The old beast has 363,000km, has already been bashed several times, front suspension is shot, engine leaks like a sieve, valvetrain sounds like ball bearings in a tin can, driver's seat is boogered, windshield is cracked and "sandblasted" (a joy at night in the rain), water pump and heater core both leak if the RPMs come up, and rear brakes are down to metal and have started leaving puddles of brake fluid on the ground.
I gathered all the part numbers to redo the brakes and was just about to order everything when the tranny started slipping badly in OD (more than it had been) and sometimes in 3rd. Driving to work (25 miles each way), the steering started binding, and not wanting to return to center without help.
I whipped out my trusty pocket calculator, quickly added up the cost of all the parts needed to bring it back from the brink, and........
If it's shaped like a brick, has the aerodynamics of a brick, and is even the color of a brick..... . . . . . . . . . . . . Auuugh! Too many doors! . . GL? , not even a turbo. Still, it has 114 tire-shredding horsies (at 5400rpm). . . Needs 8 fog lights and a BIG hood scoop.
This is just a FYI... I can NOT get anything for you, I just don't have the time/money/room to strip/buy/store it.
I was strolling through A-Scott Wreckers in Surrey today, first time I've been able to get to ANY wrecker in months.
1988 Cougar XR7, 5.0, AOD, white outside, black/gray leather inside (soft and shiny), sunroof, keyless entry, power everything, Premium sound with EQ, console with a *working, intact lid*, quad shocks, full-digital dash, etc, etc, etc. Must have just arrived in the last day or two... the catalytic converter has been cut out, the left inner door panel is in the back seat, and the radiator is gone. As far as I could tell, that's all that's been done to it. The kind of car I (and you) would jump on if it was for sale somewhere.
Written with a paint pen: "Engine smokes, trans bad". That and a slightly cracked fibreglass nose is apparently enough reason to junk it. And no, they wouldn't let me slap my wheels on and drive it home. Once it's out in the yard, that's it :(
There's a gigantic barge (okay, an 88 Crown Vic) on craigslist, way the hell over on the other side of the city. Was $300 a week ago, now says first $200 takes it, "needs fuel pump".
If I still lived over there, I'd probably grab it for a DD so I can take the Bird apart to fix things it really needs done (and I'd still have somewhere to put it to work on it, which I don't where I am now). :(
However, without a fuel pump there's no way to check the engine, transmission, rear end, brakes.... pretty much everything, and there's no way I'd have it towed all the way here just to change the pump and find the engine's blown. I just don't have the time or patience to deal with that kind of .
It got me thinking :eek: that it might be feasible (for this or other injected Fords) to get a length of high-pressure hose, fit a schrader valve to each end, and connect the fuel rails of each car together, like a double-ended pressure gauge, minus the gauge. Start up the bird, or jump the test plug so the pump runs, which should pressurize the other car's fuel rail to get it running.
Well, this is for information only, since the dimmer switch can't really be fixed, only replaced. But for those who want to know why high/low-beam switch doesn't work any more, or maybe why the lights won't come on at all, or why the steering column feels hot or smells like melting plastic...
Here's a "normal" switch I got from the wreckers, along with some un-melted plugs and a few inches of wire.
Here's the outside, where the signal lever plugs in.
You can just see the guts, with the springs and contactors for the signals and whatnot.
Off to the side is the dimmer switch. The cutout in the metal is probably to let the excess heat out. Or for you to be able to say "Yep, it's melted alright!" Want to open up it up and have a look? Okay.
Four (4) screws, Torx #10 works, though it feels a little loose. Maybe a #12-1/2, if they exist?
The halves will spring apart a bit. Not to worry. Slice the anti-rattle foam at the joint.
Lift off the top, and you have the contact pads, The signals are the ones in the middle. The 4 dots at the top left are for high-low headlights. They're connected diagonally by a spring-loaded bar. The 2 flat pieces just below them are the flash-to-pass contacts, activated by the springy plunger in the next few pics.
Here we have the signal contactors (triangular), the dimmer flip-flopping thing (lower left) and the flash-to-pass plunger (sticking out from the green thing).
Hmmmm... I just got this new speedo, but the mileage is wrong. I know I have to take it apart to change it, but where to start? I guess I have to get the pointer off, so I just pull, right?
That usually pops off the cover, leaving the pointer behind. I find it easier to gently lift while turning the pointer down past zero, overcoming the friction holding the pointer on the needle.
There you go. The hollow tube fits over the tiny needle in the hole.
Take out 2 screws to remove the face. Try not to scratch it.
Take out 3 screws to get the odometer assembly off the speedo.
Flip it over, and there's the "works". You'll need to get those little gears out of the way, and since they're held in by a metal shaft, let's remove it.
Here's the shaft. The tripmeter has its own shaft. Ignore it.
Pop it out with something skinny. I used a mini screwdriver.
Don't go too far, just 1/8" or so until the splines are out.
The shaft is now free to pull out, releasing the gears.
Closeup of the gears. Note the "long" and "short" teeth. Each gear engages the teeth of the wheel to its left. The long teeth slide along the slight groove on the wheel to the right, "bracing" the left wheel so it can't turn. When the "notch" in the right wheel comes around (you can just see it between the 5 and 6), the long tooth drops into it, spinning the gear and the left wheel by one digit.
Whoops! I mean, I meant to do that!!!!!
Now you can flip the odo over and spin the wheels to set your new mileage.
Flip it back, and note the other numbers are all 5 digits off, so 298650 becomes 743105. However, the important numbers you'll need in a few minutes are below those... >854216< .
Okay, here's the fiddly bit that takes all the time, and needs good lighting and a steady hand. Slide the pin back in, putting one gear on it at a time, remembering to get 2 of the "long" teeth on the groove with a short tooth between. Tweezers are a big help here. Make sure the digits all stay "in line".
Okay, gears are in, the mileage looks right, let's test-fit the face and see the results of my wonderful job.
Ummm... heh, heh. I think I made a boo-boo.
Here's the gears installed the wrong way, so the shaft is over the "gap" between digits. All you can do is pull the shaft out and start all over. :(
Here's the proper way, with the gears covering the digits.
Ahhhhh, that's better.
Time to put the shaft all the way back in. Here's those splines again.
Give it a good push with something flat (my Torx driver is flat on the end). You shouldn't need to hammer on it, it's only going into plastic.
Here's the odometer stepper motor that turns the worm gear that turns the drive gear that turns the idler gear that turns the digits that live in the house that Jack built. Oh, sorry... that's a different song.
Put the housing back on - 3 screws.
Put the face back on - 2 screws.
Place the pointer back on its needle. Don't worry about getting it straight off the bat.
Here it is "slightly" out of line. No problem, it's a friction fit and I haven't pushed it on all the way.
Gently nudge it down to exactly zero.
Give it a push with something flat to "set" it on the needle. If it's not exactly where you want it, gently swing the pointer around to "peg" it at one end of the scale or the other, then push it just a bit more so it turns on the needle. Let it go back to zero and see how close you are. Repeat as needed.
Put back the cap that you accidentally ripped off in step 2.
There it is, back in the cluster with the right mileage, and the pointer right at zero. Isn't it pretty?
Hopped in, turned the key, rrr-rrr-vrooooom-THUNK-THUNK. Backfire? Potato in the tailpipe? Nope. Should have stayed put, but I guess he tried to get out. Does he look surprised to you too? . .
Is there a way to have uploaded pics appear in the middle of a post? I know I can use the {IMG} tags (with square brackets) to point to a pic on another site (like my homepage), but are *attachments* doomed to appear only at the end of a post?
