Minuit Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Chapter One: Just Skip This, It's Boring. To get to the interesting part, click here! The truck is in a pretty bad way right now. It's still up in the air whether or not the engine will need to be replaced, and if it does I'm going to do it right stroker. I'm a working college student, and frankly I don't have much time to work on it right now (note from the future: the truck is fine now, but when I got this car it was in the middle of a botched rear main seal replacement that resulted in a chipped engine block). In the meantime, I figured I should make a new thread for my "new" ride. No, it's not an MJ or an XJ or a ZJ or a YJ or a TJ or a WJ or anything really having to do with this forum at all. It's a car. Big Wall Of Text: January 2015 This car has a very special place in my heart. My grandmother purchased it new in 1996, and I've probably spent a quarter of my childhood in its back seat. Last year, she bought a new car, so the T-Bird was just sitting around. All the original paperwork (even the warranty papers) and owners manuals are present, and the glovebox contained a pile of maintenance receipts going back to its first oil change at 3,700 miles. It's about as far from my MJ as you can possibly get. At 201 inches long and 3700 pounds unloaded, it's a far cry from the small and lightweight Jeep. With front and rear independent suspension, it rides and handles surprisingly well. I didn't know you could adjust a car seat in so many ways, and the steering wheel alone has more buttons than an entire fleet of MJs. Despite its weight, the 4.6l V8 moves it pretty well, and on a recent drive home I averaged 26.7 mpg. I had no idea such a big car could get such good mileage, but it's consistently gotten mid to high 20s on the highway since I've been driving it. The best fuel economy I've ever gotten in the MJ is 17 mpg highway. The engine is the first generation of Ford's 4.6L Modular SOHC design. The transmission is the ever-slushy 4R70W used in pretty much every RWD Ford ever, and the rear end is (I believe) an 8.8 center section with 3.08 nope, 3.27 gears. Currently, the car has a few nagging issues. All will be fixed in due time. - The odometer stopped working on me when I drove it home from Nashville. This is a very common problem in Fords of this era, and the parts to fix it are cheaply available. I don't know the exact mileage, but my guess would be about 105-110,000. - When set to temperatures above about 70*, the climate control box makes a very annoying slapping sound every second or so. I don't know what's causing it, so I'll need to investigate that before throwing parts at it. - The hood struts are pretty much useless when it's cold outside. A big @$$ piece of metal smacking you in the back of the head isn't a great feeling. Ask me how I know. - When turning sharply, there's a loud clunk that I believe is a bad ball joint. My grandmother took it to a shop complaining of the same noise, and after $1700 in work, did they fix it? Of course not! - There's an awful belt squeal going on. The belt looks new and I don't see any pulleys out of alignment. If I don't find anything obviously wrong I might put a Gatorback belt on it and see if it improves things. Yes, the sunroof works. No, it doesn't leak. Fake wood! And I thought the MJ had a cramped engine bay. The engine is pointing the right way though, so that's a bonus. The headliner is pretty much cooked. As far as I can tell the board is fine, so it should just be a recover job. Same story for the visors. As a whole, it's in pretty good shape for a 21 year old car that wasn't terribly well maintained. There isn't anything horribly wrong with it. This won't be a "build thread" in the way that the MJ's is, and it probably won't get the monthly updates that the MJ's did. Don't expect anything any more exciting than a ball joint replacement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
91Pioneer Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Nice you might want to check out http://www.mn12tech.com I've got some experience with the identical car. Rule #1 change out any and all bushings up front. The strut rod bushings, buy OEM Ford *only*. Not too hard to change. I swapped out all front end parts on mine, shocks, coils, tie rod ends, upper & lower ball joints, strut rod bushings, etc. Then took it in for an alignment. Odometer out, yes very common. Gatorback belt will most likely fix the squeal. Front end parts should be your priority. Change out all fluids (trans requires Mercon V only, coolant flush, etc). I'm sure your drivers door is sagging too, they all do. The Dorman pin/bushing kit is the cat's @$$. Check out that link for a how-to on that. Getting the oil filter out is a bit on the tricky side but is do-able from underneath. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wiggilez Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Nice. I almost bought an older version of this car, it was an 88 (I think) with the 2.3L turbo, just didn't have the extra cash at the time. (still don't) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minuit Posted February 1, 2015 Author Share Posted February 1, 2015 Nice you might want to check out http://www.mn12tech.com I've got some experience with the identical car. Rule #1 change out any and all bushings up front. The strut rod bushings, buy OEM Ford *only*. Not too hard to change. I swapped out all front end parts on mine, shocks, coils, tie rod ends, upper & lower ball joints, strut rod bushings, etc. Then took it in for an alignment. Odometer out, yes very common. Gatorback belt will most likely fix the squeal. Front end parts should be your priority. Change out all fluids (trans requires Mercon V only, coolant flush, etc). I'm sure your drivers door is sagging too, they all do. The Dorman pin/bushing kit is the cat's @$$. Check out that link for a how-to on that. Getting the oil filter out is a bit on the tricky side but is do-able from underneath. Yep, both TCCoA and MN12Tech are my best friends right now. I know next to nothing about these cars but I'm learning :thumbsup: Good call on the bushings. As soon as I get more than a day without college stuff I'm going in and taking a look at the front end. Absolutely everything I've read says these cars chew up front end parts like nobody's business so I can't wait to see what it looks like. It tracks pretty straight and feels tight (except for that d$#% clunking) so I don't think it'll be too bad. I have an oil change reciept from a few months ago and fluids look good overall, but I do plan on changing fluids just to know that it's been done. I haven't noticed the driver door sagging, but the passenger side sags slightly. I'll read up on repairing the hinges though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
91Pioneer Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 No, these cars don't chew up front end parts. As long as you use quality (Moog, Ford) parts you'll get another 15-20 years out of the parts. It's those guys that buy cheap crap parts off eBay that are replacing their front end parts a year later. The reason every T-bird needs the front-end re-done is because the newest T-bird is 18 years old, stuff wears out over time just like Comanches. I used Moog QuickStruts for springs & shocks. I put on TRW tie-rod ends, Ford strut rod bushings, Motorcraft upper control arms (integrated ball joints), Ford OEM lower control arms (easier to replace than press ball joints/bushings in&out), and Ford rear sway bar end links (they were making noise over bumps). I've also done a bunch more work but that's what I did right after I bought the car. I got my 96 from the original owner, and he gave me every receipt since the car was new. He had oil changes done every 3 months for it's entire life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minuit Posted February 1, 2015 Author Share Posted February 1, 2015 I know next to nothing about these cars... ...strikes again. That's a CLEAN car. Got any more pics of it? Like I said, I'm going to take a closer look as soon as I get some free time. Thanks a lot for the advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
91Pioneer Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 Don't hesitate to PM me or post at mn12tech if you have specific Q's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
91Pioneer Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 Pics of mine (added SuperCoupe ground effects & aftermarket wheels): Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minuit Posted February 3, 2015 Author Share Posted February 3, 2015 :drool: FSM for the T-bird is on the way. It looked about as thick as my Jeep FSM in the pic so hopefully I'll have plenty of reading material :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minuit Posted February 7, 2015 Author Share Posted February 7, 2015 Yay! A new issue has popped up: The climate control is stuck on heater mode. The climate controller shows code 24: fault in blend door calibration. The blend doors have been making a "click" noise since I got the car, so I'd assume the (notorious) blend door actuator finally died. TCCoA says it's a real fun job to replace it, but warmer weather is on the way and I'd like to have more than just heat. The shop manual should be here on Tuesday. After that gets here I can finally start fixing things. I'm not about to tear things apart yet since I have no idea how to work on this car. Tentative list of work to be done, by priority: - Replace blend door actuator so A/C will work again - Inspect and replace front end parts - Replace vacuum/emissions hoses - Replace odometer gears (the odometer has gone from intermittently working to never working) - Before doing underhood work, replace hood struts - Inspect belt drive. Replace belt if no other problems found. - Change oil within the next few weeks. Not absolutely necessary (it looked fairly new) but I want records of when it was last changed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
91Pioneer Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 Add this to your list too, trust me: http://www.mn12tech.com/vacuum-hose-replacement.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minuit Posted February 7, 2015 Author Share Posted February 7, 2015 Noted and added :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
86XL Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minuit Posted March 11, 2015 Author Share Posted March 11, 2015 Thanks! Sorry for not responding, I have a habit of not checking this thread often. Here's how things have been recently: Changed the rear shocks today, and holy crap did it need them. One was completely blown out and might as well have not been there. Very easy to do and took just over an hour with 2 people, and that's with me poking around marveling at how tightly packed everything is. You don't even need to jack the car up. I used Monroe Sensa-Trac shocks and I'm very pleased with how the rear end feels going over bumps now. Most of the reason for the thread title is fixed. For such a big, (relatively) heavy car it sure does feel tight now. The odometer decided it wanted to start working again last month, and it's been running for about 700 miles now. The odometer gears came in the mail the other day so I'll be replacing those before the odometer quits again. I managed to get the blend doors to switch to cold air without CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK, but I'm not brave enough to see if it'll switch back and forth. Blend door actuator will be replaced Soon. Next priority is investigating the front end components, belt drive, and vacuum system. I believe there is a small oil leak from the passenger side valve cover gasket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
91Pioneer Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 How are you making out with the Bird? I'll be taking mine out of winter storage later this month, I live in what feels like the arctic LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minuit Posted April 3, 2015 Author Share Posted April 3, 2015 How are you making out with the Bird? I'll be taking mine out of winter storage later this month, I live in what feels like the arctic LOL Ever since I put new shocks on it's been riding and driving like a dream. Haven't had a chance to do any other fixes yet (and likely won't for some time - The MJ is getting all my attention this weekend). I did notice a big puff of blue smoke on start-up one time, but I haven't noticed it doing it since. Valve stem seals, maybe? I almost feel like I'm neglecting the thing. It's due for an oil change already and it needs several other things fixed, but I just don't have the time with my schedule. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minuit Posted May 18, 2015 Author Share Posted May 18, 2015 Let me put it this way: Driving to Mississippi and back 350 miles each way in a rented Chevy Cruze (1.4 turbo, kind of peppy actually) sure makes me appreciate the big white land barge a whole lot more. Nothing has changed for better or for worse with the T-Bird. Still my daily putt-putt car, and since I'm home from school for the summer it's not being driven nearly as much. As soon as the truck is back on the road (a few days from now possibly) the T-Bird will be getting some attention. It's due for an oil change, front brakes (they're thin but not yet squeaking) and the front end work I've mentioned before. @91Pioneer: Did you take yours out yet? If so I'd like to see more pics. Looking at your car gives me motivation to work on mine :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
91Pioneer Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Mine is at home now but I bought a new car so haven't driven it in a while. I'm thinking about selling it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minuit Posted September 10, 2015 Author Share Posted September 10, 2015 Not sure what I'm going to do with this car to be honest. It's been a while since I've talked about it, but the only wrenching I've done to it has been an oil change, putting a factory gas cap on it, and replacing a broken dashboard vent. Shortly after I got it, I also replaced the headlights with NOS Ford units at no small expense. When I got it, the paint on the METAL parts of the car was in fantastic shape (apparently this particular paint color seems to have an aversion to plastic bumpers and side cladding). I even spent a weekend polishing and detailing it, and it looked absolutely fantastic for a while: ...until the paint started falling off. There is no evidence of any clearcoat failure anywhere on the car nor any dents or scratches where it may have been hit by something. I assume the paint just pulled a GM and just decided to walk off one day. At that point this car lost any hope of being "nice" with me, so right now its deteriorating paint, peeling trim, front suspension issues, oil burning at ~105,000 miles, occasionally-functional odometer, occasionally (this car has lots of intermittent problems) harshly shifting transmission and flaky instrument cluster lights pretty much relegate this car to "beater" status. I don't beat on anything I own, but the MJ is 110% the preferred child right now. That's not to say I don't like this car - I love its smooth ride, gas mileage, sound, and the fact that I can do surgery on the MJ pretty much any time I feel like it, but it has me very disappointed. It hasn't earned its right to be restored like the MJ has, so instead it looks like it'll be kept up mechanically until I find something better to do with it or something to replace it with. tl;dr: Ford paint sucks, this car may or may not be falling apart at just over 100,000 miles, and I won't be pouring anywhere near as much effort into it as I do the MJ. My formerly nice car is slowly becoming a beater against my will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
91Pioneer Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 My 96 the same color has zero paint issues. Peeling trim, that can be fixed easily. Front suspension, they all need to be "rebuilt" at this age. I dropped $1,500 to get my suspension better than new and the only thing I didn't do myself was the alignment ;) You can fix it for less. Mostly you probably need new strut rod bushings. Ocassional odometer, somewhat of a known issue, moreso on the slightly older cars. Harsh transmission shifts, check fluid level & condition. Oil burning? Ugh, engine not cared for well enough :( If I was you I'd add a can of Restore in there to see if that helps: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HJVEX74/ - I've had good experience with that in the past. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minuit Posted September 10, 2015 Author Share Posted September 10, 2015 Suspension stuff.. yep, that's definitely on the radar. Don't know when, but if I keep the car for a long period of time the suspension will be restored and/or upgraded. The reason it's not a higher priority is that this car, now that the MJ is back to reliable DD status, sees maybe 10 miles a month. The car drives OK right now with exception of a clunk on tight turns, but I'm definitely aware that the front end ain't pretty. Apparently it also can't be aligned to spec (probably due to ruined bushings) but it drives decently straight with a slight pull to the right. OEM Ford strut rod bushings only, correct? I found a receipt from a few months or so before I got the car to replace the upper ball joints (which did NOT fix the clunk - it was the complaint on the receipt and I still have the same problem), rear brakes, rear CV axles and something else I'm forgetting. Odometer... have the gears to fix it, don't have the time. Will get fixed soon Transmission... one thing I did note when I got the car was that the ATF looked very clean and red. Level is where it should be and it does not seem to have lost any since I got the car. Will try the Restore stuff in the engine to see if it makes a difference. The oil burning is not severe (only noticeable on startup if the car's been sitting - valve stem seals?) and it doesn't bother me much, but I will check the Restore out. Am I correct in believing that this is a common 4.6L problem? The paint wasn't neglected, it was downright abused. This car has been driven into stuff with alarming regularity by the looks of the bumpers and the paint had moderate swirls (and lots of misc. scratches) before I polished them out. I still have no idea why the paint is chipping on the roof, but it definitely hasn't been treated too kindly. I'm surprised it's not in worse shape. With that said, the paint quality on my specific car (yours looks fantastic for example) seems quite poor. On the passenger side fender I noticed it had tiny bumps in it (almost like something got stuck on the fender and was painted over) and the door jambs have small spots of what seems to be visible primer where not enough paint was applied. The main spot where the paint is peeling is the roof at the very back, but smaller spots seem to be peeling in other areas as well. I didn't mean for this to be this long. If I put this much work into my MJ build thread, maybe I'd be up to date now :doh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
91Pioneer Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 OEM bushings only or they won't last a year. My car had a clunk over bumps, it was a broken stabilizer link in the rear. Oil burning is not a common issue in these cars. Does sound like valve seals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minuit Posted October 11, 2015 Author Share Posted October 11, 2015 I drove this car to the store and back to pick up some oil and ATF for the truck and I almost forgot how rough of shape it's in. Noticed a new clunk in the rear that maybe sounds like a broken rear sway bar end link, but can't confirm. The paint has gone from a golf-ball sized chunk missing from the roof to a hand-sized chunk missing from the roof. I hate to say it, but I'm not so sure that this car is gonna get fixed. Might do some essentials - brakes, oil change, etc, because it's going to be cooling down soon and I still haven't put the heater core in the truck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
91Pioneer Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 Replacing the rear away bar links are easy and cheap, I did those. I recently sold my Bird :-( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minuit Posted April 2, 2017 Author Share Posted April 2, 2017 Believe it or not, I haven't forgotten about this car. I just haven't done much to it other than a couple of fluid changes, but that won't last. I've gotten over being so pissed off at the paint situation on the roof, and other than being deep in maintenance debt this really is a pretty nice car. It rides nice, even with the rough strut rod bushings it drives fairly nice, gets an honest 25 MPG on the highway, and it's smooth and quiet. I'm probably going to have a longish (50 miles or more each way) commute in the near future, and I hope CC members will forgive me for not wanting to do that in a Comanche that empties its tank in 270 miles. Here's a summary of where I'm at. Not a whole lot has changed since the last update - I've maybe put 500 miles, all city, on this car in the past 12 months. - The front suspension needs Jesus, which wasn't a surprise. The strut rod bushings aren't completely gone, but they're well on their way. The upper ball joints on both sides aren't looking so great either despite the invoice I talked about earlier saying they've been replaced. The struts are getting tired - quick struts are $130ish for Monroe or $70ish per for a brand I've never heard of, so I'll probably buy the Monroe cartridges ($55 each from Rockauto) and take them to a shop and have the springs swapped over. It has aftermarket tie rod ends and lower ball joints, so those have been replaced at some point. New strut rod bushings have been ordered. - The new blend door actuator is sitting on my desk at this very moment. The automatic climate control has been behaving recently, but it'll probably crap out again soon. - Touch-up paint has been ordered, paint code WR. The original paint job is a tri-coat so the touchup definitely won't look perfect but it'll look a lot better than a few square inches of no paint at all. - The brake pulsation has become more noticeable. The rotors aren't visibly warped but the surface is pretty ugly. I think they'll just need to be resurfaced. Pads have plenty of life left - the brake noise I talked about earlier probably has to do with the rotors being ugly and the slide surfaces needing to be lubricated. - Tires need to be put out of their misery. The tread level is fine but both fronts are noticeably out of round and the sidewalls are showing early signs of cracking - the rears are in much better shape. The size is 215/70/R15 - plenty of options in that size. I'm considering the General Altimax RT43. For the type of driving I'll be using this for I don't need anything fancy. - I recently bought a Snap-On MT2500 scanner with everything I need to talk to this car and the Jeeps. According to live data the engine is running well. The check engine light is on, I believe the code is P0443 - evap purge fault. Also, it does burn some oil in a way that strongly suggests valve seals. It's a big job on this overhead cam engine, but I'll deal with it eventually. - Interior is typical of a semi-neglected 21 year old car. I broke the gauge cluster face the other day - those things are plastic of the "crumbles when touched" variety. It's a shame, because I've never seen another MN12 car with woodgrain interior trim. I found a blue gauge bezel out of a 95 Cougar in the junkyard - I think I'll have a go at painting it. The woodgrain is in rough shape anyway, so I'll try to find the other two pieces of trim (around the radio/climate control, and the center console bezel) and paint them to match. Anything with headliner material on it is trashed. I'll probably be recovering the headliner and visors in the near future. - I installed a set of NOS headlights since the originals were completely trashed. - The right power window motor is making a crunching sound and the window does not move. I'll need to get a look, but the most likely problem is a couple of plastic bushings have fallen apart. Parts are available to fix this for fairly cheap. - I intended to change out the odometer gears last weekend but I can't find the damn things :fs1: - This weekend, I cleaned the multi-function switch since the turn signals would cut out every so often and the "flash to pass" feature wasn't working. Not too hard, and beats the crap out of buying a new switch. Before: After: I added a very thin coat of electrical contact grease and put the assembly back together - getting the stalk to line back up in the casing was a huge pain, but it fell into place eventually. Everything now works as intended. Doing this inside of a trash bag saved my @$$ when the hazard light switch went flying :laughin: So yeah, a year and a half later and that's where the 'Bird stands. I want to press this car into more regular service, so expect to see some actual content soon. This won't be a "build" - pretty much everything I do will be bringing it out of maintenance debt. I won't be doing much in the way of modifications (except maybe performing the J-mod procedure on the transmission as the 4R70W is extremely "slushy" in its stock form), so don't expect this to be as interesting as the my adventures with the trucks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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