What did you do with your Thunderbird Today?

Grog6 said:
OOH! Stainless steel, electropolished looks like chrome, and I know how to do that. I'm ordering some stainless honeycomb, about 1/16"" thick or so.

Mikey, I love the plate; "89 jersey fucker", lol. DMV won't give that out. if you asked I bet. lol.
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That’s just the random plate I got when I got the car. The best vanity plate was ClintD got POS CAR on his $500 beater tbird! I couldn’t believe they let that one through. Before that he tried PHUCKET, which got past the computer algorithm, but then got rejected later on, presumably when a human read it.
 
Moved the Bird out of the garage to help a friend diagnose no heat on his 2001 Taurus with the Vulcan. Engine was not warming up. Pulled the thermostat and found it had a 180° one. Replaced it and the housing with a new OE unit and filled it with coolant. Once the new thermostat opened, I parked it sideways on the hill with the coolant bottle at the top of the system. Topped it off hot and left the cap off all night. Came back the next morning to a perfect burp. Works every time.

The engine is warming up correctly now but the heat is still blowing cold. Who wants to take bets on whether it is a clogged heater core or a dead blend door actuator?
 
That generation Taurus is notorious for clogged heater cores. Before pulling the whole dash to replace it, if you disconnect the hoses, fill the heater core with draino and let it sit for about 15 minutes, then hook up a hose to it and backflush it, that should get heat back for you. Just don't leave the draino in there too long because it is corrosive, and you don't want to let it corrode the inside of the heater core.
 
I know those Taurus had issues with vacuum hoses rotting out, seen several broke by the firewall where it goes into the interior and feeds the hvac diaphragms.
 
Removed the old pair of 18' front and rear RCA cables from my head unit to my amp and then ran new Stinger 4000 series 20' 6-channel RCA cables.

4000-6-channel-directional-twisted-pair-interconnect-20ft61m-439843_800x.jpg


18' wasn't long enough to provide decent slack and the options for a good quality set of longer 6-channel cables were slim pickings. I didn't seek out a 6-channel set initially, but I'm glad I did. It was so convenient to only pull only one run of cable behind and under the dash and under the carpet for the front, rear, and sub RCAs.

I need to review the slope settings on my head unit, run auto time alignment, and then make some final adjustments. After that, I need to finish the cable management at the amp side with the wire looms, and I'll be done with the audio in terms of the hardware, short of considering whether to upgrade the head unit at a later date.
 
Derphound01 said:
Moved the Bird out of the garage to help a friend diagnose no heat on his 2001 Taurus with the Vulcan. Engine was not warming up. Pulled the thermostat and found it had a 180° one. Replaced it and the housing with a new OE unit and filled it with coolant. Once the new thermostat opened, I parked it sideways on the hill with the coolant bottle at the top of the system. Topped it off hot and left the cap off all night. Came back the next morning to a perfect burp. Works every time.

The engine is warming up correctly now but the heat is still blowing cold. Who wants to take bets on whether it is a clogged heater core or a dead blend door actuator?
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Those tauruses have that weird heater hose setup. I usually wind up replacing the hose and flushing the core while the hose is off.
 
Green T said:
Bright, like a diamond.
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Funny thing, it's almost too bright. Driving at night, I'll definitely dim it down quite a bit.

Where it'll really make a difference is during dusk/dawn where the standard bulbs don't provide adequate illumination.

Here's a pic taken at 6:30 pm, about an hour before the previous pic:

20231102_182240.jpg

I do love the crispness of the white needles. I did try white font (with another set of overlays of which I removed the green layer); that was definitely too bright.
 
supergordo said:
Those tauruses have that weird heater hose setup. I usually wind up replacing the hose and flushing the core while the hose is off.
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Both hoses are full hot. The car has also been well maintained. Only has 115k and it's had regular coolant exchanges. I haven't pulled the panels yet but I'm pretty sure it's the blend door actuator. Turning it from full AC to full heat does nothing, it stays full AC cold. I also don't hear the flap moving inside the dash.
 
Derphound01 said:
Both hoses are full hot. The car has also been well maintained. Only has 115k and it's had regular coolant exchanges. I haven't pulled the panels yet but I'm pretty sure it's the blend door actuator. Turning it from full AC to full heat does nothing, it stays full AC cold. I also don't hear the flap moving inside the dash.
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Gotcha. Certainly one of the possibilities.
 
Dorman made a mint selling these for cars.
 
Installed relay to control new LED instrument cluster lighting.

Ignition on: instrument cluster bright via circuit 298 (same circuit that powers countless hot in run applications such as the factory auto-dimming mirror).

Headlights on: instrument cluster reverts to interior illumination circuit via dimmer.

While instrument cluster illumination isn't strictly needed during the day, I think it adds a nice touch plus the cluster remains visible for example when passing under a bridge.
 
(white)DRLs and constantly lit clusters are why seemingly half the late model drivers don't have their taillights on at night. Not a fan of that tbh
 
I wonder how many rear enders that shit causes, I see it a lot around here!

Joe
 
XR7-4.6 said:
(white)DRLs and constantly lit clusters are why seemingly half the late model drivers don't have their taillights on at night. Not a fan of that tbh
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I see your point, but I actually think of it as a reminder to turn on my headlights:

With headlights off, the cluster is obnoxiously bright, which I hate at night. It'll prompt me to turn my headlights on.
 
1997ThunderbirdLXV6 said:
I see your point, but I actually think of it as a reminder to turn on my headlights:

With headlights off, the cluster is obnoxiously bright, which I hate at night. It'll prompt me to turn my headlights on.
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Alright, I'll trust you, personally, to use that as a headlight prompt, but I do not trust anyone else to lol
 
One thing I've always loved about the VWs we've had is the clusters are always backlit. There's an ambient light sensor in them that dims the cluster until you turn the headlights on. There's something about the way it works that just makes it painfully obvious your lights are off.
 
It doesn't really have a bad rap. You lose out on a couple of smaller gauges for oil pressure and voltage (or boost on the SC) that most people don't care about, and those that do will end up installing more accurate aftermarket gauges anyway. The speedo gear doesn't break like ones in the earlier clusters. Also, the SHO speedo and tach are nearly plug-and-play with custom gauge faces for the idiot lights.

It looks less technical than the old cluster but is more mechanically sound and eliminated the need for an auxiliary info center with more idiot lights in the center stack.
 
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Irv said:
It doesn't really have a bad rap. You lose out on a couple of smaller gauges for oil pressure and voltage (or boost on the SC) that most people don't care about, and those that do will end up installing more accurate aftermarket gauges anyway. The speedo gear doesn't break like ones in the earlier clusters. Also, the SHO speedo and tach are nearly plug-and-play with custom gauge faces for the idiot lights.

It looks less technical than the old cluster but is more mechanically sound and eliminated the need for an auxiliary info center with more idiot lights in the center stack.
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Exactly. The bad rap is purely the behind the scenes beancounting behind its adaptation, but there's nothing physically wrong with it, in fact it arguably matches the 94-97 interior design better, the older 6 gauge cluster looks like what it is, a carryover from a completely different interior.
 
XR7-4.6 said:
The bad rap is purely the behind the scenes beancounting behind its adaptation, but there's nothing physically wrong with it, in fact it arguably matches the 94-97 interior design better
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I find it fascinating how such decisions are made.

I mean to redesign the cluster trim piece must cost money (redesigned plastic mold). There's a cost to every change which has to be recuperated somehow. Same as the ever so slightly changed '97 shift knob. Why bother?

I could imagine some of such changes could be due to a change in supplier or supplier plant closure, etc.

I prefer the '97 cluster for the center speedometer. I don't really like cluster designs with equal size speedo and tach. I liked the orange needles at first for the 80s Mercedes vibe, but I grew tired of them. It's nice that you can customize these clusters so easily, with different needles and the cluster bezel.

Irv said:
You lose out on a couple of smaller gauges for oil pressure and voltage
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A voltage gauge is very useful in my book. I actually depleted my battery during this last installation (plus I forgot to unplug my code reader over night).
 
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