Choppy Ride

[LTDMan83]

The box I have is from VA and is about as solid as they come. I doubt the AC was used much in the past though.

All the southern boxes from VA/NC/SC/GA etc, I have seen have had solid bulkheads, so it obviously isn't as big of a problem the further south you go.

[P72Ford]

Not to take this any further off topic...

But I am going to go with the random scatter/ 'AC usage is directly proportional to frame rot' theorem.

We've had 7 '88-'91 P72s. The three we have now have totally solid frames, even purple car, which has a rusty body. We had an '89 P72, which was hit hard on the right front corner... there was no rust on the frame. The other three parts cars/ short time cars we had, also did not have rusty frames, to my recollection. I spent some time under all of them, for various reasons, and never recall seeing holes in the frame.

So, either the po-leese don't use the A/C alot (and my civilian P72 didn't either), or it is random scatter. We do not have P72s with rusty frames here in CT...

[turbo2256b]

I have seen the frame split at the top were it cant be seen between the torq box and the tranny crosssmember.

Also have seen the battery leak or break loose and stick itself on thee bolt that sticks up in front of the battery and leak. Does a number on the frame

[Southern_Pride]

I'm pretty sure mine is solid or else it would broke when I jumped it. And my car had the a/c used heavily for at least 10 years. I think the difference is in florida its so hot year round the water evaporates quickly.

[91waggin]

Can anyone give me a rundown on how one goes about replacing the transmission mount? I haven't really had a look at what's down there, so I dunno what to expect.

[P72Ford]

I did mine about 2 months ago. Very easy. Two nuts on studs that run through the cross member. Two bolts into bosses on the transmission. Crack them all loose, pull the nuts off, and jack the transmission up (might have to jack it up alot). Use a block of wood to prevent damage to the transmission (can jack the pan or tail). Remove the bolts in the trans, and swap the mount.

As an aside, the bolts in the transmission were tight as hell, and I was certain I had broken them when they finally cracked free. Just aheads up, as they may be tight.

[Pirate]

Can anyone give me a rundown on how one goes about replacing the transmission mount? I haven't really had a look at what's down there, so I dunno what to expect.

Something you really need to do is check 'runout' of the tires you just installed. Tire shops are really bad about installing out-of-round tires on cars, and then just shoving a bunch of weights on the wheel so it balances out perfect, but shakes the car all to hell when it goes on the road.

Jack up each wheel, and spin the hell out of it...then stand back and watch the tire, to ensure that it spins true, without the tire tread bobbing up and down. Yokohama tires were really bad about this problem with their AVID ST tires, which I used extensively for a few years, and I ended up rejecting around one out of every four tires that showed up due to being severely out of round.

[91waggin]

Something you really need to do is check 'runout' of the tires you just installed. Tire shops are really bad about installing out-of-round tires on cars, and then just shoving a bunch of weights on the wheel so it balances out perfect, but shakes the car all to hell when it goes on the road.

Jack up each wheel, and spin the hell out of it...then stand back and watch the tire, to ensure that it spins true, without the tire tread bobbing up and down. Yokohama tires were really bad about this problem with their AVID ST tires, which I used extensively for a few years, and I ended up rejecting around one out of every four tires that showed up due to being severely out of round.

Thanks for the idea. That's something I never would've thought of.