My 1987 Mercury Grand Marquis

[Tiggie]

Rust always gets worse the longer you do nothing. Do something with it. Gotta get both moldings off. I've always been able to get the fender lip moldings off with a good Phillips bit in a ratchet. They are tight but they come out.

[gadget73]

double wrench the drain plug if you're worried about it. Big wrench to keep the non-removable part from moving, small wrench to pull the plug.

[87GrandMarq]

Where’d you get the paint from? I have some rust spots that need to be addressed as well. I’ve used the same rattle can you used in the trunk but it doesn’t quite match the sun faded paint on my hood.

Just out of curiousity, how come you didn’t go with an aftermarket deep pan? I have one sitting on a shelf ready to go.

[WagonMan]

I NEVER use penetrating oils where I am going to paint! WD-40 is very hard to remove completely! Use the proper tip screwdriver and the screws on the wheel trim should come off. WagonMan

[87gtVIC]

Wheel well trim may be quite hard to remove. A SHIT TON of pressure needs to be put on the bit to prevent you from stripping out the heads. The factory self tappers stick up through the metal and just collect crap on them for 35+ years now. It can be done of course if you take your time. Clean out the backside of the lip and spray some rust penetrant from the back side. Id recommend taking the wheel off and having a nice fitting screwdriver that has a square or hex shank on it so you can not only twist the screw driver while holding a SHIT TON of pressure onto the fastener but use a properly fitting wrench on the shank of the screwdriver to help twist.

The ditch light should not be a big deal.


The door trim is simple. Two acorn nuts one at the front of the door and one at the rear. You can then try sliding the trim front or back but I have been able to just lightly pry up one side and it kinda just pops off of the plastic clips that will remain with the door skin. The plastic clips are quite stout and will not break. They rotate onto metal tits that are on the door.

You decide if it is worth it.

[slack]

Catching up to date...

This thread is a bit behind on things done.

Back in July I created a post asking about adding a transmission drain plug: http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthre...ion-drain-plug

I ended up doing that about a week later. My outside of the transmission pan was so unbelievably dirty. I think it took longer to clean it off than it did to get it out. For the drain plug, I picked up the kind where the one bolt screws into the other. I help keep it from leaking, I secured the outer bolt with red loctite and then the inner one with blue loctite. It's been about two months now and seems to be holding up just fine. I have a sinking feeling though that it might start to leak the first time I pop the bolt out to drain it though.


I also addressed the issue with the car randomly turning off mentioned earlier in this thread with a new ignition switch (didn't realize it was going on that long): http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthre...s-off-randomly

Besides that, I ended up running Eastwood internal frame coating through as much of the frame and nooks and crannies as I could. I then POR15'd as much of the frame as I could with a brush. Currently looks pretty good down there. Hopefully it holds up. I have a bunch of fluid film I plan on spraying down there as well once it gets a bit further into Fall.

I do have some body rust I'd like to address before it gets too cold. I have the matching (hopefully) paint to cover it, just curious on thoughts of removing the trim or just tape it and replace the fender/door at a later date with the ones from my CV.

Here's the fender spot. Should I attempt to unscrew that fender trim or do you think it'll just strip out or never go back on right?


Here's the corner light. That one I plan on taking out. I don't think it'll be too much of a PITA to get in/out.


Door rot is a bit more interesting:


I don't think I can get that aluminum trim off. There's actually not much metal at the bottom of the door behind it. It also looks like the previous owner bondo'd that bottom lip. I'm guessing for this one, I'll just have to tape the trim and sand and paint what I can see. It'll definitely continue to get worse but I'm not sure what else to do there.

[sly]

If you did not disconnect the battery when changing the IAC, try that first. The ECM may need to relearn idle.

[slack]

Sounds like the IAC valve may be not quite doing its job. Unplug it at warm idle. If the idle drops, it's working. If it stays the same, it's not.

Thanks. This was the issue. I popped on the one from my CV's engine and it did like you said. When I unplugged it, the idle dropped and got bad unlike the one that was on there that had no change in idle. The IAC I pulled off the had an E7 date code so I'm guessing it was original. The car idles and rides so much smoother now. I actually drove it up to the Poconos this past weekend and back home. No issues at all (besides baking alive in the heat with no AC )

One issue I still have is that the car sometimes randomly dies when I start it up and go to reverse out of a parking spot. After restarting, it runs fine. I'm thinking maybe the neutral safety switch going bad?

[friskyfrankie]

If we're talking about the '87, the IAC is on the driver's side towards the back of the intake.

[slack]

Brakes, oil change, tie rod.

Sounds like the IAC valve may be not quite doing its job. Unplug it at warm idle. If the idle drops, it's working. If it stays the same, it's not.

Check around for vacuum leaks also.

Thanks! I let the car warm up and then pulled the electrical connector on the IAC. No change at all. I even started the car with it unplugged and it didn't make a difference. Looks like that's probably the issue. I'll have to get my multimeter and check to make sure I'm getting voltage at the plug. I didn't get a chance to try that yet. Thankfully, I have another IAC from my CV's engine. (Just need to track down where it is )


A few days ago, I got around to swapping out the front brake pads. Rotors still looked okay so I kept them for now. I would like to at least swap in some fresh timken bearings at some point.

Driver's side new vs old:


Passenger's side new vs old. A little less worn as the driver's side. Calipers both retracted fine. The rubber hose is pretty done though and now tacked onto the ever expanding "to-do" list.



Today I replaced the driver's side outer tie rod and and oil change. I can't believe the tie rod actually came out with (more or less) little effort. The castle nut unscrewed and didn't spin on me. The only part that took a bit was getting it to unscrew from the sleeve. A good amount of PB blaster and heat got it out though.

Here it is with the boot off. It's crazy loose.


Here's a few second video to give an idea (hopefully this works): https://i.imgur.com/d3eM1jc.mp4

New tie rod installed:


The other tie rods should be swapped out too. They don't seem to have play like this one did when I pull on them but they look like they're about the same age.

I noticed some rust forming around the cross member bolt locations on the frame. The same spot my CV rotted out from. I grinded everything down with a wire wheel. Thankfully, nothing's gone through and it was all surface/some pitting. I hit it with now two coats of Eastwood's rust converter. I plan on throwing some rust encapsulator on there too as well as POR15ing the whole frame.

[Tiggie]

Sounds like the IAC valve may be not quite doing its job. Unplug it at warm idle. If the idle drops, it's working. If it stays the same, it's not.

Check around for vacuum leaks also.

[slack]

Can't edit the previous post but just wanted to add that it appears to be after the 30 second high idle after starting the car. Heading back home tonight I actually had to put the car in neutral and hold the throttle a bit to keep it from stalling. After that first light, I didn't have to do that.

[slack]

Thanks!

There's one issue with the car that's been bugging me a bit. Starting cold, it runs a bit rough for the first minute or so or until I give it a few revs (I'm sure my neighbors love that lol). I usually drive out east for band practice each week which is roughly ~45min drive one way. Practice is about 2 hours or so. When I come back to the car and start it, it starts right but but wants to idle very low. Almost stalling out low. I've been giving it a little bit of throttle for a few min before heading back home.

Once it's going it seems fine. Any ideas of first places to look?

[87gtVIC]

Nice. Like the updates.

[slack]

Diff fluid change and new front shocks

Thanks for all the info on the vent window. I haven't had a chance to double back on it yet. The door is pretty rotten and the outside handle doesn't really work right. When I go to tackle those things, I'll investigate the vent window more. With how rotten the bottom of that door is, I would just slap on the door from my CV if it wasn't for the mismatching paint jobs (and I don't think I could pull off a two tone with pin stripe with my painting "skills" lol)

Last week I changed out the diff fluid. I'm not sure if it's ever been changed. Some had leaked out and there wasn't a ton really in there. Thankfully all the bolts came out without snapping. Even the fill hole didn't put up a big fight. While I waited for the RTV to cure, I sprayed a bunch of Eastwoood's interior frame coating in the frame. I sprayed some in my very rotten bumper just to extend some life out of it. (Hopefully). I plan on taking a wire wheel sometime this week and grind out any surface rust and POR15 the exterior of the frame as well. I have a bunch of fluid film I plan on spraying on as well later in the year.

Bolts out.


The diff tag looking like it came right off the Titanic.


Amazingly, a wire brush clean it up enough to read. No surprises here, 3.27 gears just like the door tag says. I ended up putting the tag in the glovebox instead of back on diff because it's become very thin and fragile.


Inside... looking as expected. I spent a good amount of time scooping the sludge from the bottom as it slowly accumulated.


The nasty fluid that came out:


I used just regular 80W90. I didn't actually expect to feel any difference from the fluid change (I've never had in the past) but I feel like the back end rolls a bit smoother. The old fluid was low, old and sludgy so maybe it's not completely in my head. haha.

This week I tackled changing the front shocks. I haven't had an issue with front shocks before. With my CV, I was able to tighten them and snap the stuck bolt off. Well, this car didn't want to give up those leaky do-nothings that easy. Both both top bolts spun in the shock and wouldn't come out. In the front, there's not a ton of exposed room so it's not possible to get a vice grip on with the full shock installed.

I used my drimmel to try and cut out the nut on the top bolt (or at least the washer so it would fall through). Well, as luck would have it, my drimmel died just before I was done so the nut was still stuck.

I went under the car and (surprisingly) the bottom bolts came out. The shock also exploded as well as the now freed shock had room grow towards the ground. What a mess. Anyway, it ended up being a good thing as now I could actually get the vise grips on the top shock post. The vise grips actually worked, I was able to get the top bolt out and finished up that side. The bottom two bolt holes were still good thankfully.

The other side went basically the same. Top spun so I blew up the shock from the bottom. Vise grips did NOT work this time. I ended up driving to Lowe's and buying a replacement drimmel. New drimmel in hand, I grinded out the top nut and the shock fell out. New shock went in fine but one of the bottom bolts just went a little tighter than hand tight before spinning. With my CV, I ended up replacing all 4 bolts with bolt, washer, lockwasher, nut. Thankfully, I only had to do one on this car. 5/16-18 is the perfect size bolt if you need to do this.

No after pic, but it's just KYB Gas-A-Justs from RockAuto like the rears.

Oh, I also greased up all the fittings in the front steering. I think my driver's side outer tie rod end is on its way out. Front brake pads are just about shot. Those are on my "To-do" list next week.

Old shocks:


The car handles so much better now that all four corners have new shocks. It's crazy how bad those old ones were in comparison. I have my front and rear PI sway bars to install and I think the suspension stuff will be good for now. I'm going to keep the stock OG springs. I had a love/hate relationship with the stiffer ones I put in my CV so I don't think I'd go that route again. (At least for the time being) The current ones are still good, so no reason to change them just yet.