kishy's 1985 Country Squire

[kishy]

What part of the post has play? Since I have the mentioned issue aswell. Is it just in where the motor linkages attach to the post?
In which way does it have less play?

Where the shaft runs through the molded plastic mounting part, they develop play. I believe it's mostly the plastic getting chewed up over time, but sometimes the molded plastic part develops a crack which allows it to spread further apart. It isn't an easy part to disassemble and reassemble but there is probably a way to do it so it could be refurbished with a bushing.

[packman]

Wow; you really dug deep into that wiper system.

I broke the first 2 bolts I came across trying to get wiper motor cover off; and gave up; broke the Sawz-All out to end it all. Though at some point, I will probably want to have working wipers on that car LOL

[kishy]

Wow; you really dug deep into that wiper system.

I broke the first 2 bolts I came across trying to get wiper motor cover off; and gave up; broke the Sawz-All out to end it all. Though at some point, I will probably want to have working wipers on that car LOL

I would not say I dug deep at all...the part replaced is the mount for the driver wiper, which is easy to get at without removing anything.

Now, when I dropped a socket and it didn't roll out the drain hole under the wiper motor...that almost became a giant surgical extraction.

[gadget73]

I bought a complete transmission for my car, but those are NLA. The plastic wire nut looking things that connect the ball studs to the linkage can be bought new. If you look up Mustang wiper rebuild kit, its basically a bag with 2 of those and the plastic washers. Used it on the Continental, works well and its not expensive.

forget specifics on the blower motor thing but I think 86VickyLX posted it. Might be able to find it there.

[kishy]

After perusing the EVTM the circuit works like so:

Switched power to the hvac function switch, when in any mode except off, power then flows to the blower motor itself.
On the ground side of the blower motor, the blower resistor (through its highest resistance path) is in parallel with the blower switch, which in the low position is n/c, so current flows through the resistor's full resistance.
Each faster switch setting provides a shortcut to ground at lower resistance values.
The motor therefore ultimately grounds either through the resistor in low speed, or through the resistor then through the switch in medium or high. (and ATC adds further complexity, but it appears it just duplicates the fan speed switch.


Best places to make improvements therefore would be:
-Cleaning terminals at blower motor, switch, resistor
-Add a relay pulling straight from the battery at the positive wire into the blower motor, have it be switched by the original positive wire into the motor. This skips pulling the motor current all the way through the fuse panel and dash wiring.
-Clean or make better grounds where they come from the resistor and blower switch.

There does not seem to be a way to make the in-dash parts no longer switch high current.

[gadget73]

Feeding the + off the battery unloads half the circuit at least. Eliminates the drop on all the stuff on the + side of the circuit. No help for the switched negative. Less load on that part though, its only carrying the blower rather than the blower plus all the other garbage on that power feed.

[kishy]

Decided to fix the idle speed. Had to replace defective choke thermostat thing. Had good one in parts.



$%#@



More where that came from...



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Going to have to swap the throttle body with whichever one I can get the screws out of cleanly. Will take the chance to re-test the TPS as the idle hunts a bit and this is a characteristic problem.

Can't really self test the car until the idle stuff is worked out, so I'm just troubleshooting on CFI-autopilot.

[gadget73]

might try soaking those in oil first. Steel in aluminum is bad news though, not a lot to be done for it. I don't suppose that piece can come off the throttle body?

[kishy]

might try soaking those in oil first. Steel in aluminum is bad news though, not a lot to be done for it. I don't suppose that piece can come off the throttle body?

It does not come off, unfortunately. That means drilling the old ones out is quite challenging as it's hard to hold this thing in any particular orientation. It doesn't even sit flat on the mounting plate as the linkage hardware sits lower.

I did use penetrating oil to try to make the trouble one on the second TB come loose, it helped but not enough. I did use heat to try to make it come out, it came free enough to turn enough to give me confidence, then snapped off.

The screws used here seem to be abnormally weak (severely corrosion-weakened, maybe, despite decent appearance). That combined with a relatively fine thread and steel+aluminum is just no good.

I am probably going to oversize the holes and use a modestly larger fastener with a less idiotic head/drive choice.

The car can start and run without high idle, it just means I have the curb idle a little higher than it ought to be and have to start it with the pedal, which I've been doing all along. I just don't like knowing that the reason high idle doesn't work has changed from "a faulty replaceable part" to "a broken lifetime component of the engine" but it doesn't really matter, at the end of the day. I broke things and netted no resulting reduction or gain in functionality.

Gonna try to tackle cruise next. It needs to work. I dislike not having it.

[kishy]

Cruise works!

EVTM and shop manual to the rescue, even if I think the problem was maybe something more obvious...

Scenario: car has not had functioning cruise the entire time I've had it on the road. I had removed both the module (amplifier) and servo early-on. I had misplaced the amplifier, so when I reinstalled these parts recently, I used the 85 wagon servo, but the take-off amplifier from the scrapped '83 Town Car. Cruise did not function "plug n play" and needed troubleshooting.

The car had LED tail light bulbs. I swapped one bulb per side back for incandescent, per the strange fact that exclusively LED brake lighting causes period Ford cruise to stop working. It did not fix the problem.

Followed EVTM steps to check the resistance values of the steering wheel, as they are received at the cruise module (amplifier). Found they were very erratic with slight steering wheel movement and values were totally out to lunch. Removed steering wheel, cleaned the tracks and the brushes, finely filed a little bit off the brushes, put it back together. Values more stable with wheel position changes, not quite in spec but closer. Road test showed no fix.

Went digging and found the 85 original amplifier. Swapped it. Road test showed no fix. Now believing the amplifier is not the issue, and in all likelihood both of this item are good (solid state electronics).

Took servo from 83 MGM which is known to work (note: 91 could not be used, this part changed for the SEFI years in how the cable mounts to the bracket). Installed, road test showed no fix.

EVTM says to look at the shop manual for more detailed t/s. Got my 84 shop manual as the standalone speed control system is the same for all years that use it.

Shop manual gives more pinpoint voltage tests, those checked out, amplifier seemed to be functioning and buttons seemed to be talking to it properly.

Shop manual gives a test procedure where you take the amplifier out of the equation and using jumper wires, manually control the servo. Was able to rev the engine using the servo.

While doing the above, discovered all of the retaining tabs to keep the wire terminals in that particular connector of the amplifier were broken off. I did not do this. Connector is super brittle and terrible, oddly unlike the other cruise connector. Pushed all terminals in all the way (as they did not want to until they were pushed in individually). Road test showed cruise works. It seems likely the problem all along was some terminals not making contact in that connector. I will look for a pigtail for it, I'm fairly sure I have one.

The car is still running with the 83 MGM servo, which I will return to that car when I get a chance.











Not a substitute for a scan, just helping sell more copies of this:




The steering wheel is now off-centre by enough that I find it annoying. The alignment tech did a great job of making it be dead-on perfectly in the middle, yet somehow I have screwed that up. Car seems to drive the same, so it seems I somehow put the wheel back on not quite right. I didn't think there was any room for error there, but will have to re-examine it. 85 uses the flat sided shaft, not the splines.

Also, trailer hitches: Curt 13707 is a 2" Class III which includes the wedges for wagons and seems to be the only Class III which specifically states compatibility with wagons. Visually it appears to be shorter, like the class II I took off the car, which might potentially mean the existing holes will line up with it. This is an expensive hitch to source locally, but since I have enough cars to use the hitches I already have, there would be no harm in trying to get one if I can get a deal somewhere. Lack of access to the US is going to hurt for this though.

[gadget73]

you can actually change the servo independent of the cable. There are two nuts or screws where the cable attaches to the servo. Remove those, slide the cover up, and inside the cable has a ball end that hooks into a clip on the diaphragm. I have a servo from an 86 Tbird on my 84 Continental using the original (and specific) diesel cable.

The 91 one won't work on a pre-88 car though since there is no internal position sensor. Later cars used ECM cruise, so the throttle position was run off the TPS on the throttle body. Stand-alone uses a pot inside the cruise servo itself. You can add the pot if you really want to, but if you look at the connector on a late one you'll see its not fully populated where the early ones are.

[87gtVIC]

I went through similar troubles as you after I did my 5 speed swap on getting the cruise to work.

Cruise worked before the swap but not after.

I had to relocate the amplifier to make room for the clutch pedal.

Cruise would not turn on. I check grounds like you though steering wheel, pulled off and cleaned and still found them to be all wonky.

All I had to do was push a wire back in (as the retainer in the connector broke) and I was off to the races again. Those connectors are just brittle as hell nowadays.

[gadget73]

would be nice if the connector shells were available. I know I've got a number of under-hood ones on my various cars with busted tabs and other failed plastic problems.

[kishy]

Good tip about separating the cable from the servo, and also good info about the servo interchange.

The 83 has the connectors molded out of what seems to be a different plastic. Both are grey and kind of slick looking/glossy surface on the plastic. On the 85, the small connector (which is intact) is the same, but the large connector (which is broken) is tan, and looks and feels chalky and brittle.

If I ever get to go to a junkyard again, it'll be an item to scoop up.

[gadget73]

I know the off-white connector you speak of. The light grey ones also seem more brittle than darker colors.