Capri Moments

One of my moments was in my 1969 1600 GT, around 1982 near Narbethong in Victoria.  I was coming home from a weekend waterskiing with mates on Lake Eildon.  I was happily coasting down a long hill on the highway when the rear wheels locked up and the engine stalled!  I kept the car straight despite the camber and managed to pull up safely on the side of the road.  Had to be the diff.  I could move the car backwards and forwards just a few inches.  After a long walk to the Black Spur pub and a long wait for a tow got the car back home.
 
I pulled the diff centre out, easy to do on 1600s, to find that one of the crown wheel bolts had wound out enough for the bolt head to catch the edge of the diff housing.  Closer inspection revealed that other bolts were winding out too! Fortunately no damage done other than the expensive Sunday evening tow from near Narbethong to East Kew.  Some loctite on ALL the other threads and the correct torque applied saw another 50,000 Kms from the (almost) trusty 1600GT.
 
1600 Diff Centre pic.  Note the bolt heads on the right of the crown wheel gear plate.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/dzJostmWtJQRtkuq1

i dont have any pics - too traumatised ..
 
Lent my RS3100 to the missus to drive. She called me up 1/2 an hour later to say that it had broken down and she couldn't start it
When I got there - there it is, sitting in the middle of 3 lanes at traffic lights, cars banked up trying to get past it. And where's she, across the road in a coffee shop, having a sip .... OMG
I jumped in it, it started straight up - could have killed her...
(she hasn't driven it since)

My forst car was a 1970 1600 Deluxe.  On the way back from Seymour it bagan to overheat and then stemed its head off.  The alternators bottom bolt lost its nut and shot forward, but the radiator stopped it falling out.  as I was driving the forward backward motion punched the head of the bolt through the core.  a tin of Bars Leak and the cap just clicked on allowed ne to nurse it home.  

My worst really was moving in with my girlfriend of two years. Had one of my three Capris on a tow truck with others following the same day. Got to the house to sort out space only to be told “if they all come here I’m going”. Well one made it the other two a V6 and a 69gt went to scrap that day. I kept the V8 for only another year 20 or so years ago.
Where still together now the Girlfriend with kids and now she allows me to buy a Capri part or two or maybe I miss heard and bought another 7 in the last 4 years. And umpteen parts. Still wonder about those cars. Win win for me.

wow, I mustn't have driven mine enough compared to the experiences you guys have.
But this one time, at bandcamp... I was always nervous of the Capri driving it during peak hour etc, mainly because I expected it would die at the least convenient time, or it would get shunted by a numpty checking his facebook. Back in the nightclub era, I used to take out the rotor from my 1600 whenever I thought it was parked in a risky spot. So the next morning after a Friday night out, at one of the local major intersections, I just could not get the Capri across this intersection. I was the first car stopped at the lights, and it would just stall, buggered if I could get it to take of.
After the 3rd change of lights went though,and the cars still stalling each time,I was getting a few drivers pretty annoyed. Finally with an excessive amount of revs and clutch slip, I slinked off around the corner much to the delight of everyone else. You know what was wrong i'm sure, yes you can put a rotor on arse about when it's 1.30 in the morning and pitch dark, somehow in such a way that you can drive it home 5km and only see the problem the next day.
Refitted the rotor on, timing went back to normal, and happy days.

Only last year driving my White V6 Auto home from work late waiting for a NBN installer that did not show I came down a hill to some tight bends. The car shutdown with nowhere to go but half a meter of mud and grime with half the car on the road. Right on dusk with semi trailers and worse Prado drivers driving past it an 80km road. One failing these cars have is no hazards so I just put the right blinker on with bonnet open. Looking with no clue as to what happened.
Fortunately their are still great people in this world and two cars stopped one behind and one in front a husband and wife in separate cars and they turned on their hazards.
You can see how bad drivers have become when they only see the incident 20m before they hit something as semi drivers are being forced off the road by idiots.
We looked for spark and fuel. Fuel Ok but no spark. Fortunately hubby had an electrical tester so we delved further but all indications were nothing was wrong. Then I held the dizzy and the whole top with rotor came off in my hand.
We found that the advance weights had come off and shattered the alloy casing.
So called NRMA with emergency pick up with a tow truck. We had been there an hour already. The wife left to take the children home and this precious man waited with me and his hazards for two hours till the tow showed insisting he would not leave as it was to unsafe.
Tow showed up and all was good. He left with a hug from me but probably didn’t expect that.
Two months ago I came across a boat with a flat wheel with grandparents and middle aged driver and wife half on the road and they flagged me down. They had no spare wheel, no wheel brace and no jack. It’s a 90km zone with little to no verge on the side. I parked behind with my hazards ( in my truck not Capri) and insisted they drive further out of harms way. My tyre stuff wouldn’t work so I waited with them for near on two hours in 40 degree heat until their tow showed up.
When you see someone in need of a hand do it because you know if you need one you hope you find it.
Got a dizzy of JR so it’s all good now. But oil and check those advance weights even though you can’t see them.

I was driving through the polly farmer tunnel (in Perth) in my old white 1600 about 12 years ago. Had a few mates in the car and the music was blaring. Suddenly I lost drive. The engine was running but still no drive.
Suddenly the back of the car dropped to the ground - turns out the half shaft had come free from the diff and spat the whole back driver side wheel out - quite an experience.
 
P