kishy's 1984 Town Car

[DerekTheGreat]

Man, I love the interior in that car. I love the color, the seats look very regal and even the fake wood trim gives it a little extra. Everything seems more plush in the early TC's.

[Arquemann]

Now I know you peeps call them "plugs". Seemed like such a dumb word, but not anymore
+1 on the interior, I can feel the softness

[kishy]

Man, I love the interior in that car. I love the color, the seats look very regal and even the fake wood trim gives it a little extra. Everything seems more plush in the early TC's.

It's definitely a colour that had to grow on me, but I like it quite a bit now. I like the thicker pile carpeting and the 84- door layout as you pointed out as well. Woodgrain on the aluminum insert and just plain silver on the switch/ashtray.

Now I know you peeps call them "plugs". Seemed like such a dumb word, but not anymore
+1 on the interior, I can feel the softness

I didn't initially care much for the term but could never come up with something better. "Inserts" or "strain relief pucks" or "plastic nubs"...
It is quite soft. As beaters go, they don't get much plusher.


Trying to buy tires for this thing is proving challenging. Whitewalls are basically impossible to come by on this side of the border. I have a few options nearby on the US side though, at Belle Tire. The "cheapie" option would be Milestar MS775 at 88 bucks a tire; after installation and currently available rebates, $401 USD out the door. Not particularly bad at all, but not sure how I feel about the brand. The "known brand" option would be Uniroyal Tiger Paw AWP II at 97 bucks a tire; $439 out the door. The 401 for mystery brand doesn't seem as good when the known brand is only modestly more.

I wish I could buy the Toyo Extensa A/S again. These have been replaced by the Extensa A/S II which is not sold in a WSW variant.
The Toyos currently on this car were bought new to put on my 91 in 2013. They've been totally trouble-free and I'm only looking at replacing them because they're approaching the wear bars, they're otherwise in great condition, no real cracking, still ride smooth, even traction is quite good with the exception of hydroplaning in heavy rain.

The intelligent thing to do, if aesthetically less pleasant, would be to put on my old set of winter tires (no longer great for winter but fine for anything else) and burn them down to bald to free up some room in my garage...

[Tiggie]

I put the Milestar MS775 on the Ranger I was working on a while back. They were quiet and good in the dry. Not sure about anything else because it sold.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

I don’t know if Nexen is available in your area, but the nPriz AH5 in the 225/70R15 size is available with a whitewall. I run them on my ‘97. I appreciate that they’re the “fleet/police” size tire compared to the normal 215/70R15.

So far I’ve found them to be quiet, good riding tires with decent wet weather traction ability.

[Mainemantom]

I put the Nexen on both Lincolns. They are 225-70-15 WSW tires. They will do fine as those cars at most will only driven 500-1,000 a year. My only complaint as of now is they give a soft ride. They are average rated tires,quiet but nothing special. Yes WSW tires are getting hard to find. Prices have gone up in the past few months.

[DerekTheGreat]

Burning down tires to bald via burn outs sounds like a fun time. I've never done a burnout with my Town Car, but I have lit the tires up to do a quick 180 several times.

Looks like I should have done whitewalls when I had the chance. Now though, I wouldn't want to run cheapies just to achieve that look. Ride quality and quietness are factors that weigh in greatly for me when buying new meats. In that car, I want to be as isolated from the road and world as possible.

[gadget73]

I couldn't find whitewalls that I'd actually have paid money for when I bought the Conti so its got blackwalls. Those wire wheels would look better with white stripes though.

[friskyfrankie]

My friend has Cooper Trendsetters on his car and is very happy. They seem to ride very well and are pretty good in the rain. He doesn't put a lot of mileage on his car so they will probably dry rot before they wear out!

[kishy]

After further consideration, I'm probably going to skip on buying tires this summer. Although very much nearing the end of their lives, the existing tires are still fine for the conditions I drive this car in. The plan will be to run these down to about nothing, then swap to the old winter tires and run those down to about nothing. Sorry to disappoint, but this won't do burnouts, but being winter tires I figure I can probably shred the tread off them pretty quickly by just driving the way I normally do...that is to say, testing the performance of my sway bars on all turns.

I'll continue to monitor tire deals and if something that mustn't be passed up comes along, I'll buy a set. This car really should keep WSW tires.



I went under this car tonight to investigate a few concerns. The various noises of poorly-hanging exhaust have been getting more and more obnoxious, so I took a look at that stuff, and made some changes.

The tailpipe hangers were broken on both sides. Those received pretty temporary hackjob repairs involving galvanized plumbing strap, with a better solution to be figured out when I decide to care about it more. I also undid the ID-to-OD band clamps in front of the mufflers, cleaned those areas up, then packed them full of RTV and put them back on. These joints were not tight enough to prevent movement completely, so there were some noises associated with them. No more.

I put the new LEDs in the reverse lights; I harvested the one I swapped into the cornering lamp, and the other one that had been earmarked for the other cornering lamp. I'll buy some more of those, then fix the socket problem up front. Reverse light performance is now excellent.



I noticed the backing plate on the right drum brake was a little wet. The last time I was inside these drums was 2016 when I put the car on the road; it needed wheel cylinders. Nothing since then.
Axle seal is toast on that side and the axle shaft has a very small, but not zero amount of wiggle in the bad direction. The shoes are also looking a little thin, so it's time to spend a little time on this I think. Not parking the car over it yet, but it's a priority now.

I recently (http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthre...l=1#post865842) found a junkyard car with a new passenger axle shaft. Seems they just pulled it out of the yard this past week. Obviously, my problem already existed at that time, but I didn't know. That's how it goes I guess.

As I recall, our shafts are the same length on both sides, the driver side tends to wear slower, and I can pick any pre-90 box shaft. Should be able to grab a driver side one from another car that is still at Parts Galore instead.

[gadget73]

Change the bearing when you replace the shaft. If there is wiggle, fair bet the shaft is eating itself and all that goes into the bearing.

[jaywish]

If the car is parked sideways on a slope the differential will drain and eat itself pretty quick.

[kishy]

Change the bearing when you replace the shaft. If there is wiggle, fair bet the shaft is eating itself and all that goes into the bearing.

Oh yes, that's the intent. For how thorough I can be I sometimes leave out the thought process:

-If the seal is leaking, it's typically because the bearing is toast.
-Changing just the seal will result in a leak again soon.
-Changing just the bearing will be unsuccessful unless the axle shaft has no wear.
-Determining the axle shaft wear level requires pulling it apart and draining the diff, so I should have an axle shaft on-hand before starting the project on the current driver car.

I did the repair bearings on the wagon, and wouldn't say I've been thrilled with them. But if the opportunity arose again to buy them for ludicrously cheap, I might go that way again.

If the car is parked sideways on a slope the differential will drain and eat itself pretty quick.

Noted, thank you. I did change the diff oil in this when I got the car, so I have a data point for what the level was and when it was. I think I'm safe for a while yet, especially given that the car isn't truly daily driven, I bring my work vehicle home with me. It is parked flat and level pretty much exclusively.

Nonetheless, targeting a fix for this in the coming weeks, not longer than that.

[GM_Guy]

After further consideration, I'm probably going to skip on buying tires this summer. Although very much nearing the end of their lives, the existing tires are still fine for the conditions I drive this car in. The plan will be to run these down to about nothing, then swap to the old winter tires and run those down to about nothing. Sorry to disappoint, but this won't do burnouts, but being winter tires I figure I can probably shred the tread off them pretty quickly by just driving the way I normally do...that is to say, testing the performance of my sway bars on all turns.

You got plenty of meat on those tires, depending on how many miles you put on it might be two years before you need to replace them. I run my rears down to the point I think a cop will take notice, if it looks like theres a thread on it, it stays. When that happens, I buy two new tires for the front, move the fronts to the back and wear them down to and beyond the wear bars. I just swap them on the same axle to balance wear.

[jaywish]

You run those in the winter?