Sooner Schooner ongoing impressions

Ouch on the t-stat! Glad to see that was an easy fix. Apparently that was not replaced when the water pump was! Those look like capillary tubes - you might have found the problem.

 

It appears that I am getting some air flow to the defroster, just not as much as I would have expected. Probably usable for now. The heater really delivers the goods with the new thermostat.

Looks like the WW is acting up again. I am not getting any fluid delivered to the windshield and once I press the stalk in to activate the washers the wipers will not stop until I turn the ignition off and back on. When I get a day off I will take a closer look at the washer problem. There are universal nozzles available pretty cheaply so will see if it looks like they will work. One of the things I never liked about modern cars is that they automatically run the wipers when you use the washers. Do they figure that we are too stupid to turn on the wipers ourselves. It really works better IMO if one lets a decent supply of fluid hit the windshield before starting the wipers. I am tempted to add a separate switch to run the pump motor.

It is a little fidgety getting the wipers to park (have to turn off at just the right moment). Is there some kind of logic circuit to control that or is it likely just a tired combination switch? At appears that these switches are not all that expensive.

Just working through the gremlins bit by bit. I still love the car more each time I drive it. The grandkids thought it was kind of fancy.

mike

 

I replaced the wiper motor because it refused to park. When the switch was turned OFF, the wipers would park straight up. No finagling of the switch did anything to correct that. So, it sounds like the problem now is at the switch.

I ended up having to glue the wiper nozzle in place, since it broke off at the base. As I had no source for a new one, and every junked car I saw had the same issue. Sounds like that came unglued, and you're not getting a spray in the windshield.

 

Curious... WW is working fine today.<insert scratch head emoticon> The only thing I can figure is that maybe the cold weather caused fluid to freeze in the hose. Not sure why that would cause the wipers to not stop though. Anyway, I added some Rain-x -25deg (orange) washer fluid and will see what happens at the next cold snap.

It is kind of an odd washer nozzle. If I ever have to switch to a universal kit I will have to rig up my own mounting setup but I don't think it would be too hard.

The hardest thing to get used to is crawling up onto the engine to reach things. It reminds me of working on Dad's Chevy C20 Suburban. We often ended up sitting on the radiator with our feet straddling the fan. With the little Tracker I can just about reach anything standing on either side. I did a lot of the work when changing the timing belt on the Tracker while seated on a stool in front of the car. Still wouldn't trade old iron sides for a dozen trackers.

mike

 

OK, a few days ago when it was above freezing everything was working right. I figured out the washer problem. It was just that the nozzle was obstructed because of snow down in the cowl. We had light snow today and much colder temps. Temps in the low 20's and high wind. The washer is still working but again the wipers won't stop after using the washers unless the engine is turned off and back on.

Anyone have any clue what might be causing that??? I thought it might be ice preventing the wipers from going all the way down but after turning engine off and back on the wipers will park fine.

If anyone has any reference material on how the wiper control mechanism works I would be grateful!

mike

 

Mike, I have a very similar problem with the '86. I've had to turn the engine off, then on again to park the wipers. That's happened twice now. Once in fairly warm weather (55*) and once this week with 10* weather. Weird Ford thing, who knows? I'm curious to the cause, too.

 

Wonder if it is the wiper control module. I suppose it is under the dash somewhere.

mike

 

Found this on a Ford truck site: "Wipers won't park after using washer function"
http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/5...-not-park-after-using-washer-no-cost-fix.html

I have no idea if it's the same design as the Schooner, but might be worth a look!

 

Wow, that is good to know! Thanks!

 

As promised in the winter storm thread (see pic in that thread) some impressions of her winter prowess.

I put on about 60 miles today and she did quite well. Of course the long wheel base leads to rather good directional stability especially in comparison to the Tracker which likes to swap ends at the slightest provocation. Unevenness in the snow pack that would send the Tracker into a series of mad pirouettes produced just a little twitch.

One thing one has to be careful of is that the lush ride includes a tendency to disguise a bit of what is happening as there is little in the way of road feel in the traditional sense. One has to keep alert to visual and other clues or it can be a lot like trying to fly VFR in IFR conditions. Also that lovely ride allows you to get going faster than you realize so one has to be sure to watch their speed as Newtonian physics still applies.

She also did better than I expected on the mostly un-shoveled driveway. The snow was deep enough that the undercarriage did shave a bit off of the top but I was able to maintain enough traction to motor through easily with almost no need for back and forth rocking. I don't think that this car has limited slip but I never found myself unable to start out in the deep stuff or on the glazed snow. I suspect that glazed snow and ice will be the most difficult situations especially at uphill intersection starts but so far no problems. The only shoveling I did was a staging area at the entrance to the driveway and I cleared out a foot or two in front of and behind the tires.

As to the washer issues it seems that as long as I refrain from multi-tapping the washer it works OK. I have to discipline myself to push once and hold for a few seconds and then it seems to stop as intended. It seems that a double or triple tap confuses it somehow.

mike

 

P.S. After Church today one of my fellow attendees saw me approaching Old Ironsides and struck up a conversation. His first comment was "I want one of those sooooo bad". It seems that wagon love is not dead in the good old US of A.

mike

 

I love the way that Merc tracked in the snow! The '86 Ford is the same way. It'll do a safe 35-40 mph on snowpacked roads, and tracks very well. These are really pretty impressive cars in a snow and ice situation!

 

Rule number one for winter with these cars is GET SNOW TIRES ON STEEL RIMS. The 15X6 1/2 black steel rim is readily available. Pirelli, Yokahama, Toyo, GoodYear, and even Hankook make terrific winter tires for these cars. Getting them moving is not the problem. Stopping 2 tons of tank takes grip, and don't forget the IDIOT FACTOR! Somehow, it seems that idiots just cannot see these large cars, and I have no idea just why that is. I have driven very long distances, and just ahead of the road being closed, and there is nothing like these great cars for getting you there safely.

 

We get mostly ice in Oklahoma, so a quality all-season tire works well here. Finding snow tires here is nearly impossible - we just don't get enough snowfall for tire stores to carry snow tires. You can order them, of course, but the expense really isn't justified for maybe six to eight weeks of use. I grew up driving in Colorado, so it's no big issue to me. It's watching for the assclowns out there that think having either all-wheel-drive or 4WD (even just front-drive!) makes them invincible, is what is the difficult thing about driving here in those conditions. It's a good thing that local media does such a great job of making the inexperienced snow & ice drivers paranoid about driving, so there are not a lot on the roads, initially.

 

Years ago, driving from Toronto to Montreal, I hit glare ice about half way. I was driving my brother's old 81 Volvo wagon on Gislaved Norfrost 1 winter tires. I looked in the mirror and was very surprised, as there was one set of tracks visible in the ice, and they were from the Gislaveds. They weren't even studded and were chewing ice. Turned that rear wheel drive little tank into a beastie that could rescue Jeeps.