[69_cougar_uk]

:1poke:

I think it's good if we can all laugh at ourselves (and each other). I'll kick this one off.....

Yetsterday I spent about a half hour checking fuses, cleaning battery terminals and scratching my head because my cat would not start. Not a click.......NOTHING???!!!! I'm thinking duff solenoid, ignition switch broken. I was even worrying that I had made a mistake installing the new dash loom and that something somewhere had melted down.

The problem? ME!

It helps if you put the shift lever in park before trying to start. In my defense it was dark, but still.......what was I playing at? What a dunce! LOL

There must be some fantastic stories out there. So come on....

Rob

 

[Local Hero]

I was dumb... and still am sometimes...

The dumbest thing I ever did with the Cougar was my first thermostat change. I reinstalled the new one BACKWARDS. Worse thing was that the car ran fine for about two days before it overheated. I managed to get it home but never have I overheated a motor so bad in my life.

That old 302 still kept kickin' after that to my amazement. It's life continued on under the hood of my Torino stock car for two seasons before that car got totalled.

Mark

 

[Cranman]

Well..it's not a Cougar mess up but it does involve getting it in park before trying to start..

Back when I was a mechanic in the army I got a call late one night fron the Brigade Commanders driver, that his Humvee wouldn't start. So I jump into my uniform and race to the Headquarters building and start troubleshooting. Everything looked good but it appeared that the neutral start switch was not working. So I proceed to put a jumper wire in the main harness to bypass that switch and she started right up. What a hero I was, and so clever to figure it out and get the Colonel back on his way!! A few days later they bring it back into the shop and I realize it was never in neutral to begin with. Of course I kept this news to myself!!

 

[NoKitten]

I haven't been able to do ANYTHING in my cat, cuz I can't drive it. I can't get insurance on it until it's safer than when I bought it. The dumbest thing I did in a Ford was pull a steer in a trailer with an overheating problem, a loose vacuum line, and a thrown AC belt (in September.... muggy and 100+ degrees). Got the problems fixed.

Hero- I've tried to kill my 302 by means of heat twice, and it still runs great. Tranny's missing first, and it's a cold beast, but it runs forever. Gotta love 302's.

 

[Cougar Kitty]

Done nothing stupid to my Cougar but, always brough it to someone else to do the work. That costs a fortune!

 

[conv cat]

I replaced my ignition coil with an MDA Blaster II, and about two months later, it fried. I melted it and the points.

How can you screw up a simple, two-wire installation? Simple! Just put the wires on the wrong terminals. It'll run, but not for long!

 

[Royce Peterson]

My first Cougar was a low mileage 289 / 2V with zero options. Three speed manual trans and no PS or AC.

The car was a low mileage one owner, had 59000 miles. Before 6 months were up I had painted the hood flat black, installed L60 X 15 rear tires with air shocks, a different brand of wheel and 14 X 4 rims on the front, headers, Holley carb and a 4 speed. A Pioneer Super Tuner FM - 8 track with a set of Jensen Tri - Axial speakers and a KZEW Zoo Freak sticker in the window completed the transformation.

I had taken a really immaculate car and turned it into the 1973 equivalent of today's rice rockets. The neighbors thought I was one stupid kid. They were right!

 

[texrep]

I backed up redcat into the truck once...... dented the rear bumper of the cat and really bent up the truck's bumper...


Don

 

[kvinmn]

Last summer (after owning 68 KAT for 4 months) I was on my way to golf league and tried to make a 'modern' auto quick stop. Funny, the low vacuum and the fact that the power brakes are vacuum operated conspired to run me into the car ahead of me.

Thank GOD for Don Rush...

Ken

 

[rick68]

When I was 18, I let my dad install one of those Mr. Gasket butterfly injector looking scoops on my single four barrell 289 68 Cougar.

For a while I thought I was cool as a kick stand until it started turning slowly to the side from the vibration of the motor. It would only go so far but it was just enough to be crooked as you were going down the road. It wouldn't have been so bad if I had 2 four barrell carbs but with one, it looked like ET poking his head through the hood. Shortly thereafter I covered the hole with an 82 or 84 (can't remember) Mustang hood scoop turned around backwards. It actually looked pretty sharp believe it or not.

 

[70XR7ConvertCat]

A friend and I were preparing to drop the rebuilt 351C back in. I assumed the task of putting the exhaust manifolds back on. In the gasket box, there looked what appeared to be two sets of gaskets, but it didn't occur to me at the time why this might be. Anyway, I grabbed one pair and matched the holes up to one of the manifolds, and it appeared like I lucked out on the first try. I installed the manifolds, and we dropped the motor in.

The first thing we noticed after firing the engine up was exhaust leaks on both sides. The correct gaskets were still in the box, and low and behold those holes matched up too! Only better. It took over an hour each side to pull the manifolds, and install the right gaskets because of the tight working area. I hope I've lived that one down by now.

Steve C.

 

[70ELIMN8TR]

Dumbest thing I did to my first 1970 cougar standard was to take a spin down the road while my front end (including the hood latch) was removed for painting. I was 16, I didn't think I needed to tie down the hood-duh!! I was doing about 25 mph when a gust of wind yanked it up. Of course I had left the nuts off the center grill, so up it went about 50 feet in the air and smashing into a million pieces. There wasn't that much damage luckily. I just replaced the hinges and put the hood back on.

 

[dark7068]

Ive never done anything dumb in the Cougar but always with the Fairlane I went to the bank one day and backed into a spot (I had a tow hitch on the back), I actually went thru the wall of the bank. I totally forgot the hitch stuck out 4 inches from the bumper, and its hard to tell distance with the fastback design in the first place. The tow hitch went in 3 inches into the side of the building

Ok, I did one thing in the Cougar. I stopped in front of work one day and did a massive burnout. The carb caught fire (major backfire) and shot thru the scoop, burnt my air filter, but man was it a cool fire show

Rick

 

[Jazzon]

Last summer when i tested my cat utside the garage i dit somethinh realy stupied. I did a smoker right towards the garage and hit a bumb in the runway and couldnt stop the car in time, so i hit the garage floor with my oilpan and broke the oilpump and dented the oilpan badley. I Will newer smoke my tires in that direction again.

 

[Lab Rat]

Dumbest thing I ever did with my Cougar..... hmmm.... lets' see...... um, the initial purchase.

Lab Rat

 

[Tim B]

Dumbest thing I ever did with my Cougar..... hmmm.... lets' see...... um, the initial purchase.

Lab Rat

Hummmmmm buying my Cougar was one of the smartest things I ever did! I was also contemplating a 63 T-Bird convertible or a Sunbeam Tiger (too slow and too small respectively). I still love my CJ convertible!

I haven't done anything stupid to the Cougar.....yet!

 

[ragcat]

I can actually think of three things so I will try to keep them short:

3) Got my 1st speeding ticket on the last day of senior classes at 8:00 in the morning IN FRONT of the school(actually was clocked at 40 in a 25 just before the school). If that wasn't bad enough, I went home and lied to my Dad about where I got the ticket. Just befor the area where the school was at, the speed limit dropped from 65 to 45. Told Dad that I didn't slow down enough in time and got the ticket there. He proceded to go out to my cat and adjust the carb linkage to a point where my cat would do 50 tops and was going to fight the ticket. I, of course, had to tell him the truth.

2) Took the same cat to a party that was near a wash (for those who don't know what a wash is--it's a dry, sandy river bed) just outside of Phoenix, and proceded to 'try' to drive it across said wash and ended up high centering it. Sand was actually even with the door sill!!

and #1) Tore ragcat completely apart and didn't have a clue how to get her back together again! (as documented in my web pages for those who care to look)

Chuck

 

[droptopcat70]

HMMM,
how`s almost getting arrested for pulling a holeshot in a local state park? the smoke was so bad you couldnt see the 50 ft oak tree behind you as well as the sirens and the megphone to stop . guy took my licence and registration and had a local police cal it in n said you`ll be getting a ticket shortly in the mail. Well thanks to a good buddy of mine`s girlfiends father thats good w/ the state police it was never added in the computer n i was lucky to get off scott free.There was another time i just got my licence and i was at a stoplight and was behind a harley and thought i saw his brakelight dim so i accelerated and rearended a harley. Lets just say i was in the high chair for awhile after that incident.
thanks
pat.
p.s. there be a few more but i think ill keep it at 2 for now lol... :lol:

 

[b0nes421]

Let's see....

I was 18 years old and replacing the brakes on my 1968 Cougar when my buddies showed up. It was a Saturday and we were in an hurry to go out and get into trouble so one of my friends offered to help me finish up the rear drums. Well, we finished about the same time and off we went! about 20-30 minutes into the ride "CLANG"! I couldn't figure out what had happened untill I tried to stop again and things weren't going as planned. My buddy hooked up the guts wrong for the drum brake that he installed. When I removed the rear drum everything, and I mean everything fell out! Now I make it a point to check everyone else's work no matter how much I trust them...

 

[Cougar Kitty]

My husband...

did something dumb with my Cougar. He lost control of the car doing way over the speed limit and ended up in the ditch in front of the Patrol station and got a DUI!!! DUH!