kishy's 1984 Town Car

[87gtVIC]

A whole lot of disassembly required for that one huh?

[friskyfrankie]

Was ALL that required to change out the spring? I thought one could just remove the plastic shroud and do it all from the top/driver's seat?

[kishy]

A whole lot of disassembly required for that one huh?

Was ALL that required to change out the spring? I thought one could just remove the plastic shroud and do it all from the top/driver's seat?

Yes and yes. There is no way to get a torx key or bit into the screw, and still have room to rotate that tool without pulling it apart as far as I got it. I tried but the angle the bit was at caused it to start stripping out the screw head so I pulled it apart more at that point to get a better angle.

Those screws are self-tappers that were put into untapped holes. The threads are very tight and the screws are hard to turn.

[friskyfrankie]

Nice work! Can you reuse the old screws? If so (which I would assume you can) are they just as tight after reinstallation?

[kishy]

Nice work! Can you reuse the old screws? If so (which I would assume you can) are they just as tight after reinstallation?

I reused the one I took out, it did look mildly crossthreaded but it seemed to tighten down just fine. It was a lot easier to thread in than it was to take out. It may wiggle loose at some point but I don't think it'll fully back out.

I should correct myself. The steering wheel and clockspring (more like brushes in these) did not need to be removed, I did that because they were annoying me while I tried to work around them.

[friskyfrankie]

Very useful info - thanks! I may have to do it on a friend's car so nice to know what I may or may not be getting into!

[gadget73]

I know I didn't tear mine down that far when I changed the spring on my car. Seems to me that one end of that mechanism had a screw that I could remove without doing much more than pulling the shrouds and the shift lever out.

[DerekTheGreat]

Damn. Either I have too much other junk to work on or I must just be one lazy SOB because for that much work, I'd have let it stay broken..

[friskyfrankie]

I know I didn't tear mine down that far when I changed the spring on my car. Seems to me that one end of that mechanism had a screw that I could remove without doing much more than pulling the shrouds and the shift lever out.

That was my thinking as well. I know my friend's '88 CV has that same "broken arm" syndrome so if the fix is as I originally stated, he has a prayer of resolution. If not, and it requires the "Kishy treatment", then I can guarantee it's NOT happening.

[kishy]

Depending on what sort of Torx bits you have, you could do it with less disassembly. Any sort of bit that has a full-width hex shank for its full length will go into the screw at a funny angle and risk stripping out.

This is one that would probably work quite well, as an example: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07ZW34XTY
But the only skinny bits I have like that are Milwaukee Shockwave, and not quite long enough to clear over the steering column tube. My only bits long enough to clear over the tube are the full size hex all the way down, which makes them too thick and the bit won't mate with the screw.
The driver can't be in the screw if the shift lever is in any position besides park, so you can't fix the angle by just shifting to R (or halfway in between).
It's not designed to be serviced in-vehicle but the right tools could enable you to do it.
After I wrestled with it for a while trying to get a bit to stay in the screw, that's when I ripped it the rest of the way apart which alleviated the frustration.

[friskyfrankie]

Depending on what sort of Torx bits you have, you could do it with less disassembly. Any sort of bit that has a full-width hex shank for its full length will go into the screw at a funny angle and risk stripping out.

This is one that would probably work quite well, as an example: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07ZW34XTY
But the only skinny bits I have like that are Milwaukee Shockwave, and not quite long enough to clear over the steering column tube. My only bits long enough to clear over the tube are the full size hex all the way down, which makes them too thick and the bit won't mate with the screw.
The driver can't be in the screw if the shift lever is in any position besides park, so you can't fix the angle by just shifting to R (or halfway in between).
It's not designed to be serviced in-vehicle but the right tools could enable you to do it.
After I wrestled with it for a while trying to get a bit to stay in the screw, that's when I ripped it the rest of the way apart which alleviated the frustration.

Wonder if a torx as part of a socket would do the job? Craftsman makes a kit that I am referring to.(99941 Kit Number) if anyone is curious. It is for 1/4" or 3/8" wrenches.

[sly]

Probably a 6 inch torx driver would be the go-to on that one.

[kishy]

Spent some time on this one tonight.

Due to having stolen the cruise servo from this car to make the wagon work, there was no cruise servo in this car. I have checked out the potentiometer in the wagon's original cruise servo and it seems to check out fine, so I've put it in this car now and we'll see if it works. If it acts up, I have a new one on the shelf.

Due to having stolen the working EGR components from this car to make the wagon work, the Town Car had been equipped with an EGR valve of unknown condition with a position sensor of unknown condition, and no EGRC/EGRV solenoid assembly. I removed the EGR valve and operated it by hand, finding it a little sticky to unseat. I also checked its EVP sensor with an analog multimeter and found it very scratchy/jumpy. I threw out the EVP and swapped the whole valve for one I had on the shelf (that one probably being the ex-wagon one), tested its EVP and found it seemed reasonable, and installed that combo. I have three used solenoid assemblies floating around, and I do not know which one came off the wagon (and is therefore faulty), so I installed one and we'll see if it works.



While I was there, I replaced the coolant hose which runs from the rear of the intake manifold to the EGR cooler. Access to this hose is difficult with the EGR valve installed, and with the hose looking original and feeling a little degraded, it seemed wise. Plus, I have a large amount of 3/8" heater hose, so there's no reason not to do it.



Since I had already spilled out some coolant doing that, I decided to remove the mechanical temperature gauge and put back a sender for the in-cluster gauge. When I first put this car on the road, I found its temperature gauge quite unreliable, so I put in a mechanical gauge. The mechanical gauge has now become unreliable, getting stuck at various values, which defeats the entire purpose of having it. Since I know the cooling system works properly, I can give the in-cluster gauge a shot again, and maybe troubleshoot and fix it if I have issues.

Because my installation of the mechanical gauge leveraged a tear in the driver door seal, this reminded me that I have a decent condition door seal, so I pulled apart the required parts of the interior trim to replace the door seal.



I then removed the passenger side interior B-pillar trim to replace the light bulb in the coach lamp for that side.



Moving on from there, I reassembled all the interior stuff I'd just taken apart plus the dashboard and column plastics. I did not install the steering wheel, which I disassembled and then brought in the house to soak in soapy water in the kitchen sink. I know alcohol will remove the stickiness but the stickiness also persistently comes back, so maybe dish soap and hot water will have a different result.

[kishy]

This morning, I reinstalled the steering wheel. It feels pretty good, but still mildly "grabbier" on the skin than I think this material is supposed to feel. I believe the stickiness will return, but I guess we'll see.



I then test drove the car and verified the cruise works at 60 and 80 kmh. I think the wagon had issues at 100-105, but I didn't have opportunity to test at that speed today.

Returning from the test drive, I ran a KOEO test and got a 31 as a memory code. This is not the code I received in the wagon, which was 32, but I mis-remembered this at the time I was doing the test, so I swapped the solenoids with another used pair, cleared codes, test drove, retested. Same result. Repeated again, this time with a NOS solenoid, cleared codes, test drove, retested and got a pass.





So, task failed successfully?

31 should be an out-of-range EVP
32 on an EVR vehicle means the EVP value was low, but on these it seems to be more of a generic "it didn't work and I can't tell you why or how" message from the computer

Solenoid shouldn't have fixed a 31, so I'm thinking the used EVP is a little flaky and it will return (and, because EGR operation was not aborted on that test drive due to the 31, we know the NOS solenoid is working as we didn't get a 32, but we don't conclusively know anything about the 2 solenoids tried before that). Will monitor; I have new EVPs on-hand if the 31 comes back.

Also, the temp gauge does not appear to be working, so I may need to track down a different sender.
I know the sender is receiving voltage from the cluster's "instrument voltage regulator" as a test light connecting that wire to ground gives a dimly flashing light.
The gauge itself could be bad I suppose. I have an '83 Town Car cluster disassembled to raid parts from if required.

[friskyfrankie]

Possible dirty ground for the temp gauge?