A year later - redemption
Kicking off my Labor Day weekend, last year, you all may remember this:
Torque Converter failure.....
This year, a completely different story.
The wife's nephew got married this weekend, in Kentucky. Left the house
at 3:20am, and landed in Georgetown right at 3:30pm. By the best to my
recollection, I got passed by roughly five cars total on the way down.
We were really hauling the mail. Other than
dinner the first night, we mostly rode around with her family.
On the way home, I was not going to go through Cincinatti. The roads are
a total cluster, with all of the road construction. So the decision was
made to go straight east, and make our way through the Cumberland Gap.
The ride home was soooooo much better. The
roads were more interesting and a lot less traffic. One thing it took
its toll on, was my fuel milage. There were hills where it was down in
third gear for a mile or better, right around 4200 - 4500 rpm. It sucked
it right up like no big deal.
1885 miles and not a single issue. Nothing, nothing at all. It didn't
skip, sputter, or heat up - no matter how much I pounded it. The worst
thing that happened was a wheel weight came off at 85+mph, and had a
shimmy from the right front. Had to be the inside
weight; as it made a hell of a racket, banging around the inner fender,
when it came off.
Speaking of fuel milage, I haven't gotten an official total consumption
figure, but my initial figure is 24.5 +/- mpg. Considering my average
rate of travel was between 75 - 85mph, and we came home through the
Appalachian Mountains, I'd figure that is pretty
damn good. By my rough calculations, on the way down, it was getting
right around 26.
As is my tradition; cars I own, that have proved their worth, become vested. I am going to have to name it now.
(pay no attention to the 2 year old deer dent in the hood 
)
Hope everyone had a good weekend.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
Relieve some stress and take a rubber mallet to that hood.
ReplyDeleteThat was pulled out substantially from where it was pushed into. I do have another hood, I just have been too busy with other stuff to repaint it. At this point it closes, so good enough.
DeleteLeigh
Whitehall, NY
You must have small deer, Leigh. Oh, that's right, you are Back East. Any deer "dents" when we hit 'em out here in the Pacific Northwest usually result in a totaled car. And unless you are in a truck that is high up, a Moose will be sitting on your lap via Mr. Windshield...
ReplyDeleteGood to hear the chariot gave no problems - I was admiring the way you can pull the engine sans transmission, my '89 SHO requires a total yank when I do clutch work. The shade-tree mechanics manual sez I can do it, but the Haynes brothers must have been on crack when they wrote the procedure because there's 1/2" (that's 12-13 mm for you metric boyz) between the bell housing and the driver-side frame.
Ah, the fun and excitement when you do your own work! I kinda miss the clearances and simplicity of my '57 Chevy and my '64 Corvette.
Thanks, Igor.
DeleteMy Uncle was out in CA, when he was in the Navy. He saw a deer out there that was about the size of a coon hound. The guy that shot it was bragging about how "big" it was. Up here in the Adirondacks, we have some sizable Whitetails. My nine point dressed out at 180. I have seen others that have dressed out at 200. Granted, they aren't in the same league as Muley's or Elk, but they taste good just the same.
Pulling the motor still isn't a treat. You have to pull all the accessories of the front of the engine, as well as the water pump to get the engine far enough away from the convertor. The motor mount on the back right side is done by braille, and the intake and exhaust manifolds have to be pulled.
I'll assume you can't get the pressure plate past the input due to the lack of side clearance? Yeah, dropping the whole K frame would suck. I do envy your '89. I've always wanted a SHO. Closest I got was a '02 with a 3.0 Duratech.
I remember working on my '70 F-100, back in the day. 300 straight six, four speed, points and a carb. You could climb over the fenders and stand next to the engine to work on it.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
Leigh;
ReplyDeleteI used to build those cars, they are very underated cars. Looks like you have the vulcan 3.0 motor, you can't kill that motor as long as you do the oil, it is pretty much bulletproof. Your transmission is the only weak link on the car, I would add an aftermarket tranny cooler on the car if you don't already have one. Glad to see a Taurus running the road.
I agree with you, MrGarabaldi. This platform is very underrated. I've had seven, all but two have gone well over 250k miles. One was almost 390k; two others, over 300k. The other two died horrible, violent deaths; but everyone survived unscathed. I did buy my green car with a blown engine; but the previous owner blew the heater line across the firewall, and drove it with no coolant until it seized. Even a Vulcan can't survive that.
DeleteThe 96-97 cars had a anodized aluminum clutch basket, which is where the Taurus got its bad rep from. Once Ford went back to a steel one, that issue went away. Seems my convertor failure, last year, is the most common issue since. Otherwise, I haven't had any trans problems....and I am less than delicate with my shifts.
One thing I have noticed - is how pissed off people get when a Taurus blows their doors off. Makes me laugh. :-)
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMNmSKhEe-8
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMNmSKhEe-8
ReplyDeletea blues song about this
Four Cars Running. My exact situation.
Delete'03 Taurus
'01 F-250
'05 Escape
'08 Edge
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
This is the reason I get cars with a real clutch current car '14 Ford Fusion
ReplyDelete