OK, I'm ready to consider any offers. Please refer to my previous post "Hot Rod Kit" for details of the excellent 88 Sport I really need to sell. All the extra parts will probably fit in the trunk and back seat but it might be easier to bring a pickup or trailer. This car needs a home with someone who wants to develop it (or just drive it as-is). That person must surely be reading this forum. Make an offer!
My 88 Sport has occasionally over the years exhibited sudden loss of wiper function. Lately it is more common and getting worse. The problem seems to be common to cars w/ interval wipers. Symptoms are: Dead stop of wipers wherever the blade is at, no power at the Y/R #61 terminal at wiper motor. That 12V power to terminal #61 comes through the Interval Regulator via the Reset / Governor Relay. I have been examining the innards of that Interval Regulator and can see this much: The Reset / Governor Relay is controlled by switching transistor Q3, which can in turn be activated by either Q1 or Q2. One of these three transistors is the prime suspect, as when the power failure occurs I can correct it by touching the -coil terminal of the R / G Relay with a test lamp (relay function OK, trouble is in control ckt). I can see that Q1 and Q2 are flat-sided plastic body transistors with pins arranged CBE, and Q3 is layed out EBC. I could buy a new Regulator online but would rather fix the old one. I want to try replacing the three switching transistors and see if the intermittent loss of wipers is fixed, but am not sure how to select replacement transistors. What am I looking for? There are a Zillion transistors that all look the same... how do I select the correct ones?
I hope this is not bad forum etiquette or anything, but I cannot edit the title of an old post so perhaps it has gone unnoticed that the price of my excellent 88 T-Bird Sport has been reduced to a much more realistic number ($2500) and I am ready to entertain all offers. I really am tired of paying for insurance and annual property tax just to keep it road legal because I don't even drive it anymore except to keep the battery charged. Somebody do us both a favor here! I direct your attention to the post titled "Hot rod kit - rare opportunity" in this forum.
Who needs a good platform for building a hot rod? I need to sell my car. It runs strong, has cold AC and still looks good. Some performance enhancements but basically stock and unmolested. You won't find a better example of the LAST SOLID AXLE T-BIRD. Lots of extras, parts, manuals, etc. Refer to my previous post (search my username "stealth") but ignore the posted price. I am ready to deal.
I am pleased to offer to the discriminating buyer a chance not available since 1988. You can purchase a very nice example of the 1988 Ford T-Bird Sport, last of the solid axle Fox birds, the ultimate iteration of the platform (with apologies to Mustang owners). This car is a Mustang for Grownups. I purchased it new from Town East in Dallas with the intent of making a rear wheel drive Ford V-8 hotrod. Twenty six years later my priorities have changed and I am willing to let someone else have the pleasure. This is a well preserved and unmolested specimen of the genuine Sport model (roller block 5.0 w/forged pistons; no headers, no HO cam), 8.8" locking diff w/4 shock rear suspension, urethane bushings, larger sway bars, alum wheels, 6 way seats, etc. Car runs great, ready for a California trip. Medium sandalwood, some fading on hood and roof. Equipped with 140mph speedo, huge Hayden oil cooler, 3-G alt, mini starter, custom free-flow exhaust w/Flowmaster lers, adjustable fuel pressure regulator set 4.5% rich, better than OEM spkrs. & head unit. Deal includes all parts including emission controls and cats, EFI & drilled rotors from a Mustang HO, NIB 4-row brass radiator, NIB BBK 3" Y-pipe (fits shorty headers), complete set of shop manuals, all service records, sales brochures and window sticker. Lots more, too much to list. I have a price in mind, let's see if anybody wants this as bad as I did for the first twenty years. PMs will be answered ASAP.
The Premium Sound System in my 88 Sport has done its job well for 25 years, but it finally gave up. The dash 3.5" speakers are dead, the rear 6x8s are cheap replacements for the originals that blew out while I had an aftermarket CD player pumping through the rear amp. I think the original head unit is OK, but the casette squeaks and who needs cassettes these days. So, I just ordered a pair of Polk Audio 3.5s, a pair of Rockford-Fosgate 6x8s and a Jensen AM/FM/CD/Mpeg/USB head unit that has a SD card slot. I use a similar unit in my RV and it is great... five days of driving music on one chip! So I plan to unplug the rear amp and connect to the alternate connector in the dash that is unused with premium sound. That will feed the speakers direct from the head unit, I won't use the factory amp or equalizer (now I have a hole in the dash to put something else in!). The door speakers are original, but still sound good at full volume, so I will probably not replace them until I listen to the new system. I know, it's not a thumper with a trunk full of speakers and amps, but it should sound good again.
I'm sitting in my barn drinking a beer and looking at the 5.8L motor from my truck sitting on the stand. I pulled it to remove the pan and other sheet metal and clean out 145k of sludge. (The motor runs strong but has lost oil pressure lately in a way that tells me the pan is full of ). And I start thinking, why not just drop the truck motor into the T-Bird? It might be a good match for the 2.73 gears... more torque than the 5.0L. Eventually I might steal the 3.55 gears from the truck, too. It is the same locking 8.8in. diff in both. What I will actually do for now is just weigh the 5.8L while it is out so that when I do have occasion to pull the T-Bird motor (soon, because the rear seal leaks like the Exxon Valdez) I can compare the weight and get an idea of how my front springs will take the new motor. Here in the hills I really need a 4wd truck anyway, and my old F-150 would not be worth much as a used truck. Maybe it will end up sitting on cinder blocks behind the barn. The T-Bird radiator has been leaking lately, and I happen to have a 4-row NIB, so a bigger motor is no problem. That may be an omen!
Car is '88 Sport 5.0 w/AOD. I want to fabricate a new 2" dual exhaust from the iron manifolds back to the existing Flowmasters. The transmission shift link and shifter cable are right smack dam in the middle of where the the LH pipe needs to go under the double hump crossmember. Before I make a crooked pipe to fit, what sort of brackets and shift lever do cars with factory duals & AOD use? I would like to see photos of MkVII, Mustang, Cougars, any Fox 5.0. or any advice on what brackets I need to look for in the junk yard. "We're not the ones you want, we can go on." Obi Wan Kenobi "They can't see us, we're invisible." Chief Dan George to Dustin Hoffman
