The alternator in the thunderbird still currently works but is making noise and the threaded hole is stripped out so instead of rebuilding it and having other issues later(its pretty rusted up on the inside from sitting around for years) im just going to replace it. My wiring is in good shape no issues there. Was looking for opinions on which path i should walk down here.
My current available options are the following,
A factory rebuilt nos 60 amp unit. An upgraded output 1g external regulator alternator. 3g alternator upgrade.
The factory rebuilt one is old nos but is probably fine since it was just sitting on a shelf for years. Just bolt in and go. I cant remember if i had the 60 or 65 amp unit, and ofcourse i have pics of everthing else on the car i messed with except the alternator. Im not going with some parts store rebuild because of reputation and experience with them.
The upgraded output 1g alternators i find go up to 100 amps with 3 wire connections, without having to mess with new or cutting wires but are all in the 12/6 oclock position and would require the front part of case to be swapped. Sounds simple and was apparently common but i cant find a single example of someone doing this.
The 3g seems to be the most beneficial and gets recommended alot but i have a few caveats about doing this swap. Mainly its the wire cutting and possible bracket grinding. I really dont "need" 130 amps since im carbed and not running anything that isnt stock. Im considering a fan down the road but the upgraded 1g could handle this without all the snipping/adding wires and all that. The 95 amp ones would work without grinding but the rest still applies. For such a common upgrade i couldnt find a single pic of a pre-86 v6 car with it, im sure they are out there but all the kits out are for 5.0 cars anyway.
I already have the nos one and a powermaster 7078, nothing for the 3g except some harness i could use if i had to.
Im collecting a few parts to replace the lines for my a/c so i can get it running 100% and cant get a solid answer on a few things.
First, what is the "correct part" or part number for my car regarding the liquid line going from the condenser to the firewall? There is 3 different ones that ive found and its hard to tell which one is the right one because they all say they fit, i know they all cant.
Second, i have an 83 with what is considered dealer installed air with the hr980 compressor with press fit (spring) connectors, what o-ring kit do i need for my car?
I lucked out and found a nos compressor to condenser line since i couldnt find the right one for that in anybodys database and looks very different than the pics they all had.
I cannot find a fuel sender for my 83 thunderbird anywhere, new or used buttstuffog or digital one. Searching for one is holding me up from throwing my new gas tank in among other things. Mine currently works, but it might not tommorow because its a 40 year old part so i wanted to put another one in and keep the original in case its not in good physical condition when i pull it out. To be honest i dont really see any senders being made for these cars of any year. Searching around i dont see much discussion about what others have done in this situation with regards to making something else work other than just with the actual sending unit and float component itself. Ive seen the sender ohm signal devices people use with custom tanks and gauges that arent much money and simple to wire in. But that wont solve a rotted fuel tube or top plate problem or similar issue.
I am almost finished collecting everything i need to replace my gas tank and while there i want to add a "primer" fuel pump setup, which is external but since ill be in the proximity the work will be done then, for my thunderbird and had some questions or just interested in opinions regarding what im doing. This is on a 1983 thunderbird with the CARBURETED 3.8 v6.
To start, if you are not aware a primer pump is a very low pressure fuel pump(less than 3 psi) typically used on things like boats and generators. The particular type i selected it a flow thru type which allows fuel to flow thru while its not running. Line size for all is at 5/16 I/D.
The [objective] purpose for this is that since i let my car sit for long periods i would like to not have to crank for long periods to get it started when i feel like using it, and basically extend the motor and starters lifespan. The car runs fine on its motor driven fuel pump so i am not interested in a full time electric pump setup like some people do to their classic cars.
The setup will consist of the primer pump, a fuel filter between the gas tank and the pump and a bypass hose "tee"d in before and after the pump with a fuel line check valve in the bypass hose. Under the hood ill be installing another fuel line check valve before the fuel pump and all new fuel hoses since they are 40 years old.
One question i have is will adding all these cause enough of a restriction to give me starvation issues? Im looking at the largest in line fuel filter i can get away with before the pump just to have some capacity incase of a restriction. The main reason im adding a bypass line is even the pump is flow thru it doesnt feel like it will "fully" flow thru at the rate an unresticted line will and as a precaution the bypass will draw from the line of least restriction... hopefully. The inline check valve should prevent fuel from going down the bypass during priming and basically recycle the fuel around. Im hoping it doesnt create an air pocket in the line or collapsing and stopping fuel all together. Ive never used inline fuel check valves before so i dont know what their effect on restricting flow on low pressure draw thru systems are. The running fuel pressure is only about 8 psi but its harder to measure "amount" of fuel being pulled thru the system without it being in use.
I would like to believe this will work without a hitch but my gut tells me im overlooking something. Any input or experience here would be appreciated.
What is the motorcraft part number(both numbers) for the serpentine belt and kidler/tensioner for my 83 3.8 v6 with a/c, "BUT" the a/c is driven by a seperate v-belt? Is that considered dealer installed, factory or does that count as no a/c regardless?
I bought a new belt for it awhile ago that was advertised as correct but its too small, wont fit at all. I dont have a tape measure handy to measure the stretched old one but that would only give me the size not the number. Also, the belts seem to have their own part number system so thats throwing me off.
I played with my cars a little this weekend getting them ready for weekend duty and ran into trouble with my mustang puking out the overflow after i shut it off. Combination of overfilled(i forgot i topped it off months ago and wasnt supposed to) and a bad radiator cap after taking it out and inspecting the seal. No big deal and i lucked out and ordered the same one for it a nos Motorcraft RS-60, which was lucky to find. Then i thought about the Thunderbirds radiator cap and cooling system and i havent really checked anything out on it other than level, so i went down to look at it. Everything is fine but i want to flush it and replace my radiator cap on the thunderbird as a precaution anyway since i have no temp gauge on it just an idiot light, but not sure about something so bear with me if this sounds stupid.
The cap currently on it is a Motorcraft RS-51 #16lbs, i dont know if thats original or not to it, and i cant find the same one. Im trying to stick with period stock parts and there are a couple RS-50 and RS-53 floating around but even though they are both the same #16lbs i dont know if they physically fit.
So first, Is the RS-51 correct for my car in the first place? Second, since i cant find that will the others mentioned fit?
I dont want to just go get a parts store brand cheapie one if i can still get nos period oem parts if i dont have to.
So i stopped by to tinker on the tbird for a little bit and throw some of the parts i bought for it on. I bought a nos oil fill cap w/hose to replace the completely petrified original one it had, like bending steel tubing which i had to remove everytime i went to dig into the carb thing and finally got annoying enough to replace it.
The "new" one is the more familiar black bulky one with yellow ring on it. The original is a yellow flat one. I cut the tube to install the inline filter(new) on it like the original and went to install it. So for clarity i have an 83 with the plastic valve covers instead of the steel ones and they list these things as 83-87, there is no way that wouldve fit on there without breaking the valve cover from trying to push it down on it because of the rubber ring being thicker than the one on the yellow cap. The cap diameters and slot locations and thickness all look the same and in the same place, just the rubber seal is much thicker. Im sure age and compression flattened the original "some" but i couldnt even see the tab slots on the new cap with it on. I took it off and installed the old one from the original on it and it went right on, no slop or play. Wouldve liked to replace that but its not going to happen at that diameter. For all intents and purposes im assuming the rubber ring is correct for it and original to it. Inspecting the new rubber to see if its swollen and doesnt appear to be. I didnt have my phone to snap pics but next time im there ill take some of the difference between them.
So i had some time to go work on the tbird today, hoping to swap the carb and get this thing driving reliably, but got stopped by some differences between the one that came with the car and the remanufactured replacement i bought for it.
The replacement has a mixture solenoid on the back that mine doesnt, i was expecting that to be there on the original and bought the replacement on the assumption it would be. We all make mistakes sometimes and i should have known better than to buy something without being certain about it. The original one has no bucktag for some reason and the sticker on it was too faded to make out any numbers. There wasnt any numbers stamped on it i saw but it was dirty and dark in there i could have missed something. It may not be original for all i know. There is also a problem with the linkage being different between them, the replacement didnt have the kickdown stuff on it and the original carb parts are to be honest looking in such poor condition i dont believe i could get away with swapping them over to make it work. The replacement one has what looks like a nice hairline crack going thru most of the airhorn(not casting flashing or anything like that) so now im in doubt about that as well.
Any advise on what course should i proceed with here on this mess?
Send out the original one that came with the car to get rebuilt since it likely needs more than just gaskets?
Purchase another carburetor and try again?
I only bought the other as it was advertised specifically for the 3.8, so many choices out there for these 2150 carbs for less than 100 bucks but they were much larger and didnt want to get into making things work i wanted bolt on and go for now. The only other one i was eyeballing was a pricey holley im reluctant to shell out the money on yet.
For the last week i have been trying to find out what the "inner" hose diameter size is on the upper radiator hose on 3.8 v6 cars without having to go yank one out, but to no avail. Im going to add a temp gauge(more of a multi digital gauge thingy) since they didnt have one in 83 and wanted to get one of those aluminum housings you T into the cooling hoses for the temp sender to go into, which come in many sizes, but am waiting untill i found the hose size. Does anyone happen to know what the size is?
Some pics of my 83 thunderbird for digestion. Havent had time to go tinker with it since i got it, but trying to make some since i got a bunch of parts to throw at it.
Like the title says, untill i begged eric for help with my password and login(which i am thankful for) the last time i was actually here was some 6 years ago apparently. Havent owned a tbird in a very long time, since i gave it to someone that really needed a reliable car. So, whats up you guys. Oh , how am i doing you wonder? Im doing alright. Atleast i was untill i tried to swap the literal thumbnails i uploaded here with the actual pics, ugh.
i recently started using my Itouch thingy more and have been downloading all sorts of on it. i wanted to get that stuff off of it and save it to my computer(not like a backup) and wanted some advice on this from anyone who is more familiar with this stuff than i pretend to be. i am not mac(apple or whatever) savy in any way and to be honest i kinda hate it, but i got it for free so im sure as heck gonna use it. i tried a few alternates to itunes and found copytrans to be pretty decent and small but it has two issues im trying to work around.
issue one, inorder to use it i needed to dowload itunes to begin with, which i didnt want to do so i could get the drivers and such required to make it recognise the device. if anyone has any advice on one that i wont need to have itunes installed at all to make it work i would appreciate it.
issue two, i cannot pull photos FROM the Itouch and put them onto the computer with any of the alteratives i tried, or itunes for that matter. no way to access them or enable disk mode like on my shuffle. any help on this issue would be seriously compensated in the next life im sure. or this one if your lucky :P
