My 1987 Two Door Crown Victoria AKA THE BROWN BLOB

[DerekTheGreat]

or just a need to get around for several days with a busted clutch cable until payday.

Begs the question, if the clutch cable is busted, how the hell do you get the vehicle started and what do you do if you have to stop?

that is a professional way to shift for large trucks. I have no manual vehicles now but when I do clutches are for 1st gear.

Well yeah, the flywheel and input shaft and all that are super heavy so there is a longer time window to get the shift right, not to mention they don't have synchros. If it's a light duty transmission and if everything is in good shape, don't do that lol. You're only going to burn out the synchros more. At most, I'd rev match going 1-2 with an M50DR1, and only when going super slowly.

[packman]

I'd be the guy that would lose a few tenths because I dislike the notion of breaking stuff. I can and often have driven without even using the clutch by rev matching the engine. Its not exactly a rapid gear change process but when you drive things with clapped out synchros its the only way to do a gear shift without a "grind it till you find it" situation.

I had a friend that said that to me quite awhile ago. If he absolutely needed to win a race, he would run the RPMs up past the shift point and bang the gears. Didn't tell me if that made a positive difference.

[gadget73]

shut the engine off, jam it in first, start the engine. I'm sure thats not wonderful for the starter but if the engine runs decently it will catch and go pretty quickly. This was something built long before safety switches, so it had no issues with being started in gear with no clutch.

You can pop them into neutral without much fuss, and with practice you can rev match for downshifting. I won't lie and tell you its easy or a lot of fun but it can be done if there isn't any choice in the matter.

[mitymerc]

I used to drive em home broken. One time I lost 3rd at the track, went 1, 2, 4, 5 till I lost 4th as well.
1 gear, 2nd geeeeaaaaarrrrrr, fifth. Then 2nd went away LOL. Still made it home.

[sly]

Did that with that POS Suzuki I used to have. Lost 2nd and 1st was a granny gear and 3rd was hard to reach from 1st. By the time I was able to get it to the shop, I was 200miles over the factory warranty (had an extended warranty and ended up with a new trans for $200 - worked out for me)... but driving by ramping out 1st gear to lug 3rd was rough.

[87gtVIC]

Some tire chirpin' and spinnin' for you guys:

Chrips the 1-2 no problem spins even if you stay on it. Still a noob.


And some pics:

[mitymerc]

Keep up the good work!
Did I hear a bark on the first 2/3 shift?

[87gtVIC]

Yes you did.


Also on the 5 4 down shift. But that is just drivetrain abuse at that point.

[mitymerc]

Even with double downshifts I never liked to make it bark.

[87gtVIC]

Did an oil change, drained the PCV catch can and swapped in a new motorcraft IAC and coil in place of the old ones.

Coil was an MSD blaster coil I believe. It was showing signs of aging..visual aging...splitting epoxy and such so I ditched it for a motorcraft unit. Looks nicer in the bay to boot.



Found out the fan clutch has seen better days. HOT HOT HOT and it likes to spin too much for my liking. Off to rockauto I go.

EDIT..Any recommendations on fan clutch?

[mitymerc]

I used the police one on one of my fox cars. Supposed to cool better st lower rpms.

[87gtVIC]

I used the police one on one of my fox cars. Supposed to cool better st lower rpms.

Search under the 351 engine? Compatible like that?


EDIT
Not finding much variety on the panther chassis fan clutches.

[gadget73]

You might get slightly better AC performance from a non-thermal since it will be engaged all the time at lower speed. Thermal clutches will drop out until they get hot enough.

[87gtVIC]

Lets say yours needs to be replaced. What are you purchasing?

[mitymerc]

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/ford,1987,country+squire,5.0l+302cid+v8,1107504,cooling+system,radiator+fan+clutch,6812

There is 1 non thermal listed.