Any of those parts that don't have seals/bearings in them that are rusty I would suggest soaking in Evapo-Rust then painting. I've used it quite a few times restoring old dirt bike parts and it works well, but you have to paint it afterwards or it flash rusts quickly.
Unfortunately I didn't get the car out of her winter slumber and into the garage this weekend. At this point it will need to wait until after Christmas to move.
The last time I worked on the car I did check the actuator on the gate by applying pressure on the vacuum line to it. I didn't feel any loss although it wasn't very scientific using my mouth.
My Father and Step mother were the previous owners of my '88 TC. My father had a mechanic change the cam to a roller setup and later I found out he also modified the car to create more boost. He also turned the boost alarm off.
I took ownership of the car last January and got it running again. Stuck fuel injectors and other odds n ends to get it running fairly well. I replaced vacuum lines that were dry rotted, etc.
I wanted to adjust the turbo pressure so I purchased a Gilles Valve from all the recommendations I have read. This is when I found out the someone had mickey moused the turbo setup. Right now I have the no spring or ball in the valve and it produces 18 psig boost. I have checked for a vacuum leak and have not found any (Not that there isn't any, but I have not found any). I placed a vacuum gauge on it in the summer and the vacuum sits between 14 & 15 psi depending on the idle. The idle does vary sometimes as if a module is adjusting the rpm.
The idle does hang sometimes when I push the clutch in and other times it does not. I have not figured out what causes this.
It appears I my commuter car may be taking its last breathe and until I find a replacement the Thunderbird may have to fill the slot for a time. At this point in time with the turbo set the way it is the car is a handful in the rain. It hits like a '70s era 2 stroke dirt bike. All off or on in the power band. I would like to turn the boost down.
I hate the thought of exposing the car to this salt brine they put on the roads, but......
I put my car away for the winter. Unfortunately it stays outside since I don't have the garage space. I put a tarp under it and it has a mild slope so hopefully the water runs off plus put the car cover on it. Also used a gas stabilizer when topping the fuel off. I should pull the battery and put it on a tender.
I put roughly 1k miles on it this summer and didn't do much else other than get it cleaned up. I did remove the rear seat to fix a seat belt so the kiddos could ride in it. I did battle the cigar smell in the car and I think I've gotten the upper hand on it finally. I found on Amazon this stuff: Dakota OBNA-5 Bomb/Car Odor Eliminator Neutral Air So far the Dakota OBNA-5 car bomb seems to have eliminated the smell. We'll see if I need to do it again in the spring after being closed up.
Things that need to be done this winter is a clutch and exhaust. Will wait until after the holidays.
