By Jeff Glucker
The Montero is at the shop and my Mustang is in the garage. Only one of these was planned.
About a month ago, I was heading towards Arrowhead in California. Before starting the climb up Rt.330 which would take us there, I noticed an unwelcome noise coming from the engine in my Montero. My wife noticed it too. “That doesn’t sound good,” she said. I nodded and agreed as I pulled into the next turnout and shut off the engine.
I checked the dipstick. Bone dry. That’s my sign that I’m pretty screwed here. I put four quarts of oil into the engine in a futile gesture that maybe I’d saved things by shutting it down when I did. So I turned the engine back on and it sounded like connecting rods were having a boxing match. Quickly, I shut it back down.
Now, a month later, the truck is in a shop that specializes in Mitsubishi vehicles. When I had the truck towed to Ozzy’s Automotive, I walked into to find two Monteros on lifts, a Gen 1 parked out front, and another Gen 2 parked around the side. This is the perfect spot for the pending diagnosis and eventual fix for my Montero. I dread the phone call telling me how much it’s all going to cost, but I know it’s in good hands.
As for the Mustang, my big move was to start pulling things off… but I put that on hold when my Montero died. Hell, I might need to drive this thing for a bit. So to get it somewhat sorted for occasional about-town type runs, I installed two fresh bushings in the shifter to clean up the insane amount of slop. Then my friend Derek and I went to bleed the brakes. The fronts have fresh bleeders on them, which is a good sign. The rears? There’s zero fluid making it back there. We assume the lines are rusted.
I could still drive it just on the front drums, but it’s what I’d consider less than ideal. The more pressing issue is that I still don’t have a title for it. But I took my chances at a different DMV office here in Southern California. One that I’ve heard “is cool”. Turns out, that’s pretty accurate as I was able to get them to agree that I should be able to do a bonded title on the Mustang. With bond secured, I went back to the DMV and got my plates. The title should arrive in two to four weeks. This thing is street-legal… now how do I make it street-safe?