My 1987 Mercury Grand Marquis

[GM_Guy]

If the vent windows are anything like the GM truck vent windows, you'll need to remove the roll pin to pull the handle, theres the wave washer as mentioned, and if you look in the center of the indoor portion you will see a torx, gennnnntly snug it up to take the slop out.
Also before you pull the latch, make note of the orientation of the latch in relation to the outside (mark the outside) so when you tighten it you don't have to do it twice when the latch ends up in the wrong position. =-)
On the outside, its a rubber washer (not glue). So have something on hand you can make a new washer from.

Watch for the small parts when you pull the latch, theres a spring and bit of metal to if I remember right. Can't remember if theres a check ball in there somewhere, its been more than 20 years since I had to r&r one.

[87gtVIC]

I looked in my service manual and I did not find any mention of the vent window handle. Go figure.

With new body mounts in the car you do gain some room between the body and the frame for reaching those top shock fasteners. Even still though it is not the most fun job.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Hell yeah.

Those old shocks look like they were doing a good job of just actively existing, and nothing more.

[sly]

[packman]

Oh.........yeah those shocks threw up the white flag long ago.

I had a similar experience trying to change out the front shocks on the S-10. Since those shocks were never changed out; the knub on the top of the shock (holds the shock in place while spinning the nut off) kept breaking off when I put the vice-grip on it. I gave up and grabbed a grinder and a large diameter disc; but my Dad intervened and said if I somehow got the front springs; I might end up in the ER again.

[slack]

Rear shocks out!

Thanks for the input so far everyone. I tried again with the vise grips on the shock and some more PB blaster. I worked at it for about an hour before giving up on that. No matter how tight I got it, it would still spin. I even cleaned any grease off the piston and tried to rough up the metal with some sand paper. Still no luck.

I went the sawzall route. I only had one 12'' wood blade which barely even got through the rubber bushing so I ran out to Lowes and picked up a pack of metal cutting 12'' blades. I had the passenger's side bolt cut out within 15 minutes. Oh my god. It was so much easier. I don't think I'm ever going to not cut them in the future unless I plan on saving the shock that's installed in there.

The things continued to put up a fight though. The bottom bolts were also seized and then started spinning. One I was able to get off by putting a box wrench on one side and the impact on the other. The other side, I had to cut the bottom mount and then use a line wrench and a ratchet on the other side with a breaker bar. Still didn't come loose until I torched it.

I also managed to drop one of the new washers into the abyss between the body and frame of the top mount when installing the new shock. Thank god I had another washer from a previous shock install in my garage. It was already after 10pm and everything was closed. (Also, it's going to rain for the next two days).

Blah blah blah... long story short. The new shocks are in!


Old shocks: Right one was leaking pretty bad.



For the vent window latch, is the stud inside fully threaded? Could it be that maybe the previous owner managed to forcefully spin the thing and back the nut on the inside out a bit? I wondering if maybe it's stripped. I can push the thing together and it closes the gap but any pulling on it, it slips back out to the loose position it's in in the previous post's pictures.

[Tiggie]

Is it supposed to be adhered? Never would have figured. When I did mine back up with a new gasket/washer under the outside half, I did it up tight enough to not require being glued to the glass.

I'm definitely doing the diagnosis by picture and couch sitting. I would imagine if there is a nut there, that might be a better option!

[kishy]

On the vent window, it looks like the stud has come unglued from the glass. You can drive that pin out to remove the handle. There should be a wave washer under there IIRC to keep some tension on it in normal operation. Rear view mirror glue might work to get that stud to stick back to the glass.

Is it supposed to be adhered? Never would have figured. When I did mine back up with a new gasket/washer under the outside half, I did it up tight enough to not require being glued to the glass.

Aside from that uncertainty for me, you hit the nail on the head with this. The outside half is a stud and the inside half is a handle retained to a weird looking nut. The handle is held onto the weird nut with the roll pin.

[Tiggie]

On the vent window, it looks like the stud has come unglued from the glass. You can drive that pin out to remove the handle. There should be a wave washer under there IIRC to keep some tension on it in normal operation. Rear view mirror glue might work to get that stud to stick back to the glass.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

All the rear shocks I've removed that were stock I cut away the upper portion of the shock shield and clamped down the vice grips as tight as possible. They put up a fight, but eventually came apart. If the studs are rusty, I'd suggest spraying them with some Seafoam Deep Creep and letting it sit.

The regarding aftermarket shocks where the upper shield is mated with the stud so it can't spin freely of the body, I've had luck putting a box wrench on top and loosening the shock using the body of it as the grip point.

[sly]

No clue about the vent window latch, but maybe a pipe wrench on the shock rod?

[slack]

PCV, coolant leak fix and shocks attempt

I'm slowly getting through my "to-do" list on this car... This past weekend I changed the PCV screen, fixed a coolant leak, washed the car and attempted to get the rear shocks out.

I ended up buying the PCV filter on Amazon because I couldn't seem to track it down anymore in the parts stores. Dunno if maybe I was just searching the wrong thing. Anyway, I'm glad I changed it. When I pulled the PCV valve out that I put in last summer, it still looked brand new. Well, turns out the filter was completely clogged.

Here's old v. new:


I also sprung a coolant leak earlier in the week in the hose that runs from the engine to the heater core. Thankfully having all the parts from my CV, I was able to just pull the hose from the parts pile and pop it on. I'll need to change it with a new one down the line (33 year old hose vs a 35 year old hose) but it worked as a quick fix.

Anyone have any idea how to tighten this window latch? It's really loose and is making a bunch of wind noise driving. I can't seem to figure out how it comes on/off. I was thinking maybe that pin gets punched out? I did a half-assed attempt but it didn't seem to budge.



Also, I tried to get the rear shocks out. No surprise, the nut spins the whole top half of the shock. I tried putting vise grips on the shock piston but even as tight as I could get it, it would still slip. Any ideas on hose to get it out? I was thinking maybe trying to get a sawsall to cut the nut off at the top but I'm not sure if it would reach in that tiny access spot. I was also hesitant to use heat with the gas lines being right there on the driver's side.

[slack]

woo... yeah. that grommet was toasted.

Yeah, I was incredibly lucky it didn't fail this past (almost) year I've had the car and have been driving it. When I first brought the car home, changing it was on the top of my "TODO" list but then for some reason I forgot about it until this past weekend. My garage is also a mountain of Crown Vic parts I've been meaning to migrate to the basement but that's also been kicked down the road to a later date.

Also, I forgot to mention in my last past that I also finally swapped out the spare tire with one from my Crown Vic's tires. The tire that was in the trunk was the original full size spare from 1987! Completely flat and looking like a hard shiney Hess truck tire. No way in hell am I going to even attempt to put any air in that death trap.

[sly]

woo... yeah. that grommet was toasted.

[slack]

So, I finally had some time to work on the cars this past weekend. No major updates or anything but I did finally get to replace the stock TV grommet with the brass one from my CV. Looks like it was just in time too.






I also had an issue that started with the car becoming hard to start. I would have to crank/stop/crank/stop a few times before it would get going and then would have to let it run for a few before taking off or it would stall. I was thinking it was the vacuum line I replaced last year that maybe popped off or the TPS or a weak fuel pump... well, it turns out one of the spark plug wires popped "up" on the distributor and was no longer making a connection. It's pretty crazy how "alright" the car ran on 7 cylinders. (though the gas mileage was AWFUL) haha. Cleaned the contacts and pushed it back on snuggly and so far no issues there.


Rust proofing painting is coming soon. I already started sanding and primering sections of the 78 LTD. Most of the roof is now primered and ready for color. I also plan on inside and out rust proofing the GMQs frame this summer too.