kishy's 1985 Country Squire

[1985crownvicltd85]

My crown vic had that same problem with the steering column when I swapped from a non tilt column to tilt. I remedied that with blue loctite too.

Also, Good Idea not tightening the plastic collar all the way.

[kishy]

Spent some time in the garage today.
I think I sorted out the squeak noise, but another test drive will be needed to verify it.
I put some electrical tape on the parts of the A-pillar plastic trim where it makes contact with the actual A-pillar behind it, and added the screws which have been missing.
I also added a piece of electrical tape pinched tightly between the lower dash mount on the driver side and the body.



Test drive with the dash pad not installed and cluster not screwed in found no squeak. Brought the car back in and moved on to another annoying problem: the whole steering wheel has been sorta jiggly the whole time I've had the car, as if (my original thoughts) the pins for the column tilt were worn out. With it all apart, it was clear this wasn't the case, so I took the wiper and turn signal switch off and found the problem. Two bolts attach the whole assembly that forms the end of the steering column to the steel tube below, and they were backed out. Little bit of blue threadlock, tightened them back up, and it's all tight now.







Very carefully snuck the plastic collar into place, hooked the cable on, and tightened it only just enough to stay in place.

Put the dash trim and dash pad on very carefully, and managed to not break anything more than it already was before. This time, the dash pad received all of its screws, again in pursuit of squeak avoidance.



Looks and feels nice. Thinking of swapping the steering wheel since I have a nice blue one, but it also doesn't really bother me so maybe I'll leave it alone until it gets worse.

[87gtVIC]

Ahh I see. Ive said numerous time before...the details in these cars just slip away model year after model year. The early cars are just so damn thought out/plastered with neat details.

[kishy]

I broke one of those collars when I put the PI speedo in my 88. The original was trashed, but the new one cracked while tightening it up. I'd suggest leaving it loose rather than tighter! It's still better than the original.

Yes, definitely, better loose than tight. Just tight enough to stop it from slipping will be the goal. Also, the minimum amount of flexing and stretching it in the course of installation.

this seems like a prime thing for someone to 3d print.

I was thinking about that.
We could certainly make a new collar design, but I don't think I would make it look the same or even particularly similar to the original part.
The particularly tricky part is the tube and cable, which cannot be disassembled from the original without being rather destructive. The tube is glued into the collar.

Depends upon the break but I used a zip tie on my friend's '88, several years ago and it is still holding up.

Yeah, when the break is just the collar piece itself, zip ties work, and that's how mine was set up rather successfully. However, the tube was also broken, and the broken tube is what frayed the cable and made it snap.

Good deal.

Like the orange accents on the metric speedometers.

The orange is actually a 79 thing. This is a '79 speedometer unit purchased NOS, probably from one of your posts, back when I got the car, re: wanting to be rid of the US speedometer it had originally.
The '85 correct part is all white lettering and needles.
I'm not sure what year it changed, I'd guess 79-82ish are probably the orange setup, which I vastly prefer.

[87gtVIC]

Good deal.

Like the orange accents on the metric speedometers.

[friskyfrankie]

Depends upon the break but I used a zip tie on my friend's '88, several years ago and it is still holding up.

[gadget73]

this seems like a prime thing for someone to 3d print.

[Tiggie]

I broke one of those collars when I put the PI speedo in my 88. The original was trashed, but the new one cracked while tightening it up. I'd suggest leaving it loose rather than tighter! It's still better than the original.

[kishy]

I've finally managed to get one bay of my garage into usable shape. This has been complicated by the fact that I didn't get my garden shed put together before winter, so one bay of the garage has been full of stuff that goes in a shed, and the other bay has been full of the shed, still in its box. Plus all the miscellaneous clutter.











Tight-ish squeeze if I want to work on things in-depth, but it's a functional space. On the bright side, the Acclaim will be all "hotdog in a hallway" when it moves in.

The first car in the new-to-me garage is the wagon. This wasn't going to be the case, but I took it up the block for a brief drive, and was reminded of a few annoyances I want to address:

• There is a horrendous squeak sound from the left side of the dashboard, seemingly near the top, near the A-pillar. This sound can't really be reproduced by hitting or shaking anything, but road vibrations reveal it.
• There is an awful rubber squishing sound coming from the reman brake booster, and I would like to at least look at it to see if I can quiet it. It also doesn't feel quite right (too squishy, assist feels a little weak) so I might put the original back on, since I know it's hanging around in storage. A quick sandblast and paint job would achieve most of what I was after with the reman anyway.
• The transmission range indicator cable snapped, and I recently scooped a NOS one thanks to 87gtVic in his finds thread.

Since two of these three things require some dash disassembly, I decided to start with replacing the transmission range indicator in the cluster.



Yep, that's broken.
The plastic tube broke ages ago, and I guess the edge of the break frayed the inner cable until it snapped.









Leaving this out of the car until I sort out the squeak. Will only install it when it's a little warmer, too, because I'll hate myself if I crack that new-old-stock plastic.

Part number for the sake of Googlers: D9AZ-7E363-A

Squeak and booster issues to be addressed another day.

[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.

[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.

[Mainemantom]

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

[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.

[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.

[jaywish]

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