VicCrownVic's 1991 Mercury Grand Marquis GS

[DerekTheGreat]

Dirty PS fluid looks like oil to me. I religiously use type F ATF in these. For my GMC stuff, I think gadget recommended Mercon/Dexron III I need to flush those out.

But I definitely like being able to differentiate between the fluids so I know what's what when a leak happens. My K1500 has an oil cooler, so a leak towards the front right now could mean oil or PS fluid since they're a similar color and the lines occupy the same general area, especially easy to get things mixed up when the drips hit the ground or have had time to wick onto things and dry out.

[gadget73]

i just use what the manual says to use. The Ferds say F. I know the R&P in my Mark VII felt noticeably better with F vs Dex III. I doubt the steering box models care, though the Towncar was quieter with F vs Dex. New pump was quieter anyway so it might not care about it now either.

[VicCrownVic]

Mine have always been quite as long as they have a reasonable level of fluid. Both cars have had seals replaced on the PS pumps in the past few years, I think this one was done 3 years ago.

[sly]

I've been running dex/merc in mine and it's got the same feel as the old pump with F. Both are quiet.

[DerekTheGreat]

dex/mer III?

Something that helps them be a bit quieter is Motorkote. I put that in all of those crappy CII pumps.

[sly]

Yup. Type F is getting hard to find on the shelf around here.

[DerekTheGreat]

Wooord.

Heh, I tend to buy a couple quarts of type F whenever I see it in the Valvoline flavor.

[VicCrownVic]

New Tie rod ends went on this past weekend. I've only drove this car occasionally on weekends since the end of May.
A couple times a few weeks ago I noticed when I returned home in The Scab in the dark that the dome light in The Ice Car was on. When I barely touched the front passenger door it went off. Same scenario happened again within a week so I yanked and readjusted the doorjamb light switch and so far so good. This problem probably explains why this car seems to kill the battery much faster after sitting compared the The Scab.

Drove this car to work today and might be parking The Scab for the season, if not it is getting pretty close to that time of year.

Got a pair of Lincoln logs earlier this summer that I have been meaning to install on The Ice Car, but haven't gotten around to it yet. The connection at the manifolds to the cat/downpipes is not great (crappy studs and stripped brass nuts) and if I have to mess with that I might as well throw the Lincoln logs on. If we get one more nice weekend in November like we sometimes do I guess that will be my last chance to install the Lincoln logs, otherwise it will probably never happen.

[VicCrownVic]

A picture from this past Saturday. Filter applied in an attempt to reduce glare.


And a picture I found on my phone from back on May 14, 2019. Look how small this car is. LOL

[DerekTheGreat]

Wow, she's one of the crustiest boxes I've seen in quite some time... Far cry from the pic in your sig

[VicCrownVic]

You should see the other side, lol.
I think the underside is actually the good side on this thing, considering there isn't much left of the other sides.

I locked the keys in while on one of my weekend cruises up to my parents place this summer. I had the kids with me and the wife was not, so I think it threw me off my exit car routine. No big deal though, just reached my hand into the rust hole in the driver door and unlocked it from inside the door.

[DerekTheGreat]

You should see the other side, lol.
I think the underside is actually the good side on this thing, considering there isn't much left of the other sides...

I think the body acted as the sacrificial anode or something.

...I locked the keys in while on one of my weekend cruises up to my parents place this summer. I had the kids with me and the wife was not, so I think it threw me off my exit car routine. No big deal though, just reached my hand into the rust hole in the driver door and unlocked it from inside the door.

[87gtVIC]

Nice. Lol.

You should see the other side, lol.
I think the underside is actually the good side on this thing, considering there isn't much left of the other sides.

I locked the keys in while on one of my weekend cruises up to my parents place this summer. I had the kids with me and the wife was not, so I think it threw me off my exit car routine. No big deal though, just reached my hand into the rust hole in the driver door and unlocked it from inside the door.

[VicCrownVic]

I took this car to the 2019 Metro Detroit GMN meet. Just ask TecNickal about the underside on this car. It does not look like the same car.

Today while the wife was at the hospital visiting her mother, and I was home with my daughter I decided nap time would be a great time to finally replace my wiper motor. That plan worked perfectly.

The wipers had been slowing down, but a week or two ago they stopped altogether. I had a $10 closeout motor in my rockauto cart while the old motor was slowing down, with the intention of checking if I had the 1 connector or 2 connector motor. Once the old motor quit I pulled the trigger and bought it without checking, figuring the conversion would be no big deal for me if I needed to convert it.
Long story short, I did have to do the conversion. The new motor has 1 connector and the old has 2. I grabbed the connector pigtail four about $5 from a '97 MGM at the JY one day last week after work. Looked up schematics and pinouts and found it was a simple conversion with each colored wire having an identical color match between the '97 pigtail and the '91 harness.

Wipers work great now.

Pics

Before:


After:


I didn't find too much crap inside the wiper cowl. Not enough to interfere with the linkage anyway.



Although I did find a quarter in there. (Year on the quarter is 2000)



Part number on the new one connector wiper motor is F5PU-17504-DA for those interested.



Close-up of the clip:

[VicCrownVic]

Last weekend I spent some time replacing a section of rotted out fuel line. This was after finding a substantial fuel leak from the tank area 2 Thursdays ago. I later determined the fuel tank leak was the fuel pump hanger assembly gasket. Friday morning after finding that leak I found another leak in the return line near the splice I had done 5 years ago when I replaced the font half of that line. So last week Saturday I went up to my parents' place and while assessing the leaks I found another leak in the return line where it followed the frame up by the wheel arch. So I had fun replacing the rear half of the return line last week.

While driving up to address the leaks my airbag light started flashing (8 flashes). I knew the front forward/center crash sensor looked like crap when I saw it earlier this past Spring, so I was pretty sure that was the culprit. Looking up the code confirmed this. So today I grabbed a sensor that looked mint, installed it and the airbag light stays off when it should.
I didn't get pics of the new one, but do have pics of the old one:


For the hanger gasket leak I ordered a lock ring and gasket set. I accidently filled the tank due to not paying attention last night and found a wet spot in the driveway this morning. It hadn't been leaking since I have been keeping it between 1/4 and 3/4 full. Parts arrived today, including a new strainer/sock since I'm pretty sure something didn't go right when dad installed this stuff 7 years ago. Hopefully the new strainer/sock will allow me to make hard right turns without stalling when I have around 1/4 tank or less.
That's next weeks plan, luckily on a lift in my friend's heated pole barn.