What did you do with your Thunderbird Today?

White Lincoln said:
Today, I finally took the hub caps off and sanded them, wiped them down for dust and sprayed them. I tried last weekend, but the Ford wheel paint was spattering out crap, not paint. Plus, I was not sure if the Duplicolor clear coat was going to have issues with the sun. I went to AutoZoom last night and got a can of Ford wheel paint and a can of Ford wheel clear.

We will see if they turn color in a year. Pics to come.
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The hubs came out a bit brighter than the wheels, but that is expected after a few years.
painted hub.jpg

But from afar, the don't look to bad. Better than they did.

Not bad from afar.jpg

Old hub color:

Old hub color.jpg
 
Looks good. I believe silver is one of the hardest colors to match. The only way to get a perfect match is to repaint the wheels with the same paint. I think I've mentioned it here before, but the Rustoleum silver I used on the wheels on the '97 is a dead-on match for the OEM Ford center caps.
 
Today, I learned several things about the Stereo install in the Red cougar. First, where all the $@@@%@#@&* screws are.
Then how to unhook the satc climate controls. Third, how to unplug the connector on the radio I put in in 2005.
Fourth, that I over-tightened all the bezel screws, which broke all the tabs over the last 20 years.
I started before noon, and just finished. Jeez, it sucks getting old, 42 is much better than 62.
If the weather holds, I'm going in with new wiring tomorrow. New Monster Rca cables, and the battery relocation cables.
I've got to mount the Capacitor on the Amp board, add a new power splitter block, drill holes in the firewall for the weather seals, and mount the battery box, Power is going down the pass side, rca's down the drivers side.
I've also got to run wiring for the wideband
 
KevinVarnes said:
That stinks, but I don't know if I should be sad that it broke down or disappointed that you didn't have a spare TFI module and special tool in the glove box. I'll give you a pass since it just got painted and you probably had the interior gutted or something and hadn't put it back in yet ;)
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It’s still not fully put together. But I replaced the TFI today and turns out that wasn’t it, looks like it might be the PIP. So I have one on order.
 
Moved her to the garage and started working on her!

PXL_20250316_203322648.jpg

PXL_20250317_012237072.jpg

Aside from the UCA (because I'm using it to hold the brake caliper up) everything is now torn apart from the driver side. My boy was helping me with a good chunk of this tear down, and he's all for it! I have him using the impact drill to get stuff off, showing him how to do the double wrench thing for extra leverage/torque and I'm sure more stuff will come.
 
Ericv8thunderbird said:
It’s still not fully put together. But I replaced the TFI today and turns out that wasn’t it, looks like it might be the PIP. So I have one on order.
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Had the same thing happen to me. First long range vacation with the family (and mother in law) in the '85 wagon. Coming home it would run great for 2-2.5 hours and then it would stall. Let it sit for 15-20 minutes and then repeat the cycle. Tried replacing the TFI on the side of the road to no avail. Tried replacing the coil since I could get it. No dice. Wound up just throwing the parts cannon at it when I got home since I couldn't easily replicate the problem. Put in a NOS Motorcraft distributor and Motorcraft coil and TFI and and relocated the TFI module to the driver side fenderwell with one of the later aluminum heat sinks. No problems since. I'm pretty confident it was the PIP in the distributor.
 
KevinVarnes said:
Had the same thing happen to me. First long range vacation with the family (and mother in law) in the '85 wagon. Coming home it would run great for 2-2.5 hours and then it would stall. Let it sit for 15-20 minutes and then repeat the cycle. Tried replacing the TFI on the side of the road to no avail. Tried replacing the coil since I could get it. No dice. Wound up just throwing the parts cannon at it when I got home since I couldn't easily replicate the problem. Put in a NOS Motorcraft distributor and Motorcraft coil and TFI and and relocated the TFI module to the driver side fenderwell with one of the later aluminum heat sinks. No problems since. I'm pretty confident it was the PIP in the distributor.
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I tested it last night, turns out I have no spark, everything is motorcraft, the TFI, coil, cap and rotor. But unfortunately I couldn’t find a Motorcraft PIP for a 2.3 so I ended up ordering a Standard Motor Products one. It’ll get me by for the nice car season, but I’ll try and hunt down a Motorcraft one and replace it over the winter, if the SMP one lasts that long. 😂
 
KevinVarnes said:
Had the same thing happen to me. First long range vacation with the family (and mother in law) in the '85 wagon. Coming home it would run great for 2-2.5 hours and then it would stall. Let it sit for 15-20 minutes and then repeat the cycle. Tried replacing the TFI on the side of the road to no avail. Tried replacing the coil since I could get it. No dice. Wound up just throwing the parts cannon at it when I got home since I couldn't easily replicate the problem. Put in a NOS Motorcraft distributor and Motorcraft coil and TFI and and relocated the TFI module to the driver side fenderwell with one of the later aluminum heat sinks. No problems since. I'm pretty confident it was the PIP in the distributor.
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Good luck traking the issue down and fixing it! Sometimes I wish I had OBSII. :P
 
Years ago at TSTSNBN
Ericv8thunderbird said:
Replaced my hood liner, it touches a couple things, but it is a lot thicker than the factory one.

I ordered one for my Turbo Coupe too.

I got it from here : https://www.hoodliners.net/products...maZUDCGWdUiLL4Zrrr7vzyDeuALiCLCEaAiu5EALw_wcB

View attachment 10930
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Years ago at TSTSNBN, Gonzalo Duque was making these for the MN-12. He passed away and I'm wondering if a family member picked up making these.

Ok, poked around on the website and his son took over the business. :thumbsup:

Joe
 
Ericv8thunderbird said:
I tested it last night, turns out I have no spark, everything is motorcraft, the TFI, coil, cap and rotor. But unfortunately I couldn’t find a Motorcraft PIP for a 2.3 so I ended up ordering a Standard Motor Products one. It’ll get me by for the nice car season, but I’ll try and hunt down a Motorcraft one and replace it over the winter, if the SMP one lasts that long. 😂
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I got lucky and RockAuto had old Motorcraft distributors in stock when I ordered mine. Looked like it had been sitting on a shelf for 30 years. I agree with Mikey. Standard (regular line) are usually pretty good.
 
Replaced the two idler pulleys (last time was 100k/7y ago, not bad). And I finally replaced the EVAP tray. Well, what was left of the EVAP tray, anyway... 😅

1742337740551.jpeg

I did 3D scan the top of the tray last week, but I'm not sure if it's a useable scan. I need to talk to the guy who runs the 3D software lab to see what can be done with it.
 
theterminator93 said:
Replaced the two idler pulleys (last time was 100k/7y ago, not bad). And I finally replaced the EVAP tray. Well, what was left of the EVAP tray, anyway... 😅

View attachment 10945

I did 3D scan the top of the tray last week, but I'm not sure if it's a useable scan. I need to talk to the guy who runs the 3D software lab to see what can be done with it.
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I never looked at the contents of the tray until now, why on earth do marks use TWO evap canisters the size of resonators? 😳

I said it before but if it were me I’d just delete that junk and retrofit the MN12 canister up front.
 
Baby and I have been down for the count with covid and a 102° fever since Sunday morning. Both of us made it down to 99.5° today without meds.

I finally felt good enough to go to the store today (via Instacart), so I took the Thunderbird in order to not contaminate any of the cars we drive more regularly.
 
I went out and ran cables in the red cougar, and froze my butt off! High was 40's on the first day of spring. If it's warmer tomorrow, I'm going to ream the holes for the batt cables' weather seal. The rca cables I used in 05 were trash; the new ones are Monster brand, I found on clearance.
Is a spare mn12 radiator fan overkill for amp cooling? The mark fan definitely is. :)
 
IMG_3163.jpeg

I found the reason the turbo coupe broke down.

The distributor drive gear is all chewed up, I never replaced this when I freshened up the engine, but I did notice it always had a minor little skip and couldn’t figure it out.

Any recommendations on a good drive gear?
Car has a regrind Ranger roller cam, and a new regular volume oil pump.
 
If you’re using a roller cam with the original TC distributor drive gear, that’s your problem. The roller cam is steel instead of cast iron, so you need a matching steel gear. Otherwise the harder cam chews up the softer gear. Get one out of a Ranger, and you should be good to go.
 
MadMikeyL said:
If you’re using a roller cam with the original TC distributor drive gear, that’s your problem. The roller cam is steel instead of cast iron, so you need a matching steel gear. Otherwise the harder cam chews up the softer gear. Get one out of a Ranger, and you should be good to go.
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Same year Ranger I assume?
 
Road tested the cooling system 300+ miles thru heart of Atlanta. No Leaks. Brakes may need some study after that 75 mph to 15 in 2.3 seconds on I-75. It stopped but I wasn't sure and that Mack dump truck following probably felt j7st as lucky😯
 
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