kishy's 1985 Country Squire

[DerekTheGreat]

Hmm, yeah that's tough to say if it was coolant or just growth.. Looks like it could have been coolant that was leaking and has dried. But where it would it have come from? My '88 had something along those lines under the throttle body where it was leaking at the spacer thing. It was such a small leak that I didn't notice it until I had the air snorkel off to lube the throttle linkage.

[kishy]

I love seeing the front end conversion from the original setup to the later Panther stuff.

When you take that setup in for an alignment, do they align it as a typical Box or an early Aero? Are any of your other cars running with that setup, and if so, how is the brake feel compared to the stock stuff?

My 91 has 98-02 front brakes with stock 10" drums. On a 225 tread width tire, $27Cdn RockAuto Ultra Rotor rotors and $12Cdn RockAuto Dash-4 semimetallic pads, the car will easily put the front seat passenger into the dash if not belted. That car stops very well.

This car is getting 95-97 parts because I want to run 15" steelies. However, this car needed ball joints and also completely new brake components including all lines, so it was a no-brainer to just do this in the process. Lose the silly serviceable bearing design and get the maintenance benefits of a sealed hub-bearing, plus easy upgrade to 98-02 parts later if desired (swap hubs, caliper brackets, calipers, flex lines, rotors and done)

Edit: realized I forgot to answer the alignment part. I just tell them to set it to the specs of its correct model year, but advise them that they have both the original model year as well as 1998 style adjustments available. Two different shops have done the 91 and neither seems to have had issues with it, however, I think they only touch the ball joint...which is potentially bad if the "caster" of the control arm itself is not correct, as that could give good alignment at right height but out of whack at other heights.

Hmm, yeah that's tough to say if it was coolant or just growth.. Looks like it could have been coolant that was leaking and has dried. But where it would it have come from? My '88 had something along those lines under the throttle body where it was leaking at the spacer thing. It was such a small leak that I didn't notice it until I had the air snorkel off to lube the throttle linkage.

There's nowhere for the coolant to have come from if it's that. The green stuff is on the vertical wall of the intake that leads up to where the throttle body mounts. I suppose it's still a maybe but if the EGR cooler leaked it would have pooled onto the flat surface, not shot over onto a vertical surface and remained there. But anything is possible.

If it turns out to be blue-green algae, that would help confirm my theory that the car might have been dunked in Lake Erie at some point during a boat launch mishap.

[DerekTheGreat]

Interesting theories. Buut if dunked up to the intake, wouldn't there have been water in the crankcase? Dead ECM? Mold in the interior?

[sly]

Radioactive mold waste byproduct.

[kishy]

Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Just bent up the most magnificent brake line for the wagon, starting with a 60" pre-cut length of PVC-coated steel line. I had it on hand so figured I'd use it.

Started from the passenger side, so I did the precision bends to hop over the frame rail off the vehicle, then shaped it by hand from there. Used the factory mounting points on passenger side frame rail and below the oil pan. Then when I crawled out from under I realized it isn't going to be long enough to get to the master cylinder. Nuts.

I will probably cut the line roughly below the driver side exhaust manifold, flare it, then use a union to put another piece of line from that up to the master. Ironically, if I were using the original design master with frame mounted valve, I'd have enough line there currently. Oh well.

[87gtVIC]

I thought you were going to end it with I forgot to put the fitting on.

[kishy]

Been there, done that. Took special precautions to avoid that: I put the flare nut on top of the flaring tool. Can't pick up the flaring tool without seeing/touching the flare nut. It's foolproof, unlike my line length guesstimating skills.

[sly]

Once again... I'm glad I live in the land of no salt.

[jaywish]

Sly, You don't have to rub it in.

[sly]

I don't rub. You know I'm too blunt for that.

[DerekTheGreat]

I thought you were going to end it with I forgot to put the fitting on.

LMAO!!

Dammit I've done this so many times or when I go the lazy route and buy pre flared line I sometimes forget to make sure the fittings are at the ends before I start bending... Luckily it's been about 15 years since I've made those mistakes.

[gadget73]

hm, lets see, last time I had to bend a brake line for myself was about 2 years ago, so its been 2 years since I made that mistake.

[kishy]

I misspoke. The green brake line is not PVC-coated, it's something else that I don't entirely understand. Regardless...yeah.

I double flared the line (and yes, I forgot to put the flare nut on this time...) and used an SAE union, joining it to another piece of line up to the master cylinder. The booster and master are just mocked up in position right now so I could get the lines right.

I used junkyard-harvested metric flare nuts for the master and connections to the flex lines. I bent up a nice looking driver side line and now the front lines are done, assuming no leaks appear when it's time to put fluid in it. The front to rear line still needs to be done, as do the lines on the axle. I'll probably focus on engine stuff before I move to the back of the car. Timing set, water pump, valve cover gaskets, intake gaskets, radiator. The new hood can go on after that. It will probably keep the 4-eye header panel until it's on the road and then swap to the 2-eye header panel at a later time. Just prioritizing things.













Exact applications are escaping me but this master is the same as what came on my '91 new. All valving is contained to the master, nothing on the frame rail. Both fronts connect to the master with bubble flare metric flare nuts (yes, on my 91 it was that way as-new). The rear drums go through one of those inline valve things threaded into the rear port of the master.

[gadget73]

The frame-mounted combo valve went away by about 1990. Seems hit or miss in 89.

[kishy]

The frame-mounted combo valve went away by about 1990. Seems hit or miss in 89.

I seem to recall that I have seen 88s have the combo valve, and 89s have a different valve/splitter that does less and is half the size (the master on those looks like this one, however has only one front outlet instead of two). Then 90-91 fully adopted a more modern-looking deal.

Ultimately I suppose it doesn't matter: most people will repair what they have to functional equivalency of what it was when they started. I just resent those frame-mounted valves in a variety of ways and couldn't wait to get it the hell out of there.

I'm not sure how dual-system separation works with the newer master. I kind of suspect that functionality is basically lost (one or two pumps still work after loss of fluid, beyond that, into the wall you go). As my Ranger proved, it didn't exactly help that much, since the shuttle valve didn't seem to properly seal it off and I lost my fluid anyway. When all is in perfect working order and brand new, I'm sure results are more favourable.