What did YOU do today?

[racsan]

Did nothing today but lay around and watch christmas movies, eat cookies & check on the chickens for eggs every so often. Went out for supper, odd for christmas eve but just didn’t feel like cooking or dishes so went into town to a taco bell, looked at some lights on the way home. Tried out my new nebulizor, actually seems to help. Hate that its needed but guess thats life.

 

[sgtsandman]

Sent the rest of the shift back to their rooms after lunch for Christmas Eve. It's just me until shift change.

 

[snoranger]

Well why I was at my dad's today I looked at the Areostar. It's actually a 98 awd. The 4.0 is locked up. It's probably been sitting for over 15 years. The frame is probably too gone to salvage. While I was there though. He has a 93 Ranger. It also has a 4.0 and a solid frame. It's been hit in the rear end and totaled. So I don't know if the frame is straight. Also I beleive it's the Cologne 4.0 and I think the Areostar is the Vulcan 4.0. OK question time. If the frame is straight on the Ranger (super cab) do you guys think it would be possible to swap the body off the Areostar to the Ranger? Or am I going down a rabbit hole that will never finish. With all that said. There is also a 84 turbo coupe and a 86 Cougar XR7 with a 5.0 ho. I think both ran when parked. I bought the Cougar for a parts car when I wrecked mine. It transmission was out so I picked it up back in the 90s for a couple hundred bucks. The Turbo Coupe was hit by a drunk driver in the passenger door when I was a kid. Probably be in the same boat as the van motor. But if you guys wete building the van which engine would you use?

The Aerostar was unibody.

 

[sgtsandman]

The Aerostar was unibody.

 

[Blmpkn]

Put a deposit down on a new place to live gonna be real deal trailer trash now

Also drank way TF too much eggnog

Ordering a tweecer for the ranger tomorrow

Good end to a crummy year. Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[John97]

Took wife's vehicle to Sam's Club for installation of a replacement tire that was on order. Their road hazard warranty is legit, covered the cost of the new $230+ tire 100%.

Had a semi-liquid lunch.

Watched Die Hard tonight as is the tradition.

 

[Robertmangrum.rm]

The Aerostar was unibody.

Yeah but can it be put on the Ranger frame. The front supports are shot so I'm sure the rear is as bad. Didn't climb under it when you could see through parts on the front.

 

[Robertmangrum.rm]

All 4.0L were Colognes.

I would try to repair the Aerostar before i tried to swap body onto the Ranger frame.

Well I guess between the 95 Ranger and the 98 Areostar they changed quite a bit looking under the hood. I assumed they were 2 different motors. The rust has ate through the front spring buckets. And the shocks look like the have been attacked by the rust as well. The 95 Ranger is still TTB. That's the main reason I want to swap. Plus I would like to have the low range option on the Ranger has well. I think the awd is full time and I can't remember but pretty sure it didn't have low range.

 

[snoranger]

Yeah but can it be put on the Ranger frame. The front supports are shot so I'm sure the rear is as bad. Didn't climb under it when you could see through parts on the front.

Anything is possible… it wouldn’t really be that hard to adapt a Ranger frame to the Aerostar wheelbase on set the body on it.

Well I guess between the 95 Ranger and the 98 Areostar they changed quite a bit looking under the hood. I assumed they were 2 different motors. The rust has ate through the front spring buckets. And the shocks look like the have been attacked by the rust as well. The 95 Ranger is still TTB. That's the main reason I want to swap. Plus I would like to have the low range option on the Ranger has well. I think the awd is full time and I can't remember but pretty sure it didn't have low range.

Correct, the Aerostar AWD didn’t have a low range. It was not 4wd.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Fired the new to me compressor up but annoyingly there's something wrong with the check valve as when the pressure switch kicks off the bleed down valve stays open and drains the tank which is annoying but shouldn't be too hard to figure out... everything else worked fine though...

 

[JoshT]

Fired the new to me compressor up but annoyingly there's something wrong with the check valve as when the pressure switch kicks off the bleed down valve stays open and drains the tank which is annoying but shouldn't be too hard to figure out... everything else worked fine though...

I want to say that we had that problem on my 2nd hand compressor. It was a frankenstein unit, tank from somewhere, pump from HF, and motor from Amazon. IIRC the idjut that assembled it had messed up the check valve from the pump into the tank. The guts were gone, so when the switch released pressure from the pump the tank drained right along with it. Your problem may not be the same, and I'm going off memory of what dad found since he did most of the work fixing it. It works great now though!

 

[Rick W]

I scared the hell out of my grand babies...

View attachment 121507

Lookin’ Good!!!

 

[Rick W]

My Christmas guests are coming later today, and mostly this weekend. My family is all far away so I will travel to visit them in January. So, for my Christmas present to myself, I took the day to tackle the windows on Ole Blue, the 88 Lincoln. To recap, the window seals are so stiff, they grab the window and it keeps stripping the nylon gear in the motor (I thought). My plan was to fix the motor, and use a little grinding wheel in my Dremel Moto tool to open up the channel in the window seals. I hadn’t been in the door in a while, and I was thinking I might have to cut a couple holes in the inside metal panel to reach.

I got the door panel off in less than 10 minutes. (because I’ve done it 100 times). I was very pleasantly surprised to find out like 80% of the gasket was easily accessible.

I took the speaker out to get at the motor, and took the motor out, I opened up the gearbox, and the problem was not with the nylon gear. There are three bumpers that make a bump coupling between the drive mechanism and the final gear. Years ago, those bumpers, kind of like urethane plastic little cylinders, wore out. You can’t buy them, you can only buy the whole motor which isn’t cheap. And the door boaters for that four year run of town car, are no longer made, you can’t even find them rebuilt In a YouTube video I found out you can replace them by making bumpers by putting the right size vacuum tube over a short piece of steel. I’ve done that before on several vehicles, and I did that about three years ago to this one.

If you look at the second picture, you can see the steel centers laying on either side of the gear. On the bottom, the black mess on top of the worm gear is the bits of the vacuum tube that were ground into little bits. When I took it apart, and I cleaned it out, the vacuum tub rubber was not only broken up in little pieces, it was also mushy. I had used STP Molly grease when I rebuilt the motor, and I think the Molly grease helped to disintegrate the rubber on the vacuum tube.

I went into the ancient vacuum tube section of the shed of miracles, and I found a piece of ancient Mercedes rheum vacuum tubing that was almost as hard as a rock. I used that and I made the three bumpers.

I cleaned out all of the old grease and debris from inside that gearbox. Then I used spray lithium grease and bathed it, actually puddled it up in there.

Then I reassembled the motor, tested it, and it was dead.



I pulled one of the wires out of a crimp and didn’t notice it, probably when I was taking it out. Easy fix.

I placed it on a clean towel inside a pristine cigar box I had, to temporary hold the motor out of respect. The driver side window motor is different than the others, and different than other Fords, so they are like gold these days.

I then got into the door with the Dremel Moto tool.

It was pretty straightforward. I got the whole section of seal left of the main window, about 2/3 of the seal on the right side of the window, the whole side of the vent window on the left, and the whole side of the vent window on the right. In case you don’t remember or didn’t know, when you push the window button on the Town Cars the smoker’s window goes down, followed by the main window. And they go up the opposite, all with the one control.

Then I cleaned up the mess, and put the motor back in so I could run the window down. I did the same thing to all the seals above the door sill. Then I soaked them with the petroleum-free silicone spray.

When I had it all together, except for the door panel, I ran it up and down, and there is a dramatic difference in the performance. I don’t think I realized how hard it was binding until I saw it moving fairly freely.

When I put the door insulation back on, and I put the door panel back on, and I put all the switches together in the armrest, I really took my time and made sure I was using the right screws, and where they were loose, I went into the Lincoln interior screws section of the shed of miracles, got the next bigger or longer screw so it was all right and tight.

I walked around with a smile for the rest of the afternoon and evening. It’s been worrying me for a couple years. My guests don’t come till about six, so I’m going to tackle the passenger door, which is acting up, but hasn’t totally failed yet. Now that I know what I’m doing, I bet I can knock it out an hour and a half.

Merry Christmas folks

 

[Jazzer]

Heck, Rick, you just walked me down memory lane. It made me remember I did that regulator fix on my 87's drivers side window years ago, only I used some nylon bushings of the right diameter, and just cut them to length.

 

[scotts90ranger]

My Christmas guests are coming later today, and mostly this weekend. My family is all far away so I will travel to visit them in January. So, for my Christmas present to myself, I took the day to tackle the windows on Ole Blue, the 88 Lincoln. To recap, the window seals are so stiff, they grab the window and it keeps stripping the nylon gear in the motor (I thought). My plan was to fix the motor, and use a little grinding wheel in my Dremel Moto tool to open up the channel in the window seals. I hadn’t been in the door in a while, and I was thinking I might have to cut a couple holes in the inside metal panel to reach.

I got the door panel off in less than 10 minutes. (because I’ve done it 100 times). I was very pleasantly surprised to find out like 80% of the gasket was easily accessible.

I took the speaker out to get at the motor, and took the motor out, I opened up the gearbox, and the problem was not with the nylon gear. There are three bumpers that make a bump coupling between the drive mechanism and the final gear. Years ago, those bumpers, kind of like urethane plastic little cylinders, wore out. You can’t buy them, you can only buy the whole motor which isn’t cheap. And the door boaters for that four year run of town car, are no longer made, you can’t even find them rebuilt In a YouTube video I found out you can replace them by making bumpers by putting the right size vacuum tube over a short piece of steel. I’ve done that before on several vehicles, and I did that about three years ago to this one.

View attachment 121525View attachment 121526

If you look at the second picture, you can see the steel centers laying on either side of the gear. On the bottom, the black mess on top of the worm gear is the bits of the vacuum tube that were ground into little bits. When I took it apart, and I cleaned it out, the vacuum tub rubber was not only broken up in little pieces, it was also mushy. I had used STP Molly grease when I rebuilt the motor, and I think the Molly grease helped to disintegrate the rubber on the vacuum tube.

I went into the ancient vacuum tube section of the shed of miracles, and I found a piece of ancient Mercedes rheum vacuum tubing that was almost as hard as a rock. I used that and I made the three bumpers.

View attachment 121527

I cleaned out all of the old grease and debris from inside that gearbox. Then I used spray lithium grease and bathed it, actually puddled it up in there.

View attachment 121528View attachment 121529

Then I reassembled the motor, tested it, and it was dead.



I pulled one of the wires out of a crimp and didn’t notice it, probably when I was taking it out. Easy fix.

I placed it on a clean towel inside a pristine cigar box I had, to temporary hold the motor out of respect. The driver side window motor is different than the others, and different than other Fords, so they are like gold these days.

I then got into the door with the Dremel Moto tool.

View attachment 121530

It was pretty straightforward. I got the whole section of seal left of the main window, about 2/3 of the seal on the right side of the window, the whole side of the vent window on the left, and the whole side of the vent window on the right. In case you don’t remember or didn’t know, when you push the window button on the Town Cars the smoker’s window goes down, followed by the main window. And they go up the opposite, all with the one control.

Then I cleaned up the mess, and put the motor back in so I could run the window down. I did the same thing to all the seals above the door sill. Then I soaked them with the petroleum-free silicone spray.

When I had it all together, except for the door panel, I ran it up and down, and there is a dramatic difference in the performance. I don’t think I realized how hard it was binding until I saw it moving fairly freely.

When I put the door insulation back on, and I put the door panel back on, and I put all the switches together in the armrest, I really took my time and made sure I was using the right screws, and where they were loose, I went into the Lincoln interior screws section of the shed of miracles, got the next bigger or longer screw so it was all right and tight.

I walked around with a smile for the rest of the afternoon and evening. It’s been worrying me for a couple years. My guests don’t come till about six, so I’m going to tackle the passenger door, which is acting up, but hasn’t totally failed yet. Now that I know what I’m doing, I bet I can knock it out an hour and a half.

Merry Christmas folks

Those 3 nylon things are available from Dorman part number 74410, I've had to deal with that before and gotten creative with wood plug cutters and delrin and stuff but for $10 that's a heck of a deal... I've read that 1/4" nuts fit in there too...