My 1987 Two Door Crown Victoria AKA THE BROWN BLOB

[Bobcat]

Today was a very productive day.

Back when I went for the first drive with the new engine the car came down with an alternator charge issue. Poked around a bit to discover that the red and green wire at the voltage regulator was not receiving 12v power when in run/start. Poo. That is a problem.

My car no longer has the in-dash battery light so years back when I did all of this I just grabbed an unused 12v in run/start that I found underneath the hood. My 12vdc alternator turn on wire now originates at fuse 18 protected by a 10amper.

Opened up the EVTM and look and try to find what the hell is going on. Every time we put a new fuse in and turn the key it immediately blows the fuse. DEAD SHORT. But where.

Dad and I pull seatbelt warning and other things on the circuit. Dad being dad also tried a bigger fuse 15amp. It blew too!

Anyways after awhile we put a 10amp fuse in and turn the key and all is well. No issues. So I button everything up and go on my way with other things just chalking it up to something underneath the dash shorting out while driving from bouncing around and such. NOT a comfortable feeling so I was going to make a wire handy to provide the "turn on" wire 12v incase the primary one died again.

Go out for drive number two with the new combo and notice my fog lamps are not working.

Mid-drive of drive one I turned the fog lamps on but never looked if they were actually on, or if the indicator for them illuminated. At the end of drive two I add “fix fog lamps” to the list of things to get done.

Now today I got to dig into everything. I pull the fuse panel cover and find the source of the fog lamps power and find it jammed into some female spade next to fuse 18 mentioned above. I then pull the fog lamp switch and find that the 15amp fuse is blown for it. I replace it and turn on the fog lamps. IMMEDIATELY fuse 18 blows its 10amp fuse.

BINGO. Now I now what is going on.

Appears as if the fog lamps are getting power from the same circuit somehow!

I start digging under the hood and find the fog lamps power wire. There is a male and female spade connector in the path. I break it and see if I can power the fog lamps up locally with my power probe. I go to do so and the power probes CB trips and says “internal CB resetting.” Perfect.

Continue following the fog lamps power wire to find it completely pinched and dead shorted to ground underneath the 8mm bolt that holds the inner fender to the fender from the wheel well. This must have happened when I removed the inner fender over winter to replace the computer and install the new brake booster.

Fix that shorted wire and button up the fuse panel with a new 10amp fuse in slot 18 and screw the fog lamp switch back in. Fixed.

So the female spade next to fuse 18 is C301. Somehow that ties into the low fuel warning light which also was not working when fuse 18 blew.

I plan to relay the fog lights as I don’t like its full power originating from this location.


Just happy I don’t need to worry about the alternator quitting on my and leaving me stranded anywhere.





In other news I looked under the hood and the catch can is working like a boss.






Now another thing that has been bothering me is the front addco sway bar. It is the 1 ¼ bar that was made too long so your tires rub when almost at full lock. I think Zach mentioned how this was an issue for many people including himself.

So to remedy this I took to the junkyards in search of a big bar from a 1998-2002 Panther since I have the 1998-2002 spindles to accommodate this style of sway bar. I ended up not only getting a 28.5mm bar which equates to 1 1/8” (just an 1/8” smaller than the addco at 1 1/4") but also figured that I will just take the frame mounts and adapt them to my own frame because its' holes are stripped out in the frame already.

So I made a template with my list and dirty hands and then set it in stone with the sharpie:



Back home I cut it out and transferred it to a piece of aluminum to make a template and give myself an idea as to what will be involved in making this happen.





(this was a piece of road sign I took from Cleveland back in 2012 I believe)



Was easy to fab up and will be mega easy to remove and the install sway bar in the future!

Now I just have to order endlinks, bushings and make the frame accept this style of fastener.

I don't think that, it's going to fit into your ass very easily.

[87gtVIC]

Que?

Needs a Silver Fox valve body to be fun with this engine combo. Shifts are not where I want them and the down shifts are not always there when I want them. UNFUN. Getting ready to row the boat.

[Bobcat]

Que?

Needs a Silver Fox valve body to be fun with this engine combo. Shifts are not where I want them and the down shifts are not always there when I want them. UNFUN. Getting ready to row the boat.

Yup

[87gtVIC]

Today I removed the catch can so its mounting hardware could be painted. Aluminum for the bracket and black for the bolts.

I spliced in an IAC connector from a newer box. One of the original leads at the IAC was not secure because the clip that holds it into the connector was MIA. The newer box IAC is a nice weather tight connector and just looks more robust/proper.

After that I disconnected the battery and removed the two post anti corrosion donuts I had forgotten underneath it when I had installed the battery originally and placed new ones on the post this time. I also removed the wedge style "hold down" at this time as it was never "right". What was actually holding the battery was the battery cover wedged in between everything! This new battery (same model number as the old one) has different breathers up top preventing me from reinstalling the battery cover. Tis all okay though as I installed this guy today:





I think I removed this from a newer box as well.

Battery is nice and secure. I also removed the strap because the install is cleaner with out one.

After that I cleaned up the trunk area as well as the inside of the gas door and gas cap itself.





\

[sly]

you need a fatter + battery cable.

[87gtVIC]

you need a fatter + battery cable.

Thats what she said!


Today I relayed the fog lights on my car as it was something I always intended on doing. Years back I pulled a cute two banger relay box from some whale (I believe) panther and utilized one of its holes for a fog lamp relay.

I sourced its new “direct battery power” from inside my fuse box that was installed years back from a 93 panther or so. It is much easier opening up this plastic fuse box to get to its internals in this hot weather. I remember doing this in the dead of winter before and it was no bueno. I was always super afraid that the plastic will break because of the frigid temperature. This heat everything is just melting apart lol.

Since I no longer have EGR TAB or TAD solenoids or all of the vacuum components associated with them I made use of “their” space and dropped in the little tiny fuse box!

Fit right in place with no drilling required.

Originally the foglamps were powered off of fuse 18. Power from fuse 18 went to my fog lamp switch and then out to the underhood area where it cruised along the top of the drivers side inner fender and eventually met up with the fog lamp harness (which was just a ground and power/connectors for the two bulbs).

Now the power from fuse 18 goes out to the underhood and crosses over the other side of the engine bay and runs along the passengers side inner fender to one side of the coil on the fog lamp relay. I reversed the fog lamp harness so power enters on the passengers side as well as ground because the relay for it is on the passengers side. Just made things simplier. Just had to snip two zipties and that freed up the Escort GT fog lamp harness and allowed me to re-zip tie it in its new orientation. Ground for the coil of the fog lamp relay and ground for the fog lamps are shared at the front of the passengers side fender right next to the battery. The NO of the fog lamp relay ultimately hits the fog lamp harness providing the lights power whenever the cars key is in and the car is on and if of course if flip the fog lamp switch.


Enough blabbing…here is a picture of the cutie pie relay box:



And how it just “looks right” while sitting in place:



Next job to tackle was the sway bar chassis mount situation.

One chassis sway bar mount hole was stripped out and I had been using a nut and bolt to hold it in place. Lucky for me that was on the passengers side where there are rather large factory holes in the frame allowing me to do so.

While at the yards a week back I wash harvesting a sway bar from a 1998 panther and realized how much better of a mounting situation Ford gave these vehicles. It is basically a clip that slips into the frame and has the stud for the sway bar brackets to go over and you just use a nut instead of tightening a bolt into the frame. Great. So I pulled that too and integrated that into my chassis.

Sway bar and its components removed:





My template:



Taped in place and ready:



Template done:



Center punched and ready for drilling..... :



Completo:



Currently the chassis is in rust encapsulator and will get chassis black paint tomorrow on those areas.

All for this guy:



Red means its FAST. LOL

Waiting on stupid expensive sway bar end links as well bushings. I ordered regular bushings as well as energy suspension ones. We’ll see which ones I use when the time comes.

[gadget73]

Fun. The stock sway bar mount stuff is a bit sketchy. Its not the only thing thats a little marginal in the stock design. The lower front shock holes and the upper rear shock mounting come to mind as being another example.

[Salty Dog]

Bad ass car!

[sly]

If my shock mounts ever strip out, I'm probably going extruded nut (those clip over style nuts like what those sway bar brackets are using) on those tabs. Then I don't have to try to hold a nut while bolting up the shock.

[packman]

I was giving some thought to welding a hardened bolt to the LCA. Fortunately, I found LCAs that were not stripped. Might be something I need to revisit for future upgrades.

[87gtVIC]

Bad ass car!

Thanks.

If my shock mounts ever strip out, I'm probably going extruded nut (those clip over style nuts like what those sway bar brackets are using) on those tabs. Then I don't have to try to hold a nut while bolting up the shock.

I have j nuts in the lower a arms to accept bolts. Works great.






And this car boogies on the highways. Just maintaining any speed the AFRs are high 13.s. Give it a bit more then it dips into the 12's while in OD. Romp on the bish and she gets up an goes (after the AOD decides if it wants to or not she aint sounding so hot....) and climbs FAST. That AOD is not long for this world. Not only because this particular one does NOT like the new power BUT because a manual will be MUCH funner.

I hit the rev limiter (I don't think valves were floating) in third around 130mph. Feels like there is more in her if I decide to have that rev limiter raised. Looking at the tach it looked like it was around 6K! I cannot guarantee the accuracy of any of my gauges.

Of course I was being a douche and traffic was coming up fast (when your going ~130 shit appears in no time) and I had to hop into the HOV lane and decided to step on it again. The jeep I over passed nosedives....OH SHIT. COP. I somehow was invisible. Maybe it was the old man car aspect of it.

[Jason_GMQ91]

Haha that good video David, lucky cop didn't catch you :p

[tjc78]

Wow, better go put in for a powerball ticket.

I had something similar happen while being an ass in the 04. I'm sure if you were driving a red Stang you would have gotten pulled over if he clocked you or not.

I wonder if he was locked on the jeep and couldn't get locked back on you fast enough. You still had to be pretty well over the limit when you were driving past.

[sly]

I bet he saw the number and figured a bird had flown by as the number dropped real quick because that car couldn't be doing that speed.

[Tiggie]

Yes play the lottery tonight good sir because you are one lucky man right now.