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  #91  
Old 06-05-2013, 07:49 PM
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leadlike leadlike is offline
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Ah, Rod! Your '91 Tempo brings back many wonderful memories of why I will never own a Ford again! My wife had that same year in red, and it was a dog through and through! Hope you never have to change a water pump on that thing!

It went to the shop over and over again for a deafening bearing noise-no shop could ever determine the cause, but all of the pulley components were changed over about a zillion times. It ate serpentine belts and bled oil everywhere-with only 60k on the odometer!

I did a lot of work on that car in the 18 months that we had it, and most of the respect I lost from Ford was how poorly their shop manual was written for that car. I don't know how many times I would come upon some cramped assembly that obviously required a special tool to change it out, and the Ford manual simply stated "take out the old one and put a new on in". Just shameful!

My last drive in it was nice. I had to drive it 5 miles to the dealership for a trade in. While it had been fine the day before, on this day, I started it up, and I had no power steering. I popped the hood, and was greeted to a running engine with no motion on the serpentine belt. So, I sped off to the dealership with no AC, alternator, water pump or power steering and crawled onto the lot with an overheated, dead battery mess. They still took it, though.
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  #92  
Old 06-06-2013, 08:30 PM
Rod Beauvex Rod Beauvex is offline
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Yikes, sounds like you got a lemon. Mine has been alright as far as reliabilty and driveability since I've had it, thankfully. I did have to replace the starter on it. The air doesn'r work in it though, and I've had little problems, like the AC switchbox not working properly, the headlight switch is also messed up, and has one hairtrigger position that lights bot hthe headlight and tail lights. It's one of Ford's lower end cars, that much is obvious, and with it's boxy appearence, OHV motor and 3 speed auto, was dated in 91 and especially 94 when it was discontinued.
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  #93  
Old 06-11-2013, 07:33 PM
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StellarTV StellarTV is offline
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Here's me with my car Clyde, a 1957 Imperial. Aka "Clyde the Ride"



I built this replica of KITT from Knight Rider out of an 82 Trans Am. Sold late last year, sadly.

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  #94  
Old 06-11-2013, 08:38 PM
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Sandy G Sandy G is offline
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Join Date: May 2003
Location: Rogersville, Tennessee
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LOVE that Imperial...1st use of curved sideglass on a "Major" brand...That, & the heroic Exner fins...Possibly the BEST looking car of 1957..
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  #95  
Old 06-11-2013, 09:26 PM
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truetone36 truetone36 is offline
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I wish I still had my '59 Imperial.
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  #96  
Old 06-11-2013, 11:10 PM
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Jon A. Jon A. is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Canada
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My favorite Imperial is the 1966 "Black Beauty" from the Green Hornet TV series. It's also the only custom car I really like. The car I want most though is a base model 1981 or 1982 Mercury Lynx 2-door in medium blue metallic with a medium wedgewood blue interior, 4-speed manual and of course one of my factory 8-track stereos. Here's a pic of one, but in a different color.

Last edited by Jon A.; 09-29-2015 at 04:16 PM.
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  #97  
Old 06-12-2013, 09:14 AM
dieseljeep dieseljeep is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rod Beauvex View Post
Yikes, sounds like you got a lemon. Mine has been alright as far as reliabilty and driveability since I've had it, thankfully. I did have to replace the starter on it. The air doesn'r work in it though, and I've had little problems, like the AC switchbox not working properly, the headlight switch is also messed up, and has one hairtrigger position that lights bot hthe headlight and tail lights. It's one of Ford's lower end cars, that much is obvious, and with it's boxy appearence, OHV motor and 3 speed auto, was dated in 91 and especially 94 when it was discontinued.
My brother bought a 1990 Mercury Topaz for his wife, at the end of the model year.
The car had many options on it for a $9,000 car. Air, power windows, auto transmission and stereo radio and tape, etc. Also a decent color exterior. Deep metallic red. They only drove it for fifteen years.
Crazy little problems like an accelerator cable that snapped in heavy traffic and a few other minor problems.
Good value for the money.
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  #98  
Old 06-12-2013, 09:24 AM
dieseljeep dieseljeep is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandy G View Post
LOVE that Imperial...1st use of curved sideglass on a "Major" brand...That, & the heroic Exner fins...Possibly the BEST looking car of 1957..
It's too bad so many of them were scrapped early in their life. The MoPars of the day, didn't have much of a demand on the used car market. Poor fit and finish, as well as an early rusting problem, sealed their demise.
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  #99  
Old 06-12-2013, 09:39 AM
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RobtWB RobtWB is offline
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kv-1926r,

why would anyone want one of those pieces of poo ...

had one, 1982, lynx, black with red interior, 4cyl., manual transmission
purchased new (ok-i was young and didnt know any better)

what a embarrassment for the Ford Motor Company




thankfully ... nearly all of the escort/lynx have found their way to scrap yards and recycle mills
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  #100  
Old 06-12-2013, 09:53 AM
dieseljeep dieseljeep is offline
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Originally Posted by RobtWB View Post
kv-1926r,

why would anyone want one of those pieces of poo ...

had one, 1982, lynx, black with red interior, 4cyl., manual transmission
purchased new (ok-i was young and didnt know any better)

what a embarrassment for the Ford Motor Company




thankfully ... nearly all of the escort/lynx have found their way to scrap yards and recycle mills
You should have bought a Chevy Citation and found out what a real piece of junk was. How many GM "X" cars survived the test of time.
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  #101  
Old 06-12-2013, 10:11 AM
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RobtWB RobtWB is offline
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yeah ... one seldom sees a GM X car, or the escort/lynx on the road today
same with the Chrysler K's ... they are disappearing fast as well ...
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  #102  
Old 06-12-2013, 10:37 AM
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Username1 Username1 is offline
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Location: Orange County NY
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I disagree on the K cars.... I still see a few running around NY, and with little rust. The Escorts usually had the motor blow up after 70K miles, junk yards here had tons of them with no heads. X-cars also filled the junk yards pretty early... They didn't even get time to rust.... Both of them almost as bad as Yougo's, which I have seen a few in the junk yards with their original battery.... That's pretty bad...

A strange thing on batteries, Both our ford/mercury LTD's (79 & 87) had the original Ford battery live for 9 years.....
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Last edited by Username1; 06-12-2013 at 10:40 AM.
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  #103  
Old 06-12-2013, 01:10 PM
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DavGoodlin DavGoodlin is offline
Motorola Minion
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: near Strasburg PA
Posts: 3,400
K-cars were easy to get parts for and keep running. My parents ordered a Reliant SE wagon with a 2.2 liter (I advised against the 2.6 mitsubishi, though it might have had more torque) and 4-speed and that K was a much better car than my Grandmas 1980 Pontiac Phoenix, which caused her first (and last) accident with its wacky-ass brakes. Changing the plugs on the back half of the 2.8 V6 was a pain, but it was a good motor. I still cant believe she traded a 1969 Mercedes 220 diesel for that POS

K's did have a negative image from day 1 because it was a result of a government "Bailout" IIRC, but Lee Iacocca had a good design compared to others. Too bad they never redesigned the transmission enough when they started making Voyagers and Caravans.

I could never get an Escort or Lynx to run right with that Italian-made Holley 2V progressive linkage carburetor. I had to buy a rebuilt carb every time.
A friend replaced the clutch on his girlfriend's Escort then found out the cheap firewall was flexing when the clutch pedal was pushed, after he was finished.

Yeah - the 80s...good electronics but not such good cars
I was sick when family members traded good, but worn 60's and early 70s cars in for that JUNK!!
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  #104  
Old 06-12-2013, 01:22 PM
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Jon A. Jon A. is offline
Don't mess with Esther.
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Canada
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I make no apologies for my taste in cars.

Last edited by Jon A.; 06-12-2013 at 01:54 PM.
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  #105  
Old 06-12-2013, 01:52 PM
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Username1 Username1 is offline
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Location: Orange County NY
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There were a number of fords where the dash flexed and broke with the new hydrologic clutch mounted on the fire wall. Place I worked had a f150 4x4 '87 inline 6 with that clutch failing a few times.... Pain to get that fixed. A friend had a T-bird with clutch cable, still cracked the fire wall.

KV- you can have the car of your dreams...... but that car was a nightmare for a bunch-a-people.... I worked on many of those first run Escorts, they were sorry to say really cheap junk. I'm sure those and X cars helped sell lots of Honda's and Toyotas.... The Quad 4 sold me my Prelude.
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Last edited by Username1; 06-12-2013 at 01:58 PM.
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