Hall of Shame

Mechanics

Mechanics actually told SHOtimes members these things, and did these things.

Clutch

 "SHOs have non-adjustable hydraulic clutches."

Don't drive the car too hard because "these things only have a 6-inch clutch."

Grand Master

Another mechanic installed a Grizzly throwout bearing incorrectly in a SHOtimes member's car. He not only installed the bearing backwards, but he locktited it to the sleeve upon which it is supposed to travel freely. The manufacturer has framed this bearing and hung it on his office wall.

But, he wasn't done. There are three locating pins on the flywheel that are used to keep the clutch in place on the flywheel. The pins have to be removed in order to surface the flywheel. This guy, though, only removed one. He left the other two on the flywheel and ground them down along with the flywheel surface. The flywheel/clutch assembly ended up out of balance and had to be replaced.

Drivetrain

 "The warranty on your Taurus has been voided by your installation of an aftermarket Yamaha 3.0L engine and aftermarket 5-speed manual transmission."

Engine

 "You should never exceed 4000 RPM or the pushrods will float."

The same dealer responsible for the pushrods comment insisted that the use of premium fuel in the SHO would void the warranty.

Three guys at Normandy Ford claimed that the SHO was supercharged. One of them was adamant enough to ask, "Who's the professional here?". Another report of this misconception was also received from New Jersey.

From Carlos Bonds: I went to Sterling Ford here in VA about a valve tap. I told the shop representative that it would probably need a valve adjustment. "That thing's got hydraulic valves; you can't 'just 'em", he said. Oh but sir I just got off the phone with Ford Motorsports and he said that it has shims in there that need attention every 60000 miles. "That guy is wrong!" He continued with "tell you what we will have to open it up to find the tap... cost you $650 plus parts to diagnose."

I pulled my car from those non SHO knowing guys. I did the valve adjustment myself courtesy of the SHO Shop... cost fifty bucks!!!! Thank God for Vadim!

Identity

 From Craig Printy: I called a local Ford dealer recently about the cost of a valve adjustment and timing belt change for my SHO. His reply was "Now who makes that?" I hung up.

Maintenance

 One dealer recommended that at 30K miles, it was time for the SHO to have its rear brakes cleaned.

One dealer tried to replace a defroster element that had fallen off with superglue instead of the proper conductive material.

Salespersons

Not wanting to be outdone by mechanics, here's some words of wisdom from the fine folks who sell us the second-largest purchase of our lives:

Lineage

 "The SHO is basically a Mustang with four doors" (he couldn't figure out, after opening the hood on the SHO, and then one on a 5.0L Mustang, why the headers looked so different).

Origin

 A salesman told another list member what a nice car the SHO is: "You know, Ford imports that car from Japan." He too was very embarrassed when shown the window sticker that says "Made with pride in Atlanta".

Performance

 "This '96 Taurus LX will dust your '93 SHO Automatic."

From Eric Seager:

I went down to a Ford dealership in the East Bay (near San Francisco) where I was looking at a 1993 SHO. The sales representative asked me why I wanted an SHO since I already had a Taurus GL. I told him that I liked the SHO because it was sporty, it can handle and it had more power than my GL. He laughed at me but I didn't understand why. He asked me what I was going to do with my GL and I told him that I wanted to trade it in. He told me that if I wanted to make my Taurus just as good as the SHO, to go down to Radio shack and buy an adjustable resistor for $5.00, splice my coolant temp. sensor wire, and install the resistor. I began to leave but I wanted to find out how much of a dumb-ass this guy really was so I asked him what I should do about the handling. He said that my GL handles just as good as the SHO. I left the lot laughing so hard that I began to cry.