Bought a new car this morning

Looks like my 1964 Valiant slant, exc. mine is a convertible. When I drove it home 70 miles after purchase, I had a few problems. I stayed off the interstate and took parallel farm roads, with a son following in our minivan. 10 miles out, the engine just died. The ignition wiring was erratic. Instead of the proper connector at the key switch, they had used a bunch of individual spade connectors which were falling off. The switch was new, likely because they burned up the first by wiring a radiator fan straight off the switch (gomers). I ran a jumper straight from BATT+ to coil+. Ran great for 5 miles then started missing bad above 45 mph. Popped the hood and the coil was so hot it was melting its paint. A reason for that ballast resistor, so I used more jumpers to wire thru it, then no more problems. It clunked at stop signs because the suspension bushings were shot.

Initially, I had tried to flat-tow it home, but it wouldn't follow and the front tires would **** sideways. I should have tried the trick of using bungee cords to keep the steering centered, but getting late so I decided to return the next day and drive it home. I suspect the problem was the caster isn't enough with today's radial tires, which I improved by installing Moog offset bushings (read posts). You can also buy aftermarket adjustable tubular upper control arms. My 1965 Dart did the same when I tried to flat-tow it "as found" to the DMV.

If not an erratic electrical problem, perhaps the rubber hose at the fuel pump inlet is soft and collapsing at higher flow. That plagued me on a cross-country trip in 1988 in our 1969 Dart slant. I suspect as we drove west, we ran into 10% ethanol gas which was fairly new then. The car would start missing on hills and finally above 55 mph on a warm day on I-40 in NM so I stopped at an auto parts, found the problem and swapped the hose in the parking lot in 5 min as wifey ordered at a restaurant with the tykes. Think that would make me her hero, but instead got, "just buy a new car". She never owned a car before we married so has no concept of "issues". Can't think of any 1988 model I would like to have today, and wish I still had that Dart (much more valuable) but was stolen in 1994.