egnorant wrote: Bad trans in an Escort was a missing bushing.
This happened with my EGT.
And then it turned out that ALL three things that will cause the tranny to act like it was "bad," those being, missing bushing, bad rear trans mount, and a bad tranny....
Had happened. OUCH.
I had an issue with a Nissan Sentra years ago when I lived in Fairbanks, Alaska. It would barely start and run like it was running on 1 cylinder when the sun was out but cold. It drove me batty having a year old car I couldn't drive. Someone said it might be a worn cam so I bought a cam, went to the on-post auto craft shop to rebuild it and a freind helping me noticed that the choke was sealing completely. Held the choke open and it ran great. The choke setting was factory sealed so a took a small piece of wire and looped it around the linkage limiting travel so it wouldn't close all the way and drove it another year. When I traded it in for a K5 Blazer, the dealer said it ran and looked good and gave me top price for it. It still had the wire on it at that time. Still have the camshaft around someplace through several moves.
Worked for a John Deere dealer on lawn equipment. Customer bought new riding tractor/mower. Called and said it was sputtering and cutting out. Test drove it, ran fine. The seat had a spring loaded safety switch that cut out the engine when you got off. Turns out this only happened when the 8 yr old son was driving. Removed one of the springs on the seat. problem solved. Lots of other stuff, old gas was a biggy.
I had a customer who drove an F350 diesel dually to tow horse trailers (her hubby was a banker and bought the truck and horses etc to keep her occupied so he could step out, but that's another tale) and she continually complained that it wouldn't start. She was about 5'2" and she just couldn't hold the clutch pedal all the way to the floor so the clutch safety switch wasn't engaging. After several no-start instances, I understand the switch had an, er, nervous breakdown.
I had a start problem on the Pinto. Took the starter out to the chuckle heads at Kragen and they tested it saying it was OK. Replaced the Positive cable, but it still would not start. Kragen replaced the starter, but even it would not go. Checked out the CCA for batteries and found out that my 3year old battery when new was 150cca lower from the cheapest battery. Replaced the battery with the recomended for the V8 and now have no problems.
OOPS
A few years ago I did some work on my grand marquis to convert its engine to full High Output mustang spec, a whopping 225hp. Over spring break I tore the engine down to a short block in the car, barely fitting in the garage, and in 30* weather. I get my new (used) heads, cam, intake, and exhaust installed and get everything buttoned up. I labeled everything I had to plug in and took a ton of pictures so I knew where everything went. I thought I was done but the car would barely run, it was pig rich, and cut out right around 15 seconds after it got started. I replaced all kinds of sensors to no avail. It turns out I forgot to torque down the rocker arms. All of them. lol
AWL UV DEM!
LOL!
That hasn't happened to me yet, but then again, I'm not that awesome to where I can tear an engine down and put it back together. . . 
Drove up to Detroit to pick up a non running $350 95 Grand Marquis about 5 years ago, towed it home, opened the hood and determined it was an ignition issue, climbed under the steering and found a switch, flicked it and guess what, started right up, the guy had owned it for 8 years and didn't know it had a ignition cut off.
I got 150K out of her before the trans died and I sold it for $500
I put an HO 5.0L engine in my '80 Mustang (that was originally a 4 cylinder car) and got everything ready to go and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't run right. It was backfiring and missing and just running terrible in general. The car was at my folks and I was in college two hours away. One day it hit me that I might have put the plug wires on for a standard 302 firing order and not the right one for a roller-cammed H.O. engine. I couldn't wait to get back to the car and see if that was the case. 5 minutes of checking the book (verifying that I HAD in fact made this oversight...one that I knew about!) and re-ordering the plug wires and the thing fired up and ran like a champ. Cool!
Fast forward many years. A previous employer was putting together a really neat fairlane for his daughter. They just couldn't get the thing to run right. I mentioned this experience of mine and told them to look into it. Quite a bit later, when I asked about it, they told me they had somehow figured out that the firing order was different because of the cam they put in the engine and that was the problem. THEY figured it out? I guess they weren't listening to me...
Clem
I had to replace a head gasket on the ex's old '88 Cavalier (for like the 3rd time!) one day. I was also watching my then-two-year-old while doing a job I'd done several times before. Got it all put together, and was in a hurry as I had to drive it 4 hours away the next day. I went to start it and got nothing. I was heartbroken and confused.
Next morning, 5:30 am (or some equally ominously-early equivalent), my eyes popped open and I sat up! I got it. I had SEEN in my minds eye (a dream, I guess) the drain pan with the rocker arms sitting under the back of another car in the garage!
I buttoned up the valve cover without ever installing the rocker arms. The rocker arms were laid out neatly in a pan (that also had held the pushrods and head bolts) and I tucked it away so it didn't get kicked or tripped over.
I unzipped the valve cover, installed rocker arms, put it back together, and it fired right up and ran.
I drove it 4 hours to a friend's house (who's now a famous racecar driver...funny) so he could sell it for me in a town (where I live now) with a larger population.
Clem
I had my sawzall miata out for it's first track day this summer. I had only driven it for 5 autox runs so I didn't know what kind of power to expect. It was out on the track and somewhat quick, but I noticed after about 10 laps that the throttle kept sticking open a little. I came in and popped the hood. I played with the TB and noticed it was really stiff. I soon found out that when I put the air filter on, I failed to realize that my dad had put a shop rag in the maf to keep the dirt out. Once I pulled the rag out of the TB, the car got a lot faster and the thottle no longer stuck. 
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