'Sherrie' my 86 Oxford White CV Coupe

[clutch47]

Thought I'd start a thread on my girl. She got her name from the first tune that came on the radio when I drove her home. Steve Perry 'Oh Sherrie'

The day I brought her home




She needed some things. She got valve cover gaskets and a decent two day probing. Every nook and cranny. Motorcraft cap,rotor,wires and new platinum plugs too.
Oil, filter, and other kinds of love. Cleaned out the PCV (wasn't even dirty) and unplugged and di-electric greased every plug and connection I could.
Unhooked grounds, made them shiny, and greased them before putting them back.
Wheels off, wheel bearings checked and greased, and I put my hands on everything I could.
I discovered 2 weather checked tires, and a crack in the passenger exhaust just after the joint behind the cat.
So she got some new tires on wheels I had.
Vintage 80's Western minilites. 15x8.5 with 4 inches of backspace. Cheapo bullet centers and bullet lugs.

255/60s in the back I had left from another project and new 225/60s up front.


In the middle of that project I had time waiting for tires.
So I started digging into the HVAC.
It no bueno.
Jumped the low pressure switch...viola. Clutch engages.
Still no bueno.
Cleaned the almost totally blocked sniffer and checked everything I know how to.
.............STILL no bueno. No cold air. Zero/Zippo/nada.
Is there a cold air sensei among us.?
I've delved in after reading everything I can find on here and a few other places too.
No valuable A/C info on yellowbullet. Just for the record.
On to the exhaust.
Old friend has an old school exhaust shop. So she a got new cat back for now.
Hand bent like they did back when I was pedaling to the neighbor girls house down the road...
2.25 inch and he made the tailpipes. Stainless Magnaflows.
Carl has a handshake like a farmer. GREAT guy. Car runs WAY better and sounds like a FORD full frame V-8 American car should.


So there's 10 pix, and Sherries life in my garage so far.

[clutch47]

P.S. I need two inertia reels for my seatbelts too....

[tjc78]

Very nice! My 89 MGM had the original Ford sound system demo tape in it. One of the songs was “Oh Sherrie”.

I found one on EBay

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ford-Audio-Systems-Demonstration-Demo-Cassette-Tape-CBS-Specialty-Products/113714197888?hash=item1a79e4f580:g:~ZEAAOSwNUlcAGgz

[clutch47]

Cool. I might hafta check that out...

[87gtVIC]

Under the rear axle. Interesting. Certainly makes the task easier.

I have the a/c blues now as well. Just bought everything new aside from evaporator. It gets hot. A/C is needed.

Loving the raised white lettering.


One last thing...Is your bumper definitely rusted behind that chrome tape? That is where one hole would be for the front license plate bracket would be and maybe, just maybe someone covered it up with a rather large piece of chrome tape? Wishful thinking?

Enjoy that car. You have the right mind set on going over things. Its OLD and needs it.

[DerekTheGreat]

Nice two-door! I've always wanted me one.

[clutch47]

over the axle.. pictures are deceiving. I'll get another shot as soon as it stops raining. Seattle PA. OMG....
I think it rusted there because of the tag too... (?) Previous owner stuck the chrome tape on it. If my bumper quest doesn't pan out soon, I'm going to vent it there... maybe with stainless. I have skills leftover from bike building days...

[packman]

Beautiful CV!

[87gtVIC]

over the axle.. pictures are deceiving. I'll get another shot as soon as it stops raining. Seattle PA. OMG....
I think it rusted there because of the tag too... (?) Previous owner stuck the chrome tape on it. If my bumper quest doesn't pan out soon, I'm going to vent it there... maybe with stainless. I have skills leftover from bike building days...

Oh okay.

I know some mustang folks have to go under axle due to irs swaps and such so it is not entirely uncommon to do so. I personally like the over axle. Less to worry about crushing.

[clutch47]

Thanks ya'll.
I'm finding out that I really like this car.
Sherrie got the full transmission treatment too.
All is well in hydraulicland.
For a LoPo it runs very well. I hate to screw with it.
….BUT...
I have the horsepower bug affliction just as many of you do too.
So we'll see how this goes.

[gadget73]

AC isn't that hard, but you need to know what pressures its running at. If thats nowhere close to right, none of the rest of it will be either. Spitball numbers at idle are about 30 psi low, and somewhere around 2.5 - 3x the outside temp in F as PSI on the high side, so 85F ambient is somewhere around 215 - 250 psi. Low charge will be low on both but so will no airflow through the evaporator inside.

If the compressor is running and the drier is getting cold, more than fair bet its an ATC problem thats keeping the blend door in the wrong place. This will show up as low pressure on the gauges, but no cold air. a disconnected blend door servo to get heat in the winter because the air temp sensor is bad is the most obvious one. You can just manually apply vacuum to the blend door to force it to cold in order to troubleshoot that end of it. Pop the glovebox open, pull the clear hose off the can if its connected and put vacuum on the can. If the hose is unhooked, hook it up and see what happens. If it pulls to cold and air comes out like it should, there you go.

[87gtVIC]

AC isn't that hard, but you need to know what pressures its running at. If thats nowhere close to right, none of the rest of it will be either. Spitball numbers at idle are about 30 psi low, and somewhere around 2.5 - 3x the outside temp in F as PSI on the high side, so 85F ambient is somewhere around 215 - 250 psi. Low charge will be low on both but so will no airflow through the evaporator inside.

If the compressor is running and the drier is getting cold, more than fair bet its an ATC problem thats keeping the blend door in the wrong place. This will show up as low pressure on the gauges, but no cold air. a disconnected blend door servo to get heat in the winter because the air temp sensor is bad is the most obvious one. You can just manually apply vacuum to the blend door to force it to cold in order to troubleshoot that end of it. Pop the glovebox open, pull the clear hose off the can if its connected and put vacuum on the can. If the hose is unhooked, hook it up and see what happens. If it pulls to cold and air comes out like it should, there you go.

Sweet. I just copied this so I have some reference once my bits go in.

[gadget73]

thats R134a, R12 high side is usually a little lower but still in that ballpark. Airflow across the condenser also plays a big part. If your fan clutch or electric fan isn't moving enough air, the high side pressure goes way up, and the higher the high side pressure, the higher the low side will tend to be. Ideally with a fixed orifice type system you want to charge by weight but the pressure gauges will tell you a lot about what its doing too.

[clutch47]

Thanks fellas.
This weekend will hopefully reveal the culprit if my job doesn't call me in.. UGH..
It seems as if it's providing better heat now when I choose that on the slider but in Auto it can't make up its mind..
I know it wants to wait until it reads warmth before engaging the blower.
Could it be 'thinking' it's not cold/warm enough to engage the A/C clutch on it's own or something like that.??
The clutch only engages if I jump it.
faulty low pressure switch..???

[sly]

Faulty switch or low refrigerant. Pull (gently) the connector out of the switch and see if you have alien blood in there (green refrigerant oil). If so, replace it, it's leaking. Put some gauges on it. If you only have the low side guage, standing pressure should be about 80-90psi... ish. Low side should drop to around 30-40 PSI under steady state (compressor engaged and not cycling). At least that's been my experience with my cars. And what gadget said about the high pressure side compared to the outside temps is the general rule of thumb... 2.5-3 times the temp should be the high pressure value. A decent set of gauges helps loads with diagnosing this stuff.