VicCrownVic's 1991 Mercury Grand Marquis GS

[VicCrownVic]

Perhaps I could convince you to help with a 3G alternator swap someday?? WHere are pics of the older boxes???

It wouldn't take much to convince me to help out with a 3G swap. I still owe Hearsesrock427 some wire measurements for a few different charge wire routing options.

Pics of my older boxes?
I have a few of my 89 in my profile. As far as I know I don't have any pictures of my 88 wagon, although if I found someone with a copy of my high school year book there is a picture of it in there. The 87 CV the only picture I know of is the one from when I was 17 and it was in the ditch with the driver side rear door smashed in. You may have seen the pic of the 87, and 17 year old me, at our meet.

[DerekTheGreat]

It wouldn't take much to convince me to help out with a 3G swap. I still owe Hearsesrock427 some wire measurements for a few different charge wire routing options.

Pics of my older boxes?
I have a few of my 89 in my profile. As far as I know I don't have any pictures of my 88 wagon, although if I found someone with a copy of my high school year book there is a picture of it in there. The 87 CV the only picture I know of is the one from when I was 17 and it was in the ditch with the driver side rear door smashed in. You may have seen the pic of the 87, and 17 year old me, at our meet.

Sweet, just name your price. I've read the stickies and stuff but whenever I do custom stuff (and things I've never done before) I like having a friend handy to help save me from myself haha.

I did not see this '87. I like the toned down taillights of the 88-91 stuff but love the harder front end lines of the 87 and older cars. You still have the 89 right?

[Hearsesrock427]

It wouldn't take much to convince me to help out with a 3G swap. I still owe Hearsesrock427 some wire measurements for a few different charge wire routing options.

Aye. I've got nearly all the costs for our business mapped out on an Excel spreadsheet. Literally the only thing missing from it is the charge wire cost.

I even got the estimated fuel costs mapped out. My best ever MPG that I can recall was a little over 16, driving super smooth at a contant speed on backroads late last summer. (Went 75 miles and used exactly a quarter tank aka 4.5 gallons. Which comes out to ~16.3 MPG). I figure having a full exhaust instead of open headers, a new dizzy cap & rotor, fresh timing optimized for the new parts, and driving late at night, I should crack 17 easily. Range should be around ~286 miles per tank under ideal conditions. The trip is 320 miles one way, so I'll definitely need to grab some straight 87 gas either just before crossing into Canada or just after. Assuming it's $3.50 per gallon of straight 87, I'll need about ~$176 for gas. But it's smart to budget for things like tolls, WOT runs, having to drive out of the way to get straight 87, etc. I'll just set aside $300 and call it good.

Looking at mid July for all of this to happen.

You still have the 89 right?

Yep, he does. It's patiently awaiting some TLC and go-fast parts.

[miamibob]

It wouldn't take much to convince me to help out with a 3G swap. I still owe Hearsesrock427 some wire measurements for a few different charge wire routing options.

Pics of my older boxes?
I have a few of my 89 in my profile. As far as I know I don't have any pictures of my 88 wagon, although if I found someone with a copy of my high school year book there is a picture of it in there. The 87 CV the only picture I know of is the one from when I was 17 and it was in the ditch with the driver side rear door smashed in. You may have seen the pic of the 87, and 17 year old me, at our meet.

Well, Vic, if you ever come to South Florida, you can do the 3G conversion on my '87 GM!!

[VicCrownVic]

Yep still have the 89, I drove it across my parents yard a few weeks ago when dad was moving all the vehicles to the other side of the property. It's really not worth restoring but I'm still dreaming of it. It helps that my wife likes the car and would like to see it restored.


Bob, you mean to tell me none of the highly qualified mangs here have hooked you up with a 3G conversion yet? Unfortunately I doubt I will be in Florida any time within the next few years, but if that changes I'll definitely let you know.

[miamibob]

Yep still have the 89, I drove it across my parents yard a few weeks ago when dad was moving all the vehicles to the other side of the property. It's really not worth restoring but I'm still dreaming of it. It helps that my wife likes the car and would like to see it restored.


Bob, you mean to tell me none of the highly qualified mangs here have hooked you up with a 3G conversion yet? Unfortunately I doubt I will be in Florida any time within the next few years, but if that changes I'll definitely let you know.

Vic, no one close enough to help and I'm not really up to playing with it myself!

[Shayenne]

I like the blue leds. I wanna do that too, did you just change the lightbulbs behind the dash?

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[VicCrownVic]

For the 2000 P71 cluster it took quite a bit of work to make blue LEDs work. Since the blue does not shine through the light filter stuff I had to remove the needles, peel the gauge faces off, and then with a dremel bit I sanded (on the backside, of course) all the areas I wanted the blue light to shine through. Then I had to put it all back together and re align the needles. It all turned out great but it's a lot of tedious work.

For the 90-94 MGM/90-91 CV blue can be done as a direct swap of bulbs but other colors such as red require the same procedure to make it work (see BuffaloRider's 1990 MGM, Bison, for an example of red LEDs).

For 89 and older there are plastic filter caps that can be removed much easier than the painted on crap the newer units have.

[Shayenne]

I got a 97 CV, but I know I won't be spending time to file, scrape or peel anything off. Do you know if I can just simply swap bulbs in a 97?

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[VicCrownVic]

From what I've seen of the 97 CV cluster it is basically the same as the 2000 P71 CV cluster I have. I'm fairly certain it would be the same involved procedure to make blue or red work with the 97 CV cluster.

[Shayenne]

Thanks alot. Looks like it stays the way it is....

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[89TownCar]

Thanks alot. Looks like it stays the way it is....

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Aeros have blue filters on the cluster, 98+ are green.

[VicCrownVic]

Interesting, so using Blue LEDs would work on a 97 or older cluster without all the time consuming work required for 98+ clusters?

[gadget73]

as long as you can stand it. I took my blue lights out, it was hurting my eyes too much. I'm back to stock lamps for now, waiting on some warm white LEDs to come in. I'm hoping to retain the stock green color.

[sly]

those warm white LEDs from Superbrightleds.com work great in stock clusters. I put a set in a coworker's 98 ranger. Worked like a charm. Everything was nice and bright but not obnoxious and was able to be dimmed some too.