My Van

My 89 Ford Van, like all older vehicles, has needed a lot of maintenance over the years.

The first repair I did shortly after receiving it was to replace the back fuel pump.
Then I think I had to replace the front shocks. Then a coil and while I was under the hood I did a tune up, new wires, new distributor cap and rotor, new plugs.

With an older vehicle you expect this.

Going from front to back, as best memory serves, I replaced

A spring on one of the headlights. The headlight screws. Both headlights several times. Side marker lights, directional lights, The radiator ( twice )
Radiator hoses, heater hoses, the heater core (front ) Removed back heater core and aux hoses.
Removed A/C lines and condenser that never worked
New brakes and rotor on front, new tires on front ( twice )
New brake lines and hoses (front )
Alignments
New fuel pumps in front and back tanks ( twice )
New starter (twice )
New water pump
New EGR valve
New high pressure fuel pump and regulator.
New CAM for steering wheel
New temp sensor, new valve cover gaskets, new oil fill tube.
New exhaust manifolds ( 2 of them )
New Y pipe on exhaust
New O2 sensor
New catalytic converter
New exhaust system ( everything behind converter including hangers and brackets and muffler) (twice)
3 New batteries
Back brakes
Back shocks
Back bolts that hold back gas tank to frame
(they don’t make these any more, so I had to make a suitable replacement )
Side door parts
Side door window motor

I’m sure there are more things I have forgotten.

The thing is, I know the van. It’s not perfect, but I know what to expect.
It leaks all sorts of fluids, but it gets me around.
I drove it to Binghamton and back and it made it.

Sure, I would love to have a new reliable vehicle, but I can never afford that, and anything used is going to have problems.
That’s why people sell their vehicles and get something else, because it has problems.

The van is big. Holds lots of stuff, and I don’t have to squeeze into it.
There is a lot of elbow room and leg room and it’s up high and easy to see what is going on around me. It's not, as I have loving grown to call them, a clown car.

All the newer SUV's are like those little clown cars that you see at the circus that 20 clowns pour out of. There is no room in them. It's great for the 5' 4" socker mom that weighs 150, but for the 285 6 foot man, forget it. You can barely squeeze in and your leg nerve gets pinched.

I had brisitis in my hips and could not fgure out why. It was due to squeezing into my sister's and my mom's SUV's.

My van is easy to get in and out of and I don't have any pain after driving it.

I need to get it at least 1 new tire and I need to adjust the alignment and maybe it will pass inspection.

The turn signal switch I think I can get to pass and worry about replacing it later.