Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Please help an old-school mechanic

OK guys, I think I got my problems all figured out.

First off, the local Snap-On rep told me all about these metric sockets. They are even cooler than those Gator bits I saw on TV. - they seem to fit quite well on the Contour. I wish someone had brought up that whole metric thing a while ago, because now about half of the fasteners on my SVT have been abused into rounded-off oblivion.

I have to apologize for my previous post (the long one). It seems that no one takes me seriously. I guess I was on a little bit of a rant that day. But I get that way some days when the wife revs up the microwave and the plate in my head starts itching.

I managed to track down that misfire. Turns out it was related to a grounding problem. I did a search here on the CEG and found a few posts about redoing the ground loops, so I did the same for my SVT. I bought about 18" of 2g copper wire at Home Racer's Depot, re-annealed it in my oven (better safe than sorry), and then installed it under my hood. I also added a variable impedance capacitor in series so I could fine tune the response. I did a couple of high-rpm blasts through the alley behind the party store and the problem seems to have gone away.

By the way, there was a lot of chatter earlier about the Ides of March. Dunno where that came from, but I know for a fact that it was the Kingston Trio that pioneered that song. Then apparently Iron Maiden and Bill Shakespeare ripped them off.

And lastly, I don't want to talk about helicopter turbines. That whole Sandinista chapter of my life is over. Someone needs to tell Mr. North that too.

-Harden

[quote=Buzz Green
It sounds like you might be running a little rich, in which case I would use a octane booster, this should get your plugs nice and clean.

---

Good point Buzz. I wanted to reply sooner, but I had a job interview... at Steve's Tire up near Springfield. first things first! Ha ha.

One other excellent trick for removing carbon deposits from the pistons, spark plugs and valves is to trickle some water into the intake. I learned this trick a long time ago when my dear old Citation used to suffer from a combination of pre-ignition & combustion itching. Back then it was easy with TBI - just drip the water in the intake hole. With the the modern Contour/Mystique setup, I ususally just thread the hose up past the MAF, making sure not to tangle the butterflies. Start the motor and let it warm up at idle for about 30 minutes, then turn the water on. Not too much!! Just a trickle until you see steam coming out the exhaust pipes. Let that drip for about 20 minutes, feathering the throttle up to about three grand and back to idle. If you have an OBDII device, you can monitor richness and O2 ratio, which will tend to drift due to the supersaturated exhaust.

It works wonders. Clears the carbon out. Then you can do an old fashioned "italian tuneup" by driving the car and letting the motor bounce off the rev limiter a time or two. It's amazing the difference. It's completely reduced my need to run Octane Booster. Now just plain 86 octane at the Clark station is all I need. Isn't it great the way a little effort can really take care of problems.

Bud Miller

** No mystake, it's a Mystique **

Oh yea, I was gonna point that out. Probably 90% of parts on these cars require metric sockets.

I really don't see any point in converting to drum brakes. Disc brakes will stop better and are less prone to heat exhaustion.

Originally posted by HThomas:

---

I also added a variable impedance capacitor in series so I could fine tune the response.

---

Say what?? Im confused.

Harden, you're a funny bastard

Quote:

---

I think if the TPS was bad, it would throw a code being too rich or lean. It can only compensate something like 30% rich or lean before throwing a code. Wouldn't the TPS cause driveability problems as well?

---

No, I verified it's not a TPS problem. I broke out the modern-day divining rod (also know as the Fluke multimeter) and measured voltage output as a function of throttle plate angular displacement. To measure that angle I just hooked up a little lightweight fish scale tension spring in series with a potentiometer to the throttle arm, measured spring extension as various throttle openings, and converted to degrees using the arctangent function in Excel. The resulting angle vs. volts transfer function is quite linear (albeit showing some hysteresis)and verifies that the TPS is ok.

Quote:

---

I really don't see any point in converting to drum brakes. Disc brakes will stop better and are less prone to heat exhaustion.

---

You totally missed the 50s, didn't you? Those drum brakes could last forever, baby. As you probably noticed with my Polara, I set my cars up for the long haul. So, as preventative maintenance, I figure drums will be a good swap, since they seem to last forever. Also, I can then sell my disks to one of those Zetec gomers that wants to upgrade and add another mod to their CEG signature. Lastly, have you been able to find any asbestos disk brake pads? No, I didn't think so. If you want the real deal (asbestos), you gotta go drums.

About the ground loop: I added the capacitor to act as a ground loop filter, to quell some of those grounding transients. I have heard that on cold start, the ground loop can get very spiky and even approach instability. And if the ground loop is iffy, then what about all the electronical circuits that reference it? Garbage in, garbage out. So I got this little capacitor at Radio Racer's Shack. The kid there was even nice enough to put my name, number, and address in their database so they can contact me about exciting offers in the future.

-Harden

Yea, only being 17, I guess I did miss the 50's

Maybe someone else can chime in about the about the life of their disc brakes, but from what i've seen they last quite well. My mystique has 61,000 miles on it and the disc brakes are perfectly fine. (Yes, I know that's nothing compared to what your polara had when you retired it) I guess it all depends on how hard you are on the brakes.

Oh yea, haven't they stopped using asbestos in brake "shoes" too?? I do believe asbestos causes cancer