kishy's 1985 Country Squire

[DerekTheGreat]

You came to Detroit and didn't pay me? Pssh.

Looks better than it did, ride height wise. I too, hate the lower rear truck thing look. I've heard that is called the Nashville squat or something. Looks stupid to me, always has. There is nothing more hoopty than a higher front than rear.

[gadget73]

the ride height mesurements are in the factory manual somewhere towards the back. I forget the measurement point, possibly off the bottom of the bumper bracket, but that will tell you if Ford thinks its too low or not. The front does look low, but I'm not entirely sure I think the back end looks high enough either.

ass dragging is dumb unless the thing is loaded. That was a thing in the 50s before the ass end had to be pointed way up like in the 70s. I like level or slightly tail-up.

[mitymerc]

Still here...

[Stocker]

I have also wondered if it might be an extremely early St Thomas car, being built in Feb 85. Maybe something along the lines of a "production prototype" demonstrating STAP performance to Ford execs...is that too far fetched?

If anyone happens to know what the first VIN issued at STAP was, that would be super handy. I bet Marti's data could provide that, but since everything needs a VIN to be checked against, I'm not sure they can look at it backwards like that.

Ford started building Panthers at St. Thomas in October 1983. There was a little over a year and a half of production overlap between there and St. Louis. (If you're curious, my car was built in January '85 at St. Thomas.)

[kishy]

Ford started building Panthers at St. Thomas in October 1983. There was a little over a year and a half of production overlap between there and St. Louis. (If you're curious, my car was built in January '85 at St. Thomas.)

This goes contrary to all information I've seen to this point, which is that model year 85 were the first cars built in St. Thomas, and that model year 85 is the only year where cars were built in both plants in parallel, and not for the entire model year.

Not saying you're wrong, because I dunno, but I haven't seen that anywhere before.

[Stocker]

This came out of Ward's Automotive Yearbook. According to those books, '83 Ford production was added at the Mercury plant in St. Louis, and then when Oakville switched over to the Tempo the following year, its Panther production was moved to St. Thomas (presumably because the end of the Fairmont opened up a production line). It did say that February '85 is when St. Thomas became the sole source for fullsize Fords and Mercurys when St. Louis started retooling.

[DerekTheGreat]

I wonder now when my '85 LTD was built. It was not built in St. Thomas.

[87GrandMarq]

Just to add fuel to the fire my old 85 was built in September of 84 and was built in St. Louis.




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[kishy]

I was moving cars yesterday and in doing so, found that the driveway stain I've historically attributed to the Lincoln's previous power steering pump had become much, much larger. Like, the size of a Panther hood. The car sitting in that spot now was the wagon, and the new fluid was red.

So, put the wagon up, got under, found that the O-ring for the retrofit trans drain plug had squeezed out of position and that's where the mass quantity of fluid was coming from. Easy.

Drained it into a bottle, dug around the garage for a copper washer (think brake system, but smaller), and solved that problem. Same fluid that came out went right back in, since it's new anyway.

I will note that the fluid has darkened a fair bit, but that could easily just be new fluid washing old out of all the nooks and crannies. Regardless, it shifts absolutely fantastic, so...whatever happens, happens.

Also, the rear main leaks...a lot.

[sly]

self undercoating.

[BigMerc96]

self undercoating.

self preservation.

[mitymerc]

Self oiling.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Self changing.

[VicCrownVic]

I had what I thought was a rear main leak once. Turned out the flex plate bolts need thread sealer and I hadn't put any on. I redid the seal anyway, but when I pulled the first flex plate bolt it was like I pulled a drain plug for a second.

If you need to get at the rear main and want to go the route of removing the trans, I've got a cheap trans jack if you have no other option. I also have the special tool to install the seal and repair sleeve if you choose to install a sleeve. The special tool was cheap enough for me, basically a PVC cap with a special ridge for the sleeve.

[gadget73]

Last one of those drain plugs I installed, I brazed in. I didn't care for the plastic sealing washers so its now permanently a part of the pan, sealed forever with brass rod. The inner drain plug has a copper washer. My local hardware store has a good assortment of copper seal washers in metric and standard.