kishy's 1985 Country Squire

[sly]

+1 just RTV the thing. I'd use the window sealer and just coat that corner. Let it cure good and then put the trim back on.

[gadget73]

The blower motor cavity has a hole at the very bottom for the drain. Thats where the AC evaporator drains too. probably just clogged up with dirt. Might also be worth making an RTV gasket for that air intake thing. Its supposed to be raised a bit, but if there is a gap between the raised part and the cowl, the water runs right in.

[kishy]

Whoever the next sucker is that has to remove this windshield is going to hate me a lot. Leak should be rectified, to be verified once it dries. Protip: don't get windshield urethane on your skin.

Got eyes down in the blower motor intake. More of that "lake silt" I've mentioned. It's like gooey sand. The drain does drain, but not with any urgency. More to do here still.

Pulled the blower motor itself out, found the hamster wheel is in good condition and not terribly gross.

Plan is to pop the wagon outside tomorrow to get the Lincoln in to begin the exhaust project. Conflicted on which end to get under the protection of the carport: the tailgate window leaks, and the hood is missing, so it's not exactly ideal for either end to be outright rained on. Don't want to reinstall hood until everything at the front end of the car is more or less operational. Also not sure where I put the hardware for it. Oops.

Still need to get the mouse corpses out. Not sure why that's so hard to remember when I'm near the car.

Found what I believe is the EEC flyback diode to protect it from the starter relay. One of the wires is snipped. Cool. This harness is a catastrophe, with all sorts of insulation missing all over the place, so I guess it's a good thing I hoard CFI harnesses.

[kishy]

An update of marginal significance: a new junkyard autolamp sensor has fixed the autolamps. The sensor that came in the wagon is indeed stuck 'on' and cannot turn off in any amount of sunlight or artificial light, where the working example can be switched using a flashlight (the sort powered by an 18V drill battery, not some dinky little 2x AA thing).

95-97 brake swap parts are on-hand (reusing LCAs and hoping their bushings are acceptable). Need to press bushings on the upper arms. Need wheel cylinders and 11" drums (the drums themselves), have the hardware and the shoes already. Have plenty of brake line stock on hand.

This car will get the frame rail mounted valve deleted and go to the newer master while I'm at it (which is also on-hand), making the system essentially that of a 91. I can't stand the placement of that thing on the frame rail, touching any line that goes into it just sucks big time. Need to figure out where I put those drum brake pressure doohickeys that thread into the MC.

Also, apparently the rusted-through hood may not fail the car for safety. Exterior body rust is a fail if it presents a safety hazard to pedestrians in the immediate surroundings of the car (e.g. brush up against it and find yourself needing a tetanus shot). Since the hood is contained between the fenders and header panel, there is no opportunity for someone to cut themselves on the rust.

I may need to zip off the end of the tailpipe with a cut off wheel though. That would definitely put a nasty gash in someone's leg.

[gadget73]

The one in the Continental died the same way. I poked at it, the sensor itself works but the chip on the board seems to not change state. I wasn't real inclined to get into component level repairs so I stuck another one in the car and it works fine now.

[kishy]

Got the wagon in the garage and on stands.

Was able to back off the offending drum self-adjuster easily as the cable inside was broken, so the ratchet thing wasn't engaging. Shoes have lots of meat left. All new stuff going on, though, because it just makes more sense to do it that way since I'm putting new wheel cylinders on anyway.

This car actually has had all of its brake lines replaced previously except the hard lines on the axle. I have not yet determined where the original leak was that caused it to have no brakes when I bought it. The cut flex lines were me when I bought it to get it to roll.

Thinking it would be wise to replace the fuel lines. Camera flash makes the rust look worse than it really is, but without studying every millimeter of line in great detail, I'll never be able to really trust it.

Put the new antenna in. Not important, but done.

Got the mice out, by way of removing the overflow box entirely. I'll just toss it. I had another one hanging around anyway. Extracted the good washer pump as a spare.

This has variable rate rear springs in it, which I wasn't aware had been an original Ford option (?). They're certainly rusty enough to be original to the car, but the car also does not really sag in the back, so they could be somewhat newer.

All-in-all the to-do list isn't awful. Need to compression test this though. Although it runs pretty smooth I have concerns about...things. It spat a lot of water out the tailpipe when starting today (as it did last time/the first time) and it wasn't really parked in a way that encouraged rain to enter the tailpipe. The intake gaskets are probably trashed, so that's a consideration also.

[gadget73]

That thing has clearly lived in a damp environment a long time. Surface rust everywhere, but at least it doesn't look like much in the way of deep rot. Any plans to undercoat or or oil spray it to keep it from getting worse?

water in the exhaust might just be condensation if it hasn't run enough to get it cooked completely dry.

[kishy]

Yeah...most of that "leopard print" rust is surface only. Doesn't really have much depth to it. Doesn't flake, doesn't crush when you poke it with a screwdriver, doesn't do much other than look ugly.

In a perfect world I'd pull the body off the frame and clean up the whole thing, but I just don't have the space or patience for a project of that magnitude. The car is solid enough, but not rare or desirable enough to justify it. Not sure what I'm going to do or how I'm going to do it. The whole premise of POR15 is that you can paint over the rust in place, but when you start reading the directions the surface prep still isn't a quick easy process.

A thorough true oil spray might be a good idea. Something more gooey would probably be beneficial but the commonly available "undercoating" gets a bad reputation for enabling further rust via moisture trapping, so I dunno.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Sounds like those rear springs are likely a replacement thing. I doubt variable rate coils were an option new. It seems any extra load assist factory would have been opting for the air shocks instead of the conventional shocks.

Any plans for new shocks going forwards?

[gadget73]

If you can pull the spring codes off the door sticker I may be able to look them up. There are a stupid number of possible springs, though the parts manual doesn't actually tell you anything about them beyond translating a spring code to a part number.

[kishy]

Sounds like those rear springs are likely a replacement thing. I doubt variable rate coils were an option new. It seems any extra load assist factory would have been opting for the air shocks instead of the conventional shocks.

Any plans for new shocks going forwards?

Yes, new shocks are currently in the mail. Went with the absolute cheapest option available from RockAuto (Monroe 94178 rear @ $6.85ea, Monroe 94002 front @ $7.04ea). If the car looks like a long term keeper it can get better later, but this will get everything looking pretty for the safety inspection (one-time roadworthiness check before it gets its first license plate sticker).

If you can pull the spring codes off the door sticker I may be able to look them up. There are a stupid number of possible springs, though the parts manual doesn't actually tell you anything about them beyond translating a spring code to a part number.

The door sticker is kind of distorted, but here's what I was able to get off it:

Built 02/85 (and it's a STAP car - surely one of the earliest?)
5550 GVW
Looks like front and rear axle ratings...2608 front 3112 rear?

Body: 74K
VR: (blank)
MLDG: (blank)
INT TRIM: KB
A/C: (blank)
R: 6
S: (blank)
AX: Y
TR: TSNLL
above DSO: F0106 R0060
below DSO: 89

Not sure what if any of that refers to springs, but that's what I can get off it.

[gadget73]

SNLL is the spring codes
S - front left - D9AZ-5310-S
N - front right - D9AZ-5310-N
L - rear left - D9AZ-5310-L
L - rear right - D9AZ-5310-L

other random crap from that label

Body: 74K - LTD Country Squire 4 door station wagon
VR: (blank) - no vinyl roof
MLDG: (blank) - no bodyside moulding
INT TRIM: KB - blue all vinyl
A/C: (blank) - "unit built and delivered less factory installed air conditioning" (is this a non-AC car??)
R: 6 - AM/FM stereo, electronic search cassette w/o CB radio
S: (blank) - no sunroof
AX: Y - 3.08 open rear
TR: T - AOD trans
above DSO: F0106 R0060 - no idea
below DSO: 89 - Transportation Services

[Kodachrome Wolf]

A/C: (blank) - "unit built and delivered less factory installed air conditioning" (is this a non-AC car??)

From the set of pictures on the first page, it has an A/C compressor mounted in what looks like a factory setup.

Wasn’t A/C standard equipment across the board by 1983 or 1984?

[Tiggie]

From the set of pictures on the first page, it has an A/C compressor mounted in what looks like a factory setup.

Wasn’t A/C standard equipment across the board by 1983 or 1984?

I’ve got 87 as the year it became standard in the Box History, although it could still be deleted for some unknown amount of time after that. Not sure where I found that information but it was written somewhere lol.

That 89 DSO? Those are usually Ford-Owned cars. Lots of google info on them but I am not sure of what it means for your ride. Maybe nothing or maybe it was an early run of something (what month did STAP come online? Could be a pilot run for the plant).

[DerekTheGreat]

Yah the body is super clean but tons of small pox like rust underneath. Anyway, I know for '85 at least that A/C was optional, supports what Tigman said.