned it and we went from there. We actually live here in TN and just got it about two weeks back. We bought it a month ago and had to make arrangements to go pick it up. We put it on a auto transport and as we were getting gas, we heard a hiss and that was a tire with two nails in it! We pulled it into the truck stop just over the overpass and fixed it. While John was fixing it, a guy pulls up out of nowhere and asked what we were going to do with the car and if we want to sell it. Of course it's NO WAY but he was persistant. John then told him we wanted 5 thousand for it just hoping that would scare him off but it did'nt! Finally John said that his wife (me) owns it and no way will she turn it loose. We finally got it home and off the transport without brakes. Ok, without the brakes already made me so nervous! Anyway, thats the story. Oh yeah, the reason why I chose this car was the price was right (1,200) and the body, interrior is great for the year that it is. I still need to replace the hood though and grill but thats all as far as the body. The engine, well we have a new radiator for it but need to fix all the brakes first b/f we can crank it. Zip...:bananaman
I was working at a Ford Dealership in Vestal, N.Y. then and we had a lot of vehicles with this problem come in for repair. The fix was to replace the detent spring, ball and the selector awl inside the tranny. I don't remember if it was a recall or not but it was repaired at no cost to the owner. I know that because we only got paid warranty rate. It may have been one of those "No there isn't a problem with our tranny's but if your tranny has a problem, bring it in and we will fix it. I remember that our parts dept had a lot of the repair kits sent to them as an APO, automatic placement order.
I've had that happen a few times over the years. It just started a while back on my 70 Maverick. I adjusted the tranny linkage last Friday since I was taking it to a car show Saturday and I could see it rolling in to some $100K show car. Anyway there is a section in the Chiltons manual about adjusting the linkage. It's pretty easy really. Takes about 5 minutes once you get the tools together.
If you really want to know where to start (A project car can get overwhelming fast) Start with the safety items first: Brakes/brake system Emergency/parking brake Front suspension: bushings, ball joints,tierod ends etc... rear suspension: springs/shackles mounting bolts etc... Tires All exterrior lighting/turn signals,brake lights etc... Then you can worry about the engine/transmission Does the engine currently run? If not, nows a good time to drop and drain the gas tank of old stale gas and replace the fuel filter and any rubber fuel lines. Check the inside of the tank to see if its rusty while its out too. Now throw a tuneup at it...Plugs, plug wires, distributor cap and rotor.Change engine oil and filter,properly set ignition timing.(Be certain the throttle linkage works properly,no binding sticking) dont want the engine to rev to the moon on startup. Install your radiator (put all new radiator/heater hoses on it at this point)Install a new thermostat. Put some coolant in it OR (just water for all the testing/tuneing and leak checking) Put the coolant in once your sure the cooling system has no leaks. Replace the valve cover gasket (most likely source for your oily engine dilemma). Once the safety items are sorted out and you know it will run well, you can see if the transmission will function properly. Check the fluid level,make certain all the linkages function properly (no binding/sticking) be certain the vacuum modulator rubber hoses are properly attached and not dried out or brittle or broken. Do yourself a huge favor and find a Chiltons repair manual or Ford repair manuals for the car (they are a wealth of needed/necessary information) Most of all...Dont get discouraged by setbacks or new problems that pop up (and they will) just treat each of em in turn and remember...The stuff that drives you nuts is the stuff you learn the most from. Good luck!!! Oh and dont forget to chime in here when you have a question/problem we are allways looking for a chance to help out.
HiYa MavMan72 (luv the name) Thanxs for all this info, it's sure gonna help I do have the Ford manuals that I bought online so I think I can find out about what you were saying about linkage, etc. We're just starting on fixing my maverick so I know it will take time but well wort it! I can't thank you enuf for taking ur time typing all this info. Thank you, Thank you kindly.... Zip...
