New member, friend's 84 Thunderbird August 26, 2012, 11:00:35 AM Hi all, my friend has an 84 Thunderbird Elan and he's young and new to playing with cars. My other friends and I have been helping him, and now at least it runs again with a new fuel pump in it, however another problem has developed, now the car will not start without jumping the terminals on the solenoid. We replaced the solenoid and added an extra ground to one of the mount bolts. My ford friend told me he had the same problem on his f250, there is an actuator rod in the column the broke in his case. Does this sound like possibly issue on this car? I'm kinda at a loss here myself.Also, it has a 302, and it sounds like a kinda like a typewriter. I was wondering if 84 302's have adjustable valvetrain or not and if not, what else could be causing it?Thanks guys,Martin Quote Selected
New member, friend's 84 Thunderbird Reply #1 – August 26, 2012, 11:07:06 AM Has the ignition switch under the column been checked? Quote Selected
New member, friend's 84 Thunderbird Reply #2 – August 26, 2012, 11:12:04 AM the typewriter sound might be the injectors pulsing. cfi sucks Quote Selected
New member, friend's 84 Thunderbird Reply #3 – August 27, 2012, 12:04:02 AM The ticking could also be a collapsed lifter. Quote Selected
New member, friend's 84 Thunderbird Reply #4 – August 27, 2012, 12:47:31 AM Well thats what I was asking about, the ignition switch is in the column, right? Where is this actuator rod and where does it go and where is the actual starter switch? The cfi on this car is probably gonna go. It had a rough running situation that disappeared and today it was back. I was playing with the injectors while it was running and it magically smoothed out. However I don't think this is the cfi making this noise. Its pretty loud... though it is partially an exhaust leak. Hopefully after we fix that it'll be easier to track the rest of the noise. Lifter did come to mind, but its not a single continuous tapping, is a continuous tap that sounds like its on several cylinders if not all. Like a constant light striking, to soft and frequent to be a lifter. Quote Selected
New member, friend's 84 Thunderbird Reply #5 – August 27, 2012, 09:52:53 AM Since it sounds like the car is 100% stock, then no it wouldn't have an adjustable valvetrain. How's the oil pressure?? I'd pull the valve covers and check to see how the oil is flowing, yes it might get a little messy, but you'd be able to see how well the lifters are pumping the oil. Could be that they're not oiling well, maybe excessive valvetrain wear? Is the sound coming from both sides?? Good luck in tracking it down. Quote Selected
New member, friend's 84 Thunderbird Reply #6 – August 27, 2012, 10:24:13 AM I started getting that in my HO. I did my Explorer swap and during the teardown of the HO I found every bearing on the cam spun and the journals wiped. If you're looking to a later EFI swap at any point, I'd figure out that start issue and then put my tools down. Either grab an HO motor and harness with a matching PCM and get going on the swap, or run it till it dies and give it a proper burial.On that second point, can you actuate the relay by powering the signal (small) post, or are you jumping directly from one large post to the other? If the relay actuates by jumping power to the small post, you are looking at a wiring problem. You won't have a problem with the switch actuator rod, because its solid while the F-150 in question has a plastic actuator with a pin joint in the middle that are known to separate. The T-Bird column joints above the tilt lever, while the F-150 column joints below it, hence the need for a jointed actuator. I'd start by checking the neutral safety switch. For your reference, the starting system diagram. Quote Selected
New member, friend's 84 Thunderbird Reply #7 – August 28, 2012, 03:09:20 PM The car is stock, supposedly a 40k mile original, kinda believable but something about it just doesn't seem kosher. It supposedly sat since 91 (has a 91 inspection on it) and he bought it from the 2nd owner who never even registered it as his. Definitely need to hook up a oil pressure gauge, and I was telling him to pull the covers and see whats going on in there. I was kinda thinking this will just be a run it til it dies deal. The cfi will be disappearing soon probably. Gonna just do a carb swap since its so simple, and I'm not a fi kinda guy. Later on down the road the cars gonna be getting another motor (302 or 351) to be decided upon based on money and availability I suppose.Thanks everyone, this is gonna be a slow moving project, but I'll let you know what we find when we get there. Quote Selected
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