DEAR CAR TALK: My friend Rick just told me that he and his wife are expecting their first child. Rick wants to buy a 1960-'64-era Ford Falcon ... he plans to add electronic ignition, improve the suspension and put on disc brakes. In short, he thinks he can make a car of that vintage a safe vehicle. I told him he's crazy -- that a 50-year-old car never can be as safe as a newer vehicle, no matter how much it has been updated. Who is right? Rick, or me? I told him to get a used Honda Civic or Accord ... something a bit more practical than an ancient Ford Falcon.
-- Ken
DEAR KEN: This is why mothers exist, to protect their children.
You've heard the famous expression "like a mama bear protecting her cubs"? That's because Papa Bear is out playing pool and dreaming about taking the cubs to play at the local rifle range while wearing bull's-eye T-shirts.
This is a lousy idea, Ken. Rick could spend $100,000 installing seat belts, air bags, anti-lock brakes, stability control, a padded dashboard and steel I-beams in the doors, and it still wouldn't be as safe as a 2011 Nissan Versa (the cheapest car sold that year).
Not to mention it would still be a 1964 Falcon! They had trouble getting people to buy them back then.
In terms of safety, an early-'60s car just wasn't designed to crash the way modern cars are. Modern cars are built from the ground up to have crumple zones that absorb the forces of an impact in a crash, and protect the passengers. So a modern car is, by design, 100 times safer than anything he can make out of an early-'60s Falcon.
I think, in his heart, Rick knows that. He's just resisting the onset of true adulthood.
He suddenly pictures himself driving a minivan and wearing his favorite leather jacket with baby drool all over it, and he's freaking out. That's natural. Most men panic when faced with giving up their youth and freedom. But hey, we all got used to it!
So have a little sympathy for Rick. Tell him he'll love fatherhood. Tell him that when his kid is a teenager, he can get a '64 Falcon, and he and the kid can restore it together. It'll be a great bonding experience. And then once it's restored, his wife can still refuse to allow her child to ride in it.
DEAR CAR TALK: I have a '95 Toyota Tacoma. It has 152,000 miles on it and four-wheel drive with locking hubs. When I run it in reverse in 4WD high or 4WD low, it seems to bind up. I have changed the fluid in the pumpkins and transfer case, and found no metal. Do you have ideas on where I should start?
-- Michael
DEAR MICHAEL: At your closest Toyota new-car showroom.
Actually, my guess is that one or two of your hubs are binding up. They do that when they get a couple of decades of corrosion on them.
You can test the theory by engaging 4WD, shifting the truck into reverse, and putting it up on a lift. My guess is that you'll see only one of the front wheels turning backward. That means the other wheel is experiencing some resistance.
To find out how much resistance, you'll need to stop the wheel that's spinning and force the differential to make the other wheel turn. We usually do that by having the dumbest guy in the shop hang from the spinning wheel. After he goes around a few times and bangs his head on the fender liner, he can sometimes bring that wheel to a stop. And if he wasn't the dumbest guy in the shop before, he is by then.
A safer approach is to use a 6-foot pry bar and jam it between the fender liner and the tire. If you can't get the spinning wheel to stop and the other wheel to start turning, then you probably have a sticking hub on the side that's not turning.
You may be able to take apart the hub and clean it up. So try that before you look for a new one, Michael.
Ray Magliozzi dispenses advice about cars in Car Talk every Saturday. Email him by visiting
cartalk.com
HomeStyle on 04/30/2016