Saved from the Demo Derby: 1990 Country Squire

[Kodachrome Wolf]

If the musty smell persists, you might want to try some DampRid if they still sell it. Used it in my late grandmother’s house before it was sold for moisture control. Helped remove that musty smell from the house since it was sitting empty.

[Tiggie]

Twenty mile trip last week was flawless, so ventured out about sixty miles today.

The good: “Power” is back after timing advance. Ride is amazing. And it’s very quiet at all speeds up to 75mph, which is as fast as I’ve gone. I am liking smooth and quiet. I have enough rough and loud crap in other rides.

The bad: “Power” is still lopo.

Needs shocks. I’m afraid the Motorcraft extra HD’s in my basement are going to kill the smooth factor.

Rear drums were very hot. Not smelly, but hot. Backed off the adjustment a bit with good results thus far. Heat, but not heat radiating through the wheels and burning to the touch. Master cylinder did not get replaced so maybe that’s the culprit. There is hardly any brake drive, which makes me think the back brakes are doing more work.

Filled with gas tonight up to a full tank. Gauge seems okay.

May be time to try the Febreeze for cars. This thing is still a bit musty inside.

[Tiggie]

Power steering pump resealed and reinstalled.

Passenger Front window motor and lock actuator replaced. Window motor was a Cardone reman; someone replaced it before with a “Ford Remanufacted”, circa 1995. It was rusted inside and where there was supposed to be grease, only yellow dust existed. So Cardone got the job done for now.

Replaced really old wiper “blades”. More like metal frames because the rubber was nearly gone.

Drove a bit today, to the gas station for the first time ever. Gas gauge works... ehhh moves. Still not sure if the sending unit is in upside down or not. Must be right because it went from 1/4 to 3/4 with five gallons. Hmmm.

Power was totally unimpressive. Seems less than before tune up. I think someone the sheer joy of driving someone 60mph that hasn’t been that fast under its own power in a decade maybe made me think it was initially faster. Advanced the timing a bit as I may have gotten a tooth off during the intake gasket job.

If weather permits, it’s time for a big twenty mile trip tomorrow. With the family inside.

[Rodentkiller]

Getting to #8 spark plug can be difficult and sometimes it sticks so get out the 1/2 in drive with the conversion to your socket and you will get it out.

[sly]

Geez that plug isn't THAT hard to get at, but lazy is lazy. Anyhow, glad to see you moving forward on her. Fun what you find when you dig into these suckers isn't it?

Having a 1/4 ratchet and short extension or deep socket helps loads for getting that resistor pack out.

[BigMerc96]

They must have moved the smog stuff around '90. Did a tune up on my buddy's '89 and '91, the '89 was easy peasy, the '91 we had a heck of a time getting to the 1 plug behind the smog stuff. IIRC we got it out with a few extensions and a swivel thru the wheelwell. I never directly compared the 2 cars under the hood, by time we were working on the '91, his brother had taken over the '89 as his DD.

He also has the record for the worst plugs I've pulled from a running engine. 1st was his '97 Town Car which we pulled all 8 original plugs from at around 180k and they were just plain worn out with gaps large enough I never bothered measuring. That car had 3 replacement wires on it, so I expected at least a couple replacement plugs but no. The other was the plugs out of the 260k mile Tahoe his Mom was driving. It had a bad miss, was barely running. Pulled 8 plugs out of it, of 3 different kinds, and 2 or 3 of them had no, zero, none, of the porcelain left around the center electrode. We put 8 fresh ACDelco plugs in it with new wires and cap/rotor. He called me when he was driving it home and proclaimed "the truck has a horesepower!".

[knucklehead0202]

Geez that plug isn't THAT hard to get at, but lazy is lazy. Anyhow, glad to see you moving forward on her. Fun what you find when you dig into these suckers isn't it?

[87gtVIC]

I have a sneaking suspicion that she wont buy that line.


Nice work! Getting at those spark plugs behind all that smog stuff is NO fun at all. Funny that they never replaced the "hard to reach" one.

[Tiggie]

I am either slow or have too much other crap to do. Or both. Well finally got the intake and valve cover gaskets replaced. Replaced all hoses except lower radiator hose which will get done when I fix the power steering leak. New plugs and wires. New crankcase breather. Fresh antifreeze. New vacuum hoses. New blower motor resistor.

Engine wasn’t spotless inside but not the worst either.

Old intake gaskets were old felpro, so someone has been there before.

Seven plugs were autolite, well used at about 0.065 gap. One was a Motorcraft at about 0.085 gap. I assume that’s original. It was the one behind the smog diverter valve.







Next up is power steering pump reseal. Or maybe fixing the lock actuator so that the wife can actually open her door from the outside. I could play the gentleman card and say I don’t want her to have to open the door herself?




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[Hearsesrock427]

Every time I see a >1987 box wagon I can't help but think how cheap Ford was. They got the revised front end but nothing whatsoever was done about the aging ass end. Least the could have done was make the bumper flush like the front.

Look at the back and the rear 3/4. Imagine if the rear bumper was only as wide as the outer edge of the tail lights. It'd throw off the proportions even on a steelside. It'd be like '98+ with the whale tailed booty going on. Narrow before the rear wheel arch, gets a bit wider at the wheel well/arch, and then narrows out again. I don't think the wagons were expected to be sold for as long as they did- remember the new panther platform in '79 was hot on the heels of the gas crises and nobody knew 100% if people would continue buying big cars and/or if fuel prices would drop to sane levels again. Anyway, what if we did the opposite of making both bumpers flush- make them both big wraparound/cow catcher type! Mount an '87- front bumper so it more or less matches the rear. Imagine you'd need some sort of custom bumper filler panel (think slack tried mix and matching '87- and '88+ on his '89 and ran into that problem) but imagine it'd look sick.

+1 on late model Ford wagons KW. They tended to not have drastic cosmetic changes in a given model's production run. Saves money and they figured it wouldn't hurt sales enough to make it a net loss, so to speak. See the same thing with the roundy Escort wagons.

[TecNickal]

Glad to see its sticking around. That wagon looks GREAT. I have all but three of my cars on classic car insurance (Haggertys). 66, 89 and 90. Less than $200/year on each with full coverage on every one. Haggerty never even asked for pics of the 89 or 90!

Now just need to sell a couple of the newer cars to get them off of my primary daily coverage (2x 2003 Town Cars and a 2003 BMW).

[LRGMARG]

Nice job on bringing it back to life..... Now it looks be in better shape befitting of an LS swap

[DerekTheGreat]

Oh gawd, you brought chills and shudders with "Taurus" and "Sable"

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Every time I see a >1987 box wagon I can't help but think how cheap Ford was. They got the revised front end but nothing whatsoever was done about the aging ass end. Least the could have done was make the bumper flush like the front. Guess I should be thankful they made them at all? I mean, they did kill off the coupes...

They did similar stuff with the Taurus and Sables. The 1992-1995 wagons kept the same rear end as the 1986-1991 wagons. They did the same thing to the 2000-2004 ones as the kept the rear end from the 1996-1999 models. Occasionally there was a slight modification to one of the light lenses (an amber turn signal was available), but otherwise stayed exactly the same in style and shape.

Ford just seemed to have a knack on their last wagons to just update stuff in front of the C-pillar and leave everything behind it the same as the original design until it was no longer do able.

[Tiggie]

Every time I see a >1987 box wagon I can't help but think how cheap Ford was. They got the revised front end but nothing whatsoever was done about the aging ass end. Least the could have done was make the bumper flush like the front. Guess I should be thankful they made them at all? I mean, they did kill off the coupes...

I agree, but I am getting used to it I guess. Ford saw dollar signs, I’m sure. Wagon buyers were old school folk anyway, less retooling means more money. Wagons were outselling the deuce 4 to 1 Merc, or 2 to 1 Ford. I still contemplate picking up the early style hood, header, and bumper. I would get it if it were a paint match for sure.