1997 Mercury Grand Marquis aka the rolling junkyard.

[BigMerc96]

Shame. I'd love to have a proper Mercury emblem on my steering wheel, but the Continental airbag will just keep on at this rate. I truly believe all Whales rolled out as Second Generation air bag vehicles, unless somehow super early build 1998s made in late 1997 rolled out as unicorns sporting a first generation until but I find that doubtful.

Seeing as my job 1 1998 (2/15/98) sports "second generation airbags" stickers on its windows, I think its safe to say all '98s are 2nd gen. The module is on top of the trans tunnel on a '98+, its physically too big to fit in/on the pillar where it is in my '97.

I still need to get the '98-'00 Townie clockspring so I can retrofit redundant controls to my '98. I have 2 redundant control steering wheels to choose from in the correct color. The original one from my Townie and the wood rimmed '02 Continental wheel that is in the Townie now. The '02 wheel is actually Medium Parchment, but its really close to the Prairie Tan in my Townie. Actually not 100% sure which color the '98 has, that was the changeover year and the 2 colors are so close I can't tell.

[Pvt.Hudson]

Changed the shocks as they started getting a little softer and the supplied bushings were toast on the fronts.

KYB fasteners flash rust the second they are installed. Had to snap the studs on both front shocks. And when it came to the rears I used a 15mm when it should've been a 14mm and stripped the pass side.



Took two Milwaukee blades to get through the rubber bushing.

Old one out:




New one in:

[Tiggie]

The bean counter who didn’t allow the extra 0.5 cent it could have cost for upper shock mounting access through the trunk should be lynched.

Glad you conquered them though. I need to do the same on my 90.

[Pvt.Hudson]

Glad you conquered them though. I need to do the same on my 90.

Second time I've done them. First time I ever changed rears myself on a panther was on this car. My previous panthers I'd take it somewhere else and pay someone else to do them.

When I got the car it had rear Monroe OESpectrums and came out without a fuss and the front were original or replaced a long while ago Motorcrafts. Had to snap the front studs on those Motorcrap shocks. This time I learned my lesson and sprayed some cosmoline on the fasteners so if and when I need to remove them again it won't result in destruction of the shock to remove them.

Hoping I can warranty these KYB's on RA without any fuss. Sucks you gotta pay return shipping. Wish they had a regional drop off place.

[Pvt.Hudson]

Found a 1997 CV P71 PCM for cheap and swapped it. KBS3 is the tear tag ID.



Been almost a week. Gonna keep it in. It shifts a lot better then the original PCM. Though it has made the 1-2 shift even more herky jerky probably do to it being the original weak accumulator design.

[Pvt.Hudson]

New tires to replace the $254 china no seasons I was previously running:





Sumitomo HTR ZII in 235/60-16.

They actually ride harsher then the 18s (Michelin Xice3 215/55-18) and were a bit squirrely when first installed but now that they have some miles on them they grip pretty good. Also adjusted the rear height as it was to low in the rear now it sits proper.

Finally got around to replacing my worn out sway bar bushing by buying replacement bushings that came with a new bar:

Old one out


New one in


A whale P71 29.5mm bar. Its nice not hearing anything clunks on the front end now.

[Pvt.Hudson]

Finally got around to resoldering my cluster that was reading 0mph and getting 99mpg at WOT and getting my damn media buttons to work.



So far so good. Hack noob soldering but the cluster is now working.



F U N !

Got my media buttons working. So it turns out if you want to retain steering wheel controls using aero TC redundant control steering wheel you need a adapter. When I initially installed the TC wheel in January I tried the PAC SWI-RC but I couldn't get it to work. So I just connected it directly to the stereo but it still was glitchy. Turns out the steering wheel controls for the stereo/eatc aren't resistive but voltage based so thats why a adapter is needed. Its a pita to program but I got the SWI-RC to program and now the buttons work as they are supposed to, no more press same button twice and get three different results.



Also managed to somehow break the shifter cable adjustment bracket, probably back in January. No wonder I couldn't get the indicator in Park. Fixed it with some loctite epoxy, hold it holds cause there isn't any aftermarket part listed for panthers and not sure if the Dorman part for trucks would work (in theory it should considering most of the rwd Ford steering columns are the same but who knows).

[marquis_82_withneons]

Junkyard builds are by far the best kind of builds. I love how interchangeable panthers are.

[Pvt.Hudson]

Permatex plastic epoxy no go on holding the shifter indicator cable bracket together.

JB Weld with a staple for reinforcement seems to be holding up a lot better:



Should've used JB Weld to start with.

[Pvt.Hudson]

Drier/Accumulator decided to rot out thanks to the foam insulation koozy. Leaked the PAG46 oil all over the right front chassis.


Removing it.


Installed new drier/accumulator, orifice tube, orings and painted the retaining ring.


Was looking to replace the temp spare tire but the prices on those are almost $100, found a HPP for $40 with a tire that isn't 22+ years old so now a member of the full size spare club.


Swapped from gray 2001 dual visors to proper denim blue ones from a 2000.



Found a 1999 Denim blue package tray with speaker grills. Was gonna use a 2000 one but it has no speaker grills just holes under the carpet. Swapped it out now the interior is done. Looks good with the gray speaker grills.

[Pvt.Hudson]

Been awhile but still chugging along. Closing in on 190k.

Not really any projects completed just maintenance. Valve seals are getting worse though. Trying Liqu-Moly Motor Oil Saver, supposedly on the oil forum people have had good results, hoping that it will quell the blue puffs.


First time doing 1992+ panther e brakes. First side took me 2 hours fussing about with those fucking clips, other side 25 minutes. Luckily the lever wasn't frozen if it was then I'd probably have given up.




How the e brake goes together behind hub.


Nice having a working e brake now.

Ever since I bought the car @ 131k the car has had shuddering issue between 22mph to 30mph, really annoying especially when your stuck behind slow pokes. So I thought maybe the known 4R70W issue of the broken 1-2 Accumulator springs was my problem. My car being a 11/96 assembled car I knew I had the old aluminum piston.


So nice having the Dorman pan. No messy fluid drains. Had a hell of a time getting the rubber bonded 1-2 accumulator back in, turns out I didn't have the upper spring all the way in.


Old aluminum piston, yellow upper spring and purple lower spring. No broken springs either. And after all that work still have the shudder annd I stripped one of the pan bolt holes, probably more given what I torqued them to . Dunno if I should try draining all of the fluid from the TC and see if that helps or maybe try some friction modifier. Changed the fluid in pan & filter twice now. Other then the damn shudder the transmission shifts very well for 190k.


Replaced the rear sway bar links as the original 23 year old ones weren't so hot. Used AC Delco 46G0028A links they fit good.

[87GrandMarq]

What trans fluid are you running?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Pvt.Hudson]

What trans fluid are you running?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Pvt.Hudson]

Put some miles on since swapping out the 1-2 accumulator its gotten a bit shuddering is still there between 1-2. Whatever car still shifts well enough just gonna live with it. Probably the torque convertor.

As I've been racking on the miles the pinging has been getting worse.

Ford has a TSB (Article No. 98-10-1) that states to reprogram the PCM and install a Hitachi MAF. @ around 146k I swapped to a Hitachi MAF from the same car I got my seats from. That kind of helped. But since swapping to a likely unreprogrammed 1997 P71 KBS3 PCM its been pinging a lot more especially when its only slightly warm out like between 40° to 65°. So reading on various forums some people said that a newer 2001+ PI MAF will work. So got a MAF from a 2002 bolted it on and I'll be damned thing rarely pings, it will still do it if you lug the engine but its much more muted and doesn't last as long.



2000-2002 MAF on the left, 1992-1999 MAF on the right. Guess the improved airflow from the newer MAF helps. Car runs great, when I swapped it it felt like I just changed the plugs.

It hasn't run this smooth since I bought it 60k miles ago and I've already changed the spark plugs twice.

[Pvt.Hudson]

So been using the motor oil saver for the past 6k miles and it has reduced the oil consumption. But the blue smoke after idling is mostly the same. Usually need a quart every 800 miles, now I can go about a thousand or a little more then that.



Wanted to try out the aluminum drive shaft. Everytime I go to the yard and look for one they are bent or really gouged by the front end loaders they use. But I found one off a 09 P71 and it only got scratched by the forks so I bought it.



Had it balanced and got a spare yoke from a 99 CV, driveline shop took the dampener off. Its not the cool Alcoa MMX but its a hell of a lot lighter then a the steel shaft.



Before



After


Did run into a issue where I thought the 99 yoke wouldn't work cause it would only go in about a inch so I swapped it out with my 97 yoke and it was vibration city. Decided to look at the yoke and brake cleaned it and tried it again and it fit. But I think I messed up the balance so I gotta repair my steel shaft and get the aluminum shaft rebalanced. Wish I paid attention to yoke splines then I wouldn't have keep lifting the car and swapping shafts.

Fabtech spacer fits good.