I sold my '88 cougar quite awhile ago, however, all of my extra parts ended up in my Dad's garage. I bought these taillights from a member here to replace my cracked ones, but I never installed them. So my Dad is selling them on ebay.
The pinion shaft has been removed, I simply reached in and pushed it back into it's home and rotated the differential to let it fall out like it is supposed to. Nothing is currently jammed anywhere.
I thought I remembered pulling out that s-spring, but I must be thinking of something else. I plan on getting dirty again on the weekend. I'll take a few pictures if anything is twisted into or burned to a crisp.
If thats what happened I could only imagine what might of broke when you gave it the gas.
I guess I'll find out whenever I get the axles back in.
The axles push in, and I can see the C-clips. I can't seem to make them move with the s-spring in the way. I think I had a memory of pushing them off and letting them fall with a long screw driver. I was trying to grab them with needle nose pliers last night.
Can someone speculate as what would break in the following cirspoogestance?
I was changing out an axle shaft in my '88 Cougar ( 8.8 ) and when I took the tiny bolt out of the pinion shaft, I rotated the tires and thought the differential siezed.
So I started the car and gave it a little gas to break it loose.
I didn't hear anything break loose, so I turned off th car and went to inspect my clever plan. The pinion shaft had wedged against the bottom of the housing.
So what broke? Did the transmission just absorb the punishment with it's magic vacuum and fluid stuff? I didn't notice the drive shaft was twisted in half or anything. Seems like something would have broken, with the differential not moving and me revving the engine.
Also, how am I supposed to get the C-clips out around the S-spring? I've done all of this before, but I think I must have held my mouth open while laying under a leaking radiator too many times. I remember doing it, just not how I did it.
Is the belt loose or dried out? that'd be my first guess, then worn accessories.
Belts are new, I changed them just a few months ago. I probably wasn't clear, if I was with the car, I would of course just short belt around the a/c and see if it made the noise again. I'm not with the car though, and thats why I'm asking if there is a mechanic that someone has a personal experience with who would basically do the same thing, or possibly do something entirely different that I haven't thought of, although, in my experience, that is a rare thing.
Hey everybody. My wife's '88 Mercury Tracer ( really a Mazda 323 Mercury rebranded ) is making this awful screaching noise sometimes. It had been doing it every now and then when you first start it up, but it recently did it at speed on the freeway. I always blamed it on a failing bearing in the A/C pulley, and figured it would get worse and I could verify what it was and spend the big bucks on a new compressor.
Here is where I need a little help. She is in louisville, ky visiting her parents and it started doing it really steady on the way there ( which is 8 hours or so from here ). So I need the name of a mechanic in louisville who is not a crook. The car has a million problems, but she really likes it ( imagine that, someone with a fanatic obsession for a car. ).
So, anybody from that area know a good mechanic?
Squid
( oh, and I haven't been on these boards in awhile, bought a really low mile '91 ford explorer.. oddly enough has alot of the same problems as my old '88 couger, which I still have but is getting alot less attention )
. But it will definitely help determine what's going on. In my almost 20 years of experience with these window motors...
You don't have to wave it around Eric, we all know it's huge.
It could also be binding from the little doohicky the holds the glass in the track. Those fail alot too. Does your windows seem to "tilt" any when it stops? If you give a little pull on the front or rear of the window is it loose? You might also try waxing your window to decrease the friction from the felt/rubber strip at the top of the door..
I went through 7 alternators in one year.They were all from Autozone.I finally went and spent the money on a new one,and haven't had any more problems.
I went through about 6 alternators in 2 years from autozone. It was around '96-00'. Considering my alternator gauge has never worked ( in any car, ever ) I would use the turn signal to determine if my battery was low or not. If it flashes pretty fast, I"m good. If it was taking a 2-3 seconds between flashes, my alternator or battery wasn't outputting enough.
About the fourth or fifth one I took back to autozone the guys there started giving me about how it was my car frying them, or improper harness installation. Which I understand, and I would just reassure them that thier alternators are really and it's not me. Luckily the one time the guy at autozone really threw a fit that alternator's shaft was so badly misaligned that you could no longer hand turn the pulley. He tried to test it and the machine flung it. "Cleanup on isle 5" :)
I had another one that was so badly internally shorted it would get hot enough to glow and occasionally spit out flaming bits of itself. After 4 years or so I went through the stock of alternators at the local autozone's and autzone switched brands. The new one came in a nice box, had a gold colored pulley nut, seemed heavier. I've had that one for 3-4 years now.
However this doesn't help the original poster any, I'd say keep trying to figure out the root of the problem. Pull all of your fuses, put a voltmeter inline to show amperage draw on your battery. Put your fuses back in one at a time see if something is pulling amperage. ( with the car off of course.. you'll ruin a voltmeter in a hurry otherwise..or at least be buying voltmeter fuses ). Check where your wires go through the firewall, thats a good place for them to get cut. Check your negative and postive battery wires for corrosion, make sure they are clear of the exhaust.
Yes! Let us know how it goes. The headlights on my '88 leave alot to be desired and I have been wanting to swap them with something better. Not just brighter, but better focused and safer. Like a modern car :)
Okay, I've had my 1988 cougar for along time and I've delt with the headlights. I've polished, sanded, cleaned, drilled, and sealed and I'm done with it. I've also got a little collection of extra yellow ones I've picked up to "practice" sanding, polishing and sealing on.
What I would like is to replace the current lights with something else. I don't really care what, just anything really. What I would really like is to be able to order a bolt on conversion to a glass fronted lense, or a replacable lense. Someone should be able to fabricate that, right?
So, any thoughts, ideas? I know it's really outside the scope of what CHE does, but I feel like someone ( jcassity? dare? ) with better fabrication skills really could just make something I would perfectly happy with, mounting a new piece of "headlight" in the older adjuster is what I imagine doing, but I've destroyed a bunch of them trying to do it.
Oh, and I bought a '91 ford explorer for daily driving. I'm retiring my old cougar ( 315k miles ). I hope to start an extensive rebuild, cleanup project if I can overcome a hurdle or too, but that is a post for a different time.
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