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Topic: Hooray for functioning gauges! (Read 701 times) previous topic - next topic

Hooray for functioning gauges!

OK, so at some point I got disgusted at having only idiot lights and three functioning gauges on my Mark, (speedo, tach, and fuel) and put what little resources I had available into getting a decent but cheap set of gauges. $40 for a 2" white-face SunPro 3-gauge cluster, plus $23 (and a couple other small charges, for a spare vacuum line set that turned out to come in handy, and a couple black 2-gauge mounts that are on backorder) for a matching boost/vac gauge. (they didn't have just a regular vac gauge in the 2" white stuff) Put in the 3-gauge cluster yesterday, complete with a switch to disable the voltmeter if the car sits, to eliminate the residual drain. (lights go in probably Sunday or Monday) Put in the vac gauge today.

Anyway.. I was out today picking up some SeaFoam and a couple other little things, (2 bottles of Techron, the additive they put in Chevron gas.. I've heard good things about it, and VatoZone has a rebate offer to where 2 bottles are essentially free) and picking my aunt up from work just like any other day, and it was idling in the parking lot of the grocery store with the A/C running.. and the temperature pushed up to around 225 or so before I got out and popped the hood to let it cool a bit. Not good, I have an in-state road trip tomorrow. Got home, checked it out.. turns out that not only was the clutch in the fan bad, the fan itself had cracks between every blade.. and two of those cracks were almost completely front-to-back and you could see through them.

'88 LSC to the rescue again. (already taken the voltage regulator, alternator, and slightly less stretched-out serp. belt off of it) Got the fan in and test-drove it just before a particularly nasty storm hit that spuppiesed a few twisters elsewhere in the county. So I guess this is also "Hooray for parts cars!".

Oh yeah.. another side effect of working gauges: Now I know for sure that pulling the alternator off the '88 was a good idea. No charging problems now. Too bad this gauge is also off.. but only .5v low, unlike the other SunPro gauge I have that reads 1v low. Shows at least 13v with the A/C on max and the headlights on.

My first vac gauge.. nifty.. 17-18" at hot idle in park. Tee'd it into the big fat vac line running to the cruise control. Also makes for a convenient place to spray SeaFoam Deep Creep in, pulling the connection apart. :D

Last note: 20-25 PSI oil pressure at hot idle in park, w/ roughly the same oil mix I put in the T-bird. (4 qt. of 10w40, 1 qt. of 10w30 synthetic.. both Valvoline MaxLife, which I intend to run once a year.. and regular oil for the rest of the year)