Actually trying to maintain and drive a Yugo you are more likely to end up needing AA than the AAA.:D

Probably wouldn't use the Yugo for a first date. I have access to a Delorean if I really want to impress.

If you're looking for another classic:


https://www.craigslist.org/about/best/fre/546194826.html?lang=en&cc=us

Hell of a bait and switch. Date one delorean. Date 2 pushing a yugo. At that rate date 3 will be a broken bicycle.:D

Got one of the brake calipers done, completely seized because of rust at the top but bor and piston cleaned up nicely. Thought ******** sent us the wrong brake lines but it turns out they updated the front brake lines. The carburetor is still acting up after a rebuild, considering replacing it or going to EFI. It's the same basic carb as an 80s Ford Escort.

The Yugo tooling was purchased from Fiat. It was basically the Fiat 1200 of the sixties and seventies. When living in Germany ca. 69 to 71, I saw several of them that blew an engine before the 10,000 km warranty expired. One of the worst pieces of crap ever built. It is even as bad as th a Renault Dauphine of the fifties and sixties.

With a rebuilt Ford Escort carb, it runs great! Just have to finish the brakes, have the tires mounted, some exhaust work, and a radiator cap and it'll be ready for the road.

Cool!

Anyone seen the documentary about the Yugoslavian secret space program they sold to NASA in the fifties to beat the Russians: "Houston, We Have a Problem!" There is a great part of why and how yugo's came to the US. It's a fascinating story. It's on Netflix if interested.

https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/what-do-you-make-houston-we-have-problem-film-claiming-secret-yugoslavian-space

Got a new fuel pump on the thing plus bled the brakes and it's on the road! Unfortunately, the tires we bought are slightly too big and rub, so going to have to track down some 155/70-13s.

It's not the slowest car I've ever been in (77 240D takes the cake) or the worst riding car I've ever been in (Nissan Versa) or the worst built car I've ever been in (also Nissan Versa). Overall very pleased with it, should hopefully be able to drive it around town tomorrow once we rebleed the brakes as there's still a bit of air in the system.

Soft Brakes
 

Try the stick trick overnight .

I'

What's the stick trick?

We bled the brakes again, going around to each caliper a few times to make sure we got all of the air out, made it quite a bit better.

Actually drove it on the road over to the gas station and Walmart, had a lot of people stop and talk to us about it, then took it to my friend's neighbors house where we found out one of the guys that lives there has a paint booth and says he'll paint it for us if we supply the paint, he'll supply the stuff to prep the surfaces.

The Stick Trick
 

You prop the brake pedal down a bit and leave it overnight or better, 24 hours .

What it does is : leaves the by pass port inside the master cylinder open and allows atmospheric pressure to draw out that last tiny bubble or two .

A trick from an old BMC Engineer, I've used it on many vehicles, using rubber bands to hold a Motocycle brake lever to the handlebars over night will return that rock hard feeling it lost some years ago .'

Dropped the tank to replace the filler neck hose that was split plus the suction hose. Still wouldn't start and run well, figured out the solenoids on the carb weren't opening. Improved the engine ground and voila, it runs again. Hoping to get it over to the exhaust shop sometime this week so it can be driven more regularly.

It's been a while since I last updated. We tried to use an electric fuel pump when the mechanical pump died but it couldn't generate enough lift so we ordered a new diaphragm for the mechanical pump. That solved a could of problems but it was still running like crap so we changed the timing belt and retimed the ignition. It ran beautifully for a few hours until the carb decided to die. Pulled it off and discovered that one of the passages had become clogged by aluminum particles that had eroded off of the casting. This was a rebuilt Weber carb for a Ford Escort, not the original Weber for the thing so we've ordered another carb to see if we can get it running long enough to get the exhaust replaced then we'll look at doing an EFI conversion with a TBI unit off of an early Saturn.