My 1983 Continental Mark VI!

[mercurygm88]

Has anyone here ever changed the antenna motor on one of these? I have a NOS one coming. But I haven’t really looked at how the old one is held in.

[packman]

Beautiful Lincoln! That's gonna be a nice boulevard cruiser/show car.

[87gtVIC]

Box TCs have them too. Mine has two per seat, one forward and one back.

I guess I’ll have to crawl under there and see how many bulbs there are.

more upscale Towncars had it, cheapie base models did not. Wiring was there though. The lights under my Mark VI Signature seats plugged right in.

Fun fact about those lights....the mounting points are present on cvs and grand marquis seat bottoms. The harnesses are not though. I installed them into my car.

[gadget73]

There are a couple motors so make sure you have the right one. early vs late, 2 wire vs 3. There is some way of converting from one to the other but offhand I don't know what it is.

pop the trim piece off the outside. Under that you'll find a nut that holds it in place. Inside the trunk there is a bracket off the side of the motor that screws to a brace in the trunk. basically unplug stuff and remove the fasteners and it comes out. Not involved at all.

Whats actually wrong with it? The masts can be replaced, but again differences from early to late. If it doesn't operate, make sure the switch or relay is good. Not sure what the 83 used for that. My 84 Conti is auto up / auto down using this goofy relay that is triggered off the power wire for the premium sound amp. If that happens to be the case on the 83, and if they didn't hook up the trigger wires properly it won't run the antenna.

[mercurygm88]

There are a couple motors so make sure you have the right one. early vs late, 2 wire vs 3. There is some way of converting from one to the other but offhand I don't know what it is.

pop the trim piece off the outside. Under that you'll find a nut that holds it in place. Inside the trunk there is a bracket off the side of the motor that screws to a brace in the trunk. basically unplug stuff and remove the fasteners and it comes out. Not involved at all.

Whats actually wrong with it? The masts can be replaced, but again differences from early to late. If it doesn't operate, make sure the switch or relay is good. Not sure what the 83 used for that. My 84 Conti is auto up / auto down using this goofy relay that is triggered off the power wire for the premium sound amp. If that happens to be the case on the 83, and if they didn't hook up the trigger wires properly it won't run the antenna.

The one I ordered is the same part number and two wire like the one in the car. It uses a dash switch to the right of the climate controls. I have power going to the motor but it does nothing.

[jaywish]

so it has one power for up and one for down with a ground through the body?

[mercurygm88]

so it has one power for up and one for down with a ground through the body?

I have no idea how it works. I don’t normally mess with electrical stuff. It has a red wire and a light green wire.

[mercurygm88]

I got the new power antenna installed and working today. That took all off maybe 20 minutes.

Now I’m just waiting on the little switch cover I ordered that’s missing.

[gadget73]

Thats the "normal" one, 2 wires and it just reverses I think, same as a power window motor works. The other one is basically 2 motors in one physical package. ground through the mount, up or down depends which wire gets power. Its way too complicated for what it needs to do.

[Mainemantom]

If you don't have one already, get a factory Ford shop manual. It REALLY helps.

[gadget73]

I generally consider that a requirement for owning any old car. shop manual and an EVTM will cover a lot of ground

[mercurygm88]

The Mark VI wouldn’t start this morning. I thought it might be the fuel pump inertia switch as the previous owner was having issues with that. But I hear the fuel pump running so that’s not it.

I guess this is the beginning of my CFI troubles. Plugs, wires, cap and rotor are new, coil looks to be original. Having never messed with a CFI car I’m not sure where to start.

[Tiggie]

Pull a wire and see if you are getting spark.

[mercurygm88]

Pull a wire and see if you are getting spark.

I’ll have to grab a spark tester from work and check it out later.

[mercurygm88]

Supposing I get home and find out I have no spark which I assume is the case considering I have fuel where do I go from there? Do these have a pickup coil like the later cars with TFI? I grabbed a coil today because my cost was only $10 but I'm assuming coils just don't up and die like that. I've had coil on plug coils just randomly go from perfect to dead the next day, but not a single wire or cannister coil. Also how do I change this thing? I'm assuming it's just a two wire coil but there's some kind of plastic cover over the top of the coil and I can't really tell how the wires go into it.

Thanks in advance for any advice, this one has me worried unfortunately. I'm really considering the possibility that the previous owner bandaged this thing so it would run long enough to sell it and leave the buyer high and dry. I don't trust people.