kishy's 1985 Country Squire

[jaywish]

You have another hose to attach to the PCV?

That is a monster.

[friskyfrankie]

I wouldn't worry too much about the size. If it is the correct OEM part, I'd go with it and monitor the results.

[kishy]

I do think the PCV system has been allowing it to drink oil. The inside of the valve and the hose are very oily. And the baffle in the valve cover is useless on the pre-SEFI cars...it really doesn't provide any opportunity for "aerosolized" oil to get slung against a surface before the airflow takes it up into the valve. So I'm cautiously optimistic.

The second port on the PCV valve tee is plugged with the plug included with the valve for that purpose.

Correct OEM part is maybe debatable, but it fits the valve cover, and it cross references with the aftermarket caps which are listed for the application, so close enough.

Never thought I'd find myself impressed with the engineering of an oil cap, but here we are. It's a fairly complex little assembly for being, as its core, just a lid.

[gadget73]

yeah the old valve covers have nothing inside. Pop the oil cap out of mine and you're looking at rockers. I don't know if they came like that or if the previous owner removed them but they are as I got them.

[GM_Guy]

Sounds like they got a good oil spererator design there, that should help a lot with consumption. Probably what they should have put on the then new ecoboosts where people are adding oil catch cans/separators to the pcv system.

[kishy]

Status update of sorts:
The odometer rolled 100,000 and started back over at 00000.

I recently tried to use the drum brake auto-adjusters (reverse and repeatedly stab the brake pedal), which worked, but in doing so, the brake lights started sticking on intermittently. I found a new switch in my stash, installed it, and all is good again. The spring in the old switch was a lot weaker than the new one, not effectively resisting being compressed by the weight of the pedal arm alone.

[kishy]

My spirited driving on the Tail of the Dragon earlier in the year was unkind to the transmission and introduced a new slip on 1-2 shifts. This ranged from "I guess it's fine again" to "guess I'm calling a tow truck", depending on how far into the throttle I was, how hot the trans was, and random chance. 1 to 2 was the only shift giving me any difficulty, everything else felt about right. Note that my TV pressure is cranked pretty high and as a result it is very obvious when the shifts don't happen properly.

Tonight, 101,535km, changed the fluid and filter, and included Lucas Transmission Fix in the new fluid.
The old fluid looked red enough on the stick, but pouring it in large volume between containers revealed that it's definitely burnt and didn't smell the best anymore.

Last fluid change was 2017 July 19 before the car was on the road. The mileage at that time was either 73k km (assumed) or 233k km (if the US cluster had rolled over).
That makes this change interval, and the distance I've driven the car, just shy of 30,000km.






It will be time to park this seasonally, shortly, but I'd like to drive it enough first to get a sense of whether the trans is behaving better with its new life juices.

[Tiggie]

My 88 also has a weak 1-2, worse when cold and worse with more throttle. Tried the magic bottle and tried replacing a servo in it, neither did anything so I am assuming the bands/clutches/whatever are toast. Good luck with yours.

[WagonMan]

LOL! Great picture of how not to use a creeper! Lay on the ground with creeper nearby! I gave up using them years ago. Large pieces of cardboard works for me!
WagonMan

[jaywish]

So nice to have a torque converter with a hole in it.

[kishy]

My 88 also has a weak 1-2, worse when cold and worse with more throttle. Tried the magic bottle and tried replacing a servo in it, neither did anything so I am assuming the bands/clutches/whatever are toast. Good luck with yours.

1-2 was pretty firm on this before I put it through its paces in NC. There was a lot of 1-2 thrashing. I was inviting problems, really. The first sign of a problem was turning onto an onramp in PA on the return trip. Wide open throttle through first, and then it felt like there was absolutely nothing there when it shifted into 2. Let off the throttle and it grabbed.

After completing the work last night I drove the car to pick up my friend at a train station in Detroit. I was racing the train trying to beat its arrival, which naturally involved a lot of quick takeoffs and WOT through downtown (think of a typical moderately large city downtown area). I did beat the train.

Initial impressions are: I could not get the 1-2 shift to slip, but it is still soft. It seems to hold 2 before going into 3 for less time than it did before. Both 2-3 and 3-4 feel exactly as they did before (quite firm). Kickdown is responsive and behaves as expected.

Do I double-down and toss another bottle in, or do I accept that it's improved enough to run it until it's time for a rebuild? Decisions, decisions.

LOL! Great picture of how not to use a creeper! Lay on the ground with creeper nearby! I gave up using them years ago. Large pieces of cardboard works for me!
WagonMan

I absolutely love that creeper. It has a thick rigid tube frame, good padding, and casters that don't suck, but this car is too low to use the creeper to get all the way back to the trans pan with the front end on ramps. The big sheet of cardboard wins because it buys me that many inches more space before my nose is touching the oil pan.

So nice to have a torque converter with a hole in it.

Yes. All of mine that I've serviced do, which is handy. I always put the big drain pan under the transmission and the small drain pan under the converter, but in reality it's the other way around: you get twice as much fluid out of the converter as you get out of the pan.

[gadget73]

maybe have a poke through the valve body to see if anything is sticky and check the servo piston for problems if you're feeling adventurous and the problem doesn't clear itself up. If the servo rubber got hard from heat it won't seal properly but the magic juice will soften it back up if its not too far gone. Too much magic juice can over soften things and cause other problems though so I'd at least run it a while before messing with it further.

[Mainemantom]

I would not add anymore additive. Run it easy for awhile and save up for a rebuild .

[kishy]

Having driven the car a little more, I think the 1-2 has improved more. Maybe 90% of what it was before. Obviously not considering that fixed, but it buys me enough time to have my fun with the car. That being said, I'm glad I didn't autocross it this past weekend, which I'd been invited to do and would like to do. I don't think more aggressive 1-2 thrashing is going to be good for it.

Casually but intently (if that can even be a thing) watching for ATF leaks on the driveway. This was my first time installing a pan on an AOD without using some sort of gasket maker on the gasket. It's the fairly hard black rubber type of gasket. I feel like it'll spring a leak in the future that RTV could have prevented but it seems to be sealed for now at least. I was aiming for a quick return to service and RTV adds many hours to that.

[gadget73]

I've never used sealer on a pan gasket. Make sure the gasket surfaces are flat, cleaned, and properly torqued and it should be fine. That hard black fiber gasket usually works very well.