kishy's 1983 Grand Marquis 2dr

[kishy]

The cluster is pretty wonderful. It is the basic warning light arrangement, and indeed no trip odometer. I have junkyard-picked a cluster that has the trip odometer and 6-digit odometer (which began in 84 for Canadian Panthers), and plan to eventually retrofit that. I do think I overlooked something which is probably needing to grab a piece of trim re: the reset lever, but that can be worked out later.

The silver face clusters with this type of perimeter lighting seem to be pretty good, but the 90-91 silver face Mercury cluster is horrible because it's truly backlit. The numbers actually disappear in certain lighting conditions. I like how this cluster looks at night. The backlighting is very even.

The junk Town Car has a newer Spectra Premium tank in very good condition: http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthre...l=1#post843251
I have no hesitations about just swapping that directly in and running it as it is.

I will try to salvage the (working) sender with something like Evaporust. I've also heard and seen good things about it.

[jaywish]

Red is the best color for preserving night vision and still providing relatively easy vision of the items being illuminated. Yes blue makes things hard to distinguish.

[VicCrownVic]

The silver face clusters with this type of perimeter lighting seem to be pretty good, but the 90-91 silver face Mercury cluster is horrible because it's truly backlit. The numbers actually disappear in certain lighting conditions. I like how this cluster looks at night. The backlighting is very even.

Having owned two '91 MGMs, I can confirm that these clusters are indeed awful. Very difficult to read in certain lighting (not really dark out, but not bright daylight is the worst).
When I bought The Scab that cluster was one of the first things to go, replaced with a '90-'91 police cluster. The Ice car was swapped a few months in with that same '90-'91 police cluster, and eventually ending up with a '98-'02 P17 cluster.

[gadget73]

Roman numerals I am guessing.

Yes. I prefer to tell time in Arabic.

[kishy]

Having owned two '91 MGMs, I can confirm that these clusters are indeed awful. Very difficult to read in certain lighting (not really dark out, but not bright daylight is the worst).
When I bought The Scab that cluster was one of the first things to go, replaced with a '90-'91 police cluster. The Ice car was swapped a few months in with that same '90-'91 police cluster, and eventually ending up with a '98-'02 P17 cluster.

Yep...'90 P72 (police) cluster went into my 91 as soon as I found one, which was super lucky, because it's still the only one I've ever seen. Canadian makes it more tricky. I also swapped the surrounding trim to delete the woodgrain, making the only dash woodgrain be the aluminum bits running the whole length of the dash in the centre.

I suspect complaints had something to do with why the Grand Marquis picked up the black face cluster (with only subtle character adjustments) that had been in the Vic and Town Car when 92 came around. Either that or they decided it just didn't look good, because it didn't.

Yes. I prefer to tell time in Arabic.

'Scuze me sir, I think you forgot what country you are a citizen of.

You mean that you prefer to tell time in MURRICA NUMBERS

[DerekTheGreat]

Red is the best color for preserving night vision and still providing relatively easy vision of the items being illuminated. Yes blue makes things hard to distinguish.

Indeed it is! Anyone who doesn't think so, well, just go and get two clocks, one with a red display and the other with blue or green. Go in a room with complete darkness and allow your eyes to adjust for about a half hour. Plug the red clock in and look at it. Then plug in the other clock in and look at it. You'll be able to look at the red clock with no strain on your eyes yet will have to adjust to the other. Point proven. I love the red display of the Firebird for that reason, it's just nice contrast to what we own too as it's the only car in our fleet which doesn't illuminate in green.

Roman numerals I am guessing.

Yep. WHOOSH! I wish I was smarter than I am haha.

'Scuze me sir, I think you forgot what country you are a citizen of.

You mean that you prefer to tell time in MURRICA NUMBERS

Just speaking freely here but, I always grimace a little when people do the "murica" or whatever thing. Hurts to even write it that way. For me, its too much of a "Gonna tie back my mullet.. Here, hold my beer and watch this.." type of thing and I don't consider myself the type as I feel it's nothing to be proud of, 'ashamed' is more like it. For me, it is and always will be "America" and pronounced correctly, or the United States, as Canadians are North Americans too. I think US citizens who say " 'Murica " do so with pride but all I see is mockery and support of the aforementioned "hold my beer and watch this" lifestyle.. Idiocracy.. Yet anyone who has pride in the US is automatically a trumpet supporter.. It's not my fault I live among a bunch of intolerant, self serving, ignorant and indignant people yet still carry a torch for the U.S. that once was.. I'm just a dissenter who abides- "I reject your reality and substitute my own" Disclaimer: Wherever I can get away with it.

[gadget73]

There is a local vehicle I refer to as the "Murrica Truck". Lifted rusty camo rattle can mid 80s Chevy, giant 'Murica flag in the bed, loud asspack exhaust, driven by a very small dude. I bet the door sills (if it has any still) are about chin-high on him.

incidentally, a "merkin" is a pubic wig. I find it funny when people pronounce American as "merkin".

[DerekTheGreat]

Ugh. Probably a flat earther too.

[kishy]

...I have junkyard-picked a cluster that has the trip odometer and 6-digit odometer (which began in 84 for Canadian Panthers), and plan to eventually retrofit that. I do think I overlooked something which is probably needing to grab a piece of trim re: the reset lever, but that can be worked out later...

The part I overlooked is that the junkyard cluster does not, in fact, have a trip odometer. 6 digit odo seems like a worthwhile retrofit, but at the same time...maybe it just doesn't matter. This car sees so little mileage it might never roll over in my time with it. I don't ever want to put it on daily driver duty, but I do want to start driving it more and catch up on its neglect over the last half of its life.

Last night, began evaluating the needs in order to achieve ex-Town Car fuel tank into this car.
Determined the sending unit from the junk Lincoln does work, so it's a better starting point than the turnaround time on Evapo-Rusting the one from the Mercury...but the fuel line fitting was broken off by the previous owner, and after cleaning it up, I don't trust how much nipple is there.

Bought a "fuel sender repair line" which is 5/16" steel line, with an end shrunk, to fit inside the line on the sender. I just needed the 'L' with the shrunk bit, but $4 for this meant I didn't mind buying more than needed. Plus I'll surely have a use for the fuel injection quick-connect end in another project. I used a handful of them doing the wagon fuel lines.

Soldered that repair tube in, and it seems to be solid. The mounting end of the sender is now sitting in Evapo-Rust to try to neutralize some of the rust, I doubt I'll be leaving it in long enough to be effective, but whatever. Evapo-Rust did a wonderful job cleaning up some impact sockets I had allowed to get rained on, so I do recommend the stuff.

Pulled the old tank out. I will not be attempting to de-rust the inside of this tank as a future spare, it's just going into the scrap pile. Too far gone for the effort, in my opinion, when the carb tanks are well under $100.

Filler neck is in good shape, as is the rubber boot on the inside of the wheel well. I'm going to replace the rear shocks while the tank is out because it's never easier than now, and the ones on the car are completely shot and make ugly noises.

This should be wrapped up today, just on a little break right now.





















And yes, I really do love that sending unit wrench. Initially I felt I'd overpaid for a stupid specialty tool, but it really does make this task easy and enables re-use of lock rings that I'd have destroyed using my other methods.

[87gtVIC]

You answered my question about the wrench. Good to have a specialty tool at times.

[gadget73]

you were able to get regular soft solder to stick to steel? Acid flux? Getting steel to wet is difficult. Usually I go for braze if I have to do that kind of thing, but silver solder apparently works too if you have the right flux. Have to be super careful brazing to thin stuff though, its real easy to just melt through. I honestly need a straight acetylene torch for that kind of stuff. The oxy-acetylene is often too much.

[kishy]

Silver plumbing solder was not doing it. Ball up, roll off. Electronics solder with lead is what worked, using the flux I have for plumbing...but it is unclear if the flux helped at all. Admittedly, I have no knowledge of the correct way to do this, and solder had just come to mind first.

The rear shocks absolutely kicked my behind, but I got them done...further updates still to come.

[kishy]

Alright. Some accomplishments:

-Rear shocks done. The "bend it till it breaks" approach continues to prove itself as the winner with these. KYB Gas-A-Just, because I have them already.
-Sender installed in tank, tank installed in car. Developed a technique for separating the strap stud nuts from the studs. Worked well.
-Emptied a gas can into it that I had around, probably about 10-15L. Gas gauge in car is around 1/8. This is a good sign.
-Car starts and runs with no apparent leaks.

































Followups/things to revisit:
-Fill tank to the top and make sure it doesn't leak anywhere (at a time/situation that I can immediately deal with it if it does leak).
-Filler neck is in solid condition but could use some surface rust removal...not urgent.
-Front shocks. Easy to do on their own, so will likely just do that next time I'm bored.
-Steel fuel line is kind of crusty. If it was a pressurized EFI system I would be more worried about it. Will deal with this some other time.
-Exhaust needs front to back replacement after further failures tonight, but new cats are out of the question until the carb gets some love.


Side note: wagon (straightish) vs sedan (curvy) filler neck




Update Sunday 6/07: got the front shocks in. Haven't driven car out of driveway yet.
A little bit concerned the sending unit gasket may leak because the lock ring wasn't applying a huge amount of pressure, but we'll see.

[kishy]

So much has happened, of such little significance!

...
A little bit concerned the sending unit gasket may leak because the lock ring wasn't applying a huge amount of pressure, but we'll see.
...

I was right to be concerned. I took it to a gas station, and while watching the underside of the tank, slowly filled it...and stopped when fuel started running down the front of the tank.

Because I had shut off the pump quickly, I figured there wasn't much fuel above the leak point, so decided to drive it a fair bit to try to burn off as much above the leak as possible. This, it turned out, did not help. Seemingly a lot of fuel went in above the leak before the leak actually started, because it proceeded to leak once parked for a long time. Had I realized it was going to leak for so long I'd have put a pan under it or drained it, but I figured there was almost nothing left to leak so it was going to stop any minute...sigh.

I had figured the leak to be the kind of tweaked sending unit gasket, so I tried to find one for not a fortune. Summit Racing was looking like the choice, until I called the Ford dealer...$0.89 each, in a 10-pack. Easy, done.

Got under the car, observed the leak seemed to be coming through the sending unit metal itself...not one of my soldered points, not the line, not the gasket, but right through the metal. Pulled it out, took a gas shower, held it up to the light and could see through the metal due to corrosion which had been hidden by the undercoating on it previously.

Repaired with JB Weld Steelstik, because there really didn't seem to be any more sensible choice, reassembled with a new gasket (hey, I bought 'em...might as well). Seems to be holding well.

While on the drive post-fueling above (while it was still leaking), I detected what seemed to be a hanging front left caliper. This is annoying because in 2013 this car actually had a very minor car fire due to a hanging front left caliper. It got new calipers and pads at that time, and I think maybe the flex lines...don't remember now. I knew it would be getting a front end overhaul to the newer setup very soon (in terms of mileage, not time) so didn't want to invest a lot in the original setup.

Pulled in behind work, which happens to be a fire station, and hosed off the super hot knuckle, rotor, wheel etc. Car rolls easily in neutral, caliper may not be at fault. Suspected wheel bearings, perhaps too tight? Neglected greasing? I dunno. This car sits a lot and until this recent burst of activity I haven't touched it since some initial stuff back in 2013 when I got it.

Replaced bearings, even though the old ones appeared fine (and I think I may have done them when I got the car anyway). Ball joint boots are absolutely shot and won't keep grease in at all, so the clock is ticking for that front end rebuild. The joints themselves are fine, but any decent mileage will kill them quickly I'm sure. I don't have all the parts on-hand for it though, need a set of knuckles and upper arms, can't go to Detroit yards until the border is fully back to normal.

























To-do list is looking like:
-Radiator (which is what prompted the question about quick-connects), will use the big one from the junk Town Car
-Water pump (current one leaks). Has aluminum pump installed, I have a low-mileage aluminum one on hand that was on the '84 taken off in favour of an iron pump.
-Complete exhaust. Have plenty of bits to make this up.
-Leak-test the heater core. I removed it from the fluid circuit when I got the car as the rad was full of crap, so didn't want to plug the core if it was still good. If the core checks out OK, plumb it back in.
-Carb rebuild. I think it's full of garbage, probably. I've decided to go ethanol-free with this car, going forward. For a daily driver that doesn't sit, probably not a meaningful concern. For this, it likely is.
-Rebuild the front end. Get an alignment.
-Relay the headlights
-A/C? Compressor on this one also has the characteristic leakage marks at the joints on the compressor body. I haven't had a belt on it since I got it as the clutch is seized.
-Thorough paint correction and start taking better care to preserve that when parked.

There is no timeline for this list, I just want to have it nice as soon as practical.

[kishy]

Last night, decided to begin tackling the water pump/timing set/radiator combo job, as all of these are easiest to do when done together at once (least repetition of work compared to doing them separately).

Broken bolt count is amazingly only one, and it was one of the short guys that threads into the timing cover, so getting that out was not terrible but it did require heat. None of the hardware is reusable, it's all in quite bad shape.

Timing set is the original nylon toothed wonder, and has considerable slop. 5 digit odometer shows 65k km, and I didn't previously believe it rolled over, but I'm now thinking maybe it has once. I bought it at 62k in 2013, and the plates on it at the time had expired in 2004.

Current status is timing cover off, timing set still on. Need to sort out the hardware issue. I know stud kits are sold, but they are incomplete to actually do the whole job, so I need to get more than just that.

Timing cover is rough but usable. A lot of aluminum has corroded away...or was a bad casting to begin with, hard to be sure exactly, but chunks are missing.