When I hear "they don't build them like they used to" I'm thankful for that every day. I worked at a service station in 1972 and towed in a 30,000 mile 69 Chevy with a no start that turned out to be a jumped timing chain. Once I got it started it ran on 5 cylinders so I took the heads off and replace some bent valves- 3 year old, 30,000 mile car. I rebuilt so many air cooled VW engines that I bought the valve guide driver for them- working at a service station. Everything burned oil, we would sell at least one 24 quart case of oil at the pumps every shift. I started at the dealer in 75 and the 4 mechanics( we didn't call ourselves techs) shared 1 lift. If you got a 5 year old car for state inspection it was mandatory to pick it up on the lift to check for structural frame rot and many cars failed for it. I did at least one valve job including drilling out and replacing valve guides a week for 2 or 3 years, mostly on cars found to have worn guides during 30,000 mile tune ups. I can still smell the burned up, low mileage C4's I tore down. If a car came in with 80,000 miles it was a clapped out junk most often, 100,000 mile cars were very, very rare. Most V8's had aluminum cam sprockets with nylon teeth and "silent" chains that were ticking time bombs, early 460's were about the worst Fords but they were exponentially better than Pontiacs- 40,000 miles was a stretch. 2.8's had nylon teeth on the cam gear that would usually last 90,000 miles and then end up in the oil pan. We usually replaced them with an aluminum gear from Napa, taking the oil pan off a Pinto or Mustang II to clean out the chunks sucked. As much as I still like the 66-77 Bronco's, they often had rust bleeding out of the rear quarter panel seams while still under warranty- and warranty was 12 months or 12,000 miles. Vehicles aren't cheaper or easier to work on but there is no doubt they last longer.
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Anyhow, $1800 later and I’ve got it back on the road with a new master kit w Kevlar bands and a heavy duty clutch pack. Old guy went thru the transfer case and changed the axle fluids too. Guess I‘ll have to hang on to her for a while longer.
