What did YOU do today?

[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...

 

[scotts90ranger]

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!

My current compressor had that problem too so I took the check valve apart and found an extra reed valve screw stuck in the check valve, the compressor head wasn't missing any reed valve screws (they were odd screws, shallow head hex with a slot, was very obvious). I'm not too worried about it, should be available or I can probably make something.

 

[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.

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

I got out early, weather was nice but a little chilly, and I took apart the passenger door.

The window seals were in excellent condition. The driver seals had that little bit of fuzzy surface on them, and the passenger side seals were more like a soft rubber. Made me wonder if they’ve ever been replaced, except I’ve had that car since 12,000 miles. ???

It turns out the motor just died on the passenger side. I think water may have gotten inside the door because there was a little bit of corrosion on the bottom of the motor, and the rotator was seized up. Remember, this was the old technology where the seals on the sills on the bottom of the window just kept most of the water out, and then there are four drain slots in the bottom of the door, which worked for a couple years till enough dust got in there that you could use them for extra water for the radiator. I’ve had to clean them out with a butter knife more than once for many years.

So I dug into the box-o-window-motors in the shed of miracles for a match.

I picked one that looked brand new. I got out to the car and sat down. I was just about to bolt it in when I had an afterthought. I went back to the bench, and took off the gear cover.

I had already robbed the bumpers out of this one. The bumpers in the old one that died were fine, so I just swapped them over. But then I noticed this.

The new looking motor had a cheaper version of the drive gear piece. I bet they saved two cents by skimping it up. I used the old one.

If you’ve ever done it, you know you have to be upside down and backwards and have hands the size of a five-year-old child to actually put the motor in in the right place and get the bolts in it. A trick I learned a long time ago was to get some number one Philip screwdrivers and put them through the bolt holes and the threaded hole in the back to hold it roughly in place, and then start the screws, and get all three in before you tighten anything up. I still dropped one of the bolts two or three times and had to start over again.

With all of that, it took about an hour and 15 minutes. I was a pretty happy camper. Best gift Santa gave me so far!

 

[bilbo]

Diesel’s been given a clean bill of health. No more parasites and he’s growing fast. According to the DNA test he’s a mix of Staffordshire Terrier, Pit Bull Terrier, and Boxer. He’s got the brain of a coked up toddler in the fully capable body of a teenager. All jokes aside he’s very intelligent and picks up on training very quickly. He learned to shake for a treat in about two tries.

 

[Bill]

Here's one more example to reinforce my opinion that the world has gone mad. I went to the hardware store to by a bulb for the fridge and wondered how an appliance bulb can cost $10. Welllll, it turns out it is a smart-bulb that comes with an app. I don't know about the rest of society, but all I need is a $1.99 bulb that illuminates the interior of the fridge when I open the door. A light bulb with an app is of no extra benefit to me. I suppose the catch is the app monitors the bulb and sends telemetry someplace with the number of times I've opened and closed the door so they an figure out some way to monetize that data. How about I find a way to cycle that switch 24/7 and mess up their dataset. Yep, the output is only as good as the input. Garbage in, garbage out.

Also, the light bulbs are about twice as much on Amazon.