kishy's 1984 Town Car

[gadget73]

I bought a bunch of them from ebay, quite possibly the same as Ali, or similar at least. Honestly they all work just fine with the exception of whats in the dome light. need to swap that for one of those flat panel things. No reflector up in the dome light so only one side of the light really shines directly down in the car. The interior lighting is otherwise brighter than with the old bulbs, but much less heat and power. I used warm white 2800k so the color temp is similar to regular lamps.

[kishy]

More math:

Decided to make a Harbor Freight run. Small animal trap at stores in Windsor works out to about $73. Comparable trap at stores in Michigan works out to about $34.13 Canadian. That plus topping off the gas tank at lower cost just sort of made sense.



Pixel 4 takes pretty reasonable night-time photos. I'm sure it could be better if I used all manual settings and knew what I was doing, but for just pointing and hitting the button...not awful.

[Lutrova]

Those early box taillights/reflectors are classic. So much more formal and Lincoln-like than the later, 'aero'-style changes.

Glad to see that train station is being taken care of. So many great buildings in this country are left to turn to dust, while all the new architecture is more like machinery than art.

[DerekTheGreat]

Yeah, I love those taillights and the rear bumper, just not how far they jut out on each corner. Front end is nice too, a lot better looking with the flip your lid headlights.

[kishy]

Big bumpers and pointy corners FTW.





And don't forget this mash-up:

[DerekTheGreat]

I concur, except for the calf catchers lol. Quite the mash up, yuck. About as bad as those stick on vents people put on their fenders, trying to be all reminiscent of 30's Buicks or whatever.

[kishy]

I concur, except for the calf catchers lol.

Respectfully disagree. The "calf catchers" fix the odd proportions of the car, in my opinion. The Lincolns with the narrow bumpers just look weird. But we've gone around & around on this before.

Quite the mash up, yuck. About as bad as those stick on vents people put on their fenders, trying to be all reminiscent of 30's Buicks or whatever.

Minus the stick-on faux chrome accents and the stick-on opera windows, I like the rest (which is just a big bumper swap). The big bumpers also work on the 85-89 cars, apparently, having the same effect as the earlier cars where they fix the odd proportions.

[DerekTheGreat]

I feel you need the angular lenses and more squarish rear and front pieces. Otherwise it looks like someone who got bad lip & butt injections. The person we sold Ashley's '89 Town Car to did that swap, meh.

[kishy]

Oil change for this one, last night. 2022-04-13 @ 203,931km; a 4766km OCI since the last change on 2019-08-31. As a reminder, aside from the occasional move in the driveway, this was parked since the end of the warm season in '19.

Front wheel bearing grease is overdue on this. I didn't do it when I greased the chassis stuff a month ago, and didn't do it last night. It has been done in my ownership of the car, probably 30,000km ago for sure, and maybe one time since that as well. The plan was and continues to be a 95-97 brake swap for this one like I did on the wagon. I believe I have a full swap's worth of parts on-hand, so that might come fairly soon.

I am not sure which car will be the main 'driver' for the year yet. It won't be the 83, 91, or 88 - which leaves possible options as 84, 85, or 86. 85 has a laundry list waiting for it (roadworthy but things I want to do soon) so maybe keeping it off daily duty will enable some of that. Also not sure yet what the year's vacations look like - the wagon is very well suited to that role, but the Lincoln is only slightly behind.

[DerekTheGreat]

Lincoln, hands down. Of course as an owner of an '88, I might just be a bit partial. Of all the cars I've driven long distance, that is still my favorite. Few cars look as cool going down the road either. Opera lights, the crisp lines of the hood and that hood ornament, maaan. Just too cool. Not to mention yours has the cool flip your lid headlights and angular tail & front lenses.

[kishy]

I found the AliExpress LED bulbs also used on the wagon and decided to put them in the 84TC also.

Tried the driver side first. The socket did not like being disturbed and I think the centre contact got sort of squished in, and didn't spring back out, so now no bulb will light up in it without pressure applied. No cornering lamp on this side until I replace the socket or otherwise get it to make contact.

Decided to try the passenger side, despite high probability of the same issue happening. Success.



Will root through my collection of junk to see if I have the appropriate weather-tight version of that socket but I'm not too optimistic.

[gadget73]

not just stuffed full of petrified old grease is it? Had a lot of trouble with those sockets on my car when I replaced the bulbs. Both broke, then once I managed to get the base out the contacts were basically glued down. With enough work with picks and flushing with contact cleaner I got enough out to make it work again.

[kishy]

not just stuffed full of petrified old grease is it? Had a lot of trouble with those sockets on my car when I replaced the bulbs. Both broke, then once I managed to get the base out the contacts were basically glued down. With enough work with picks and flushing with contact cleaner I got enough out to make it work again.

That is a fair bit of the problem. The grease seems to be holding the electrical contact back from springing back out after I pushed it inwards trying to remove the old bulb. I'll see if I can clean it out before opting for the snip and replace approach.

There is pretty much no slack on those harnesses so getting in there to do anything about it is kind of awkward. I also have a giant vacuum reservoir in that space, but that can be removed if necessary.

[Tiggie]

Around 89, the CV/GM switched to a 3156 in the ditch lights. Had the same problem you had with my 88 and got some donor harnesses from a later box to make the ditch light magic happen again. Not sure if the Lincoln's made a similar change, but could be a good junkyard investigation on your next trip.

[kishy]

Unfortunately, that cornering lamp socket did not survive the efforts to try to get the grease out. The positive contact broke off (was probably most of the way gone to begin with), so it's just dead now. A junkyard socket will have to go in its place. Must stay with the 1156 base because that's what the LED bulbs were purchased as.

The driver side rear window motor has been skipping recently, so the gear plugs failed. This was a junkyard motor that I put in rather early in having the car, which did not get a new or rebuilt gear at that time, so it was bound to happen eventually.









Quick and easy, done.
Did notice the window channel on this door is not fitting properly and has curled in on itself in that difficult front corner area. I am not super impressed with the fitment of WC-33-96 in corners. It'd be nice if a better solution turned up.