What did you do with your Thunderbird Today?

There's a piece on the inside of the lever called the rooster comb,that sets the detents you feel. the actual valve slides freely.
I've taken those loose with every trans I've swapped; all the donors use a different lever, so you have to keep the original.
 
Yeah, this thing:

4R70W-4R75W-Ford-Transmission-Linkage-Park-assy.jpg

A spring-loaded roller rides on the teeth:
hqdefault-1.jpg


Interesting side note: the 97/98 Mark VIII shift lever has an additional one of these in the lever itself:
s-l1200-1.jpg

Pre-97 Mark levers as well as MN12 levers don't have it, though they all have the locking mechanism. That mechanism looks somewhat similar to the rooster comb, the difference being that the teeth aren't rounded. I couldn't find a good picture, but you can get a glimpse here:
s-l1200-1(1).jpg

The procedure I did was to align the locking mechanism in the shift lever with the rooster comb in the transmission.
In other words, prior to the procedure, when my shift lever was latched in D, the spring-loaded roller in the transmission was not fully centered in the respective valley of the rooster comb, causing a persistent pressure on the shift cable.

Again, it was a minuscule adjustment, but I could feel it in the lever. This adjustment procedure is also spelled out in the Ford workshop manual; I didn't make it up.
 
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Interesting detail on the mark; neither the TC or GM trans have them; must be a luxury item,lol.
 
Grog6 said:
Interesting detail on the mark; neither the TC or GM trans have them; must be a luxury item,lol.
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It might be more difficult to implement such a rooster comb in the column shift lever itself. Plus it really seems redundant.

I imagine that it makes the lever feel like having a more solid click in your hand.
 
From the factory 4r70 manual, it holds the valve in place; a worn one causes random shifts, if the valve moves too far.
I need to scan those, and add to the articles; Ive got the updates too.
And a CD4E book,for a contour I no longer own. A manual swap in those cars takes a new engine And transaxle,lol.
 
I let my cat out, and at last glass of tea,he was sunning on it. :) 48 degrees high today.
 
Today, I went out to the garage and wondered when will I ever get my Cougar back on the ground?!

Cougar on blocks.jpg
 
Over the last few days the Mark has seen some action...

1) Packed the RF caliper slide pins full of fresh grease (apparently it was a little on the dry side and was causing a rattle reminiscent of bad endlinks)
2) Took the car through a car wash in a futile attempt to reduce the speed of salt-induced decay... :bawling:
3) Had Wal Mart replace the battery I bought 2 years, 363 days ago under the 3-year, free replacement warranty
4) Had to tighten the negative battery terminal because Wal Mart "tech" only finger-tightened it, causing all sorts of wonkiness while going down I-71 at 75 MPH! :eek:
 
No, It's Still not running yet. If I ever had to drive one of the others, I hit the car wash on the way home, and spent money washing it off the underside. I drove Lazarus in our crap many times, and the irs ties are starting to get a film of rust, after 550k miles, and 25 years of it. With minimal precautions our cars don't rust here.
 
Could be worse; a buddy had a car with a good .25" gap, and he'd hit the carwash with a carload of us, on the way to the lake. :)
"hey,at least you're wearing swim trunks!" He stopped doing that after we threw him off the bridge we used to jump off of
unexpectedly,lol. ~80'. It's apparently way less fun being thrown. :rofl:

We had a rope swing that was almost that high.
 
Rodeo Joe said:
What's going on Matt?! :tongue:

Joe
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I decided to finally shed the disused ABS system(my staggered height tires don’t get along with it) and swap in those rust free sport lines. But before I do that I want to get rid of ALL wiring related to it, from stem to stern.
 
I got my supercharger on (sorry no pics yet) and I noticed the alternator sits higher than it did, Sooo. My Kenny Brown STB doesn’t fit now, it might be going up for sale which is unfortunate, cause now I have some unsightly holes on my shock towers to fill. ☹️
 
Ericv8thunderbird said:
I got my supercharger on (sorry no pics yet) and I noticed the alternator sits higher than it did, Sooo. My Kenny Brown STB doesn’t fit now, it might be going up for sale which is unfortunate, cause now I have some unsightly holes on my shock towers to fill. ☹️
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I’ll add that to my rolodex on why I don’t care for STBs lol


Seriously though, bummer! I hate when I have to reverse course on a mod to use another mod… actually I’m literally ankle deep in it right but it’s much less impressive 😆
 
I checked to see if the battery tender was still working! 😬

Joe
 
XR7-4.6 said:
I’ll add that to my rolodex on why I don’t care for STBs lol


Seriously though, bummer! I hate when I have to reverse course on a mod to use another mod… actually I’m literally ankle deep in it right but it’s much less impressive 😆
Click to expand...
It really is a bummer!

I only need about an about an inch clearance, I thought about grinding the STB in that area, but it’s hollow tubing.
I might find someone local who can replicate that bar, but with a little bit more of a bend around the alternator.

I think a cammed 4V is impressive, you can’t beat that sound, it’ll sound better than my cammed 2V. 😅
 
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