Newb Mark VIII owner

L

LincTudor

Registered
Greetings! I just purchased a 94' Mark VIII w/ 105k from a guy who owned it for 1-1/2 year prior and put about 20k on it. He was nice enough to leave his receipts in the glove box so here's a rundown on the major stuff he's done to it:

3-7-08: R&R engine oil filer adaptor gasket (drivers side engine oil leak), radiator flush & stop leak
^^^ I noticed that the car still leaks a little antifreeze but it doesn't overheat at all. I haven't put it up on jacks to try to track it down yet, but it's coming somewhere from the passenger side. Obviously they didn't fix the original problem.
8-8-07: Two new tires (rear), replaced left rear diff insulator & bracket
7-28-07: Alignment (pulls to the right), could not alight, bent & broken parts, needs rear upper control arm (right), rear left subframe bushing bolt sheered off, unsafe for road conditions.
^^^ fixed on 8-8-07???
6-8-07: Replace two shock absorbers pn: F3LY-18125-A
2-14-07: Replaced strut rod bushings, two tires (front), replaced neg battery cable.
1-10-07: Installed Transgo shift kit, trans cooler (91,905 miles)
10-3-06: Replaced both rear suspension brackets
9-26-06: Replace front air struts, rear air springs, change air bags to struts, has own kit
9-6-06: Replaced passenger window motor, front pads & rotors.

The previous owner had the car lowered and said he did a 1-1/2" drop coil conversion, which I gather was done on 9-26-06 although the invoice is pretty sketchy. The suspension repairs continue from there. I wonder if the repairs were due to the coil conversion itself or just typical wear and tear. After driving it for a few days I've noticed a bumping coming from the front passenger wheel well area over rough roads - ball joints going out?

I started another thread about seeing what I could do about softening up the 1-2 shift on the Transgo kit. I've done some research on the issue and I'm hoping removing some washers from the 2nd accumulator will do the trick. We'll see.

On a curious note: While going through the original owners manual packet there's a warranty authorization card that says "1994 Mark VIII LSC 2-door" and the VIN matches up. I didn't think they started mading the LSC until 1995. If the '94 is an LSC, what are the distinctions between that and the base?

Well, that was the car's introduction. My intention is to do a budget restoration and make it a weekend cruiser. The paint isn't great (clear going in a couple of spots), but the body looks to be in great shape for the years. There's a couple of minor dents I think my PDR guy can smooth out for me just fine. My previous toy was an '03 Mercury Marauder that I had to part with due to financial reasons and I'm hoping to fill the void with this lovely coupe. I'm familiar with the engine and transmission, so at least I have that going for me.

Thanks for reading!
 
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Welcome to the finest Lincoln site on the web. You're right! No LSC til 95. Many errors show up that way all thru 95/96. Suffice it to say, you have a 94 Mark VIII Luxury Sport Coupe (but not an LSC).
 
Thanks for the welcome and the confirmation on the model year designation. Yes, it's quite a nice luxury sport coupe if not a true LSC. I just made my first two ebay purchases for it: a replacement "eyebrow" trim piece (the existing one has a crease/dent in it just off center) and a set of Ford service manuals.
 
If you ordered the service manuals from the same clown I ordered from, don't be surprised if it takes about 10 days to get your CD, and don't be surprised if it's for something obscure like a Ford Aspire.
 
Druid said:
If you ordered the service manuals from the same clown I ordered from, don't be surprised if it takes about 10 days to get your CD, and don't be surprised if it's for something obscure like a Ford Aspire.
Click to expand...

Hi Druid, I sure hope not. I paid a premium for "near new" shop and electrical books from an automotive collectibles book store out of IN. There are several other cheaper ones on ebay that were in various physical condition to take your chances on though.
 
LincTudor said:
Greetings! 7-28-07: Alignment (pulls to the right), could not alight, bent & broken parts, needs rear upper control arm (right), rear left subframe bushing bolt sheered off, unsafe for road conditions.
Click to expand...

Hey there! That doesn't sound good man....I'd check that out. :D
 
J said:
Hey there! That doesn't sound good man....I'd check that out. :D
Click to expand...

Yup, the car is sitting in the garage waiting on the service manuals to come in so I can start going over it. I'm hoping the 8-8-07 repair (replaced left rear diff insulator & bracket) took care of that issue but I'm planning on going through the suspension pretty thoroughly.
 
Welcome. You can always check our vendors for items, and if you are an LOD member you get a discount, too.
 
Thanks for all the welcomes.

I just received the Ford workshop and schematic manuals I bought on ebay and they are in great condition. I realize they all have the same info inside, I just like to keep nice books. I also ordered new stock 2nd accumulator parts ($46 for the piston, springs and cap) in preparation for what I find when I drop the pan. I don't mind how fast it the transgo kit shifts but the 1-2 is way too hard. I'll get a rebuilt b-c automotive vb if just doing that doesn't work out. Pity, the previous owner spent some pretty good money at a transmission shop to get it done in the first place.

My laundry list of things to do so for:
-replace the dented eyebrow (ordered on off of ebay, on its way)
-fix the "lasagna" rear window trim (trim repair kit on the way)
-soften up the 1-2 shift (2nd accumulator parts on the way)
-track down a thumping over bumps in the front end somewhere and generally inspect the rest of the suspension
-track down a vibration in the brakes
-general tune up (seamfoam, injector cleaner, plugs, wires, PCV valve, air & fuel filters)
-detail the engine bay (also need a front engine cover, found several on ebay)
-clean up the interior (a little grungy) and get a small tear in the driver's seat repaired
-polish the paint and see what I can so about 3 bad spots in the clear

I've been going over the forums and have found a lot of very useful information and will probably be posting quite a bit once I start properly going over the car. I'm going to try really hard to budget the repairs/restoration over several months and hopefully wind up with a nice car I can enjoy on the weekends. The stance and the potential was what sold me and I kinda knew it was going to take some work to get it into the shape I wanted. Let the fun begin!
 
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Trans-Go does not have a good rep with our trannies. You would be better off going to one of our vendors such as Blue Oval Chips for a valve-body and get rid of the Trans-Go if you plan on keeping the car.

Of course, your mileage may vary. ;)
 
Welcome to the Lincolns of Distinction!

Yes the service manual is your friend.

I can't imagine working on my cars without them. The basic stuff is easy enough, but anything to do with wires, and the manual is priceless.
 
driller, thanks for the lead on a valve body - I'll see how just replacing the 2nd accumulator parts works out first and then make a decision to also replace the vb.

Also, I think I tracked down the thumping and brake shudder to a worn driver's side upper ball joint and swaybar end links. The strut bushings have already been replaced and the lower ball joints seem to still be in pretty good shape. I priced out TRW UCAs and end links at Advanced and they're about what rockauto wants for them - this will be next month's project. The car's not going to move much until then anyway.
 
After replacing the 2nd accumulator parts per the update in the tech notes the 1-2 shift is now good to go. I posted a pic of the junk I pulled out of there in my other thread in the drivetrain forum.

The driver side UCA was the problem with the brake shudder. What a job that was, but thank God the info posted on the board made it at least so I didn't have to pull my hair out trying to figure out how to get the rear bushing bolt out. I picked up a 15 deg offset 18mm ratcheting and a six-point 15 mm box wrench at Sears and they were just the ticket. The one-click-at-a-time method to remove the rear bushing bolt nut worked like a charm. Since my car has coils I didn't have to remove the coil/strut completely to get the control arm bushing bolts in or out, but loosing the upper strut bolts and lowering / raising it a bit with a floor jack helped me maneuver around the back of the coil to tighten / torque the rear bolt (I used the one new bolt TRW gave me with the UCA, two would have been nice) from the wheel well with a 8" extension. I reused the old front bushing bolt after cutting down the flag with a cutoff wheel and was able to hold it well enough with the six-point wrench from the wheel well while I torqued the nut from the engine bay. I had to loosen the coolant bottle and power dist box mounts and move them aside a bit to get my torque wrench in there but that bolt was easy compared to the back one.

I also started to work on the paint on my free evenings (once or twice a week if I'm lucky). I wet-sanded the touch-up blobs someone got crazy with on the hood and bumper cover with 2000 grit paper and then shined up the hood using my Porter Cable random orbit polisher and the Sonus paint restore polish that came with the kit. There's still some scratches the polish didn't get out but I don't think I want to try anything too much more aggressive and start blowing through the clear. It looks good from 6 feet and it's a lot better than when I bought it. Now to polish the rest of the car and address the spots where the clear has already failed.
 
The saga continues...

The CEL started coming on intermittently after the battery had been disconnected for a couple of days so I read the codes via the STI connector jumper procedure and came up with a "172 HEGO lean passenger side". After some research on the forums I decided to try replacing the O2 sensors since the car has 105k on it and figured they were probably original and the PCM was just having a hard time adapting the fuel trims from zero after I hooked the battery back up. The sensors I pulled out had Ford FOSF-9F472-AA / NTK stamped on them, which I replaced them with Bosch 15716 from Advanced Auto ($46 ea).

The driver's side sensor was easiest to get to by using a boxed-end 22mm wrench from the top of the cat. Good thing the connectors slip right through the boxed end of the wrench. Neither sensor was on really tight so I guess I lucked out there, but getting the connectors on and off was a bear. I wound up buying a set of really long needle nose pliers and a 18" long 1/4" flat tipped screwdriver to manipulate the connectors because I wasn't getting anywhere just trying to use my hands. I couldn't even get close to the connector on the passenger side.

I also wound up renting Advanced Auto's O2 sensor removal kit for the passenger side and the 3/8" crows foot socket that came in it did the trick loosing it up, but I had to go buy a 3/8" ball-joint universal to clear the manifold. I fought with the new sensor for awhile to get the threads started because I only had just enough room to get my index fingers around each side of the manifold to turn it and by luck it finally dropped in straight. The manifold bolts and nuts were rusty enough for me to want to try this the hard way first, but I eventually got it. I made each sensor just "snug" in case I ever have to do this again.

I also found out the hard way that a previous owner had the hood repainted with a really thin single stage enamel (probably a cheap Maaco job) because I wound up getting to primer really quick while trying to polish out a scratch. After seeing the car for the first time really good in the sun I know I've got my work cut out for me because it seems a lot of people have taken their shot at it with their doors. Once I get caught up with the mechanical repairs I'm going to get started on the body work and either have my buddy paint it in enamel or give roller painting a shot myself. I've been reading up on roller painting and it looks like it might be a hoot to try out.
 
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