1983 Ford Thunderbird Heritage

Topic: 1983 Ford Thunderbird Heritage (Read 13233 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: 1983 Ford Thunderbird Heritage

Reply #15 – November 03, 2021, 08:49:25 PM

Nice looking car. I’d say by the way it looks, it’s been well cared for!

Re: 1983 Ford Thunderbird Heritage

Reply #16 – April 03, 2022, 05:02:27 PM

So after losing my vacation and getting called back to work a few months ago, where i had planned on working on the tbrid and a few other things, i scrounged to make time where i could to get it working properly again.
Last week i finally had a whole day to get in there and get it running, so i did. Finally installed the rebuilt carb. It was too cold to take it out and drive but it starts right up now and doesnt stall in gear.
This weekend i took it out for a short drive to pick up some stuff for it and road test it to see what else needs to be done for drivability sake. It still has a few kinks to work out regarding the high idle but atleast it moves.

Replaced the battery cables while in there since they were beyond saving, negative was internally corroded and shielding was cracking off in my hand at every touch not worth taping up.

Re: 1983 Ford Thunderbird Heritage

Reply #17 – May 25, 2022, 06:21:18 PM

Over the weekend i tried to install an H4 coversion kit but it didnt turn out as i had hoped.
Comparison of the sealed halogens to the new headlamps.

Much smaller and significantly lighter, but the high beam only has 2 pr0ng connector and had to bend the tab to get it in there.
I think h7s have single filament lamps with this style connector so ill look into that.

Only put them on the drivers side to test them out.

Low beam.

High beam.
Unfortunately, the low beam h4 dimmed significantly when i threw on the high beams and set off my light warning monitor.
Took them out and reinstalled the sealed beam halogens, deal with it later.

I moved on to other things while i was there like setting the idle properly on this thing now that i have something that can read it.

It was idling warm at 1400 rpms so i had to fix that, some tinkering later have it at 850 rpm warm idle in neutral and 650 rpm in gear which is fine for me.
While i was under the hood i noticed the battery was all wet on top(not water and all over my new cables real nice) so 200 bucks later i got a new battery for it as well.
Ford didnt have the battery group size for some reason had to get one from autozone.

Re: 1983 Ford Thunderbird Heritage

Reply #18 – May 29, 2022, 06:41:01 PM

You should not be able to get a Low Beam Out warning light with the dimmer switch on high beams.
The H4 bulb must be back feeding voltage onto the low beam circuit.

Re: 1983 Ford Thunderbird Heritage

Reply #19 – May 29, 2022, 08:27:08 PM

Were there any wiring changes with the conversion kit? The low beam dimming when high beams are turned on is backwards.
The specs for a 9004 bulb is 700 lumins lo beam and 1200 lumins hi beam.

Re: 1983 Ford Thunderbird Heritage

Reply #20 – May 30, 2022, 12:19:53 AM

@softtouch

I tried to quote you but it wouldnt load for some reason. I was reading thru the 83 evtm that i have and saw the same so i got some stuff to figure out there.
There were no wiring changes with the kit as it was just housings and replaceable bulbs, the housing have these ricey looking "day lights" things in them that i cut the wires from since im not using them and have no connection to the actual bulbs but both h4 bulbs were dual filament and had 3 tabs which the high beams sealed bulbs and connector on the car have 2.
I was looking into different bulbs for the highbeams just for a plug and play thing there since i know those exist.
That is easy enough to solve since its just a connector and pinning but it was boiling in my garage and i was sweating all over everything so i wasnt trying to figure anything out at the moment but i didnt want to waste a trip to the garage without trying something.
The battery was also an issue i saw after taking the lights back out so that can be eliminated from the situation. I would like to measure draw but i only had that buttstuffyzer and it doesnt measure that, my multimeter is at work.
I had the car out today and drove it around for a few hours and refilled the gas tank with new good gas and it seems "sorted" out finally so now i can go back and try to tackle this when i get more playtime.

Re: 1983 Ford Thunderbird Heritage

Reply #21 – June 02, 2022, 01:24:16 PM

All you need is this:

https://lmr.com/item/LRS-S526A/mustang-headlight-connector-pigtail-79-86

This solves the issue with the H4 bulb on the high beam side. You may be able to simply remove the two wires from the two pr0ng factory connector, remove the three wires from the LMR three pr0ng connector, and then insert the two factory wires into the LMR three pr0ng connector. This will allow you to use H4 bulbs in all four headlights.

I sourced used low beam connectors for my conversion and run four H4 bulbs.

I would suggest that you power the lights off of relays and not the stock wiring as the H4's will draw more current. You simply use the factory wiring as 12V+ triggers for the relays.

Re: 1983 Ford Thunderbird Heritage

Reply #22 – June 04, 2022, 04:31:24 PM

Quote from: Aerocoupe – on June 02, 2022, 01:24:16 PM

All you need is this:

https://lmr.com/item/LRS-S526A/mustang-headlight-connector-pigtail-79-86

This solves the issue with the H4 bulb on the high beam side. You may be able to simply remove the two wires from the two pr0ng factory connector, remove the three wires from the LMR three pr0ng connector, and then insert the two factory wires into the LMR three pr0ng connector. This will allow you to use H4 bulbs in all four headlights.

I sourced used low beam connectors for my conversion and run four H4 bulbs.

I would suggest that you power the lights off of relays and not the stock wiring as the H4's will draw more current. You simply use the factory wiring as 12V+ triggers for the relays.

I was going to pick up some h7s for the highbeams to avoid having to changing plugs but i guess if i go this route ill have to do relays regardless.
Wanted to edit this since i must be the last person on earth that didnt know and just found out they literally make plug and play goes right into your old headlight socket no cut power to the battery hi/lo relay harnesses for four headlight cars with high temp ceramic plugs so im just going to buy one of those and put that in.
If it comes out nice i get a set for my mustang as well.

Re: 1983 Ford Thunderbird Heritage

Reply #23 – June 06, 2022, 09:42:55 AM

Quote from: Ductape91 – on June 04, 2022, 04:31:24 PM

Quote from: Aerocoupe – on June 02, 2022, 01:24:16 PM

Wanted to edit this since i must be the last person on earth that didnt know and just found out they literally make plug and play goes right into your old headlight socket no cut power to the battery hi/lo relay harnesses for four headlight cars with high temp ceramic plugs so im just going to buy one of those and put that in.
If it comes out nice i get a set for my mustang as well.

I used one of those on sons Crown Vic. Worked really well. When on high beam all 4 lights were 100 watts. Really lit up well.

Re: 1983 Ford Thunderbird Heritage

Reply #24 – July 04, 2022, 10:01:08 PM

So i installed the relay harness around last week or so and turned it on.

Threw out some nice light compared to the pic further up the page.

Just one problem... I didnt have the high beams on.
Putting them on made no difference, just all on or nothing.
So i checked the relay to see if it was stuck, nope.
Checked the plugs to see if i mixed them up, nope.
Then looked at the wiring of the relays and realized they are set up for all 4 to be on all the time when on. The kinda thing a younger me wouldve and shouldve checked before he started.
Bummer.
So out came the bright stuff and back in went the halogens

, for now.
Atleast i got to clean out the headlight area while i had everything out, bugs and sticks everywhere.

Re: 1983 Ford Thunderbird Heritage

Reply #25 – July 05, 2022, 08:12:12 AM

Why in the hell did they set up those relays like that?

You should be able to rework the trigger wiring so that the functions are separate like they're supposed to be.

Re: 1983 Ford Thunderbird Heritage

Reply #26 – July 05, 2022, 07:05:49 PM

Yea, im going to have to run some wire and repin stuff if i want bright lights.

Re: 1983 Ford Thunderbird Heritage

Reply #27 – July 16, 2022, 10:50:25 PM

So i replaced the radiator cap today, amongst other things, the original that came with it still holds pressure despite appearance so ill just hang onto it for some reason.

Its weird that the new one, RS-53, feels like it belongs on there more than the one that was on it.
I recall reading that 83 was the first year for some kind of yellow color coded system for service items under the hood, which the power steering cap, oil cap and dip stick all have.
Inside the radiator aint looking so good though, gonna need to find something to get that stuff out when i flush the old coolant.

I tried to get my a/c working since its hawt and shweaty out but it has issues im not entirely sure how to approach it.
The low pressure line and accumulator looks new or replaced, compared to the high line which is all crusty, and the previous owner put quick connectors on it and put a sticker over the factory r-12 one which has nothing on it but implying it was converted to something else. There is a sticker for some kind of leak detector company there next to it.
I can only assume it was converted to r134 so im rolling with it hoping they changed the oil too.
I took off the quick connector and put my single gauge on it without turning it on and its at 100 psi, way too high... i think, running with it on was short cycling between 20 and 40.
I gave it a 12oz shot of just r134, no oil or stop leak, and it stayed at 55psi and blew nice cold air, for about 2 hours of driving untill i parked it and went shopping for awhile.
Came back and ran it and was back to short cycling.
Ugh, im not an a/c guy and im not going to pretend to be one so im likely going to farm that mess to somebody else with tools and knowledge with it.
I got a bunch of other things to frustrate me with still on it.
Changed the oil and filter on it, i used motorcraft 5w30 semi synthetic(it was all the store had, cant find conventional 5w or 10w oil on the shelf round here for some reason) and added some zddp additive to it just because ive had it forever and wanted to use it on something.

I wanted to use my extractor on it, since im using it on everything now, but the hose wouldnt go down the dipstick tube on it so finally had to crack the drain bolt on something after almost 5 years now.
Cant win them all.
Wanted to do plugs and wires but too hot for that underhood work, it starts and runs so ill deal with that when the temps come down.
Also tried at the lights with the relay kit again but still not working right, i pulled it out and im going over it wire by wire before i put it back in, got too hot in the garage for that kind of frustration today.
Maybe next week.

Re: 1983 Ford Thunderbird Heritage

Reply #28 – September 23, 2022, 10:38:44 PM

So last week i began thinking on how to deal with the cruddied up radiator and settled on wanting to use draino crystals to attempt to clean it.
So in the meantime i bought the elcheapoest "plastic" radiator to fill in for it while i get around to cleaning the original radiator.
That came today and since it was nice and cool out i headed to the garage to swap it out and do a few other things while im there.

The radiators

Old one came out without issue other than making a big mess all over my floor despite having drainpan city under it. My vacuum extractor was basically useless since i couldnt find the hose small enough to go down to the bottom, untill afterwards, and only got half the fluid out.
Thankfully i bought a bunch of flare nut wrenches a few weeks ago to bungle a brake job on my mustang and i had the right size for the transmission line connectors, i was expecting 5/8 but they were 11/16. No drama in removal.
While there i took a look at my condenser and saw some damage on it and what looked like wetness on the hose side, i didnt have my leak detector light there so ill go over that when i pull the new radiator out to put the old one back in.

Ok, so while im in there i decided to give those fancy h4 lights lights another shot, now that i can tuck them away nicely. I repinned them awhile ago and expected them to work like they should. They didnt, and they almost burned out my light switch thanks to the cheap relays sticking and one wire burning up. Im done trying to make those work at this point so into the trash they go. Ill buy better glasses.
Now ive had this serpentine belt that i couldve sworn was the right one for this car just waiting to go on to replace the cracked one on there and no better time to do it, so i grabbed it and tried to put it on only to see its too small. Went over everthing to check if something was out of position but nope, just wrong belt.

Lesson learned, Back to radiator.
So after putting it in without any issues i realized something wasnt right, it couldnt be something on this car got changed without issue.
Untill i noticed the overflow tube was mia when i went to put on the radiator cap, broke off in the box it came in, i must have looked right at it a hundred times and didnt notice it wasnt there untill then but i already put it in so now ill hunt down one of those repair kits they sell for that.
I knew there was a reason i hated these plastic radiators.

Re: 1983 Ford Thunderbird Heritage

Reply #29 – September 26, 2022, 01:13:39 AM

Terrible.