I've got an all stock 87 T-brid 3.8 CFI last year I put new timing chain on it and rebuilt the CFI unit. The car runs much better now. Recently My son Purchased a 03 mustang 3.8 that needs a new engine. We are in the process of an engine swap. I will have a complete 03 3.8 to play with. Currently it runs but has a very bad shake to it and has broken a piece of the oil pan. I wonder if the heads from the 03 would bolt onto the 8.7 bottom end so I could use the newer style EFi setup. Yes I know I would need the harness and ECU to make it run. Just thinking of a way to get more power in the 87 3.8 with parts I will have on hand.
Okay this is on my 87 3.8 Bird. I've done my low buck A/c system overhaul. I did that last year and only installed 2 cans of freeze 12. It was cool to cooler last year but money was tight so I couldn't afford another can to top the system off. Worked great every time I used it last summer for a system that was 1/2-2/3 of a can low on charge. So fast forward to this year. I had to money so I picked up another can of the freeze 12 and gave her the top off, Put in the whole can and pressures high and low were in range for outside temps running freeze 12. So the air is COLD COLD. So same day I topped it off had to make a trip 30miles one way. Took the bird cause after the top off the A/c was so nice and cold. got about 20or so miles down the road and this road has large mountains for my area. On these big hills or even giving it lots of gas just to get out and by someone kicks off the compressor. I figure the WOT relay is kicking out the clutch. Even after I have got to the top of the hill/pass and let off the gas considerably still A/c air is warm. I turn it off and back on still warm. Then turn it off for say 5min probably and flip it back on and Air gets cool quick. SO I was thinking maybe the A/c WOT relay was sticking, but doing searches on A/c that does this sort of thing and they say it probably freezing up. I would test when it happens but only seems to happen when its a I can't stop and risk being late, also only seem to happen when its HOT HOT outside today it happened when it was 97F but I could never get it happen on the way home when it was 87F same road same hills. I may not be Mister pro auto a/c or a HVAC guy but. Wouldn't it freeze up easier when its cooler outside that when its hotter? Anyone with any idea feel free
I did a quick search and found people looking for these glove box latch/setups. It seems just about every 85-88 style glove box latch I come across is toast out of 10 I've had only 2 that worked and weren't broke. So being the low buck/tight budget type while trying to find out why my new to me door speakers I installed wouldn't work I pried(tripped the broken latch) the glove box open and just removed it. So nice not to have to open trunk to get gas. I did a simple glue it fix with some high powered CA a year or so ago but that only worked until someone tried to open it when it was locked so snap it went. I have an idea on a much better more durable permanent cheap fix. So If I'm gonna do it might as well get some pics and post it up to help out my other Bird/Cougar lovers right? What do you guys think anyone need or think the information would be useful? Depending on the responses I get here will tell me if I should do this or not.
Like most of you know or figured out. I'm a low buck tight budget type of guy. This just means that it takes more effort and swapping/horse trading/ barter often to get what I want or need. What I'm looking for: 87-88 Driver side tail light. really needing the lens but will take whole unit. passenger side door lock to lock rod plastic clip. 87-88 T-bird header panel and driver side front fender maybe a bumper cover and bumper with that foam pad part. need to dig in more to make sure just what all parts I need for sure. with no cash hard to tear down your Daily driver car! will add more as they come to mind.
Items that I have that I could part with I can get pics up for serious traders/buyers
Nice set 86 T-bird tail lights. Was keeping for spare for my 84 but not 100% they will bolt onto the 84.
Nice condition 88 Cougar steering wheel base model with round horn pad with good tabs included. Nice wood grain 85-88 Bird-cougar dash trim with heater/radio panel along with matching ashtray for the non center console cars. Many other interior/exterior parts too many to list If you are interested in any of these parts buying/trading send me a pm or post on this thread.
This isn't a can you help me install this get this in to my car. This is a This is how I did this type of thread. This is my cheap ass low buck have no money into it 130amp 3G alt upgrade. There maybe other ways to do this there might be ways that others would do it but this it how I did it!
Here is a pic of the all the tools I used for this I'll list them out. 5/8" or(16mm), 10mm, 8mm or(5/16") sockets along with ratchet/s 13mm or(1/2"), 14mm, 15mm wrenches wire cutters, flat blade screw driver (to help remove alt plugs) 3g alt of your choice. with the small plug or buy one or make one use a small speaker type connector. Tape or heat shrink tubing, Large gauge 4Ga or larger along with a suitable fuse holder and fuse.
So on with the show. I got a free to me 3g style Alt that came off a 93 Ford Taurus with a 3.8L motor. This this the bigger case straight across mounting style 3G alt. Those are as I received it pics. I did clean it up before I started installation. I popped the hood on my bird to see just what I had to work with. I noticed right off that my 87 bird has the 90* style mounting tabs and that my battery has worked its self into the original alt external fan so it now has a hole in it. Yippy. Good thing I have a replacement sealed gel unit I had laying around. This is a very small compact battery. Fits nice and snug in the battery tray just not long enough to fill it front to back(engine compartment wise)(pic of battery just below) So I removed the battery and the original alt from the car. Now this is not my first 3G upgrade into some form of older Ford. So hope this clears up just how easy this is in just about any older ford with the 2G style alt. I took the New plugs that came with the 3g alt and compare them to the plugs that are on the car. Car side (right on top of that small battery I was talking about) Plugs from 3g style Alt I know the pics are small (photobucket resized them for me )but if you look close you can see that both D shaped plugs have the same color wires coming out of it. Green with a red stripe, White with a black stripe, and Yellow with a white stripe. On the factory plug from the car the Center wire coming out of the D shaped plug which is White with blk stripe runs from the D plug into the large flat other plug from the 2G style alt we need to cut that. Then we need to cut the same wire on the 3G harness and wire the small plug with the White blk stripe wire to the wire coming from the car should look like this now. Now we have to deal with what is left with the big flat plug with still 2 Black with orange striped wires coming from it. Well trace the two big black/org wires back and I found they went into a single bigger blk/org wire then even further where it also met up with the Yellow/white striped wire coming from the D shaped plug. So what to do is Cut the big single blk/org where it meets up with the Yellow black wire coming from the D shaped plug. Now we just want to cut the one single wire at this location. Like I do in this pic Now what that does is get rid of that big flat plug with the two big blk/org wires that the small wht/blk wire we cut earlier used to go to. So you should have left overs that look like this. Make sure you cover the open wire where you cut with tape/heat shrink tube. This is where You would need some Large(low number gauge) wire. Which would run from the Big wire lug on the back of the 3G style alt over to the solenoid/battery. The battery lug is the one the one just to the right and lower of the D shaped plug and small plug in this pic Now with my low buck nothing invested I just found me some old stereo 4ga I had laying around along with some Squish/crimp on ends and made me a power wire. I do advise you get a large fuse holder and install a fuse in this New main charge line that we are installing from the 3G alt to the battery/Solenoid. That place that we cut the Big blk/org wire where it met the yel/wht wire is at the end of a fuse able link. So some sort of fuse protection MUST be in there. I have a fuse holder just needing to get a Fuse large enough for this alt. So now that the wiring is done I installed the 3G alt into the older 2G location. Here is what that looks like. Now I know it is not recommended to run down the road like that but I ran out of time with how HOT is was getting outside so I just buttoned her up to give her a test to make sure the new alt was charging and that my dash lights agreed with everything we did. Everything turned out great 14.7 at batt with headlights on bright and A/c on Max fan on high all while idling in the drive way. I LIKE IT! I LIKE IT A LOT. So my plan for tomorrow is to take a piece of angle Iron I have laying around and make cut/hack/grind me a bracket to attach the top 3g alt Tab to the old 2G Tab bolt down location. I will get many pics and post them up also just in case you find your self in the same situation. Now if you just get the 3G style alt with the 90* mounting tabs it should just bolt right in. I think those can be found on 90's tempo's and some taurus's along with porb many other apps. If money isn't a problem just go to part store have them open book and find one that is the 3G style with the right mounting tabs. Or head to a auto parts web site and keep look up diff app until you find the right style for your needs. 3rd gen style is most early 90's to 00's fords or real close to that year range
I just had the thought pop in my head that section could be used to be broken up into Sub-sections. such as 2.3L, 3.8L 5.0L. That would make finding information pertaining to witch motor you might be looking for info on much easier I think.
Got me some speakers to put in the doors of my 87 T-bird. So today while I was working on a 3G 130 alt upgrade in the same 87 with 3.8L. I had my son take off the door panels getting ready to put the speakers in the doors. The car has never had door speakers. Found the wires with the correct wire colors but nothing when I test them with the new speakers other speakers. The dash speakers both work and they have the double wiring just like the door speaker wiring does. This is not a premium sound car. Just asking what am I missing?
After all my troubles I wanted to get the A/c working in my 87. I dug into what the car had in found the HR980 compressor was locked up. Checked and found some charge on the system. Checked at 5psi. So I unhooked everything and removed it and the compressor. Then I took some A/c system flush stuff poured it in and blew it threw all parts. I took one of my many spare compressor J/Y units and checked it out. Swapped out the pulley from the serp belt to the V belt one from the cars compressor. The clutch face was nice and smooth so should work just fine. I bought a Green O-ring kit for R134a and replaced all of the seals. Installed everything in the car. Hooked up a Vacuum pump and sucked the system down. Everything showed good so I took and added oil and then charged it up with 2 cans of Freeze12. WOW its nice and COLD now. I also don't seem to have any of the warm up in slower in town driving like I've had with R134a in an R12 system. Total cost $43; the cold air it blows, Priceless in this Humidity!
It all started a couple of Sunday's ago. Took the family out in the truck to go to the lake for a day. Halfway there the trans started making a really bad noise. So limped it home and planned to dig into it on Mon. Well then on Mon I was driving my 87 bird and it died driving down the road. Did some investigation and the fuel pump went out. 160k almost so what could I do. Tues got up took out the tank got me a new pump and got that all installed. Bird was back up and running great so I dug into the trans on the truck 5spd. I pulled the top case cover off and found some not so nice looking gears in there. So got it all pulled out and took it to the tranny place today to get remanned. I got up early drove 40miles to the place dropped it off. Left went to a buddies house helped him remove a tree the trans placed called and said they were done to come and get it. So we hopped in the bird and head that way. Almost there I look down and see I should have got some gas. About that time the car dies. I tell everyone I think were out of gas. So we get off the highway coast into a Used car dealer and ask to barrow a gas can. They gave us some gas for FREE. Poured it in and gave her a go and NO still not running. So I call my mom and have her come and pick us up. We and got the trans and I thought I can here the pump and tell its pumping fuel. So thinking the TFI has taken a dump on me I stop and bought a cheapo store brand unit just to see if that is the problem. I get back to the car install the TFI and still NO GO. So its been a tough couple of weeks. I've got a rebuild trans to put in and a Bird to go rescue. Any ideas on what I'm missing on the bird that is now sittiing 40miles away to get it back up and going. I would have tested spark but being 40miles from all my tools and spare parts doesn't help one bit.
I really hated how the headlights in my 87 Bird were so dim. I could see the shadow of my car in my headlight beams from the cars headlights that were behind me. Seeing how I'm starting a night job I'm gonna need to see on the way home. After I replaced the fuel pump yesterday. I pulled both headlights off the car. I had already sanded and polished the lens but still seemed like no light was really coming out of the lights. So I slowly worked around the edge of the lens and pried the lens from the reflector/bucket. I'm sure that when these were new they had some sort of chrome/reflective stuff to kick the light out of the unit. Wow all I could find inside of mine was some Dull Gray plastic. I took washed them out they were dirty nasty also. After I cleaned them all up and got them dry. I was thinking about some of the chrome paint to coat them in and then I seen I had roll of chrome tape and gave that a shot. The tape was pretty wrinkly so I was worried a little. It wasn't a big deal because just like Bare Metal Foil it formed into shape pretty decent. I still got some wrinkles in the foil but under the lens you have to really look to see them. Before I put them back together I removed all of the old Yellow/Gray glue so that was not a problem. Then I used Silicone to put them back together. After all that work I wasn't happy with how the headlights looked decent and the rest of the lights looked like ASS. So I pulled them all off gave them a sanding and buffing. They all looked much better but were missing that real super new shine. So I gave them all a couple of lights coats with some Clear. Now they look much better than before.
I've been driving around in my 87 bird 3.8 and it died on me a couple of times. Twice going around a right hand corner. One right in town at a stop light with a right hand turn lane. Go around the corner and had a die two different times on me. Then yesterday going down the highway. A person in front of me hit there brakes kinda hard so I got on mine in the T-bird and she died on me. I had to pull over to the side of the road rolling in neutral trying to get her to restart. After I rolled to a complete stop I finally got her to start. Anyone have any ideas on what might be causing this. The first time around the right hand corner I wrote it off as low on gas but the 2nd time I had 1/2 tank and yesterday on the highway I had a little over 1/2 of a tank of gas. Would be nice to get this lined out. Other than that everything seems great so far.
I got a call this morning from a buddy telling me he knew someone that wanted to give me something. So I was cool let me know when and where and I'll be there. He met me at the house and took me to another buddies mothers house. She had us haul out an old sewing machine and one of those little small kiddie scooters. We we're hauling it up to the auction for her. Then she tells me that she wants to give me this scooter thing she has. So I turn around and this isn't some little scooter this is an 2007 Qlink commuter 250. At this point I'm thinking what is the catch. Then she tells me that something it wrong with the motor. Her son tells me the air intake tube shook loose and they didn't know it. They just happen to live down a 5mile dirt road. So prob just full of but hard to say. At that time here comes his mom with the title in hand. I'll get some pic tomorrow in the day light. Now if I only knew anything about this thing or where to find good info on it. Someplace like here only on that scooter.
Ok the digi speedo gauge lights up in the day time but as soon as I turn on the headlights or parking lights my speedo light goes out and I also have no dash lights, heater control lights. I haven't got a chance to dig into to this just yet hoping tomorrow once I get the back window done and the rear deck carpet replaced. I just love these cars with almost nothing I've already get the feeling that I don't want to share this one with the wifey either much less let my soon to be 16yr old drive it. Gotta have dash lights for them to drive it maybe them not working is a good thing! LOL
