My New 1978 Ford LTD

[slack]

No real updates here. Car has continued to be reliable and fun to drive. I need to get up to speed on my repainting of sections that need it but that will now have to wait until Spring.

Passenger front turn signal socket crapped out on me so I soldered and heat shrinked a new one in. So far so good. I also was able to do some more under body rust painting while doing the oil change last month. Bottom of this car is cleaner than my Crown Vic.

Car was running a little lean which would make it run on the hotter side. Adjusted the carb and now it picks up off the line a bit better, runs smoother and most importantly, doesn't run on the hot side anymore.

[knucklehead0202]

Long time no see buddy, glad to hear all is well. Far as vehicle progess goes, any is better than none like i'm doing these days...

[slack]

I really need to get back on the ball and update this thread with some current pictures and stuff. Recently did some usual maintenance stuff.. plugs, wires, cap, rotor, oil change.. etc. I also swapped out the ICM. I was having issues with restarting when the engine was hot and that seemed to fix it. Finally, I also did a bunch of rust converter and eastwood frame encapsulator spray stuff on the underside and in the frame rails. I plan to hit it with fluid film at the end of the summer.

In bad news, the car seems to have sprung a leak somewhere in the front. When it rains, I get a tiny bit of water by the gas/brake pedals on the floor. I'm not exactly sure where it's coming from though.. my thoughts are maybe one of the rubber grommets that the wires feed through on the firewall? But rain water doesn't really get under the hood there at all.

I don't think it's the windshield seal. I feel like if it was, it would be high up inside or at least closer to the a pillar on the inside. How it sits, I can't see how water could get up to the seal from the bottom but maybe?

Then there's the fresh air vents for the HVAC by the wipers. I'm thinking maybe water is getting in there and perhaps there's a drain that's clogged up causing it to actually work its way through the vents under the dash and leak out? I'm not really sure...

I tried laying on the floor with a flashlight and my phone camera the other day when it was raining. I can see the wetness from higher up but I can't figure out where it's coming from. I'm dreading the thought of having to pull the whole entire dash to figure this out. There's a lot of old brittle plastic that's just itching to turn to dust or snap if I were to go that route.

Any suggestions welcome!

[Mainemantom]

I found a round hole on the driver side of the firewall. The round rubber plug had fallen out. I replace the plug and did not have any issues again.

[atlantic3000]

Nice car. If you never did it you may want to do a timing chain. OE had nylon over aluminum single row timing set. A good double row is the thing to get. They tend to fail after 75000 but often stretch. If you see chunks of plastic that is strange brown in drain oil of non metallic silver change it immediately. You can pull the distributor cap and turn crank one way then the other if rotor lags it's stretched.
The timing covers often leak after water pump replacement so if that happens that's a good time to do chain.

Other stuff. If you get a couple bottles of AT 205 reseal putting one in the transmission will recondition the inner seals and prevent morning sickness on cold days. Put other bottle in a spray bottle and spray the hell out of the control arm bushings and other suspension rubber bushings and grease seals. Front and rear. Let it soak in don't wipe it off. it will buy you years before replacement.

Only use non ethanol gas


The armrests are imitation and decorative and are not to be used as armrests or worse door pulls. They are made of unobtainium and are the worst made part on the whole car.

Dash clusters where bulbs go in tend to turn to dust so never mess with it if you don't have to.

Landau seats if you find them are a nice upgrade.


I had 2 78 Ltd landau cars for many years. They like dual exhaust. I emission deleted mine.

[slack]

Thanks for the tips! I was actually wondering about the timing gear the other day if it was a nylon one like the early panthers or not.

I found the leak btw! ....aaaand it sucks. It's coming from inside that air vent under the wiper blades. It must have been slowly rusting out for years without me noticing. I'm guessing the leak has been happening for a while but just hasn't been bad enough until recently for me to notice the small puddle on the floor by the gas pedal after it rains. Spraying the hose on the car, it was able to find that it's actually leaking on the passenger side inside as well.

Here's some pics of under the black vents under the wipers after using a shop vac to try and suck up as much loose rust bits as I could:




It's an absolute PITA to get in there and there's no way to gain more access with unbolting things. You would have to cut out the top and then reweld it in or something.

After those pics, I've since continued to clean that bit out as best I can down to what's left of good metal. I also drowned it in rust converter and 2x and then eastwood rust encapsulator 2x. Next I'm going to seal it with seam sealer and then give it ANOTHER coat of rust encapsulator and paint.

In the mean time, I've duct taped the vents closed to keep as much moisture out that I can. I'm actually wondering if maybe once I'm done in there, I don't fashion something that will water tight seal that vent space up for good. I know it will probably mess with the dash vents for fan/heat.. but I don't find myself using those that often.

Here's my temp vent blocking while I do what I can to 'fix' this:

[DerekTheGreat]

Wow, that bites. Sounds like what I'd do, clean it up to the best of my ability and then put schmoo all in there and hope for the best.

[Tiggie]

I vacuumed/blew a ton of mess out of that area in my 90 when I painted it. Not a good design on the part of Ford Motor Company.