What did you do with your Thunderbird Today?

[Derphound01]

I could have sworn the package it was part of was called “light group”, but that might be the catch all preferred equipment package that encompasses all of the options.

Might have been called that on the Cougars. The 1995 Thunderbird sales brochure I have calls it the Illuminated Entry Package.

PEP-151 was the catch-all pack on the Thunderbirds of that era.

 

[Little Ice-Cable]

Went over to the other bird today and checked the tranny fluid, it had fluid in it which means that the transmission is going to for sure need rebuilt (or a 5 speed swap)

 

[1997ThunderbirdLXV6]

, it had fluid in it which means

Why? I don't understand the connection.

 

[XR7-4.6]

I did other things but I also adjusted my Alpine so the display matches the factory green and the buttons match the white gauges. Now it’s a nice gradient color fade

 

[Little Ice-Cable]

Why? I don't understand the connection.

I thought it was leaking fluid so I thought that was the reason my tranny wasn't working, but that was power steering fluid.

 

[1997ThunderbirdLXV6]

@Little Ice-Cable
I do remember now. Got it.

 

[Ericv8thunderbird]

Replaced the clutch pedal pin, the old one was really worn down.

I found the pin from Pat over on the SCCoA forums.

Does anyone happen to have a part number for the little plastic bushing that sits on the pin? The one I got from Amazon is too big and won’t fit in the master cylinder rod.

 

[CDsDontBurn]

View attachment 14443

Replaced the clutch pedal pin, the old one was really worn down.

I found the pin from Pat over on the SCCoA forums.

Does anyone happen to have a part number for the little plastic bushing that sits on the pin? The one I got from Amazon is too big and won’t fit in the master cylinder rod.

Can't a zip tie work in a pinch?

 

[Grog6]

Ehh, no.
But admittedly some of my ideas end up being half-baked...

Just keep creating, it's all good. As long as it doesn't explode, it's good! Project /Ducky took out all the beta testers! lol. (dilbert comic reference)
I got a lot of mileage out of Dilbert, when I worked in R&D. The only one I ever got flack for was an XKCD one, after someone built something that tried to violate the laws of physics; We told him, and when it didn't work, I used this slide on a Monday Meeting, (lol)https://xkcd.com/54/

 

[White Lincoln]

What I did to my Cougar today (well... yesterday)
I am replacing my stereo system and was surprised a glue stick would work so well to hold the vapor barrier to the door after years of being there.



Yes, I made that from a thick yard garbage bag and of all things, a kids clue stick from the Big Lots.

 

[KevinVarnes]

View attachment 14443

Replaced the clutch pedal pin, the old one was really worn down.

I found the pin from Pat over on the SCCoA forums.

Does anyone happen to have a part number for the little plastic bushing that sits on the pin? The one I got from Amazon is too big and won’t fit in the master cylinder rod.

E7SZ-7A581-A and it was apparently superseded by 6C3Z-7A581-A at some point. Also Dorman 14041.

 

[Ericv8thunderbird]

Can't a zip tie work in a pinch?

That’s how I had it with the bad pin.

 

[SnowyOwl]

What I did to my Cougar today (well... yesterday)
I am replacing my stereo system and was surprised a glue stick would work so well to hold the vapor barrier to the door after years of being there.

View attachment 14450

Yes, I made that from a thick yard garbage bad and of all things, a kids clue stick from the Big Lots.

Looks great! When fixing my window motors I was wondering what is the purpose of this plastic anyways. A "humidity barrier" makes sense.

I might loan this trick to fix my humidity barriers as well At least on T-Birds, the barriers seem to be much thicker on 1996-> models. On my 1994 it's just a plastic wrap, really not much different from a garbage bag.

 

[Generalee0527]

Went to work and on way home watched my odometer notch another 10k (380k)

 

[CDsDontBurn]

Yesterday, but I got gas. Gas is a little bit more, but still nowhere near that "OMG, gas in CA is your first born!" hype that out of state people bash us about. Looking at you @XR7-4.6

 

[XR7-4.6]

I mean you can get 93 here for the cost of your 87

 

[White Lincoln]

Looks great! When fixing my window motors I was wondering what is the purpose of this plastic anyways. A "humidity barrier" makes sense.

I might loan this trick to fix my humidity barriers as well At least on T-Birds, the barriers seem to be much thicker on 1996-> models. On my 1994 it's just a plastic wrap, really not much different from a garbage bag.

The thing I noticed about the factory barrier is it is sealed around the door and there are no air gaps except in a few places that can't be avoided. I used sandwich bags on the passenger side to seal the holes where the panel mounts go into the door. Looks weird and tacky, but it works.



Tacky? Yeah, but effective? Yeah....

 

[White Lincoln]

Yesterday, but I got gas. Gas is a little bit more, but still nowhere near that "OMG, gas in CA is your first born!" hype that out of state people bash us about. Looking at you @XR7-4.6

View attachment 14471

That is sick. I am sorry they are screwing you guys like that. I filled my tank today at $2.75 or something ridiculous low and have not seen in a long time...

 

[CDsDontBurn]

I mean you can get 93 here for the cost of your 87

But is it shelf stable? You can legit keep fuel in your gas can and it'll be good for over 3 years before it starts to even turn from clear yellow to lemonade yellow.

That is sick. I am sorry they are screwing you guys like that. I filled my tank today at $2.75 or something ridiculous low and have not seen in a long time...

Honestly, I'm just used to it. It's back when it was $5-ish when it sucked.

 

[MadMikeyL]

But is it shelf stable? You can legit keep fuel in your gas can and it'll be good for over 3 years before it starts to even turn from clear yellow to lemonade yellow.

Paying 30-50% more for something you use every day just to be able to keep it for 3 years when 99.99% of all gas that is sold is used within a month is not a justifiable financial trade-off. Plus if for some reason I did want to keep the gas for that long, I could go to the airport and get 100 octane low lead aviation fuel for about what you would pay for premium.

 

[Derphound01]

Nothing with ethanol is shelf stable these days. If any water or condensation gets in it, it'll phase separate almost instantly.

 

[1997ThunderbirdLXV6]

Swapped in another knob from my Lincoln LS collection. Has a more intricate grain, though hard to photograph with all the reflection:




I also swapped in Sylvania Silverstar Ultras which I found at the junkyard. Yes, I realize they have an unknown lifespan left, but at $2/piece I figured I'd give them a try. I'm interested to see any improvement over my current Silverstars sans-Ultra.


Speaking of front lighting, I made some changes this past weekend:

If you recall, I started with white (Sylvania Zevo) DRLs in the inboard = grille-adjacent lights. On with ignition, and the low beam feed was the off trigger for the basic relay.

Then I went to a GM DRL module to get amber DRLs (inboard) and double turn signals (inboard and outboard). I liked that a lot, but there was one problem:

I realized that with my initial setup, I had inadvertently also installed a supplemental high beam which I was now missing! Because my initial setup used the low beam as off trigger, the white DRLs came back on with high beams. And I wanted that back. With our high beams, 9007 bulbs, only the high beam filament is illuminated, which darkens the area directly in front of the car. The white Zevos illuminate that area.

So I decided on a combination of both, with amber DRLs outboard and white auxiliary lights inboard. I lost the double turn signal, which is unfortunate esthetically, but functionally a single turn signal is just as visible, plus it's the stock setup.

DRLs:



DRLs + parking lights:



Low beams + parking lights:



High beams + auxiliary lights + parking lights:

 

[XR7-4.6]

Swapped in another knob from my Lincoln LS collection. Has a more intricate grain, though hard to photograph with all the reflection:

View attachment 14485


I also swapped in Sylvania Silverstar Ultras which I found at the junkyard. Yes, I realize they have an unknown lifespan left, but at $2/piece I figured I'd give them a try. I'm interested to see any improvement over my current Silverstars sans-Ultra.


Speaking of front lighting, I made some changes this past weekend:

If you recall, I started with white (Sylvania Zevo) DRLs in the inboard = grille-adjacent lights. On with ignition, and the low beam feed was the off trigger for the basic relay.

Then I went to a GM DRL module to get amber DRLs (inboard) and double turn signals (inboard and outboard). I liked that a lot, but there was one problem:

I realized that with my initial setup, I had inadvertently also installed a supplemental high beam which I was now missing! Because my initial setup used the low beam as off trigger, the white DRLs came back on with high beams. And I wanted that back. With our high beams, 9007 bulbs, only the high beam filament is illuminated, which darkens the area directly in front of the car. The white Zevos illuminate that area.

So I decided on a combination of both, with amber DRLs outboard and white auxiliary lights inboard. I lost the double turn signal, which is unfortunate esthetically, but functionally a single turn signal is just as visible, plus it's the stock setup.

DRLs:

View attachment 14486

DRLs + parking lights:

View attachment 14487

Low beams + parking lights:

View attachment 14488

High beams + auxiliary lights + parking lights:

View attachment 14489

You realize however the purpose of high beams is to NOT have the area directly in front of the car brightened? Your distance vision is improved with high beams only, it’s the same reason 9005/9006 setups (89-93 Tbirds) illuminate only one at a time, or the same reason the fog lights shut off with High beams on SCs with them.

A wall of light may appear bright and better in the moment but for the purposes of high beams which is to see hazards or simply road signs at greater distances often at greater speeds you want reduced foreground light for your eyes to spot them.

Other minor nitpick(although there’s a functional one related) the difference in color temperatures side by side would drive me crazy from an aesthetic standpoint

 

[1997ThunderbirdLXV6]

You realize however the purpose of high beams is to NOT have the area directly in front of the car brightened? Your distance vision is improved with high beams only, it’s the same reason 9005/9006 setups (89-93 Tbirds) illuminate only one at a time, or the same reason the fog lights shut off with High beams on SCs with them.

I don't buy that. Any modern car I have owned (nine total incl. Ford, Mazda, Buick, and VW; not incl. two Fords that used 9007s) illuminated the high beams in addition to the low beams. If that was harmful to distance vision, they wouldn't set it up that way.

With most modern cars, fogs are turned off with high beams for regulatory reasons, because you're not allowed to have more than a total of four forward-facing light sources at any moment (not including parking lights).

In practice, driving a lot on country roads at night, with ample deer activity, I feel more confident with the added wider illumination of the auxiliary lights. When I speak of the area directly in front of the car, I mean specifically left and right; the high beams alone produce a more focused "tunnel vision" which may be appropriate at freeway speeds, but which makes me fear I might miss something on a country road.

A wall of light may appear bright and better in the moment but for the purposes of high beams which is to see hazards or simply road signs at greater distances often at greater speeds you want reduced foreground light for your eyes to spot them.

It's not a wall of light either. In fact, if I went with your argument, I'd say that my solution is distinctly better than if low and high beam filaments were illuminated together. Because these Zevos do not throw the light downward like the lows; they throw light straight ahead, just wider than the highs. The result is elimination of complete darkness right in front of the car without bright light reflecting from the road surface.

Case in point, I tested this by simply pulling flash-to-pass, which illuminates both filaments, and which does draw your eyes down it seems.

Other minor nitpick(although there’s a functional one related) the difference in color temperatures side by side would drive me crazy from an aesthetic standpoint

Doesn't bother me too much in terms of looks. Functionally, the added white lights adds clarity in the foreground.


I will admit that it's a compromise overall. But given my usual driving environment and times of day, or rather night, this gives me maximum confidence with the available hardware.

 

[XR7-4.6]

I don't buy that. Any modern car I have owned (nine total incl. Ford, Mazda, Buick, and VW; not incl. two Fords that used 9007s) illuminated the high beams in addition to the low beams. If that was harmful to distance vision, they wouldn't set it up that way.

With most modern cars, fogs are turned off with high beams for regulatory reasons, because you're not allowed to have more than a total of four forward-facing light sources at any moment (not including parking lights).

What Fords did you own that had both 9007 filaments burning at the same time? That’s a good way to kill a bulb quick! Anyway with MN12s at least both 9007 and the older 9005/9006 lighting never used high and low at the same time, yet fog lamps shut off with high beams, ergo the total lamp count would be the same. There is a functional purpose to it, not just regulatory lamp counting.

Daniel Stern(not the wet bandit) explains it far better than I can and his life and career basically revolves around automotive lighting, this is about fog lights but it largely fits the topic as your auxiliary lights are effectively acting as them in this purpose

Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply

Are fog lamps on cars really useful? Find out everything you need to know about fog lights here!

www.danielsternlighting.com

It's not that we're fooling ourselves, it's that our visual systems just aren't equipped to correctly assess how well or how poorly we can see. The primary driver for a subjective impression of "good" headlighting is foreground light—and remember, that's what fog lamps produce—but foreground light is very far down the list of factors that go into the actual, real safety performance of the car's lighting system

 

[1997ThunderbirdLXV6]

What Fords did you own that had both 9007 filaments burning at the same time?

None. I said not including those two Fords. But the other nine cars illuminated high beams in addition to low beams, model years 2011 through 2021 of the above named brands.

 

[1997ThunderbirdLXV6]

Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply

Are fog lamps on cars really useful? Find out everything you need to know about fog lights here!

www.danielsternlighting.com

It's not that we're fooling ourselves, it's that our visual systems just aren't equipped to correctly assess how well or how poorly we can see. The primary driver for a subjective impression of "good" headlighting is foreground light—and remember, that's what fog lamps produce—but foreground light is very far down the list of factors that go into the actual, real safety performance of the car's lighting system

Good article regarding fog lights. I don't think it applies entirely because, again, these lights shine into the same direction as the high beams, just at a slightly wider angle.

Further down in the article, there's the following paragraph, albeit about old-fashioned low beams, though the sentiment applies exactly to my high beams:

In the past, many US-specification low beam headlamps tended to provide relatively low, arguably inadequate levels of light in the foreground and to the sides. They created the impression of a "black hole" in front of the car, with essentially the entire beam concentrated in a narrow band or ball of light thrown into the distance. With headlamps like these, a decent argument can be made for the use of fog lamps to fill the "black hole", that is, to add-back the missing foreground and lateral-spread light when driving at moderate speeds on dark and/or twisty roads. Of course, lamps to rectify inadequate foreground light must be thoughtfully and carefully selected, correctly aimed and properly used. Otherwise, they're useless at best and dangerous at worst.


I think it really boils down to the use case. I'm primarily concerned about night time driving on dual lane country roads on hilly terrain with frequent twists, driven between 35 and 45 mph. Seeing far into the distance isn't a main concern because you cannot see around curves, yet low beams, even properly aimed, do not illuminate far enough. Glare for oncoming traffic also isn't a concern because these are wired in with the high beams; so they're turned off anytime there's oncoming traffic.

 

[Grog6]

Matt's actually right; Now the road close to you is ~4 times brighter than 100' down the road. The deer 500' down the road that you'd rather not hit at 60 is gonna be a passenger. The inverse square rule for light is a bummer.

 

[3_97_Sports]

I hit a deer the other night at 55 kmh, 30 mph. In my truck though, so no damage to the bumper. Figure it was coyote food later on.
It was a young deer according to my pic.
I also have the yellowest headlight lenses, and can't see shit at night.

 

[1997ThunderbirdLXV6]

Matt's actually right; Now the road close to you is ~4 times brighter than 100' down the road. The deer 500' down the road that you'd rather not hit at 60 is gonna be a passenger. The inverse square rule for light is a bummer.

Ok, at the risk of repeating myself...

A.

• The primary use case is driving in the 35-45 mph range
• The terrain and curves are such that you generally cannot see very far, though further than low beams alone illuminate

Even in the use case you describe, long straights at high speed, if this was a problem, then why do all modern cars I can think of keep the low beams on with high beams? Can you think of one car currently for sale that turns off low beams when high beams are on?

B.

I understand the inverse square rule of light; however, it would only apply here if I used a light source of the same intensity as the 9007 high beam filament, then pointed it to a closer surface.
In my case, while the slightly wider beam of the added auxiliary lights does illuminate a closer surface of the road/periphery, the 3157 light source is far dimmer to begin with. The added surface iillumination closer to the car is still not anywhere as bright as the road surface where the high beams touch down.
To say that I illuminated the area in front of the car fourfold is incorrect.

C.

This conversation continues to use low beams and fog lights as reference points, as well as their potential effect when used with high beams. But that reference point isn't truly applicable.
The inboard lights in the 96/97 headlight units do not point down. They point straight ahead, same as high beams, albeit with a slightly wider beam. It's more akin to having two high beam bulbs per side, rather than using high and low beams together.