kishy's 1991 Grand Marquis

[gadget73]

without a CHMSL you'd just have to tap into the output of the brake switch. Thats what the CHMSL connects to, upstream of the turn signal switch. Only difference is you're running a lot more wire up to the front.

[sly]

The aftermarket sequentials I bought were for a 94-96 mustang. Little potted module that tucks behind the tail light assembly. It doesn't do the first solid options as I wager it's a purely passive setup. It triggers on brake as well as blinker.

[Arquemann]

Cool to know that there's a sequential kit for cars without a chmsl, most that I've seen need it or are a complicated mess. A friend has an S197 Mustang, the tails do sequencing with brakes too, looks dumb

I've bought generic interior push clips with very large heads a few times. One time we painted the "heads" beige to fit the interior, you could probably do the same.

I used 2-sided Gorilla tape to mount the front license plate straight onto the bumper of my Caprice, it's held through two winters, plenty of wind, rain, roadsalt, powerwashing, a mailbox and a Fiat. I think your trim should stay put.

[kishy]

Exactly what does the anti-sequencer wiring tie into up at the dash? No chance its the same thing the CHMSL ties to is it? Thats a much shorter run.

The old meter4it.com sequencer (one module which does both sides of the car) canceled sequencing based on the CHMSL. Makes sense, right? CHMSL is hot so we light all of the bulbs except on the side where the circuit is break/making.

The new WebElectric sequencers (one module per side of car) cancel sequencing based on an input that is low when signal is off, and high when signal is on.
So on the wagon, I tapped into the wires that supply the cornering lamp relays, because those are very accessible at the underside of the dash.
Last night, I ran those wires on this car, and elected to use (internally cringing) quick splice connectors to tap into the wires that go into the cluster for the indicators.
The sequencers now sequence for turn signals, and do not for brake lights, which is what I was aiming for.

I also mounted my dash cam, ran the rear camera cable and mounted the rear camera, and hardwired the camera using its included cable, which I attached to the unused police option connector that all 90-91s (and maybe to 94?) have behind the glovebox. It's a convenient source of ground, switched power, and constant power all in one spot, and when I grabbed my 90 P72 cluster years ago from a cop car, I also grabbed the pigtail that mates with the police option connector.

My first time using these heat-shrink butt connectors with integrated low melting point solder. Pretty handy.







The Thinkware F200 Pro is a bit of a mess to install, if I'm honest. It is from a relatively premium brand in the dashcam market, but its installation is rather ugly compared to my Viofo A129 Duo as used in two other cars.





I also used Gorilla 2-sided mounting tape to try to reattach the end of the trunklid trim, which broke off some time ago and has been flapping around. I don't think this is a permanent fix at all, but ideally it lasts for the trip and prevents the whole piece trying to rip off. I cleaned the surfaces with alcohol and left it overnight with clamps holding it together, so it should be pretty apparent later today if it's going to hold or not, and if not, there probably isn't a better option at the moment.



Need to try to find one of these super-sized panel retainers. Probably won't be in the right colour of course. This is used to hold the interior stuff in place around the Frenched rear window.

[gadget73]

Exactly what does the anti-sequencer wiring tie into up at the dash? No chance its the same thing the CHMSL ties to is it? Thats a much shorter run.

[DerekTheGreat]

...With TV bumped up, even a lot, the transmission just gets noisier doing its obnoxious squealing noise all the time under a far wider range of throttle positions, and to an extent the 1-2 shift will move up, but the almost-zero throttle OD shift point will never move meaningfully. It has an internal problem and it has had that problem the whole time I've had it.

Throwing a gauge on it would only serve to verify that there is a problem, not help me with the shift points.

Oook, so with that said I wouldn't feel comfortable road trippin' that.

[kishy]

I'm pretty anti-additive at this point in my life, especially with Lucas products. (I like their chain lube, however.) Here's how I've adjusted every AOD transmission (aside from the one which blew up in my old Mark VII):

If yours still shifts late into OD (below 68 km/h), it might be worth verifying line pressure once more. Might be something going on inside the magical slush box. But even so, if it was me, I'd keep adjusting the TV cable until I got it to shift into OD at or above 68 km/h with very light pressure on the throttle.

Not messing with it. I've been down this road before with this one; that's why I paid a shop to set it by a gauge to begin with (and even with that, the cable is substantially tighter now than it was when I left that shop with it). Recall it's a car I've owned for 12 years and driven the most out of all of my cars, it isn't a new-to-me car.

With TV bumped up, even a lot, the transmission just gets noisier doing its obnoxious squealing noise all the time under a far wider range of throttle positions, and to an extent the 1-2 shift will move up, but the almost-zero throttle OD shift point will never move meaningfully. It has an internal problem and it has had that problem the whole time I've had it.

Throwing a gauge on it would only serve to verify that there is a problem, not help me with the shift points.

[DerekTheGreat]

I'm pretty anti-additive at this point in my life, especially with Lucas products. (I like their chain lube, however.) Here's how I've adjusted every AOD transmission (aside from the one which blew up in my old Mark VII):

If yours still shifts late into OD (below 68 km/h), it might be worth verifying line pressure once more. Might be something going on inside the magical slush box. But even so, if it was me, I'd keep adjusting the TV cable until I got it to shift into OD at or above 68 km/h with very light pressure on the throttle.

[kishy]

No progress on the car tonight, but I did spend the evening prepping the garage to move forward - putting tools back, cleaning up boxes and packaging from parts, sort of "resetting" the space.

I believe if I had to take the car as it sits today, it would go well enough. That being said, the outstanding wishlist is as follows, in no specific order:

• Dash cam. I have a Thinkware F200 hanging around that will go in this.
• Tail pipes. I believe they will cure the exhaust drone, so I'm going to try to make them happen. That being said, I'll survive if not.
• Fan clutch. I have no reason to believe it's not working well enough (especially without air conditioning), but there is visible oil leakage on it, and I have a new one on-hand.
• Air conditioning. I have the parts, oil, and refrigerant, so it's within reach, but not worth burning an evening until other things are done first.
• Install transmission cooler. I have one on-hand.
• Install the control wires for the turn signal sequencers, so that they do not sequence when braking. It's just two wires from the column/cluster area back to the trunk.
• Quick wash/detail, including interior.
• Get my hands on a full-size spare of appropriate size. The other set of HPPs has tires that are substantially larger, so I'd rather not do those. 98-02 brakes so I can't do a 15, as far as I know. I have multiple donuts but no full size spare matching the current size.
• Take another look at the drum brake adjustment because it's not clear that it's right.
• Flush the brake fluid out with the fancy ATE DOT4, which I have on-hand. I don't think I have performance pads for the 98-02 setup so I guess I'm just rocking what I have. It stops very well, but fade is what I'm concerned about.
• Poke around with the EGR stuff
• Snug up the steering gear a little bit. Feel is great but it does have a dead zone that I'd like to reduce.
• Go through the ignition bits and see if any items I have on the shelf can make an improvement with anything, such as the minor misfire at high load low RPM. Fairly sure I have plugs, wires, and a rotor, but not a cap.
• Identify a clunk I heard tonight from the front end, which I suspect (sort of recognizing the tone and conditions that cause it) it may be a lower control arm with insufficiently torqued bolts so it rocked backwards with braking.
• It has been very tempting to change the transmission fluid and with the new fluid, add the same Lucas stuff I did to the wagon, but I can't afford the setback of what happens to my timeline if the Lucas additive causes undesired effects on this car. It worked wonders in the right direction on the wagon, but this transmission's behavioural concerns are quite different than that one. I've done the fluid in this car twice in the past. I will try to be gentler on this one than I was on the wagon, but it will probably still see a fair bit of manual 1 to hold second on uphills where third isn't gaining speed.
• Fluid leak status is looking good for trip readiness:
  • Engine oil: appears to be no leakage.
  • Coolant: jury is still out. If any is being lost, it's very little.
  • Transmission fluid: appears to be no leakage.
  • Axle oil: appears to be no leakage.

[kishy]

Confirming shift points: at just a sliver of throttle, enough to keep accelerating but that's all, I get second gear at 20kmh, third at 30kmh, and 4th at 50kmh.
With more throttle, it does hold gears longer, but it'll still hit OD while I'm still accelerating to highway speed, whereas my other cars are set up to basically refuse OD until I let off the pedal once I'm arriving near my desired travel speed. But this one has never allowed itself to be set up that way and will always hit OD early even with the cable set quite tight.

Shifts are moderately firm, there is no detectable slipping, it drives well. The early shifting and high effort to get kickdown are annoying but I don't think there's much to be done here. At some point I'll have to dig into this one but I think it's fine presently.

I put some mileage on it today, and it performed well. It was pouring rain earlier and the aging Pirelli tires performed fantastic. They ride smooth and quietly, provide plenty of grip, and pass cosmetically as good condition tires so I'm going to run them.



The mufflers sound great, but have a little drone, which I think tailpipes will fix. I checked my storage unit but I don't have any suitable tail pipes, so I'm going to check with the parts places for local availability. Last time I bought sedan tails, CarQuest had them for me within a couple days for 40 bucks each - quite inexpensive, really.

The brace bars that bolt to the front of the frame have been off since I did the starter. Today, I flapwheeled them and have slapped on a coat of paint. I'll do at least a second coat and maybe a third, then they'll go back on. I'll also take a look at the rear sway bar and verify if it needs more paint or if it's fine.



I did also check the diff oil level via the fill plug, and it's full, as well as greased the u-joints like I said I'd need to. I put gas in it today and there seem to be no leaks. However, the inconsistent starting continues to happen occasionally.

I've also picked up a very slight occasional misfire when trying to steadily accelerate in third gear at low RPM, but it's just one or two little jerks and then it figures it out. There also seems to be a scratchy spot on the TPS which I will verify with my analog meter. And as with the wagon, I want EGR working before the trip, with this having an EVR code presently. New EVP and EVR are now on-hand, so here's hoping that takes care of that.

HPP centre caps to be sorted out shortly, as well. This has 98-02 front brakes so the front caps will fit, unlike when you run HPPs on stock box brakes. I have 3 good ones, 3 garbage ones, and two iffy ones, so I can make up a set of 4

[gadget73]

could always do a quick and dirty attempt to bump the presure more, stick a zip tie between the "hat" crimp at the end of the cable and the plastic adjuster stem. If that does nothing, its just what it is unless you feel like trying a shift kit to sort it. The Transgo one modifies some springs in there to alter the pressure curve and it tends to move the shift points out for the same TV setting.


The AOD valve body is a fiddly bastard though and its got a whole lot of stuff and a whole lot that can be messed up. Even just getting the gaskets back in right and torquing it can be tricky. Sometimes the gaskets don't fit and you can microwave them to shrink a bit. I've also seen where builders say to skip one of the gasket entirely but I don't remember if thats the upper or lower.

[sly]

Whoops, hit the edit button instead of quote - please accept my apologies.

Heh... I've done this.

the rust on the old fuel pump hanger... yikes. Glad the tank was fine.

[kishy]

What speed is overdrive coming in at very light throttle? Is it above or below 65 KPH?

Whoops, hit the edit button instead of quote - please accept my apologies.

50ish kmh at zero throttle, give or take a smidge. Kickdown works, but it takes a lot of pedal to get out of OD. I always just drove this in D and did OD manually.

The shift points and firmness don't really seem to change in response to the cable, so it has long been a thought in my head that there's a piston or seal or something leaking in the transmission, or maybe it was rebuilt with a constant pressure valve body or something along those lines.

But, with TV set tighter, the high pitched hydraulic squeal noise that I get out of all of my AODs with high TV does appear more.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

I still feel weird about the transmission, because the shift points say it has too low TV, but it's set tighter than it was when a shop set it with a gauge, and it's driven 55k km behaving this way. That's really my only concern at the moment for the trip, I think this is going to be the car for it.

What speed is overdrive coming in at very light throttle? Is it above or below 65 KPH?

[kishy]

Fuel pressure low making it sputter to life before the replacement fuel pump? I have a similar thing going on as of late. Hit key and car starts up but kinda sputters to life and then evens out. Will have to check that out on my car. Something I have been thinking about but didnt care too much about as it does end up running fine.

So does it check all boxes on being roadworthy for your trip?

The starting issue is something I never did actually prove-out. I posted about it on CVN a decade ago and I don't think anyone quite grasped what I was describing, if I remember right. Basically, turn key directly from off to start, and a cylinder or a few fire almost immediately, but then they just kinda don't anymore, so you keep cranking it and it sounds obnoxious as it keeps firing and then not. If you let it prime fully before cranking, it's more likely to actually fire and stay running. The stall was a new symptom and in my head, it was a further degradation of the same symptom. I actually put reman injectors in this many years ago chasing the weird cranking problem, since it delivered 40psi on prime - but maybe it wasn't doing that every time, and I just so happened to catch it this time around.

Either way, the pump not screaming loudly is an improvement.

I still feel weird about the transmission, because the shift points say it has too low TV, but it's set tighter than it was when a shop set it with a gauge, and it's driven 55k km behaving this way. That's really my only concern at the moment for the trip, I think this is going to be the car for it.

edit: oh yeah, and there was this today.