kishy's 1984 Town Car

[kishy]

Last night I achieved most of what I set out to do.

Drained the diff. Took out the pin, side gears, and spider gears.
Poked around extensively. Found nothing that really worried me. Everything seems to mesh well, nothing wiggles around badly (the pin is a little worn, but nothing undue for its age, and really it's just markings in the surface with no depth). There is absolutely no pinion looseness. There is no play of the carrier in the housing.
Slapped the cover back on, filled it full of new oil. It'll do the trip growling, and it'll like it.
There was no metal stuck to the cover where the magnet was (and I did stick a stronger one on it several hundred km ago), and the oil was not glittery.

Replaced the u-joints. The front one on cars with the dampened yoke is a pain. Actually all of the small ones are a pain. Couldn't tell you the sizes but these cars have either a "small one" or a "big one", and the big ones are easy while the small ones just suck.

Greased the brush holder for the cruise control slip rings. No more annoying clicking sound when steering wheel changes direction.

Fixed the driver window. Lubricated all the tracks, adjusted how the window channel was fitting, seems to be ok now. Issue was main glass binding up, and as soon as it encounters a lot of resistance, that is what forces the vent glass to start moving. If the vent glass starts going up when the main glass is not fully up yet, bad things happen.

Verified EGR cooler plumbing vs the wagon, which itself I had modeled after this car, so in any case it's set up in a way that doesn't not work.

Things I didn't get done:
The dash squeak. It's minor. I think it might be some interaction between the right side A-pillar trim and the dash pad since it started after I re-did the dashcam wiring, but was silent after the heater core job up until that point.
The jingling sound. I have absolutely no idea what it was. Vague hints of the sound the exhaust heat valve made before I bent it years ago. Side note, the manual says you're supposed to lubricate that thing, and as I recall it was shockingly frequent. I bet none of those ever got done even one time.

Today is hopefully a zero-car-stuff day. But if I do anything it'll be stick some gasket maker (don't judge me) around the windshield and try to clip the reveal back on.

Tomorrow remains big wash day, and hopefully no mechanical stuff.

[kishy]

Used this car to haul my bike to a park with a good mixed-use trail. Got my first bike ride of the year in. Good stuff.
Probably a women's frame but I don't care, there's a nostalgia factor, it's an 80s-vintage bike and is the one my mom carted me around on in a child seat when I was a toddler of pre-biking age.



As for the car:
KOEO 11,11, KOER 44
Running smooth, driving straight, sounding and feeling good.
Mixed condition 130km test loop yielded 17.6 US MPG. I'll take it.



Cut out some crispy windshield butyl and stuffed some RTV in the resulting gap. Might help, might not.
Clipped the reveal back on.
Polished the chrome. All of it. There's a lot of brightwork. Oof.
Washed it.
Bleche-Wite for the whitewalls. Rim cleaner for the spokes.
Rain-X for the windshield. Never done that before, will have to see if it works like everyone tells me it does.
Hitting the road to meet up with the group for breakfast before the trip in 7 hours.

As an aside: I really like how this road trip pattern is forcing me to catch up on the to-do lists with these cars. Maybe the 2-door will be next year. It would fit the pattern.

[Lutrova]

....Polished the chrome. All of it. There's a lot of brightwork. Oof....

What do you use to polish? I was under the impression these cars have a mix of chrome, stainless, and anodized aluminum, and the anodization seems to prevent any improvement from polishing.