VicCrownVic's 1991 Mercury Grand Marquis GS

[DerekTheGreat]

Heated pole barn ye say? I'd like to make friends with that dude. I've got a short-box Chevy that I've been needing to put a windshield in for two years now, but need space to pop the old one off, fix whatever rust lurks, then paint the roof and hood. Should take me about a weekend but I can't kick either car out of my garage long enough. Sooo, if I could store one of them someplace that would change the game for me.

[VicCrownVic]

He's way up by Lapeer. I can see if we can work something out with him. Since snow has started flying already and that engine is taking up space at your place it's the least I could try to do.

[DerekTheGreat]

No worries about that engine, Vic. Really, it's probably the last thing on my mind. To put it into perspective, there used to be a Ford straight six & M5ODR1 trans there for about two years.

Lapeer isn't too far away, it's certainly not Alpena haha.

[VicCrownVic]

Ended up putting a pinhole in the return tube on the hanger assembly, about where the red circle in the pic is.

After putting everything back together I found this leak.

What happened is the quick connect would not disconnect. It looks like the weld at that bracket to the tube broke the line open when we were working on getting the quick connect fitting off. We tried to not break things but that connector would not budge. Eventually we got it off but everything inside of the connector stayed on the end of the line due to rust. We took a quick trip to the nearest JY, from my friend's place, which was You-Pull and Save in Pontiac. Got the quick connect flex lines with some length of stainless 5/16 on the end opposite the quick connect, for $15 total including yard entry fee. Got them from a mint-before-the-crash '97 LTC (front right fender headlight area impact, looked repairable to me, but airbags had deployed). Insanely clean car. My friend's hydraulic flare tool made easy work of the stainless end. Anyway, I'm driving The Scab this week, luckily the weather is ok, and will be heading back to finish this on Saturday. New pump hanger assembly (with pump and sending unit) to replace the 7 year old unit on this car should be waiting for me when I get home today.

[DerekTheGreat]

You know, I really like that yard in Ponticrack.

I'm amazed at the cars I see in yards sometimes. Guess people would rather junk them then deal with people.

[VicCrownVic]

We got there after 1:00 Saturday afternoon. The weather was great, but there weren't a lot of people there. I did scan the parking lot to see if anyone was there that I knew. If I wasn't already on a mission I would have stayed longer, but we were looking to get in and get out to give us a chance to get my car back together (we did get it back together but found the previous mentioned problem).

[TecNickal]

Spraying fuel from pinholes is not what you want...no need for a fire risk! Glad you got it fixed.

[VicCrownVic]

No spraying in this case, but it was enough of a leak to form a very slow drip. Going back Saturday to put the new hanger assembly in.

Also, being a leak in the return line makes it less crazy. I've had a leak in a feed line before and could see the needle on the fuel gauge dropping. The spray was crazy in that case, and somehow the car still ran in that case.

[VicCrownVic]

We got it, and The Ice Car is now home. Bit of a noob move I think is what happened. We ended up using some Permatex Motoseal, but think the problem may have been that we were lubing the gasket. Lube on the gasket allowed the gasket to squeeze past the face of the hanger, at least that's my theory.
It turns out I actually needed a new pump. It pumped just fine, but with the new pump the feed line holds way more pressure. So I guess there must be a check valve built into the pump? After running with the new pump we changed the fuel filter. Bled the line at the test port and have never seen that kind of pressure with the old pump. The line on the inlet of the old filter was also still pressurized. I've never seen that much pressure when I changed the filter before.

Feels good to have my winter beater to beat winter again.

[DerekTheGreat]

Good deal, glad that's fixed.

"new" battery on my beater fixed my fluttery tach issue. Well, it's 95% better and therefore the truck is less stumbly when first started due to the ECM not knowing how much fuel to feed the dham thing.

[VicCrownVic]

The end is very near for this car.
Apparently OD decided it was done.
Fluid and filter change today revealed nothing alarming in the pan which was strange. Fluid was not burnt, but definitely due for a change (it's been at most 3 years since I last changed it). It shifts into OD but sort of acts like it's in neutral until I slow down and it downshifts. So we messed with the messed up shift cable and got it to where I can actually manually shift into drive and that is good enough for me and hopefully will be good enough to make it through winter.

After 7 years the end for The Ice Car may be any day now.

[87GrandMarq]

Damn man that sucks but if its time then its time. My 87 isn’t a cream puff but it would hurt to have to part it out or scrap it.

On the bright side I’m always looking for parts.


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[VicCrownVic]

A normal person would have quit driving this car years ago. Lol
Almost every panel on the driver's side has at least one fist sized hole, including the almost non-existent fender.

I've had a ton of fun with this car, and a healthy dose of frustration as well. Overall probably my second favorite of the 5 box Panthers I've had over the past 20 years. Still my favorite of the current 2, but it's just not worth keeping this rot box going.

[Tiggie]

There is a point when they are just done. You have used this car well my friend.

Looking for a new ride? Another Panther? Or just going to put the Scab into daily year round use?

[VicCrownVic]

Worst case scenario I'll put The Scab on year round DD. I'd rather not but may have to drive it this winter if the trans in The Ice Car gets worse. So far being able to keep it in drive is working so I'll see for how long that will work.