What have you done to your wagon lately? (Let's keep the thread going!)

Welp, today was "take care of a bunch of little annoying things" day.

Found, cut back and replaced the wires to the washer fluid "low level"sensor float switch/pick up tube, that somehow, magically stop's the washer pump from working. The float switch/pick up tube was toast so I jumped the wires in the plug (to fool the pump into thinking it has fluid, I guess) and ordered a new float switch. (whew, harder to explain, than to do.

Changed oil, filter, added a quart of MMO and tightened up all the coolant hose clamps, cleaned the battery terminals, (a monthly drill here in the land of humidity) Soaked down all the shock bolts.(gonna change the fronts next week, so I soak 'em 3 or 4 times a week, prior to breaking/cutting them all off, roflamo.) Ordered new rubbers and hardware for the front stabilizer bar, (OEM, beat to death)

Ran all the trans pan and oil pan bolts, should slow down the little leaks.

Hit all the zerk fittings a short shot of grease, U joints too.

In case you are wondering what caused this short flurry of activity, I have to make a 400 mi. round trip to Ft. Lauderdale on Saturday and this is the first time leaving town with the "new to me" Way Cool Wagon, so I took out a little insurance.

We're off to see the wizard...

Paul

 

Smart prep for trip.
Have new shocks for Rambler. I should do same before changing.

 

Getting ready for cold weather

This time of year is a little sad because we have to put them up for storage.

 

Did the round-trip to Lincoln City and back yesterday in the pouring rain. It was supposed to get pretty cold, with a chance of sleet / snow. While they got some snow / ice further north in Portland, I was OK. Only hiccup was a windshield washer tube (metal, on the hood), rubbing against the wiper linkage. Annoying - took most of the trip to figure it out and fix it.

 

While we don't have to do that down here, we did wake up to 29 degree temperatures here. We usually get a couple weeks of those temperatures in the winter but not in the fall so if it is like that here I can only imagine up north!
I had to wash my wagon to take it to the "Touch a Truck" event tomorrow. I waited until noon for it to warm up some but it was still too cold for my taste to be playing with the water...should have done it earlier in the week when the weather was nice!

 

We parked ours too, where are you located?

 

I love getting to drive my cars nearly year-round! The only thing that really stops us is the occasional snowstorm, and our annual ice storm. All this puts ours off the road less than one month, total! In fact, my '86 Ford CS wagon is one of the best-handling snow and ice cars I've ever owned...and I grew up driving in Colorado! I throw three sandbags in the back and go.

I do need to get shocks put on the wagon soon, though. It's still running the originals after 76K miles and nearly 30 years.

 

Patrick, my experience with these cars is that, if not abused, the factory shocks last about 130,000 miles. That may be pushing it a little but not much. The Ford gas shocks are available, but you need to find a dealer with the books, as they are not in the computer.

 

Getting ready for cold weather

Stop making me think about it. For the past 20 years I could pretty much drive anything year around except for the occasional hurricane or storm. And that was often with windows down.
Son called yesterday and told me about the blowing snow where he lives in central Illinois. I don't even think my 55 Chevy wagon has antifreeze right now.

 

The water pump on mine is whining... I might change it or just drive it till failure.

 

I'm checking mine out to see how much damage was done in the accident last Friday night.

 

You were in an accident last Friday? I'm guessing that you are fine but your car not so much?

 

Just the car was. It was idling in front of my office and jumped out of park. It hurdled a parking stop, ran over a sign, then bounced through a ditch. Final damage is two messed up bumpers, a blown driver's door hinge???, and damage to the right rear quarter where the bumper was pushed up into it.

 

That's no good! I hope it's only minor damage.

 

so the ecm in the 84 bow tie estate finally gave up the ghost the insulation on the wiring harness rotted away in a bunch of spots and just turned to dust. it killed two ecms.i guess it is from being cleaned real good and not just being soaked in oil all the time since i installed the new motor. i am worried about the rest of the wiring harnesses. so the car has a new edelbrock performer 600 cfm carb, a new hei distributor with adjustable vacuum advance and the timing recurved for the 400. and last but not least a b&m adjustable torque converter control module, to run the new 700r4 transmission that installed a few weeks ago. so i guess now i can put in a nice cam and lifter set, and not have to worry about what the ecm will think. however i am really going to miss cruise control. so i guess i traded a little luxury for reliability.. it is a safe trade to me.