What did you do with your Thunderbird Today?

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... 😅

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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. :)
 
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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😯
 
Still working my way through the front suspension. Got started on the passenger side. I'm having difficulty separating the knuckle from the lower ball joint connection.

I don't have enough room for a big enough swing with my hammer. My ball joint separator isn't big enough to get around the ball joints body. As I type this, I'm thinking of getting my ball joint separator at the threads and use the nut still.

Otherwise, all my suspension is loose and ready to come off.

Oh, and the driver torsion bar thing (?), I can't get the bushing to come off the inner LCA side. Like the bushing is off, yes, but the metal insert there that's still attached to the torsion bar thing.

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Oh, and California stuffs happened here

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Rodeo Joe said:
Years ago at TSTSNBN

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
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I didn’t know that he passed away. ☹️Bummer. I remember him. Really nice guy.
 
Chingon1 said:
plus supercoupeperformance didn’t have any in stock til mid year. This will have to do for now.
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I bought my Kooks from SCP back in I think December and from my conversation with Bill on phone it sounded like he had a few sets in his inventory. Honestly I don’t really endorse SCP as alot of stuff can be Had more than 50% or more cheaper elsewhere but the Kooks are actually pretty reasonable these days, look up Kooks headers for mustangs, hell look up any headers for Mustangs and they’re all near or above 4 digit items, the 2V hooks are just below 900 before tax/shipping.

I’m a broke boy too, and that purchase hurt (I sold my motorcycle to justify them) but for a bolt on exhaust item they’re unmatched. I ported my stock 2V manifolds when I PI swapped, getting rid of that lip on the passenger side and smoothing that curve on the driver side but I doubt it did anything meaningful.
 
theterminator93 said:
Preston Smith (RIP) used to port them back in the day; I had a set which I sold to @CDsDontBurn after I installed long tubes. It certainly helps with raw flow potential, but remember the best thing you can do with the exhaust is build it for improved scavenging - focus less on flow.
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RIP, Tbirdbrain. Anyone heard from michelle? I have a set on the red cougar.
 
Just about wrapping up removal of the front suspension and I'm hung up on this one bolt / nut. It's for the UCA on the driver side facing the firewall. What is the best strategy for removal of this one bolt / nut? In removing the bolt from inside the wheel well, I've rounded out the bolt side because of how shallow it is, but I've learned that I can just get at it from the nut side no problem.

Can I remove that sensor / wire thing from the brake booster without causing any issues to the braking system? Removing that would give me the space I need to remove the nut.

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To be fair, we can't see the business end. ;)

I swing below the mount for the hood strut. I find there's enough for 1-2 clicks. It takes a little patience, but it works.
 
theterminator93 said:
To be fair, we can't see the business end. ;)

I swing below the mount for the hood strut. I find there's enough for 1-2 clicks. It takes a little patience, but it works.
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Fair enough. That particular unit is my Tekton ratcheting wrench. I've been using primarily my Gearwrench ratcheting wrenches for this job. My Tekton is a better fit for this particular nut because it doesn't have the curve at the end like my Gearwrench does.

So below up towards the hood strut and it should work is what you're saying?

Zep5.0 said:
You can unplug those for the time being
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Does it twist and pop out?
 
Got a new set of Altimax RT45s installed over the weekend; there's a $70 rebate promo I figured I'd take advantage of for the car's last set of new tires. :bawling:

I took a leap of faith and bought them from Wal Mart because they had the cheapest price for installation, which includes lifetime balancing and rotations (though I always rotate myself when I change the oil). I wasn't expecting a lot, but to my surprise (and delight) they did a great job! I've never had a set of tires installed on this car be so perfectly balanced before.

Then on the way home there was a "chugging" sound from the LR tire. Today I took a look and the wheel weight on the inside lip of the rim was rubbing up against the foam wrapping around the e-brake cable. After a couple cable ties came to the rescue, there's no more imitating a locomotive. :cool:
 
I killed some of the black widows that live in it.

This weekend I will be deploying the bug bombs since I won't be able to work on it this weekend.
 
We have them here too. The ones that get me here are big and hairy, palm sized, and numerous. They infest the pool shed, so I hate dealing with pool chemicals. I moved a 5 gal bucket one day, and it's shadow didnt move {shudder}
 
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