Hello, old friend. You're looking worse for wear

[cudak888]

http://miami.craigslist.org/mdc/cto/4547845575.html

Lots of memories from 1998-2009 in that thing, but I would never have wound up with either of my Mustangs had I not got rid of it in 2013.

Lousy POS it was too. Perfect floorpans, but breaking out in rust in tons of pain-in-the-butt locations (under the rear window, bottom of the opera windows, under the doors, at the fender ends), every Motorcraft 2150 carb I threw on it had starvation issues on hard cornering, Hydroboost was whining like hell, window motors were all in need of servicing, door lock servos would pop open by themselves, one front vent window popped off its track (the worst single repair job I've ever known, including the entire bodywork job on the '71 to date), etc.

It's the car that convinced me that a simple Ford is a good Ford, while a '70s Lincoln is Ford's highly accurate imitation of a Chevy.

Don't get me wrong - a stupid part of me wouldn't mind grabbing it back and fixing that rear window rot once and for all (thereby sealing the car again), but why would I do a dumb thing like that?

Not only would I need to spend some time doing bodywork, I'd rip the Hydroboost out for a 1970-1974-spec vacuum booster, tear apart the 400 for flat-top pistons/351C 2V camshaft/straight-up timing chain (has the original nylon crap in it too!), probably convert the whole thing to wind-down windows...

...and for what? It'll still be worth no more than $4k on a good day.

-Kurt

 

[Kit Sullivan]

I have owned several mid/late seventies Lincolns, and I agree...they sure can be nightmares!

My affinity was more towards Mk IVs and Mk Vs. Electrical issues, Hydroboost troubles, and horrific carb problems.

The biggest pain to me was the damn door panels! The plastic arm-rest bases just cracked to pieces no matter how gently you treated them. I repaired them over and over.

The electrical issues eventually stop, once you go through the experience of having and fixing the common ones. The Hydroboost is pretty reliable as long as you keep the PS components in good shape.

Junking Ford's contankerous late-70s era carb and manifold for a simple Edelbrock intake and carb improves driveability and reliability to near 100%...rarely an issue there after that swap.

My pet-peeve? The headlight doors that refuse to stay closed when the system's lights are "OFF". That absolutely makes it look like a ghetto-cruiser. I became quite adept at trouble-shooting the system over the years. There are two little vacuum-junction devices that become defective over the years. Easy to replace...nearly impossible to find good ones.

I once scoured a junkyard for as many as I could find and had a boxful of both kinds in good working order. I would take the working ones off my car every so often and pour a tiny bit of oil in them...to keep the vacuum diaphragm inside from becoming dried out and brittle. Worked like a charm, never had another related issue after that.

A hint: NEVER operate the circular vacuum release valve on the underhood vacuum line system for the headlights. Once you do so, it will never hold vacuum again in most circumstances. If you need to release vacuum, just pop a line off a connector somewhere else.

Ahh, I really did love those big 'ol cruisers...a dream on long trips. But the dismal 10 MPG eventually did me in.

 

[cudak888]

I have owned several mid/late seventies Lincolns, and I agree...they sure can be nightmares!

My affinity was more towards Mk IVs and Mk Vs. Electrical issues, Hydroboost troubles, and horrific carb problems.

The biggest pain to me was the damn door panels! The plastic arm-rest bases just cracked to pieces no matter how gently you treated them. I repaired them over and over.

The electrical issues eventually stop, once you go through the experience of having and fixing the common ones. The Hydroboost is pretty reliable as long as you keep the PS components in good shape.

Junking Ford's contankerous late-70s era carb and manifold for a simple Edelbrock intake and carb improves driveability and reliability to near 100%...rarely an issue there after that swap.

Been there, done that, and the Mark V is still in the driveway for some reason - but at least I gave it a piece of my mind under the hood:

...and when we take the air cleaner off, we find this:

A lovely absence of unnecessary junk and a presence of simplicity.

Anyone who runs one of these and insists on keeping the stock intake and 2150 under the hood (at the least, replace the 2150 with a Holley 2300) is a fool.

I finally found a way around the door panel - bend and glue a thick piece of styrene/ABS to the back with 5-minute epoxy. The epoxy is just flexible enough to keep the styrene well adhered to the ABS.

Of course, by then, the armrest is cracked already. The repops don't stiffen the problem areas either

Honestly, it makes a lot more sense to rip out the armrests and power window mechanisms and bolt in manual window regulators from a 1972 Thunderbird:

The Mark V has the mounting provisions for the T-bird regulators, though there are no mounting spots for the standard, Mustang-style door rests. The mounts that hold the full-length door panel might work with something else in the Ford lineup, but I'm not bothering at this point.

My pet-peeve? The headlight doors that refuse to stay closed when the system's lights are "OFF".

Easier to fix that (and one can just as well motorize them with the help of some GM parts), but you reminded me of one other problem:

It's vacuum line city under the hood of one of these cars. Tracing a vacuum leak can take an hour.

-Kurt

 

[matrixx]

Good lord that thing is a tank.

 

[cudak888]

Good lord that thing is a tank.

Here she is in her prime:

-Kurt

 

[matrixx]

Luxury at its finest. No caddy can touch a Lincoln.

I hate to maneuver that through a parking lot. Maybe fab up some 4 wheel steering? That would be sweet!

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[cudak888]

Luxury at its finest. No caddy can touch a Lincoln.

I hate to maneuver that through a parking lot. Maybe fab up some 4 wheel steering? That would be sweet!

Eh; the '70s Lincolns were very much tarted-up LTD's in many respects. The slabsides were far better built and more unique.

I did my driver's test on a course sized for a Honda - parking space and all - in the Mark V. No problems whatsoever.

-Kurt

 

[matrixx]

Luxury at its finest. No caddy can touch a Lincoln.

I hate to maneuver that through a parking lot. Maybe fab up some 4 wheel steering? That would be sweet!

Eh; the '70s Lincolns were very much tarted-up LTD's in many respects. The slabsides were far better built and more unique.

I did my driver's test on a course sized for a Honda - parking space and all - in the Mark V. No problems whatsoever.

-Kurt

My drivers test was using early 90's crown Vic's. I had no problems but surely no way I'd be able to drive something like that Daily. It's just not me. Throw me in one for a demo derby and I'll be all smiles.

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[cudak888]

My drivers test was using early 90's crown Vic's. I had no problems but surely no way I'd be able to drive something like that Daily. It's just not me. Throw me in one for a demo derby and I'll be all smiles.

Interesting fact: The unnamed "full-size Ford" platform used on the Continental (not the Marks) is essentially the engineering source for the Panther platform in 1980.

Put both cars on a lift, and you'll find the Panther frame to be identical - just downsized.

-Kurt