kishy's 1984 Town Car

[gadget73]

I gave up on aluminum hood shocks. Bought a set for a steel hood and now my aluminum hood works right. I doubt very much that these things could support a steel hood though.

I think the tops can be purchased pre-cut, or at least rough cut that need a final trim at the edges. I know the dude that did the top on my car ordered it from somewhere because they sent the wrong one at first. I don't know where it came from though.

[DerekTheGreat]

I put Stabilus on everything, from the Firebird (hood & rear hatch) to both our TC's and years later, things still work just peachy. I find it fascinating that dad put up with dead shocks on the Firebird for years and years and one of the first things I did when I got the car was slap a set on at both ends and no issues or prop rods since. I used to be the designated hatch-holder-upper when grocery getting.

[kishy]

The issue I was having was that I bought hood struts for a steel hood, and they would not hold the hood up. In fact they made it harder to open the hood than with no struts attached. They were truly acting like "shocks": resisting movement in any direction but allowing it to happen at a reduced rate.

RockAuto warrantied them and the same thing happened with the new ones. When that happened, I got them refunded with no need to return them.

Since RockAuto and every other vendor is at the mercy of the application data provided by the part manufacturer - in this case Strong Arm brand parts manufactured by AMS - so I strongly suspect that this was not a unique issue to RockAuto and buying the part from anywhere else would possibly give the same result. On the flipside, it is entirely possible they were just extremely old stock and the seals had gradually released all pressure within, causing them to become useless. I've heard references that a lift support is good for less than 10 years whether it's on a vehicle or the shelf.

The junkyard items are working perfectly and hopefully will continue to do so.

[DerekTheGreat]

Oh, that's weird. You know, I was half tempted to buy the struts for a steel hooded car as I figured they'd make the hood real easy to open. Glad I did.

Junkyard parts are the way to go, it's just that I could never find two that matched and well as Ace Ventura said, "It's a high performance machine, I had to fill it with premium.."

[IPreferDIY]

Just thought I'd throw in my experience with the hood supports on my 2000 MGM. During a recent winter, they were failing, but after opening and closing the hood a few times to 'pump them up', they would hold the hood up. It seemed to be a matter of the cold temperature, since I only had to do that on a few occasions during that cold season. I haven't had issues with them since, though it's possible that I haven't actually opened the hood during a subsequent winter. Unless they fail outright, I'm jus' gonna leave 'em in there.

[gadget73]

The ones I have are Strong Arm brand too, both the working steel set and the non-working AL ones. For a good while I had vintage Ford ones on the car but they finally kicked the bucket. The 1988 originals were still trying harder to hold the hood up than the brand new ones did. This is I think the fourth or fifth set on the car since I bought it in 2004. They were shot then too.

[BigMerc96]

Sachs/Stabilus is the only way to go. They are the OE supplier to Ford, as well as Chrysler, GM, Volkswagen, Toyota, and pretty much everyone else.

FWIW, my Town Car still sports its original hood supports on its aluminum hood, and its 22 years old as of 2 months ago. They still work fine. My '96 still had its originals too. My '98 however, they worked exactly once in my ownership. Well, not even then, the only time they worked for me was when I popped the hood during my test drive to check the fluids. Bought the car, drove it home, popped the hood and it proceeded to pop me right in the head and a Whale Panther steel hood ain't exactly lightweight. So new Sachs/Stabilus lift supports was one of the first parts I bought for it, they looked identical to the originals and had all the same markings just without the Ford logo and part number printed on em.

[gadget73]

unfortunately I was only ever able to find the Strong Arm ones for my 86. Should these die I'll see if I can turn up the Sachs ones. I don't really care what they cost if the damn things work. I've gotten pretty sick of changing them.

[kishy]

RockAuto looks to be selling Sachs Stabilus for the box TC hood, part number SG404002. It's only offered as regular stock, not closeout, which usually means it's a current stock item and not 30 years old (good for some things, bad for others).

Cost is roughly equal to the Strong Arm part at wholesaler closeout price, and cheaper than the Strong Arm regular pricing. But it's all within a couple bucks either way.

I didn't note what the markings on my junkyard ones say, but based on the photo provided on RockAuto there's a chance my new ones may be the Sachs part. Maybe. They are definitely not the Strong Arm parts.

It's a weird lift support, as lift supports go. Fairly chubby but very short, where most for this type of application are long and skinny.

[gadget73]

the geometry doesn't help things. The longer type are mounted further out so leverage isn't working against them so much. The early Mark VI had gas shocks on the trunk that were similarly overworked. Those were abandoned for torsion rods at least. I gave some thought to swapping Vic hinges on my car until I realized they wouldn't match up on the fender side. I forget why now but it wouldn't have been a drop-in. Both of my Fox cars with the hood coil springs work perfectly, and if you shoot some grease in those springs they don't make awful noises when the hood opens.

[kishy]

Whoa, an update!

I mentioned recently...

RockAuto, Amazon, some other vendors, then it dawned on me...U-Haul. Most of their hitches are Curt units just with U-Haul's logo on them; there's nothing wrong with them at all. My local corporate location had one, so no shipping, just $150 Canadian plus tax and it was mine. Install looks dead simple as all holes needed already exist in my frame. And yes, the frame is solid enough. While I was at it, I picked up a Class II (better than nothing) for the Lincoln, so it can be equipped with the same amenities...bike carrier being a primary goal there. Same thing, $150 plus tax, and they had it on-hand. Both hitches were tagged "do not reorder", which is maybe unsurprising considering both applications are now long-discontinued vehicles.

After giving it more thought, I decided that 1-1/4" receivers have no place in my life. I returned the Class II for the Lincoln back to U-Haul, and had a local towing specialist order a class III instead. I added it to my garage of endless upcoming projects, and pulled out the previously purchased Pro Series (Cequent, Reese) Class III and put that on the Lincoln yesterday.

I did have to grind down a little weld spatter on the frame, but nothing major. The fish wire they provide with the hitch is a lifesaver. Fitment on the car is pretty much perfect, with just enough clearance from the license plate. The instructions note that 85-89 Town Cars require additional spacers to drop the hitch away from the frame, which surely has to do with the new bumper for 85, but for the old fat bumpers, those aren't necessary.

One the hitch was on, I installed Air Lift 60769 air springs inside the coils. Quite frustrating to get into the coils with the springs, but they went in. Undid the shocks to get more spring height for that. Like the Ranger, I'll use manual fill valves for now and see how I like it. I put the fill valves in pre-drilled holes on the hitch but may relocate them in the future.

While under the car I figured out why the exhaust is sagging oddly...the universal hangers I used behind the mufflers broke (metal studs ripped out of the rubber straps). Back to the drawing board for that. Easy fix once I find the right product to use for it.

I also test fitted my new bike rack. It can't fully fold up into the storage/transport position due to the hitch being recessed, but it otherwise seems like a good fit.

[Mainemantom]

You might already know this info, but hope this helps if you don't. If the Air Lift bags have heat shield(s) included in the box, use them. The warranty will be void if you don't. It protects the bag from the heat of the exhaust pipe. I ran a tee from each bag to the fill valve. Then mounted the valve in the center of the filler panel. You should like the bags, I used them on two cars and they lasted about 15 years.

[kishy]

Ah, yes. I will be installing those heat shields but figured I'd wait until I re-hang the exhaust. This car is seasonally parked right now, so it's not urgent.

I wanted to avoid drilling holes in anything anywhere, so the existing holes on the hitch were perfect. They won't be convenient to access, of course. I could put them through a couple vacant bolt holes in the bumper so they point downwards. Or depending on what's behind the license plate I could run them through the unused set of bolt holes on the license plate. That'd be kind of slick.

Depending on how my inspection of the front end goes, it might get a complete front end rebuild before it goes back on the road, but we'll see. Rear sway bar is on the to-do list as well.

I'm hoping the bags when empty (minimum pressure of 5psi) won't affect the ride quality. I'll really be kind of upset if they do.

[gadget73]

I was planning to get a set of those and plumb into the auto-level rear suspension. My car sits at the right height unloaded, so I'm hoping it won't bother the ride any since it shouldn't have much air to speak of. Let me know how it turns out. I may have to add a pressure switch in the mix to make sure the compressor doesn't attempt to over-fill the bags. Should be easy enough, just wire it between the relay and the control module, if its beyond whatever the max pressure for the bags are, the pump won't go.

[kishy]

If the conversation sounds like Deja Vu, it's because it is: http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthre...Spring-Options

A point that came out of that was: do not plumb the bags and the shocks together, because the shocks need more "P" per each of their fewer "SI" (as in PSI) than the bags do.

Of course I suppose that means, as long as the Air Lift bags provided sufficient lift, it wouldn't matter if the shocks were doing their job much or not. But then there's not much point to having them.

Operating range is 5 to 50PSI. Air Lift says not to let them drop below 5, I guess because it will allow them to distort in the spring and possibly become damaged.

Re-capping somewhat, this car did get CC817 cargo coils, which I found sagged unacceptably with load, so I put in 8805 constant rate Lincoln springs and found it also sagged unacceptably with load. That's how I arrived at the air spring option.