Hey Geeqner, you're absolutely correct about that tonearm. There was a lot of sound engineering behind it, and that becomes quite apparent once the cartridge is set up correctly - especially so when one considers it was originally built to an inexpensive price point. That's one of the reasons I wasn't willing to butcher that original headshell.
I purchased this turntable for a song as a "Frankenstein" unit, i.e. one that was cobbled together from a bunch of spare parts. Cosmetically, it looks much better in the picture than it does in person; it's missing the cardboard bottom plate, the cover has a crack that was covered over by a drawer knob (!), and it needs recapping, a new belt, etc. etc. But it's all there mechanically, and sounds great.
I purchased this turntable for a song as a "Frankenstein" unit, i.e. one that was cobbled together from a bunch of spare parts. Cosmetically, it looks much better in the picture than it does in person; it's missing the cardboard bottom plate, the cover has a crack that was covered over by a drawer knob (!), and it needs recapping, a new belt, etc. etc. But it's all there mechanically, and sounds great.
How fast were you going? When I missed 4th and hit second in my old VW going 120+ km/h, I sheered all 9 flywheel bolts and broke the pressure plate into three pieces... No engine damage though, and the transmission even still worked... I had the replacement in the back seat already that day as I was planning on changing it for shorter gears anyway. Tachometer hit 9500 rpm, too.
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Reminds me of the time I had the timing belt replaced in a 2005 Honda Civic - at 170,000 miles. Boy, was I lucky!
And for the sake of staying on-topic: breakfast at a local greasy-spoon with my pilot buddies (it was IFR at our field).
George Cal mentioned the 2018 Ford Edge which I hope for his sake doesn't have one of those V6's I mentioned as turbo 4 cyl was an option by then. What was Ford thinking and surely not one of their better ideas where they had the light light bulb in their ads 35-40 yrs. ago!
While I'm on the subject of vehicles, it's also best to avoid CVT's (except on electric or hybrid) as they have to usually be replaced rather than rebuilt so $4,500+ USD (just for the trans) as they usually self destruct due to their design. They also don't stand up to any abuse like getting stuck, hard driving, or towing.
While I'm on the subject of vehicles, it's also best to avoid CVT's (except on electric or hybrid) as they have to usually be replaced rather than rebuilt so $4,500+ USD (just for the trans) as they usually self destruct due to their design. They also don't stand up to any abuse like getting stuck, hard driving, or towing.
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I was coming out of the "twisties" in an autocross track probably about 40 MPH. Autocross is an event usually held in a large parking lot with a course laid out with lots of orange cones. One car at a time on the track racing against the clock.
This particular venue was my favorite since it was held at the local drag strip. The layout was different each time, but involved some winding "road course" made with cones on the return lanes of the drag strip out onto the staging lanes, leading to the start line of the 1/4 mile drag track, followed by a sharp U turn back onto the return lane road course.
This time there was a wide sweeping turn off the cone course around the six wide staging lanes, and down the drag strip. A very fast course for autocross, since, you would hit the start line of the drag strip rolling pretty fast coming out of that corner. I could hit about 100 MPH on that 1/4 mile track from a standing start in drag racing, but you have another half mile of straight track to slow down. I chose my tire size such that I would be right at the rev limiter in 4th when crossing the finish line. Use of 5th gear on the drag strip resulted in faster top speed, but slower 1/4 mile times. Here the U turn was right at the 1/4 mile mark limiting top speed.
I had built my turbo 2.2 to run up to 20 pounds of boost, and was running it with an open exhaust. Boost comes up quick and the torque jumps real fast at about 3000 RPM and pulls to the rev limiter at 7200.
My first pass did not go well since I tried to rip around that sweeping turn in 3rd shifting too much weight off the inside front tire, making a lot of tire smoke and understeering right off the track.
On the next pass my idea was to speed shift into 4th about halfway around the turn so that I would be below 3000, mat the throttle, and the boost would be there right at the start line when I needed it.....
A FWD Charger from the early 80's has a good dose of trailing throttle oversteer, so slamming 2nd in a corner just spun me around rather violently, with an instant loss of traction on all 4 wheels. The car was still running when the dust settled. Nothing was obviously broken, so I tried to make another pass, but as soon as I laid into throttle I saw the hood jump from the engine mounted intercooler hitting it. The power was down and the sound wasn't right......done for the day. I did get to watch my friend with a V8 Chevy Monza lose control trying to make that U turn, and hit a retaining wall hard enough to really mess up his car.
Autopsy revealed the bolt through the front motor mount was bent, as was the arm that mounted the rubber part to the engine. The adjustable timing sprocket had slipped to full timing retard and the timing belt appeared longer than its replacement, and slightly uneven. I'm guessing that some of the fibers inside had snapped.
That was the fastest autocross course ever run at that track. There was too much car carnage, so future races were considerably slower.
Sadly civilization pushed further and further westward and the track, Miami Hollywood Speedway park, and the Sportatorium concert venue and pro wrestling hall (at the same place) were torn down in the name of progress. It's now a strip mall parking lot and the kids race on the street.
Somehow I have his Edge and the word Ecoboost associated with each other.
I had a Cheep Jeep with a CVT. What a POS. Fortunately for the trans the 2.0L motor didn't have enough power to break it. It did have a sensor such that if you abused the CVT enough to make it hot (not hard to do), the engine power would be lowered. Strange driving experience......mat the throttle and the engine flashed to 5000 RPM as the vehicle starts rolling, and stays there until you let off the throttle, or the car reaches terminal velocity. In the Cheep Jeep, that was about 85 MPH.
Ford did stick CVT's behind that 2.5L 4 banger, but only in smaller cars. The van has a 6 speed automatic.
We set out on a 2500 mile trip in the van tomorrow. We need to get out ahead of the big snow storm that's coming our way.
George you might be thinking of the problematic Dual Clutch AT Ford used in it's smaller cars from 2011+ and it's problems and likely the reason they quit making those cars. They only tried CVT's around 2005 in their bigger FWD vehicles and realized they weren't worth the trouble.
Have a safe trip George, and I hope you beat the snow! If not you might need some good winter tires as they can be a life saver.
Have a safe trip George, and I hope you beat the snow! If not you might need some good winter tires as they can be a life saver.
I'm just going by what the automotive press wrote about the Ford /Mazda Duratec 2.5L 4 cylinder engine. They showed if mated with a "CVT" in some cars. I didn't pay too much attention to which cars or what years. They could have been Mazda's, or the writer could be clueless, quite common these days. Ford also made a narrow 2.5L V6 also called Duratec, and a lot of writers got them mixed up.
The CVT in the Jeep was a Jatco / Nissan unit that was made in Mexico. It turns out that it didn't save any gas in most normal driving, especially city stop and go, since the frictional losses are much higher than gears, clutches, and bands.
And this will be the 4th time we have done it this year. Round trip is 2000 to 3000 miles depending on where in Florida we choose to visit......stuck in Orlando this time, taking the grandkids to Disney World.....Maybe I'll get to ESRC for some tubes.
Weather channel says 1 to 3 inches of snow here tomorrow night....hope to be in southern Virginia by 9 PM tomorrow.
Hey Geeqner, you're absolutely correct about that tonearm. There was a lot of sound engineering behind it, and that becomes quite apparent once the cartridge is set up correctly - especially so when one considers it was originally built to an inexpensive price point. That's one of the reasons I wasn't willing to butcher that original headshell.
I purchased this turntable for a song as a "Frankenstein" unit, i.e. one that was cobbled together from a bunch of spare parts. Cosmetically, it looks much better in the picture than it does in person; it's missing the cardboard bottom plate, the cover has a crack that was covered over by a drawer knob (!), and it needs recapping, a new belt, etc. etc. But it's all there mechanically, and sounds great.
As this is MAINLY a “DIY” site - if you like playing around with old AR TTS and can scrounge up another one; look into the Merril Mods. There were varying pieces and parts, and it could be done in stages, so one did not have to do it all at once.
(Simple stuff to dampen vibrations, improve accuracy of motor, improve suspension, a composite platter and others.)
Had 2 different friends in my college days who had “hand-me-down” AR XA or XB - both with original S-Tonearm and that big, chunky Headshell. (And me with my newer-gen, Teledyne / AR-The Turntable). We enjoyed LOTS of nice tunes on them. Mine is still going. Originally put a B&O MMC-3 cartridge on it. (Had to add weight to the Headshell to get that tiny little sucka’ to work, but got MANY good years out of it / about 7 years ago, Upgraded to Shure V15-VMR which is more in-Line with what the Tonearm was designed for = sounded WAYYYYYyyyy better.)
Old ARs are not the PRETTIEST Turntables out there, but they can STILL hold their own in the Sound Quality department.
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I had a clutch cable collapse at the wrong moment once back in 1988, was passing an older camaro in my modified Opel 1900. Went to shift out of 2nd at 7k+ and it stayed in that gear.
Rod through the side of the block, real bummer since that motor had been balanced by Cope Brother’s Racing...
Today’s purchases included supplies for making French toast and cookies.
Rod through the side of the block, real bummer since that motor had been balanced by Cope Brother’s Racing...
Today’s purchases included supplies for making French toast and cookies.
Hi phase,
I did something similar back in about 1978. My girlfriend was with me, which just makes it more embarrassing. We were just passing an Olds Cutlass 442 at 90 mph when the 318 in my 1970 Coronet 500 sent a rod through the side. We were far from home, and I actually drove it back. Each stop light was a nail bitter. I had to shift into neutral to keep the RPM up so it wouldn't die. The engine was already toast, so it didn't bother me to cause more damage. We actually made it all the way home (about 50 miles), but once I turned it off, that engine never ran again. The car was at my place, so I used my mother's car to run her home. New (to me) 318 was changed out in the driveway in the winter. I had to rebuild the top of the motor, and leaky water pump gasket. Replaced the water pump parts while I was in there and closed everything up. The new 318 had a blown head gasket, so i got it cheap. That engine ran well for me and was still going strong when I sold that car. That was the last time I ever did major work on a car outside.
-Chris
I did something similar back in about 1978. My girlfriend was with me, which just makes it more embarrassing. We were just passing an Olds Cutlass 442 at 90 mph when the 318 in my 1970 Coronet 500 sent a rod through the side. We were far from home, and I actually drove it back. Each stop light was a nail bitter. I had to shift into neutral to keep the RPM up so it wouldn't die. The engine was already toast, so it didn't bother me to cause more damage. We actually made it all the way home (about 50 miles), but once I turned it off, that engine never ran again. The car was at my place, so I used my mother's car to run her home. New (to me) 318 was changed out in the driveway in the winter. I had to rebuild the top of the motor, and leaky water pump gasket. Replaced the water pump parts while I was in there and closed everything up. The new 318 had a blown head gasket, so i got it cheap. That engine ran well for me and was still going strong when I sold that car. That was the last time I ever did major work on a car outside.
-Chris
It really was. The engine was making on hell of a racket and Donna really had words to say about giving the 442 a run with a stock-o Coronet 500. We were serious and quite frankly, she was absolutely right about that event. Had that car had a 426 or 440, that would have been a better match. Even a 383 would have made a difference. But I did keep up with the 442 until she blew. The guy driving the 442 waved and was off down the highway.
-Chris
-Chris
I had a 1970 Pontiac Grand Prix with a 451 (455?) and lots of bondo to keep things from falling off. Had the manifold pressure gauge too! To keep it from over-heating in traffic you had to run the heater in the summer. It was a gift!
My sister got the Chrysler with the 440-TNT + headers. She took it to college. They weren't used to muscle cars at the fancy women's colleges! I think she eventually abandoned it on the NY State Thruway (I-90).
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