It Rains AND it pours.

[Condor Legion]

vu utz zut sz;oiut!

1st: Saturday evening I'm showing off my engine to a Mustang fanatic and I smell anti-freeze real strong. Lo and behold, the line that comes in at the top drivers side rear of the radiator is weeping, badly. Looks to be fixable...

2nd: Monday morning is greeted by the soothing sounds of a waterfall behind the dashboard...Or, it might have been soothing if it was one of those stupid moodmachines and not my beloved L. No sweat, I gotta fresh brand spankin new heater core sittin on the shelf for next summers overhaul.

3rd: Today (Wed), I'm tooling along at about 70mph, when I suddenly notice my speedometer needle drop like a rock to zero mph. As my brain registers this rather disturbing development, the ABS light blinks once, then goes all solid yellow. It dawns on me that... The overdrive light on the shifter begins blinking repeatedly. At highway speeds now estimated, nothing else happened, no bizzare shiftchanges, no billowing smoke or fluid so I kept on driving home. Once I got off the highway and on to the local side streets, I quickly discovered extremely hard upshifts, esp. between 1st and 2nd (borderline whiplash) with much higher than normal revs on the tach, slightly milder shifts from 2nd to 3rd (still stiffer than usual though) and an occasional rough downshift. This ain't good. All the fuses checked good. Nonono, this ain't good at all. I'm figgering speed sensor is fubared and thats making the trannie maniacal. but it's dark and wet and cold out there and I ain't gonna look or freakout anymore until tomorrow morning.

4th: I also noticed that I no longer have that ratcheting noise from my emergency brake and no E-Brake light on the dash.

Interestingly enough none of this is covered by the parts that I've already stockpiled for next summers slow motion restoration except the heater core...

Guess I didn't get the "These Things Fail at 131,000 miles." memo...

BUNUVASITCH!,
CL

 

[paul12]

I am with you dude......Have you noticed my posts lately? I have replaced a list of parts as long as my arm over the last 4 or 5 weeks. I just came in from replacing the air pump. I wonder what will break next week? I have around 110k on my truck. It is also an everyday driver.

 

[Nick Wilson]

If the radiator leak is on the upper nipple by the neck take off the line and inspect the nipple. I've had this happen twice. It ended up being a small grain of dirt blocking it. Your tripped out dash sounds like a loose ground. Same thing happend to my when I got my truck back from the shop. They didn't tighten anything, including the grounds.

 

[FMOS Racing]

Item # 3 is a piece of cake - definitely the speed sensor. I think they're about $15 and 15 minutes to change.

 

[LW93Rcode]

#2,the heater core is fairly simple also. Just did mine the other day in under an hour. ITs behind the glovebox. Two hoses, and 9 bolts(2 for the ABS computer, and 7 for the cover), rearrange some vacuum lines and out it comes. I guess with the high milers coming up we need to put a Restoration forum on the board

 

[Condor Legion]

From the top...

#1: Nick Wilson was right on the mark. A little piece of whatsit that popped out of the nipple end with the help of a piece of wire.

#2: Yeah, heater core alright. Like I said, I'd already planned to do it this coming summer, this was just a bit ahead of schedule.

#3: FMOS takes the win on this one. Speed sensor went south all at once. However, over here on the right coast I found the wholesale cost of the speed sensor (NAPA part# VRR313) to be $29.50, even with my employee discount it was still 20 bux. Now, I suppose this might have been a 15 minute job for a working mechanic...Which I ain't. The sensor housing was throughly rusted and corroded which resulted in it snapping in half during the removal process...Off with the rear cover. On eyeball inspection the guts appear to be intact and unscarred. I used blue RTV silicon for the gasket (zat ok, or did I screw that up?) when I replaced the cover. I also have a question about just how much rear lube fluid I should have used. I guesstimated about 4 quarts from the amount in the catch-pan and ended up with just under 4 actually going in. (damn, that stuff stinks!). The whole process took just over three hours, including a half hour wait for the part to come in from the warehouse (what, you thought it was actually gonna be in store stock? HA!), and a 45 minute diagnoses session early this am. Just to be on the safe side, I also re-set the computer, then drove 65 miles to Annapolis and back. It's all good and either I'm damn lucky or I've learned more than even I thought from reading this board...or both. A couple of quick burn-outs confirmed that the Trac-Lock was still operating as designed. Another question, do ALL L rears say Eaton on them?

#4: I have not even looked at the e-brake situation yet, I hardly ever use the thing anyway and as long as it ain't gonna cause an abrupt 360, I ain't gonna worry about it...for now.

Once again, NLOC comes through. Even as the speed sensor was going south, I was recognizing symptoms I'd already read about on this board. I was actually proud of myself and the rest of you L geeks this morning when the Fluke confimed that nobody was home in Speedsensorville.

TOUCHDOWN,
CL

 

[Abby Normal]

Where Y'at Condor, Did you put the Friction Modifier in your rear end earl? Just askin cause if you think the gear lube stinks you ain't smelled nutin' yet! Without it you'll burn up the clutches in the rear. Brake out the close pin for your nose.

 

[Thundrn_Lightning]

Eaton? I hope you're not kidding. If it really says that, there's your extra point.

Go Steelers,

 

[LW93Rcode]

Yeah, looks like someone's already redone the rear!

 

[run351]

just make sure when you install the sensor you remember to disconnect the computer to reset the ECC memory.
The rough shifts should be gone anf the shifts should go back to normal. I am however alittle confused why the ABS came on, when the sensor I had failed.
The ABS never blinked or anything. But due to the bouncing speedo the tranny did go into failure mod.
I only hope you did not break anyteeth off ring gear or worse. that will also chew up the sensor and cause failure mod.
John O

 

[FMOS Racing]

The rear ABS in the truck gets its signal from the speed sensor, too.

Well, CL, my lil' ol' southern truck didn't have none o' dat rust stuff. Sorry for misleading you on that one.

Keep a close watch on your rear diff temperatures for a little while - just give it a palm-of-the-hand test. Warm, even uncomfortably, is OK. If it's HOT, though, you've got too much fluid and too much slippage.

 

[Brian Baskin]

Every dark cloud has a silver lining, I guess now you know you have a better rear-end I'll trade ya!
Then again, it's said every silver lining's got a touch of grey