kishy's 1991 Grand Marquis

[DerekTheGreat]

I believe I've seen that grey ghost once before as well. It was for sale at that point, somewhere near me. Had to be the car as it's got the same spot of pink/red by the tail light.

Have you done a compression check on this car? I can't remember reading if you did/am too lazy to go back and read. Checking fuel infectors for effectiveness would be great, just not sure how. I've asked about it in my F-150's page. No dice on this forum or the truck specific forum. Hesitant to go to the tubes of you. What do you have your timing set at? Because if compression is good, either try using higher octane gas or back off the timing. That's what I'd do. (The last part, too lazy for compression unless things are basically beating me over the head to check it)

[gadget73]

with SEFI you can do a cylinder balance test, which will indicate a major fault with compression or injectors. Doesn't work with batch fire, only 2 injector circuits instead of 8. I don't think I've ever seen one fail unless it was running screwy enough for you to already know it had a problem. At that point its really only useful for determining which cylinder it is.

[DerekTheGreat]

I'd like to rig something up to each injector and get it to fire manually. I'd have to find the video, but Eric O. on South Main Auto did it on some modern car. Now of course being OBD II and with his multi-thousand dollar scan tool he was able to do that no problem and equally for each injector. I imagine I'd have to prime the system somehow (Not sure how long it takes for pressure to bleed off), fire an injector and record pressure drop. Hopefully this would be equal or damn close for each injector. Is there an easy way to check if all 8 are working? Also, injectors either work or they don't, right? Our basketcase truck will run great at about 1,800 RPM and idle. Runs like it's got a partial misfire everywhere else, except for MAYBE full throttle. Haven't done that since I first test drove it though.

[kishy]

No compression test on this one this decade, but at some point I did one in the distant past and it was fine. Since the problem hasn't changed, I'm not re-doing anything of the past, that's energy and time I just don't have. But I did have a bit of a lightbulb moment just now regarding air-fuel ratio: this problem only happens with the engine hot. Driving with the O2s unplugged to force it to stay in open loop would maybe provide a useful data point (e.g. differentiating this problem as happening due to a physical temperature thing - e.g. a combustion chamber full of carbon which is really hot and therefore pre-igniting the fuel - vs an AFR problem where the computer is leaning it out intentionally, but in error. If it still knocks in open loop at the same temperature, it's a physical thing. If it doesn't, it's a closed loop engine controls thing. Might play with that when I feel like it.

Anyway, on Monday evening I installed the trailer hitch. It is a U-Haul branded, Draw-Tite hitch (note U-Haul sources from multiple manufacturers), part number 41116. Price being equal I'd rather take the Curt option, but when we're talking north of $300 for a Curt and well below $150 for the others, well...yeah. You see why I went this way. And in this case, I bought the hitch in 2019 from a U-Haul clearance center account on eBay for $49 shipped because it was missing hardware, but when it arrived the hardware was not missing at all. Insert cash register bell sound here.









Wiring will come when I get around to it. I have another one of those trailer light power module things that I really like on the Ranger and wagon, so I'll do one of those here, just need to run a power feed from the battery to the back of the car.

As for the rear springs, yeah, it's too low and/or soft. No reference pics at the moment but basically, if the unloaded height has the top of the wheel arch at the same height as the top of the tire, it is too low, and that's what's happening. Wasn't super happy with the Air Lift deal in the Town Car (which reminds me, one side of that doesn't hold air anymore), so taller and mildly stiffer springs are probably the way it needs to be. Consider that the bike rack weighs 75lbs on its own - plus some bikes, plus vacation stuff in the trunk, plus one or more rear seat passengers, and you end up with a car that can't clear even very minor bumps without scraping or hooking the hitch on stuff. I consider vacation readiness a requirement for all of my vehicles, so this is fairly important. Next up to try will be the springs intended for a Town Car.

[87gtVIC]

I was lucky enough to pull a curt ( I believe it was a curt and not a Reese) hitch from the jy ages ago from a wagon. 15 bucks out the door if memory serves me correctly.

It was ugly though so I had to repaint it after cleaning it up. After painting it I went up on a ladder in our shops boiler room to hang it in the grid to dry and I dropped it from 15’ in the air.

It survived just fine!

Made a hell of a noise when it went down…followed by me yelling about having to touch it up lol.

I would for sure be in the same boat as you if I were to hitch anything on my car.

Definitely would be to low.

[sly]

I put CURT bars on mine. They were actually less than the others back in the day. I wonder what the price switch is about.

[gadget73]

I had another thought related to lean and timing now that you mention heat. Does the EGR actually work? Not meaning does the valve open, but if you manually pull the valve with a vac pump, does anything happen? If the ports in the heads or the intake are clogged, the valve will open but it won't actually loop any exhaust gas through. The ECM will lean it out and bump the timing based on feedback from the valve but it won't actually be operating as expected.

hitch on mine is a Valley which has been with it since new in 1986. Its actually done real work too, I've pulled two Towncars, my old S10, and a couple different utility trailers with it over the years. The original owners used it to tow a horse trailer.

[DerekTheGreat]

Curt makes a damn fine hitch. I've got one on my K1500 and we sold the pretreatment to them back in the day. Was that plus Akzo-Nobel powder- best you're going to find out there.

Great points about the EGR.

[kishy]

Excellent idea, EGR actual function is absolutely worth verifying. I'm pretty sure that at some point in the distant past I ran a garden hose through the EGR passage in the intake when it was off for a gasket replacement, but there are many places for carbon to hide.

I have now experimented with two sets of replacement springs. As a refresher,

...
Goal 4: Address/explore rear ride height by installing new constant-rate springs for a sedan Ford/Mercury
I purchased two sets of Duralast-branded springs from AutoZone (they had a coupon code making them the favourable option). If you play with the catalog on RockAuto or other auto parts stores, you'll find some weirdness around springs especially in the late box years. 91, for example, is said to take the same rear springs as an early 80s Lincoln (and nothing else). While we know all this stuff does fit, obviously springs are set up for different weights in different applications so I very much doubt an early 80s Lincoln, which should weigh more by a meaningful amount, would use the same springs as a 91 Grand Marquis.

Tonight, I took out the Moog CC817 Ford/Mercury sedan cargo coils and put in the Duralast 5557 constant rate springs, which are listed for 79-81, 86-90 Ford/Mercury. Got them in just fine. Car visibly does not seem to sit any different, which almost certainly means after a little while it'll sit too low on them. Moderately annoying.

Yes, the 5557 springs which should have been correct by a reasonable interpretation of the application data are sitting too low.
A few days ago, I swapped those out in favour of the other springs I bought at the same time - Duralast 5562 springs, for early 80s Lincolns and exclusively 91 Ford/Mercury.
Those springs do appear to have placed the rear ride height at about the right spot - that is, with a lot of weight in the back, it'll probably be low, but with an average/normal load, it sits very slightly high.

Unscientific photos as a quick reference:
After sitting on the 5557 springs for a few days:



Immediately after installing the 5562 springs:



After sitting on the 5562 springs for a few days (note, fuel tank modestly lighter than above)



Next relative test will be tossing a bunch of weight in it,but I think this is where I want it to be.
I'm curious to see if AutoZone will take the other springs back as a return. They were ship-to-home (local stores didn't have them). OTOH, they're almost like mild lowering springs, which I might want for some sort of project in the future. OTO,O,H, worn out factory springs also work like mild lowering springs, so do I really need these taking up room in my parts stash?

Additionally, the rear shocks are toast. Maybe the front ones too, but the front doesn't feel disconcerting on bumps, whereas the rear does. Feels like the tires are trying to basketball dribble away from me sometimes. KYB Excel-G purchased in 2014. Lifetime warranty which RockAuto appears to be honouring, so let's see where I get with that. Not trying to do anything with the front because the front feels pretty good, and as I noted previously, when the Excel-Gs were new I felt like they ruined the ride quality - with the fronts likely being mostly to blame for that.

I think I had mentioned that I found a little hood thing to put on the oil pressure gauge to make it more visible in daylight. Unfortunately, the little hood thing hits the steering wheel, so although it works great, it's gotta go. I might try my luck sanding that down a little, it doesn't conflict by much, taking off a 16th or two would be plenty.



Giving strong consideration to riding out the rest of "warm season 2024" in this car.
After the ongoing projects on the 83 are caught-up, I'd like to get the Acclaim roadworthy, which might then bump the 91MGM for the balance of the year depending on how all that goes.

Gotta talk to Hagerty. I'm just doing a standard auto policy with all these cars presently. Doing a classic car policy would offer a variety of benefits, and is an excellent fit - while I do use my cars as 'daily driver' type cars, I do not commute to work in them (which appears to be Hagerty's biggest eligibility requirement), and getting realistic replacement value to be considered in the event something happens is more likely to go better with a classic car policy.

[GM_Guy]

Something I never got the chance to try was a set of high riding whale cop rear springs. Can't buy them new anymore, but if you stumble across a cop car in a junk yard might be something to have a closer look at and see if theres still a paint stripe or tag still on them to verify. The whale aftermarket springs are just as weakass as the aftermarket box springs.

[kishy]

Something I never got the chance to try was a set of high riding whale cop rear springs. Can't buy them new anymore, but if you stumble across a cop car in a junk yard might be something to have a closer look at and see if theres still a paint stripe or tag still on them to verify. The whale aftermarket springs are just as weakass as the aftermarket box springs.

It was a pic of your car that prompted me to get the 8652 springs for the front, and the CC817 springs for the rear. Unfortunately, for whatever reason (who knows, maybe body mounts), my car never sat quite like yours, and here we are years and years later still chasing the perfect amount of rake. I am very, very close to what I seek now with the Autozone springs.

This is how it sat full of junkyard stuff, tools, and a full tank of gas:





When comparing to the other pics, look at the brightwork along the rocker panel and its angle vs the centre caps on the wheels. That tells more of a story than the wheel opening gap, I think.

Keeping in mind that I value a soft ride quality, I think this is about as good as it gets. It sits perky enough to look good without being full of crap, it sits a little low when full of crap, and it rides softly in either case.

--

Today, I addressed a couple things. The warranty replacement rear shocks arrived a few days ago, so I set about installing those today.
The Excel-Gs were installed 2015-04-03 at 206,380ish km.
They were replaced today 2024-06-15 at 227,381km.
21,001km is not a particularly long service life for shocks, but they have sat for a very long time.
On the bright side, the hardware was all in excellent condition and didn't put up a fight at all, so replacement was fairly easy.



Test drive reveals that the lateral axle hop over sudden jarring bumps does seem to be under control, and the rear seems to be coming up less under heavy braking, so the shocks are doing something, and doing it better than the old ones.

The test drive reminded me about the light metal banging sound I mentioned recently in the thread, going over bumps. I suspected this was a loose dust shield on the front left steering knuckle, and I was right.

I jacked up that corner and tapped the shield with my finger. It rattled making the exact noise I was hearing while driving.

Pulled the wheel, caliper bracket, and rotor off. Hammered out the pin in the middle of the 3 rivets. Drilled out the shells of the rivets. Took off the dust shield.





Used pliers to un-mangle it somewhat, then used some M6 cap screws and locknuts (re: had to buy 100 nuts and 50 cap screws in order to get the one I needed for a fix on the Focus so I have a bunch of them). Zipped off the extra length from the screws with a cut-off wheel, put it back together, and test drive shows noise is gone.

After that, I decided to deal with a power window that quit the other day. The right rear stopped nearly fully closed and wouldn't budge in either direction. The motor was making a noise when trying to operate it in either direction, and the interior lights were dimming.

Took it out, took it apart, found water ingress had seized the motor shaft inside a brass bushing within. This is a Dorman motor so it isn't constructed exactly like the factory ones.



Cleaned up the rust on the shaft, slapped it all back together. Reassembled the door. Found the polarity reversed - I must have put the brush holder back on backwards. Oh well, window closed, then washed the car in the final moments of daylight.

After washing it, I took the door apart again and reversed the polarity at the connector to make the motor work as desired.

[GM_Guy]

If the late model cop springs didn't do the trick the next thing I was going to explore would be coil spacers similar to the jacked up donk crowd (weld/bolt on lower extension), but diy something of an appropriate thickness. I wish I could locate my 90's era moog catalog, when everybody had all the proper rear springs available for the various models and see just what the specs where.

[kishy]

Yeah, not sure if I wanna get into cop spring territory, because I value softness and higher spring rates just don't give that sort of result, but we'll see.

Still need to figure out what I'm doing about the axle oil escaping. The brake grabbiness is really irritating. It's basically a decision between swapping the entire housing over to my disc brake rear end with 3.27 open (and if doing that, might as well crack that open and make it limited slip while I'm at it) or just repairing it as it sits, which may or may not end up being seals, bearings, and shafts. 3.08 open with drums is highly tolerable but I'm not sure where I want to end up yet.

Today, I installed trailer light wiring using a U-haul branded (and rather old stock) trailer light power module, part number 13493. This is fundamentally the same thing as the Tekonsha modules mentioned here in the past by maybe David? Which I've also used in the Ranger and wagon, but in this case can be had a fair bit cheaper. The trailer connector is designed to be panel-mounted, but that doesn't mean you can't just use it like a normal connector. It also has both the standard 4-flat terminals as well as what appears to be an old obsolete proprietary U-haul connector, but some unused terminals don't present any issue using it for a 4-flat.

The hardest part of that was getting a power wire up to the battery. I went along the passenger side in the cable duct/tunnel where the other body wiring lives, and poked out through a hole in a grommet below the HVAC stuff on the firewall. I used the wire included in the kit because it has good quality insulation and was long enough to do the whole run, but it's only 16 gauge (or seems to be somewhere between 14 and 16, I guess). I suppose just about anything I ever own will be fully LED-lit, and a typical 4-flat wired trailer won't have enough stuff on it to pull more than 10 amps anyway, so it's fine.

No photos of the rat's nest at this time.

[87gtVIC]

Yes. I have used the Tekonsha brand. Mine was very basic. Sounds like yours has some extra features by way of plugs.

https://www.grandmarq.net/vb/forum/technical/gmn-reader-s-rides/23560-my-1987-two-door-crown-victoria-aka-the-brown-blob?p=1183843#post1183843

[kishy]

extra features by way of plugs

Not meaningfully, no. The trailer pigtail just has a more complicated 4-flat end on it. There's the standard 4-flat terminals, but beside them are 4 more terminals for what is labeled as "Uhaul Trailer", which leads me to believe very very old Uhaul trailers maybe used a proprietary connector. That, and there are test lights built into the plug, so when your signal is on it blinks on the connector, and the whole connector has little tabs on it to allow it to snap into a panel mounting bracket of some sort, which is probably an accessory you can or previously could buy at Uhaul stores.

The cheap price and equal function to the Tekonsha modules is why I went that way. Also, the Uhaul kit does include the wire and fuse holder to use for the battery positive wire, unlike the Tekonsha module, which is nice.

--

I picked up a few online purchases today at my friend's house in the US. Among those items is a Sony Mavica MVC-FD200 2.0MP digital camera - notable for using 3.5" computer floppy disks for storing photos. I've previously played with my friend's MVC-100 (1.2MP variant of the same camera) and wanted one of my own to mess around with.

The FD200 produced this photo:



Not too bad.

While coming back through the tunnel, traffic was bumper-to-bumper and the ambient temperature was quite hot. The temperature gauge got a little higher than I typically see - usually between the O and R in Normal, this time touching the M, but everything seemed about right. While nearing the customs booths, a horrendous noise started from under the hood which was linked to engine RPM. The best way I could describe it is some sort of metal-on-metal grinding. AC clutch on or off didn't change it, revving in neutral didn't make it go away or change other than increasing in frequency with RPM increase. It slowly faded, and the final hints of it were when I pulled out onto the road, after which it didn't come back.

When I got home, I looked at it using my thermal camera, and none of the accessories/pulleys was abnormally hot as best I could tell. Nothing looks like it's been self-clearancing. There's no apparent evidence of what actually made the noise. The only thing out of order that I noticed was an oily wetness on top of the lower rad hose, which would implicate the front seal of the power steering pump, but that doesn't seem to have leaked since I re-sealed it. Whatever made the noise is going to have to fail a little more before I can identify it.

Water pump bearing is an obvious possibility. The car does lose a very small amount of coolant and I haven't been able to identify where it's going.