83 Lincoln Continental

[Adam]

It's alive!!

I had to drop the tank again to get the filler tube in, but it's running now. It started up with only 1 gallon of fuel in there (before it would only start with the tank more than 1/2 full), and no leaks.

Next up, I have to take the dash apart and fix (in order of priority):

1. The AC - Strangely, it's not loosing it's charge, but it's leaking a puddle of a clear liquid onto the carpet whenever I run it. (There's a sticker under the hood that says it was converted to R134, so at least if I do have to replace the evaporator, I don't have to track down cans of R12)

2. Replace the vacuum operated switch that releases the parking brake. I just disconnected it and plugged the hose. It was leaking vacuum. I have a new one, but there is one screw that holds it in going into the firewall, located directly above the steering column, that I just can't get to from below the dash.

3. Heater - the heater core is leaking, and I bypassed it last winter.

4. Radio stuff - Replace the 2 blown speakers on the left. In the radio itself: clean dirty controls, cassette player.

5. The computer that calculates DTE "distance to empty" always thinks I'm out of gas and beeps and flashes 0. The problem is intermittent (occasionally it just starts working), and isn't a stuck sending unit because the fuel gauge works. Also, the mpg calculator works, so at least part of the computer knows there's gas.