1983 Thunderbird Heritage - 03.03.10 New parts!

Topic: 1983 Thunderbird Heritage - 03.03.10 New parts! (Read 19035 times) previous topic - next topic

1983 Thunderbird Heritage - 03.03.10 New parts!

Reply #15 – May 06, 2009, 09:46:45 AM

What are your plans for the radio in the car when you replace it with the pioneer?

1983 Thunderbird Heritage - 03.03.10 New parts!

Reply #16 – May 06, 2009, 12:19:55 PM

Very nice, those mudflaps must've really done wonders for it lol.

1983 Thunderbird Heritage - 03.03.10 New parts!

Reply #17 – May 06, 2009, 01:03:37 PM

Thanks again for the comments. I picked it up for $2100 so it was a good deal that I couldnt pass up. And the mudflaps did help a bit I guess, but theres bubbles of rust where the screws went into the quarters. Oh and it was repainted once upon a time and it was always stored in a garage.

So can anyone help me with the carb problem I'm having? Its annoying to have to throw it in neutral and rev it at a light to keep it from stalling.

As for the radio it will probably just sit in a box with the Cougar one.

1983 Thunderbird Heritage - 03.03.10 New parts!

Reply #18 – May 06, 2009, 05:12:07 PM

Double post, again.

So I picked up a gasket kit for the carb, gonna start that little project tonight. The 10 holes are on and looking dirty so they'll get a good cleaning this weekend, also I have to pick up an adapter for the deck, the Cougar one isn't the same, and I snapped a few of the Cougar.

1983 Thunderbird Heritage - 03.03.10 New parts!

Reply #19 – May 06, 2009, 06:03:28 PM

that is one cherry bird.

1983 Thunderbird Heritage - 03.03.10 New parts!

Reply #20 – May 06, 2009, 07:14:48 PM

Factory alarm too?! Aside from maybe leather and a sunroof that looks COMPLETELY loaded.

Once it's running good take care of that rust as soon as you can.

1983 Thunderbird Heritage - 03.03.10 New parts!

Reply #21 – May 06, 2009, 08:05:06 PM

Two problems I had with my 85 V6 T-Bird that you might be having with your carb'd 83 V8:

First, is the "stove" still present on the exhaust manifold, and the ducting to the air cleaner? Is the air valve on the air cleaner (the one on the end of it that determines whether the air cleaner gets cold air or warm air) working? If this is missing or not working the carburetor might be icing up. My old 85 used to ice up at anywhere between +15 and -5 celsius (it might seem odd to ice up when it's above freezing, but remember wind chill and its effect on the atomizing fuel as the air is rushing past the venturis in the carb). I'd shut the car off (or it would simply stall), let the ice in the carb melt for a minute or two, and it would start right up again and run perfectly until the ice formed again.

Another possibility is the electric choke. Early 80's Ford chokes are notoriously unreliable. The heater literally burned off the side of my 85's carburetor. I fixed that problem by installing a manual choke (it was trade school days, I was a poor student :hick:)

1983 Thunderbird Heritage - 03.03.10 New parts!

Reply #22 – May 06, 2009, 11:58:43 PM

Thanks for the advice Carm but it ended up being the gasket between the carb and spacer. 20 bucks and a quick carb adjustment later and it runs like a top.

1983 Thunderbird Heritage - 03.03.10 New parts!

Reply #23 – May 08, 2009, 10:36:21 PM

Another update.

Yesterday I put a Cherry Bomb Turbo on and it sounds pretty good for a single pipe. However the carb does need to be rebuilt, the 2 metal cylinders in the front of the carb fill up with gas, thus spilling into the carb and flooding itself out, hence the stalling. So I'm gonna pick up a rebuild kit tomorrow morning and get 'er done. Wish me luck.

1983 Thunderbird Heritage - 03.03.10 New parts!

Reply #24 – May 09, 2009, 08:06:51 PM

I also have an 1983 T-BIRD factory 5.0. AOD, I'm in the process of restoring it. I do have a few pics of it on here.Yours is a nice bird.

1983 Thunderbird Heritage - 03.03.10 New parts!

Reply #25 – May 09, 2009, 08:13:56 PM

Is the t-bird an cfi engine or is it 2 barrel carb. And if it is cfi you might want to check the tps (throttle position sensor) or maybe the fuel pressure regulator on the fuel injection to the cfi. If carbed you my want to check the fuel filter.

1983 Thunderbird Heritage - 03.03.10 New parts!

Reply #26 – May 11, 2009, 04:50:12 PM

Thanks for the advice Tom but it turned out to be a bunch of gunk in the needle valve under the float. Now its running great again but I'm just waiting for another problem to appear. So on Thursday I went and picked up this :

Due to it being so quite.

And here are a few pics of it.

1983 Thunderbird Heritage - 03.03.10 New parts!

Reply #27 – May 11, 2009, 11:47:39 PM

Nice to see another Heritage in great shape. Great find!

1983 Thunderbird Heritage - 03.03.10 New parts!

Reply #28 – May 11, 2009, 11:49:08 PM

Looks good. I think you should paint those rims body color or charcoal.

1983 Thunderbird Heritage - 03.03.10 New parts!

Reply #29 – May 12, 2009, 02:10:26 AM

Yeah I considered that but I'm buying some Ponys pretty soon, and then a set of 14x7 100 spokes. I know it will be weird for a T-Bird but I've been a fan of them forever.