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Town Car suspension sharing?

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Posted by: CTX-SLPR

Howdy,

Does the Town Car share much with it's less Ford stablemates the Crown Vic and Grand Marquis as far as brakes and suspention bits goes? Thinking of buying one to replace my 97 Regal GS with something thats rearwheel drive again. While the TC has the class, I want to make it haul a$$ as well, hense the interest in not only the propulsion side of things but the stopping and handling side aswell. I'm thinking a Marauder would be a nice donor vehicle to make a TC a more respectable car as I toast some rice and some unsuspecting high brows.
Honestly these Ford cars seem like the most reliable things out there that are V8 powered, rear wheel drive, and 4dr if you want to stay out of the high brow territory (relatively speaking of course). I see examples well over 100k miles that still look like they are kicking strong. How common was the Touring package as I don't really see it advertised that often and seems like a better starting point than a base TC.

Thanks,

Posted by: thamarkman

The Towncar does share brake and suspension components. Some things they may not share but could be easily installed. For example Towncars have air ride suspension in the rear. But yeah, its got an 8.8 rear so you can basically put in any gears that you want.
The Touring Sedan package is not available anymore. It was limited production, I think they only made it for 2 or 3 years. It has different wheels, the grill is blacked out, and the most important thing is that is has 3.55 gears in the rear end.

Posted by: CTX-SLPR

Cool, thanks, would you be able to swap sway bars and shocks?

Thanks,

Posted by: thamarkman

I believe sway bars and shocks are interchangeable. Towncar, Crown Vic, and Grand Marquis basically share the same chassis. The only difference I can think of is that the Towncar has air ride in the back.

Posted by: CTX-SLPR

do they all share the Watt's linkage in the rear instead of the panhard rod setup or is that TC only?

Posted by: thamarkman

yeah, all that is interchangeable.

Posted by: evillally

All Panther-platformed vehicles (Vic, Marq, Townie, Marauder) will interchange. Suspension, sways, brakes, even seats, etc.

If you want a tough-as-nails suspension, upgrade to Crown Vic's HPP sway bars. They are the thickest and ballsiest sways around, being thicker than the Police Interceptor's sway bars.

And as for the T-Car's "Touring Package", it's the same as the Vic Handling Performace Package (HPP).

Slide on down to www.crownvic.us for more Panther-related performance stuff...

Posted by: CTX-SLPR

thanks for the link evil,

Now my big question is what did they do to change the rear axle width in '03 so I can't run run the Marauder 18's without putting a rediculous spacer on it? Was is just a housing width change or did they mess with the suspension too?

Thanks,

Posted by: evillally

They changed alot. They changed from power-assisted components to rack-and-pinion, which messed with the offsets, etc. Unfortunately, you'll need the ridiculous spacers to run those Marauders or those nice 03+ 17 inch Touring wheels on the new T-Cars...

Posted by: CTX-SLPR

did they change the rear axle enough that I can't get one out of an '03+ crown vic and swap it?

Thanks,

Posted by: evillally

That may be possible, but I little experience with thew newer Panthers. Most of my knowledge is of 98-02...

Posted by: purelux

The 98+ touring also had a different "more agressive" torque converter for more spirited shifts. Also the dual exhaust and not sure if lsd accompinied it or if it just has the 3:55s with an open differential.

Quote:

Originally Posted by thamarkman

The Towncar does share brake and suspension components. Some things they may not share but could be easily installed. For example Towncars have air ride suspension in the rear. But yeah, its got an 8.8 rear so you can basically put in any gears that you want.
The Touring Sedan package is not available anymore. It was limited production, I think they only made it for 2 or 3 years. It has different wheels, the grill is blacked out, and the most important thing is that is has 3.55 gears in the rear end.

Posted by: 78_TownCar_460

I would have thought that a Lincoln touring axle would have been a little higher than that. The optional axle ratios on my town car were 2.50, 2.75 and 3.00.

Posted by: thamarkman

Lincoln probably thought that 3.73 would be a little too agressive for a luxury liner.

Posted by: gadget73

"not sure if lsd accompinied it or....."

Wait, you could get LSD included with a Lincoln purchase? Where the heck is that on the option sheet?!

Posted by: 78_TownCar_460

1986 Town Car? Traction-lok was available. Hmmm looks like the ratios available were 2.73:1 standard, 3.08:1 on the sig and cartier, and the 3.27:1 was included in the trailer package with dual exhaust but could be ordered seperately as well. I am guessing that the 3.27:1 was the traction-lok axle. Unless you know for sure, get shop manual and decode your VIN/body ID tags and find out what ratio you have. I think the lsd was included with the LSC, don't quote me on that though.

Posted by: l-m tech

Quote:

Originally Posted by CTX-SLPR

did they change the rear axle enough that I can't get one out of an '03+ crown vic and swap it?

Thanks,

the o3 rear end is wider and the shocks mount on the outside of the frame