Just FYI, I had to cut out the back of the dash area on the '86 to get my Autometers to fit. I commend you for trying to not do that here...but if it comes down to it, you may need to. Just saying.
Not installed yet. I don't have the '84 insured or on the road yet due to it needing a battery. Sounds like a perfect time to work on it but unfortunately I have other responsibilities that need attention.
Also I still need a new condenser and one of the lines. This year is probably going to be all about parts acspoogeulation and then, with some luck, everything might get installed in the fall.
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Toss the acspoogeulator and buy a new one. You don't want a 25+ year old desiccant bag.
You just can't let me celebrate my victory, can you?
Had to do something similar on my '86 when I put the aftermarket gauges in. I was all excited to finally have them calibrated and working that I forgot about hooking up the wires for the old warning light. Funny how I remembered so clearly when I was 45 minutes from home and had to be flat-bedded back on the tow truck due to a dead battery from the alternator not charging. D'oh!
Anyway, all I did was just connect the wires with no resistor. There have been zero ill effects form that, and the alternator charges perfectly. FWIW.
Your setup looks awesome BTW. Can't wait to see the final product.
Click the 'Custom Gauges' tab. The photos were from pro-street cars that pretty much eliminated the vents but it does give some cool ideas nonetheless.
Just wanted to give an update on the a/c situation. Again, car is a 1984 3.8L V6 with factory air.
I've been digging and digging on the intarwebz for any possible solution to converting an HR980 setup to an FS-6 system. It seems that the only real practical conversion would be to acquire all the parts from a donor car. So we're talking a 1985 V6 Cougar/T-Bird, possibly an LTD/Marquis (Fox chassis) as the donor vehicle. You would need everything off the driver's side of the motor: brackets, bolts, compressor, power steering pulley, belt, and of course the a/c lines. It would be a rather straightforward swap but you MUST have all the parts or else it's a no-go.
So it seems that Ford had the foresight to put these parts into a package sold at dealerships. I happened to be at the right place at the right time and procured said kit (it cost as much to buy this kit as it did to buy my car). It is p/n YC-172 (formerly YC-111). Personally if you're in this situation I would not hold out hope of finding one of these kits as they were discontinued over 25 years ago and are probably extremely rare.
When you have the optional System Sentry, the resistor wire for the "lights out" warning is calibrated for halogen bulbs. Using any other non-halogen bulb in one of those circuits (including an LED bulb) will automatically kick the warning light on. So...to get it to work correctly with an LED bulb is going to take some engineering for sure, if it's even possible. I am not sure if the resistor wire can be used with an LED bulb...somehow that seems counterintuitive. Running a separate non-resistor wire might help but again, that kinda complicates things with the harnesses and terminals.
Hopefully one of our electrical gurus here can give us some better insight.
No, they DO just bolt on, no messing with changing out the stock hinges at all. Only problem is, bolt-on the hinge section seems to have a unique clip and there may not be a substitute for it. Long as you get that you're golden though.
Ray, got the message, and I'll post here for the sake of helping others out if they've got the same questions.
The Mark VII had the same hood hinges as the 1983-86 Cougar/T-Bird except for one thing: they had a bolt-on coil section to help keep the hood up. The coil spring looks just like those on older GM vehicles but it's lower tension.
This is the section on my own hood:
The 1987-88 Cougar/T-Bird hinges are redesigned and have a higher-tension coil. That's fine for a stock hood, but in my case, they were pushing up the aftermarket fiberglass hood too much when it was down. The corners stuck up like 3-4". I also did not want the prop rod solution either. So one day in the boneyard I found the Mark VII hinges and tried them out. For me they're not perfect as the hood does come up just a bit, but it's way better than the 1987-88 hinges. It's a nice solution for any hood though...so long as you can find them.
OK so if it were you, which one would be "better" or doesn't it really matter much? Sounds like a few minimal differences but either should bolt up to the bracket. Unless I read that wrong...
With the newer parallel flow condenser and some judicious non-use of the high blower fan setting while the car is heat soaked and at idle, the HR980 would be fine on R-134a from a pressure standpoint.
The bigger issue is that the HR980 uses viton seals. Viton isn't considered compatible with R-134a. So long term use will most likely cause leakage and failure of the compressor.
Hrmmm, interesting. But then I'd be right back where I started, except older and even more resistant to climb into the engine bay to fix the problem. Like I said, if getting a brand new HR980 compressor was an option, then I'd consider kicking the can down the road like that. I don't see myself laying off the high blower fan setting though LOL. But that's a good insight on the limitations of that system.
