Saved from the Demo Derby: 1990 Country Squire

[Tiggie]

Put the turbines and new rubber on today. Really wish I had gotten white walls. I have never bought white wall tires for anything, so it didn’t cross my mind when I ordered these. Black walls it is. They are 225/70r15. Cheap Primewell Valera HT (Firestone house brand). They are fairly quiet but not as quiet as the old ones. The sidewall is too aggressive for my taste. BUT they aren’t from 2002 like the old tires. I do like the hubcap look and will keep them around in case I decide to go back (with new rubber).

Also swapped out the rear view mirror, dome light, drivers front door trim that a PO broke, and the drivers rear ashtray cover that my daughter broke.

Swapped the drivers side parking lights from the 88 to the 90 and vice versa. 88 sits out and was nice, 90 sits covered and was faded. The 88 just became a parts car technically. But a daily driver parts car.

Air bag light came on. New era gadget. Flashes 6 times all the time. Annoying.

Before:



After


Crusty dome light


Power mirror connector changed in 1990.


Not perfect but better.



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[cbala]

Your wagon is looking great, the turbines make it right for me... I am a sucker for the right size whitewalls on these cars too.

Chris

[Tiggie]

Your wagon is looking great, the turbines make it right for me... I am a sucker for the right size whitewalls on these cars too.

Chris

Thanks.

I don’t know if I can live with the black walls. I am always one that is “I like this” instantly or “I don’t like this” permanently. Love/hate at first site.

The six flashes on the airbag light seems to be the clockspring from what I can dig up online. Is there anything to pull and clean, or is it just a replacement it part? Dorman still sells a replacement which kind of surprised me.

[sly]

mmmm... turbines

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Thanks.

I don’t know if I can live with the black walls. I am always one that is “I like this” instantly or “I don’t like this” permanently. Love/hate at first site.

The six flashes on the airbag light seems to be the clockspring from what I can dig up online. Is there anything to pull and clean, or is it just a replacement it part? Dorman still sells a replacement which kind of surprised me.

I thought I could live with blackwalls myself, but after having them for a few years on the '97, I'm ready to go back. Just doesn't look right when I look at it. I don't think I could even try it on the '87.

Nexen and Toyo offer a whitewall in the 225/70R15 option, and more are available from other reputable names in the 215/70R15 flavor. I like the extra meat on the 225 series tires, and I'd like to try the Toyos, so when either car is due for tires, I'll be giving them a try.


Blackwalls look okay on cars with a little less sidewall, but on our 14" and 15" rims, they need them. The 16" and 17" cars can go either way.

[WagonMan]

Hey Tiggie, every time it rains hard, my air bag light in my 90 Colony Park flashes six times. I loosen the two screws on the CENTER sensor on the header panel and retighten them and the light stops flashing, must be a bad ground. WagonMan

[Tiggie]

Hey Tiggie, every time it rains hard, my air bag light in my 90 Colony Park flashes six times. I loosen the two screws on the CENTER sensor on the header panel and retighten them and the light stops flashing, must be a bad ground. WagonMan

I think I fixed it... and it was ground related. The clockspring has a ground on the top back side of it that attaches to the column. I cleaned that. Opened up the clockspring for fun and saw nothing out of place, also checked continuity of wires, all good. Cleaned the horn and cruise contacts while I was there also.

Maybe in a couple years, this can get the paint job and new woodgrain it deserves.

[kishy]

I just wanted to chime in and say I found this beauty while searching for some stuff, and believe that this is worthy of being seen by more people/again.

[Tiggie]

I just wanted to chime in and say I found this beauty while searching for some stuff, and believe that this is worthy of being seen by more people/again.

Yes sir that was a bad tank. A reminder to fill your tanks before winter storage!

[Tiggie]

Put a new lock actuator in the tailgate yesterday. Forgot there wasn’t one in the drivers door, otherwise all the power locks work, roughly four years into ownership. Maybe by year five.

Also put the 140 speedo in that Kodachrome Wolf picked up for me from what I think was a Grand Marquis he found in a junkyard. It’s the a 1994-dated part, so I think it was a service replacement. Now I have a working odometer and trip odometer. Plus no worries of burying the speedo.




Put the PI rear sway bar on as well. No huge difference from the smaller one. At least not on 225/70R15 truck tires.

Hooked the clock back up while I was in there. Unhooked that while fixing the HVAC controls several years ago.

Washed it. Car still stinks inside. I think the vinyl has adsorbed the musty smell.

Drove about 40 miles. Smelled oil when I got home and saw smoke from under the hood. I guess the drivers side valve cover is leaking and the wind blew the oil around? Valve cover gaskets are new PermaDry parts. Can’t imagine anywhere else oil would come from in this area.

Also idles high and loses vacuum quickly on a hill, so we may have a vacuum leak somewhere.




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[87gtVIC]

The 140 speedos just look so damn nice.

I see oil on top of number 7 plug wire. Is your dip stick fully seated?

[Tiggie]

The 140 speedos just look so damn nice.

I see oil on top of number 7 plug wire. Is your dip stick fully seated?

I will check tomorrow. That could certainly explain it.

[87gtVIC]

Find where the oil may be escaping from?

[Tiggie]

Find where the oil may be escaping from?

I checked pulled it out right after I got home with it, so it had previously been tampered with after I thought about it... It's very possible it wasn't seated.

I'm going with that as an explanation. No way a valve cover would push oil that high up on the engine unless it was a huge leak.

[87gtVIC]

Only reason I mentioned it is because it happened to me before hopefully it is the case and nothing crazy is going on here.

[Quincy]

Nice wag rescue and upgrade!

There's some irony in that I purchased my '79 LTD wagon with the intention of derbying it back in '04!!! But I couldn't bring myself to do it, so I settled for the "car show" at the Dixie Speedway (dirt track outside Atlanta that also hosts one of the only demo derby venues around here - this ain't the mid-west!) which consists of driving your car around the track to audience approval and applause, most applause wins. Ergo, the "S.W.A.T.T." titles. We had Quincy wired for sound (al la "Blues Brothers", with a PA system on the roof, but not stadium sized!) to blast AC/DC "Back in Black", had poles zip-tied to the door posts to wave Old Glory and USMC flags out the windows all for audience appeal. Six of us packed into Quincy for the 2.5 hour ride, but 1/3rd the way there the worn out 302 blew a seal and had a massive oil ejection, so we never made it! We turned back (stopping to pour oil in every so often) and piled in a more reliable vehicle to see the derby/race/"car show"/jet truck incinerating junk cars and had a great time - I think a Lincoln Town Car won the derby, by the way, and a lame-ass pickup truck won the "car show". Oh, well, we had fun trying! Never attempted again, though, but I fixed Quincy and drove him on 200+ mile trips with regularity after the fact.

P. S. - I'd give my left nut to get ahold of one of those certified speedos. Been looking for several years now!

[87gtVIC]

P. S. - I'd give my left nut to get ahold of one of those certified speedos. Been looking for several years now!

79 to 89 will fit your car. Avoid 90 and 91...Way different. 79 to 87 would be more proper....white needle....88-89 has the orange needle IIRC. Now that I think if it the early years may have been orange needled too like under 83 or so but all of those between 79 and 89 will fit your needs.

[Quincy]

79 to 89 will fit your car. Avoid 90 and 91...Way different. 79 to 87 would be more proper....white needle....88-89 has the orange needle IIRC. Now that I think if it the early years may have been orange needled too like under 83 or so but all of those between 79 and 89 will fit your needs.

Yep. Mine (80 mph) had (and still has) the orange needle. Unfortunately, the entire cluster essentially turned to dust the last time I tried to remove it to access some dash and indicator bulbs (turned out it wasn't the bulbs, the whole thing was fossilized and crumbling, such that the bulb holders wouldn't "retain"). The speedo face also cracked, so I replaced it with one I had robbed from an early 80's model some time back with the white lettering. The speedo head for that one was nuked, so I used mine, and the original orange needle. Also kept the non-OD shift sector, so mine's really a hybrid, now...

[87gtVIC]

I have heard about the early ones turning to dust with age across other ford platforms on other forums. Maybe that was fixed after 79?

[Quincy]

Dunno, maybe it was made from biodegradable plastic in the interest of being friendly to the environment!

This was the dash lighting system when I purchased Quincy from the janitorial service company (NOT MY WORK!!! - I would have applied the duct tape much more neatly, and probably have used the shiny "chrome" variety! )



I was able to simply replace the bulbs and a couple holders back then. FF to today, and interior looks MUCH worse due to 16 more years of exposure to the GA environment. ...and that's with Quincy parked under shelter most of the time, even.