My neon hates me and so does my truck

[bb71challenger]

A little background..... A couple of years ago I was on my way home from work and since I waited too long to do the timing belt maintenance it let go at 115k. I had another car to drive and later got a used truck so the neon has sat. I recently aquired a parts neon with a running engine and since I miss my stereo and shifting my own gears I decided to go ahead and do the swap this weekend. Rain came and went all day Saturday so that was a wasted day. Today I started on it and man does that thing hate me. You name it and it went wrong. axle nuts would not budge. I twisted the bolts off in the header flange. I have a 180 amp alt on the car for the high powered stereo and one of the lugs twisted off on that    You get the picture. I spent all day and all I got done was to pull the old engine out of my R/T. I have to do it all over again tomorrow and no telling how that car is going to treat me. I am getting to where I hate working on stuff any more, its just a pita. Today I felt like pushing the car off in a ditch and walking away lol.

Well today after all that crap I had my truck go out on me going to work this morning. Nothing like going to a backup that has not been on the road since 2007 lol. The old Tempo SB fired right up after I got some juice in the battery. The timing jumped on my truck is all I can think. I pulled the distributor cap and the rotor was still like it should be(I had a rotor come loose once) so all I can think is the timing gear lost a tooth or something. It tries to fire and will backfire a bit but thats it. Its a 97 Chevy with a 5.7 vortech. Always has been a dependable truck for the most part. Sure sux to be me right now 

[Alaskan_TA]

Just wait. Once Shelby has the pink stripes put on her purple Neon, show your Neon the pictures. I am willing to bet that your Neon will fall into line after seeing them. 


 

[bb71challenger]

LOL. It used to look pretty decent with its black paint and silver stripes. Now it is roasted in many spots by the sun and looks like beetle dung. I dont even think pink stripes would help the way my car looks. It will fall into line with a few whacks of my baby sledge   

[hemiken]

You called your baby Sledge why that is an awful name for a child











I think Barry is saying that your Neon had better get its act together if it wants to impress Shelby's Neon

[Street_Challenged73]

with Ken.  It does really suck when you have the snowball effect when you're trying to fix things on your dd.  I usually don't break extra things, but I have a tendency to find shoddy work or other damages while fixing my main problem that eats up some more time and usually a good chunk of $$$.

[cudadave72]

I'm right in the middle of fixing a 97 Neon that toasted a timing belt too. It only has 100k miles on it and the engine is as clean as a whistle so I'm going to pull the head and have the valve fixed. So far its been coming apart ok. The internals of this engine are so clean you could eat off it!!! Good luck with yours!

[bb71challenger]

I'm right in the middle of fixing a 97 Neon that toasted a timing belt too. It only has 100k miles on it and the engine is as clean as a whistle so I'm going to pull the head and have the valve fixed. So far its been coming apart ok. The internals of this engine are so clean you could eat off it!!! Good luck with yours!

Been there, done that. Kind of a long drawn out story but I had the valves replaced and the head re-worked because my old engine is prime. I just procrastinated so long that I started to lose parts I had taken off of it. It didnt help that I stripped the crank bolt trying to turn the engine over(without pulling the plugs-doh). So after all is said and done I will have an extra engine for parts. Its a good idea to get a new water pump and timing belt idler assembly while your in there. The parts car I bought had the timing belt done about 15-20k ago so it should be good to go. Hey Kenny, I used to whip ass on Mustwang GT autos back in the Fast and Furious days but the only thing that impresses me about my neon now is the gas mileage and the stereo, its just going to be a work commuter now. I will defer to Shelby's neon   

[hemiken]

Hey Kenny, I used to whip ass on Mustwang GT autos back in the Fast and Furious days but the only thing that impresses me about my neon now is the gas mileage and the stereo, its just going to be a work commuter now. I will defer to Shelby's neon   

All in good fun Brett, and i see a little of you trying to capture the past but admitting to Fast and Furious days still is good to hear you beating out Mustwangs though

[bb71challenger]

Yeah, it was kind of bad timing when I got the car but just after that the movie came out. I had every ricky ricer on the planet reving on my little neon. At the time there were only a couple of cars that could take my lil neon. I remember absolutely embarrasing a big block chevelle at a light to light race. I was slowing down for the next light while he was still spinning his tires lol. All the time and money I wasted on the neon while my Challenger was sitting in the back yard, oh man the wasted years.

[hemiken]

  Still sounds as if you have some good Kill stories you could share with the amount of times your little Neon smoked the GM and Phords oh and the ricer boys