What did you do to your Mark VIII today?

Thaywood, make sure the driveshaft is not rubbing the insulation or whatever that stuff is above it. In reverse everything torques differently. Just a thought.

+1
Check trans mount, engine mounts.
Apply brakes while it grinds, see if it gets worse.
 
Spree, Ole Bruce has a Portofino blue he's parting out. (dbleb88@yahoo.com ) Don't bury it, SAVE IT !
 
Damn! That's not a good way to start the new year. I hope it can be fixed. You did so many improvements over the last year.
I put 3k into this car that wasn't worth it in the last 18 months because I liked it so much. I had everything done and this coming summer was suppose to be all body work, lsc bumpers, trim and paint, but I know my limits and can't fix this kind of damage. I'll try to get some pics up this weekend and see what you guy's think. Now that it's light out it looks like he got the drivers door a little also.

Spree you don't have to fix it its a life lesson your son will learn as he fixes it.
Wishful thinking but he doesn't know how to change the oil and has no desire to learn.

Spree, Ole Bruce has a Portofino blue he's parting out. (dbleb88@yahoo.com ) Don't bury it, SAVE IT !
Not sure what Bruce can do for me. I can replace anything but cutting off rear fender and welding on a new one is beyond my knowledge. Having someone else do it will probably cost too much.
 
When I have kids their first car will be a fixer upper, and they will have to do all the work themselves. It is an important lesson to not be helpless when it comes to your vehicle, and helps one not get ripped off when you do have to take it to a shop. It also helps them appreciate the value of a car and the work it takes to fix one. But that's me. I see too many people that can't even change a tire these days. It's easy to take advantage of a person who hasnt learned to do anything for themselves. So...the kid doesnt know how to fix a car? It is the perfect time to make him learn. ;)
 
Spree, I'm sorry about your Mark Viii, I hope everything works out. Did the kids apologize profusely or offer anything to fix it at least?

On to my awesome problem that fixed itself. Yesterday, my driver's side window switch would not roll down the window. I'd push it and nothing. However, the days before, it was working like normal. Well, today I tried again and it still did nothing. So I said to myself, man, I'm just gonna keep pushing it up and down, holding it down for about 4 seconds or so and then back up and down repeatedly. After a few times doing this, the window went down and now works like it should. So happy, because I was dreading figuring out why it was doing that. I guess I'll take the connectors apart and spray some electrical contact cleaner in there and dielectric grease it.
 
On to my awesome problem that fixed itself.

I'm glad your car decided to act proper! Usually I call it "Fonzie-ing it". Those problems you have sometimes where all you do is give it a wack and it starts working right again. I also advise people to "Just take it apart, then put it back together, and see if that helps." Oddly enough, it does help sometimes. I chalk it up to cleaning dirty contacts by reassembly. I also have an odd rear turn signal on my 1996 mark viii....sometimes the "check exterior lamps" warning comes on, and I have to go smack the car on the butt to make the left signal work again. Not just anywhere, but specifically a palm smack on the light housing on the outside driver's side of the car. It only happens about once a month. AAAAAAAYYYYY.
 
Today I installed a new EATC on my 98. The old one had gone bad, and the extra the previous owner gave with the car wasn't even close to the right unit. I bought another from thaywood's 97. Unfortunately the usps decided to make my job harder by shattering the housing in the mail. I took all the components out of the old case (4 small bolts) and inserted the new donor components. I then went about making sure all the bulbs were working. I can hardly believe that between the 3 EATCs I had on hand, there were only 4 working bulbs of 5 needed. I've been left with a whole bowl of bad little bulbs! The fan speed bulb was also burnt out on the donor unit, so I unplugged the old dial from the board of the fried EATC, tested the bulb, and plugged it into the new unit. I tested for good bulbs with one of those adjustable fuse testers with the little light. Test across the two contacts (or two wires on the fan dial) to check if the filament is broken. Sometime soon I will go to a pull-ur-part with my little fuse tester and hunt for more good bulbs.
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Today I installed a new EATC on my 98. The old one had gone bad, and the extra the previous owner gave with the car wasn't even close to the right unit. I bought another from thaywood's 97. Unfortunately the usps decided to make my job harder by shattering the housing in the mail. I took all the components out of the old case (4 small bolts) and inserted the new donor components. I then went about making sure all the bulbs were working. I can hardly believe that between the 3 EATCs I had on hand, there were only 4 working bulbs of 5 needed. I've been left with a whole bowl of bad little bulbs! The fan speed bulb was also burnt out on the donor unit, so I unplugged the old dial from the board of the fried EATC, tested the bulb, and plugged it into the new unit. I tested for good bulbs with one of those adjustable fuse testers with the little light. Test across the two contacts (or two wires on the fan dial) to check if the filament is broken. Sometime soon I will go to a pull-ur-part with my little fuse tester and hunt for more good bulbs.
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I'm glad it ended up working for you. It sucks it got broken :( Hopefully you'll get it all sorted out. The EATC on my '95 only has two working bulbs. I'll be trying to replace them sometime soon. But I have heard that the GEN1 EATC has bulbs soldered to the board. That's going to make things difficult.

And here are some pics of the Cougie with new paint!

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Ain't she purdy? :)

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wow T-Wood, the Cougie looks awesome
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Spree, sorry to hear about the wreckage; kids tend to disregard property....but definitely don't beat em with a belt, that just guarantees they'll beat your grandkids

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Today, I filled up with 87, then returned the PCM to stock, then put on the 87 octane SCT tune...this should should save me about $3.50 per fill-up, and I fill up the tank about 6x/month...I'm sick of my 90 mile/day traffic jam commute... soon I may live close enough I can walk to work
 
So. That was fun. I recently found a nice 97 sunroof to put into my 98. The one in my car is missing a bunch of the pieces to make it operate or even keep from flapping while driving. I noticed the headliner wasn't stock from the tutorials here on how to replace the moonroof. I was in for a surprise. When I started taking apart the headliner I noticed it was an aftermarket hack job from pieces of different cars, and the old headliner was unceremoniously chopped out from the edges. The second thing I noticed is that the switches for controlling the moonroof, and the dome lights are also from a gen1. Ok....so I take out the moonroof assembly, and go to put the new one in. The bolts don't match up to the roof piece! Looks like they retrofit a gen 1 moonroof into a gen II. So now I'm in search of the gasket/cutout piece for the roof of the car with the attachment points, the proper dome light/switch assembly and a proper headliner. Or should I just exchange the gen II moonroof to put back in a gen I?? Gah!
 
Think I'm going to be plugging in my block heater for the first time the next couple of days.

Lets pray it doesn't blow up.
 
Dreamie, are you sure it's not an aftermarket moonroof?

I'm not sure about a lot of things that were done to this car.

The moonroof rim has the number C-49X6-3794-BXX PBT
The motor has C-49X8-0026-BXX and MMR550-16

The glass is about 19 x 33

I need to identify this so I can get one to fit the hole.. the one I bought is 1/2" too small. Guh.

I think it's an ASC 840. I suppose I need to go to the yard and start measuring the moonroofs.....
 
front bumper swap, 95 LSC, the color matches, the grill is still a pita....broke several tabs

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I may pull the trigger on some 96 LSC housings...they have adapter rings on the high beams and oem lights in the low beams. Are the rings still available if I wanna use an aftermarket kit on the lows also?
 
Think I'm going to be plugging in my block heater for the first time the next couple of days.

Lets pray it doesn't blow up.


Well I gave it a test run and she didn't blow up or catch fire. :) This will be a blessing for the next couple days.

Should just move to New Jersey. I heard they don't need them there...

:cool:
 
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Lownslow- Gotta love our crappy winter this far. You'll all be happy to know the Mark hasn't seen any of it yet. I did fire it up today, then test the coolant, so when it hits -25 degress Monday night, the motor doesn't crack. I hate Wisconsin winters. I think "hell" would be a better name for my state. I wonder if my air bags will deflate at -25?
 

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