Derek's 1988 Town Car

[gadget73]

Did you go stand on a corner? I think thats required when you go to Winslow, AZ.

[DerekTheGreat]

Did you go stand on a corner? I think thats required when you go to Winslow, AZ.

Haha yup, was such a fine sight to see. Glad someone caught that. That was the whole reason for the destination actually. We wanted to do a road trip, wasn't sure where to go but knew we wanted to at least go west. Then that song played and we had our destination. Then we sprinkled other stops and activities in like going to see the Grand Canyon and ghost towns. Picking up a car was a priority but all these guys wanted way too much money for junk. While it initially looked like Co-Part or whatever was too much money and a gamble, we may be taking another look into it.

[Salty Dog]

The black car looks amazing with the desert backdrop 🤩


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[DerekTheGreat]

Thanks Salty!

Oh and Dashub is a major rip. Went to make a bid of $500 on a '96 F150. Dash hub fee of $499.00+Auction fee of $1,658.00 for a whopping total of $2,242.00 in just fees. When you factor in the vehicle has a reserve or must be approved by the seller and you have to have it shipped, it's a joke. I think we'll be headed south this weekend though

[DerekTheGreat]

Jeez, I haven't posted anything about this car since 2018. A lot has happened since then, but let's take a look at the plugs I changed out this past Saturday:

I THINK I got the car back in 2015 with ~86k on it. The plugs and all that associated jazz were done right around that point and not by me. So they've got about 9 years and 50k miles on 'em. Autolite platinums. The wire routing was horrible too, cleaned all that up & made it about as factree as possible. "If you want something done right..." All Motorcraft stuff except for the NGK copper V-Power plugs, as I've had great experience with them in my truck. Guess I can't be too upset about the previous job, considering these aren't supposed to like platinum and the factory interval is 30k(?) miles. How about those plugs?? 4 & 8 have the typical oil fouling going on, that's probably accounted for the (slightly) rough idle when warm- idles silky smooth now. Haven't driven it other than to pull it back in the garage, but it's now ready to take the family on a road trip to South Carolina here soon. Here's hoping the engine isn't going to foul 4 & 8 every 500 miles or so from here on out. You can't see it in the photo, but 8 actually had some build-up on the electrode...

Anyway, the job wasn't that bad, I'd say it's easier to do plugs on these than it is on the trucks. Worst plug for me was #1. The damn A/C compressor bracket is in the way, didn't have a 3/8th swivel socket so I cobbled something together with adaptors and crap to get the 1/2" stuff I've got to work. Snapped the new plug trying to put it in. Great. Angela was a trooper as she dealt with assholes at the parts store who tried to tell her an iridium plug is just as good as a copper one, no, it's better! and then went all the way to Detroit to get me a replacement NGK copper. Meanwhile, I put our daughter to work on the driver's side with all the easy plugs. She only ended up removing three of them, but that's a start and more than I did with cars when I was her age.

[gadget73]

Parts store people can be annoying. Hate to pull out the stereotype of the woman buying parts but frankly that seems to happen quite a lot.

To be fair I've seen where people have sent their lady off to the parts store for something without enough info to get it. Trying to buy something for a honda? honday? hyundai? no its actually a Nissan once dude finally picks up the phone.

[DerekTheGreat]

Yeah, they can be. Especially when they won't listen to said woman as she hands them a box with the correct part number on it.

However, I am guilty of sending my lady up to the stores on my behalf many times. It's when crap like this happens, which seems to happen to me any time I pull my tools out. I'd go, but am usually filthy and the clothes I'm wearing are equally so as that's why I wear 'em. I figure that we're multitasking. I'm still making progress while she is taking the time I'd not be making progress and doing me/us a solid. Wrapped up just in time to bust the grill out and make burgs for her parents when they came over. I hate double-booking.

[gadget73]

I do the box with part number thing for the boat. They seem incapable of looking up anything so I go in with an old spark plug, the last water pump kit, and the empty oil jug.

[DerekTheGreat]

Yep. And to think when I was a teenager I thought it couldn't get any worse. Some days it really does feel like that movie, "Idiocracy." Actually, just yesterday I was in a large group meeting. I proposed an alternative method for how we've been doing things. I didn't say we should stop doing the thing, but that's how three people (The only people who replied) interpreted what I said. I wanted to deck all three of 'em, but I kept, "No! You dumb fucks, that's not even remotely what I said. If you weren't listening, why are you responding?" to myself.

[DerekTheGreat]

The Town Car stretched it legs this past extended weekend. Took the family unit to Beaufort, South Carolina and back, about 1,900 miles round trip and we did the trip there and back non-stop. Well, in the sense we didn't sleep. Highest observed MPG was 24.something and lowest was 21.something. I didn't do the "fuel standing in the filler neck" thing like I usually did because the juice isn't worth the squeeze. Did 65 mph max on the way there, 70 on the way back Also did toll roads the way down, I hate toll roads. The path back without tolls had us coming back up the mountains such that it had to be shifted into 3rd. The ole LoPo just doesn't make the torks to hold OD. Oddly enough, that tank of gas consumed the least oil, so it's probably pulling most of it through the valve seals and primarily when cruising.. Noticed a fair bit of spark knock coming back, remembered I didn't check timing after plugs & wires and jazz. Also noticed I was running 10W-30 instead of 5W-30 as I had been. Recalled a conversation with Alex(?) on here about how these use less oil when run with 10W. Well, my LoPo didn't care and drank just as much as I expected it to. For simplicities sake, I'll be switching back to 5W as that's what I run in everything else.

Here are a few pics of "Ray" from the trip:




Edit:
Has about 128k miles on it now. Also, the wipers seem to make a bit of noise when in use, clacking. Is that normal? Travel seems excessive too, the driver's side wiper seems to go past the window trim.

[friskyfrankie]

Could be "arm tension" or bad blades for the noise?. Perhaps the arm is a tooth/spline or more off to explain the travel issue? Of course, unlikely if you never replaced it....

[kishy]

Nice to see this one make an appearance.

RE: wipers, over-travel onto the A-pillar is likely a combination fault of a worn-out driver side wiper arm pivot (the part onto which the wiper arm attaches) and maybe a slopped out bushing or two. The bushings do not provide enough slop alone to cause this problem, so the pivot is suspect as well, assuming the parked position of the wiper is below the hood as designed. As best I can tell it's a junkyard-only part and I have a couple bad ones I want to try my hand at rebuilding (by boring them out and driving in a bushing like repairing a carb throttle shaft).

[gadget73]

yeah the whole assembly gets sloppy. Shame its not just that wire nut looking joint thing, you can buy those for Mustangs for a couple bucks. If the blades chatter it might be that though. The Conti had that issue, replacing that part fixed it completely.

[DerekTheGreat]

Ah, junk yard only part. Greeat. Hmm, the wipers do not park in the fully down position, never have. They go down about halfway and then stop. Never bothered with it as I seldom drive it in the rain, so I just push them back down whenever they've been used. Is there a way to test the pivots or bushings? Everything seemed firm when I tried to jiggle it the other day.

[DerekTheGreat]

Ah, junk yard only part. Greeat. Hmm, the wipers do not park in the fully down position, never have. They go down about halfway and then stop. Never bothered with it as I seldom drive it in the rain, so I just push them back down whenever they've been used. Is there a way to test the pivots or bushings? Everything seemed firm when I tried to jiggle it the other day.