Business Name

Brake Work

1989 Mercury Cougar XR7

I started off the day realizing that I forgot to plug in the TPS and IAC and that I had buried the harnesses under the inlet, but was able to dig them out. I also realized that I had installed the snout seal backwards.  I took the pulley back off to look at it and decided to just keep it as it was and see what happens. After that, I got the fittings from the old radiator transferred over, and installed the radiator. I also ran the transmission cooler lines and installed the new radiator hoses. Additionally, I placed the Intercooler, upper IC tube, SC top, and fan back in their original locations.  I also installed some new battery terminals as the originals were getting pretty worn out. It seems like I spent a lot of time on little stuff today, but this evening I was able to get it started! Fired right up on the first try.

After a minor coolant leak and transmission fluid leak was fixed, the car seems to be running pretty well. The engine vacuum sits a little low on the gauge, which I had hoped fixing the broken lines and resealing everything would fix. It will bump up to the proper vacuum if you play with the throttle a bit, so who knows. I let it get up to temperature, and then drained the oil. It came out looking perfect, so I hope I got all the moisture out of the motor.  I'll run some fresh oil for a few hundred miles, and then dump it again just to make sure, and then dump in some good stuff. Other than a small exhaust leak on the passenger side manifold, everything seems to be operating as expected. I'll have to get that taken care of some day.

The next thing of importance will be bleeding the brakes and getting everything with that working again, so I can actually take the car down the road. At that point, the major mechanical issues should be taken care of, and I can start getting some body panels hung.

December 9, 2007

Not a whole lot to report, as I didn't get much accomplished over the past few days. I wasn't overly motivated and was even less so when I ran into problems. I went out to bleed the brakes on Saturday, and found that I couldn't get any fluid out of the rear caliper. The car has a some what primitive ABS system, and is prone to issues. In order to bleed the rear brakes, you have to have the key on, so the ABS Pump Motor can run and allow fluid to the rear. After some trouble shooting and ruling out a few other components, I tracked the issue down to a dead ABS motor. I have a spare, but I still will have to pull the whole hydraulic actuator assembly to change the ABS motor.

Also, while I was getting ready to bleed the rear brakes, I notice the pads are getting thin, and the rotors are in need of attention. I found the fronts to not be that much better, so I'm going to replace the pads and rotors all the way around. I now have a plan of attack, but other than getting the car in the air, the wheels off, and brake unit unplugged, I really didn't get much accomplished. With finals and working extra hours this week, I doubt I will get much more than parts ordered. Hopefully by the end of next weekend, the brakes will be taken care of and it will be mechanically road worthy.

December 15-16, 2007

Not much has happened over the past 2 weeks. With the weather being cold and my dislike of brake work, I haven't been too motivated. I did get some work done this past weekend though. The big project was to pull the entire ABS hydraulic actuator assembly and get the pump motor swapped over. I managed to do that and get it installed and working Saturday night.

On Sunday, I installed new pads and rotors in the front and rear and bleed/flushed the brake system. Once that was all done, I discovered the ABS accumulator is bad. I was sort of expecting it to be, as it is very common and the previous owner thought it was going bad when it was on his car. The good news is it's easy to change.  The bad news is it runs about $100 and comes from the original maker in Germany, via a distributor in Texas, who wasn't open today. So, I'll call them on Wednesday and hope they have one in stock. Once I can get that changed, the car should have working brakes for the first time in over a year. Pretty boring pictures this time...

December 29-30, 2007

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