What did you do to your 3rd gen today??

Not a done-did post, just interesting thing that happened today...

Was at a classmate's kid's b-day party this AM, & on the way back to treat a client, had a woman in a GMC taxi van d-bag-ishly weave her way through traffic in front of me on the 4-lane in town... highway narrows to 2 for the rest of the trip, so kept my distance....

A bit further out there's a cliffside road called the 'Pali' between my classmate's town and mine, very technical set of curves for 2.5 mis -- my second fave road to drive on this island, as with some skill/experience and no other drivers, it can be taken very, very fast, very, very satisfyingly (great sportbike road too, if a bit dangerous due to rock faces and hundred-foot drops into the ocean ). The stonewalling, cruise-on-speed-limit tourist in the lead V6 Mustang droptop of our four-car train, finally decided to up the pace once we began climbing onto the Pali, as he had no cars in front since town... and the #2 Astro (which stock is nimbler than you think) and #3 d-bag taxi lady give chase... Astro pulled ahead to match the 'Stang , and the van and I began to up the wick in the back, to my delight...

Now, in my mid-20's the old Paseo and I took this road daily on a 4am commute to work. Got pretty good at threading the curves together, but couldn't get the bone-stock, 100-hp, beam-axle coupe faster than ~55 mph average over the course -- and I time-attacked it everyday there wasn't a car sharing the road, for a year. Think that axle was the limiting factor -- the stock dampers and springs just could not keep the rear end planted in bumpy midcorners (which the Pali is full off). Now that I have this Escort, noticed the rear end lacked completely that side-skittering crap which I'd accepted in the Toyota, of course because it has a superior indie setup. But how good it is, wasn't as obvious until today...

This van chick was committed (as was the Astro)... cutting corners going over the white line, flooring the throttle at every straight... but with all her knuckle-dragging 310-hp V8 power and torque... my 95-hp, 100K, 4-spd auto, bad-tie-rod-&-ball-joint 3gen chassis was right on her bumper, with the A/C on -- my club racer mind in combat mode. Only where the Pali had sightline again, did she manage to get away, all to fail once she hit a corner... and there I was. And to my delight the tires weren't even squealing, while hers howled like week-old Huskies under a full moon. Proper line and setup meant I could crawl all up-ins and wave to her in the side mirror midcorner... which must've chafed her d-bagger delicates a bit -- good. Given the same conditions as my Toyota 20 yrs ago, could comfortably thread this needle ~5-6 mph faster than the Paseo, which is astounding given what this car was meant to do. Not the same as me owning a Porsche GT3 or anything... but good enough.

This episode's takeaway: Trackdays are training every hi-po driver can use to good effect on the street (within reason of course)... allowing you to get the most out of any chassis. But this BG showed even with multiple faults... it's still a Mazda in the twisties. I like that a lot.

you a doctor kanak? Also nice story. I have driven my escort hard a few times but the only vehicle I have driven like a race car was my subaru legacy I had. That thing handled amazing for a station wagon.

No, just a middling-wage former IT schlub who used to roadrace motorcycles. I'm a middling-wage deep-tissue bodyworker now.

Injury put me out of racing in my second season, but by then cash flow was hit hard anyway at work, & year later was on the bricks -- '09 financial collapse hitting Boeing like a billy club to the temple. I've been riding on fast (some would say insane) road rides since '92 though... my first mentors in VA were all club roadracers at Summit Point, where I got my first bike, a '91 Yamaha FZR600R. They all raced FZR400Rs and FZR400/6s... man miss those days, and those backroads. That's where my itch welted up first.

Always wanted a Scoob... was cross-shopping the CrossTrek against the Mazda 3 I have my eye on... spendy though, and they have a very distinct, love-or-hate feel, not like your regular FWD. In rain or snow, esp with the new gen of stability control vectoring torque for you... even with only regular car ground clearance, they find all kinds of grip where other cars are flying into the trees. Wish I could afford a WRX... even the early bugeye, 225-hp ones are ten hoots to drive.

Just swapped my fuel filter...

On an auto 3gen Escort, the trans dipstick tube'll be right where you need your arm to be to get at that filter, so battery and tray indeed will need to come out*, meaning a reset of your mapping (for me, ~19 mpg for 50 mi or so, slowly creeping back over time).

Ford's idea of fuel line connectors are these angled bell-shaped fittings with little separate clothespin clips with a fingernail-shaped tab that lies flat, requiring squeezing free a barb on one side, and wedging a blade screwdriver to pry it free in order to get it off -- cheapest solution of them all. All the powersports vehicles I've worked on save Bombardier ATVs (which had this setup on early models), fuel pump fittings are all-in-one, push-fitting/squeeze-tabs/pull-off... woulda paid an extra ten bucks in the showroom for that, Ford, sheez...

Top fitting going to injector rail is fine... but since there isn't enough slack in the fuel line from the tank (bottom one) to rotate the fitting so you can free the barb, expect to break the clip out to release the fitting... and trust me, was trying to be Spock-logical and analytical ... up until my lower back knee'd me in the face and behooved me to just get that f***er out already... and you, auto-trans brake-master-hardline modern sculpture... see me outside, wanna have some wall-to-wall counseling with you.

There's a fair bit of fuel that comes out of line and filter, ~ 1 cup -- have drain pan or bunch of paper towels ready to catch it. I released top fitting first, which was clean... but popping the bottom one off showed the fuel full -- and I mean dull orange -- with rust... I see why Ford designed this filter to sit that way, outlet up -- rust and debris fall away from the filter element when the engine is off. Shook the rusty fuel out of the line as much as possible...

Installation was easy, except the new clip has to be installed correctly to work, which is fiddly but nowhere as frustrating as getting them out. Make sure you push the fittings all the way on past their seals before locking on with your clothespin clip... otherwise you'll turn the car on and spray fuel full blast all over the inside of your engine compartment and smell fuel through the vents for a few days.

Car now idles a lot better, including with the A/C on. Part of this is the car's relearning curve for mapping... the off-idle stutter is still there but much more muted. However, the car responds to throttle better and cruises at highway speed a *lot* less awkwardly... had a hunch fuel pressure was a factor, plus had a similar experience with a (logical, minimum-fuss screw-on) filter on my Toyota. May need to do more vacuum leak CSI-ing to flush out that dang stutter, I think (enhance!).


* The same dipstick location also demands the tray come out to disconnect the lead for the downstream O2 sensor... or anything lower than the IMRC, really.

This episode's takeaway: what would happen if the filter got full of rust and debris? Well let's see... on a '99, it's a variable-speed pump driver with a pressure sensor, gotta be otherwise how would the pump know what is nominal pressure? If this sensor's located BEFORE the filter, a full condition would cause the sensor to shut down the pump, as it thought the rail was at nominal pressure, when the filter is in fact choking it from getting there. Result: not enough fuel pressure at the injector tip --> bad atomization and pulse metering --> lean condition. IINM, then the upstream O2 would report lean, and PCM would increase pulse width or timing or both, causing the pump to redline until the sensor shut it down, ad nauseum, which would cause excess wear on the pump.

If the sensor was located AFTER the filter, basically the same scenario: sensor reports low rail fuel pressure, tells pump driver to make it rain. Pump complies, but has a block of wood to flow through. Sensor says anytime, pump... pump continues to operate but can't bring full fuel pressure to rail. PCM also hears from O2 sensor about how lean things are lately, so increases pulse width, but with limited fuel pressure, makes things even worse. Pump is overworked yet again for nothing, and fails, unloved...

Moral: if you don't know when the fuel filter was last changed, go change it... or have feels when you have to buy a new fuel pump.

Remind me never to work on an Escort on Halloween... holy moly what a circus today was...

Got up early to get grub and gather tools for the CV axle/dbl ball joint/dbl tie rod end swap. Started about a quarter after 9, enough light to see but not hot yet. Zapped off the driver's axle nut, pulled off the ball joint, got the hub off the axle. Now to pop the circlip and get the axle out.

Now to pop the circlip and get the axle out.

Now to pop... this f***ing... how the hell do you get enough room to lever it out?

Zapped off both crossmembers... and saw my front mount is fine (yay) and the usual-suspect rear trans mount was like shaking your finger in a coffee cup full of gummy bears -- fragged. But even with a three-foot prybar with blade, a big blade screwdriver, and a scaffolding tool (great for prying off drive pumps from SeaDoos), none had enough purchase on that goofy Motorcraft bendy metal lip to do anything close to popping it off. Even removed the battery AGAIN... nope, no pass.

Three f***ing hours, I f****d with this circlip (seeing a pattern, working on this car... ). Turning, prying, turning... failing. Bits of greasy crunchy dirt covered my face and chest... then finally, got a bit of grab, slid further under the car to get leverage on that 3-footer... and *spok*, it was out. And also, 1pm in the f***ing afternoon. I usually don't work out in my apartment parking lot past 5, just so I don't use the impact while some are trying to eat or relax after work with kids... but this time I wasn't sure about packing it in at 3pm like usual...

And then it happened...

I'm trying to swap out the ball joint and tie rod end, as a break was in order from the circlip, before I started hurling tools... and this old woman ambles out of her ground floor apartment, right behind my car.

"You can't do that here, it's in the lease."

I know this woman, she's our downstairs neighbor, of course. Her son also works on his car in their parking space, but I don't think she remembers that I know (first eyeroll). I tell her that Sandy, the owner of the building, lets her son work on car in the back in *his* space, as have I, and I always clean up well and try to pack up early. "Yeah... but it's in the lease you can't work on your car." I say if you have to talk to Sandy, go ahead... she's seen both of us do it and as long as we don't leave a mess or fluid stains on her concrete, she's okay with it.

"Well, aren't you a little brat... I AM gonna call Sandy, and you'll be sorry... just you wait--"



And this half-hour ramble walking around her doorstep, about how she's gonna get her family to come and set me straight. Didn't say anything... but listen -- I'm a Local, raised here, went to school here, have five generations of roots here. I have easily ten times the people to call before your two or three transplant hillbilly clowns try and stop me from... doing what? Making a bit of noise for a few seconds an hour? Ignored her and continued to work. Did both joint swaps in about 20 mins. Not happy that the CV swap is costing me lots of test drive time... and as expected, my reticence is driving her bananas (good).

Then I hear her call her next-door neighbor over, another bored busybody senior... and they confab on calling the police if I keep making noise, which is Sun-City-Phoenix garbage all over again (lived with this childish crap for 9 yrs in the desert). Pictures taken of me, everything. In my head, I'm saying, these people are cartoons... but no time to lose, continue to bang on that circlip to no avail... and after she calls the dispatcher again to see where that cruiser is ... I find the hard stop on rolling my eyes. It shows up an hour later, after I finally pop that f***ing p****of s*** out of my transmission, get the new Cardone Select one in (literally 15 seconds), and get ready to try to get those crossmembers back on... jackstands get the car only 13" off the pavement (need a real hydro jack), so it's a party. In Bizarro universe, maybe...

Two LEOs, both really not wanting to be there, I can tell -- many of my deep-tissue bodywork clients are policemen. They wearily kneel down to me under the car, I scramble to get up... one asks what my story is. I tell them just what I've written here... that those fogeys decided my explanation for the noise wasn't good enough for them, despite repeated passes from the landlady, then bugged your dispatcher twice to get you to show up. Not even Sandy showed up for them when they called her with their creatively-embellished story, adding that they saw me do drugs and I probably was homeless (I've lived upstairs and have been a bodyworker for the last two years). He nodded... and I knew. There were no probing questions, no triage of what *I'd* done wrong and how it contributed to their standing in my parking spot when they could be at Waikapu-on-30 mowing down a hamburger steak plate lunch with a frosty drink. So I told the LEO I was going to keep working for another 2 hrs, and he told those bored old bags that's what I was gonna do... then left.

. . . o=c =))===)_)= [:===:]

I didn't bother reacting, just kept working. She still tried to get under my skin shouting from her door like a little kid, so I just let her rant so the whole complex could hear... those kind of people usually bury themselves, then wake up one day and wonder why their lives are what it is...

So anyway -- some notes on the install. I didn't get to install the right-side tie rod & ball joint, as I was asked not to antagonize the bags, if I could (not in those exact words though ). So of course... I used the impact to drive home the bolts for the crossmembers...

To get those on, first wrestle the front mount nuts on (14mm), just enough to start them. Then start the front member bolts (17mm) again, just enough to start them. However in trying to use a rachet to both center and drive the left member bolt, I stripped the initial threads and didn't have my tap & dies handy. Got the other on fine. Will probably Time-Sert that hole, as it's the only thread insert that's stronger than original threads (and I've done hundreds of them, vs. maybe two or three Silly-Coils).

Start the rear member stud nuts (17mm with a washer and two grommets)... it's best to use a jack to help support & raise the member while aligning the studs with the grommets. Lastly, start the rear mount nuts. Torque down 17mm bolts/nuts, then 14mm nuts for the mounts. Sano...

Sadly, no idea how I finally got that circlip to pop when 179 minutes of the same thing didn't. Tie rod was out in seconds with the hit-sledge-on-what-it-goes-through method, and ball joint released with some help from a pickle fork. Do not skip soaking the interfaces with PB Blaster or Seafoam Deep Creep (both of these worked totally brill) -- esp that ball joint fought me even with a shiny post coming out. New ones popped in so easy (and Moog's Problem Solver TREs are *exactly* the same length as the stock one, just with a nice square casting to get a wrench on), that I had to laugh at how one f***ing circlip ruined my day, and got the attention of the Trash Heap from Fraggle Rock, in Apt 103... gotta be Halloween, all the psychos tank up on booze and meth, gotta be.

This episode's takeaway: don't work on your Escort on Halloween if you live in a HUD apartment complex. Don't bother removing your battery to lever out that circlip -- waste of time. Use a big prybar under the car with both members removed... set one of the 'wings' of the inner CV housing to ~ the 5 o-clock position... get a purchase... and pull. If that doesn't work, try again for another three hours. Jacks are your friend when you need to reinstall the north-south crossmember... and do be careful trying to start those fine-thread front 17mm bolts... or you'll be Time-Serting them like me.

Oh -- and the Cardone Select axle is a keeper -- all the clicking (old one had a ripped inner boot), slop and esp friction... gone. Oddly, the engine doesn't shake near as much with only the right bolt in, as it did with two good front member bolts. But the Moog swaybar bushings (lubed them with Green Grease -- shocked it's even sold here), Moog TRE and Moog ball joint make at least the driver's side of the car feel like brand new... gliding over bumps, none of that crashing and juddering, and now, shock of shocks... the steering has way more self-centering! Can't wait to swap the passenger side and get Matt's 21mm swaybar in with new bushings too.

^Write a damned book, lol

I was driving home this evening and out of no where both of my tail lights (the brake n' flashers) went out the park lights where fine. I found this to be very strange. I started to think maybe the rear flasher box went out. As soon as I got home I started diagnosing. I ruled out the bulbs being bad seeing as they both went out at the same time. Well, after about an hour poking around under the dash with my test light, I proceeded to check the wiring at the bulbs. Turns out BOTH of the bulbs went bad..... what are the chances lol... lesson learned, rule out the easy stuff first and DONT ASSume.

Ok,,,well here is what I have done over the last 3 weekends. Picked up a 98 wagon that I thought had a bad clutch...well what I found was a worn clutch but a broken crankshaft. Pulled engine, replaced crankshaft, and added new clutch, engine back in car, hopefully I will finish hooking up and get it running this weekend.

Yeah, heh... most of that was the debacle with Trash Heap... but I had to tell that story, it was surreal. Much like Halloween itself, I guess...

Electrical is one area where you should never skip the diag tree... and the more complex the circuits, the worse the consequences if you shun due diligence.

I hate people who have nothing better to do than annoy others. People need to heed the age old rule: "If nobody is at risk of getting hurt and property isn't at risk of getting damaged then keep your mouth shut."

All the years our family put up with our neighbor's loud parties and unregistered ATVs, snowmobiles, cars, ect running up and down the street yet we never called the cops and complained. One of our neighbors however complains about everybody and everything, he has ended up with his property vandalized several times as a result. One time he got his front door kicked in in the middle of the night because a few days earlier he shot his mouth off at some guy in the apartment house across the street that just got out of prison. He also got an arrow shot through one of the wooden xmas reindeer in his front yard, it was there for over a month before he noticed it too.

Replaced thermostat, housing, and both coolant sensors with all Motorcraft parts from Rock Auto. Apparently my idea of how the thermostat works was incorrect, I guess you learn something everyday. Problem was slight over cooling. Now with all of this everything seems good. Next on the to do list is replace all 4 struts this week.

ok...so i have the engine in and everything hook back up except the lower braces. So I thought I would put the battery in and see if it turns over. Well I got nothing, no lites on the dash nothing at all. This is a 98 wagon, with 5 speed manual, there is some type of sending unit or sensor on the transmisson pointing towards the center of the car, with 2 green wires coming out, 1 of the wires is broken and the other is hanging on by a strand. i have check my Haynes and it doesn't say anything! Can someone tell me what it is and do i have to have it connected and because the wire is broken and would that be why i get nothing when i turn the key...????

That more then likely a grounding issue.

I was thinking the same thing..Anyone got some photos of the brackets that mount down the by trans to be sure Im a the correct place with them.

Got the struts replaced and now the car runs smooth! Fronts didn't really show any rust or wear, just cracked rubber at the top. Rears had rusty springs and one spring was broke.

So... got passenger-side TRE, ball joint, and poly bushing on, finally. No, no police this time... Moved show to side of building, which isn't horribly out-of-way compared to parking spot, but importantly out of earshot for those two busybody meet-&-screeches on ground floor. Not a peep out of them this afternoon... but no snaggletoothed celebration either. Guess the landlady heard from some of the neighbors about how she and her sidekick were more of a disturbance than my impact ever was... and some calls were made. Cartoonish goobers...

About bushing lube: I'm using Green Grease to lightly lube them... and it's so sticky and persistent, it's hard not to get it on the threads you need to Loctite. Here's a way to at least get the Loctite on the threads, so your anti-roll ability doesn't go *SPROING* out into the weeds over a bumpy road (99% of this island):

-- wind down the top nut (extended barrel nut/washer on a Moog Problem Solver version) *past* where you need to set it at, about three or four threads (won't harm poly bushings).
-- spray the exposed threads with 3M brake cleaner, wipe clean and dry, spread blue gel Permatex threadlocker on those threads, then back off the nut over the Loctite, now set at correct threads exposed.

This doesn't account for grease still below the threads you cleaned making into the Loctited threads... but it'll at least be there to fill space and do some of its job, just not as well as virgin clean threads. I found no way to install the front bushings with light grease on them AND keep the threads clean -- Moog PS bushings have a ton of force on them just getting that top long nut on. For added insurance, you can also spread the gel Loctite onto *all* of the exposed threads, and it'll harden there, ready to 1) keep that nut from backing off, and 2) lube and protect the threads from corrosion for next swap.

About Moog PS kit: one side was almost laughably easy to install. Probably ten minutes. The passenger side (with driver's bushings already installed) was a big fat PITA. Why? Because with the other side fully snugged down, you must lever the opposite-side bar up with a prybar, to get that last bushing on the bolt... and herein lies the rub: in this application anyway, if you try to install with the other side done, it'll cock the bar & tilt the alignment of that hole. This is a problem, since you need that hole to slide over the long nut, to even out pressure on both top bushings. Here's how to avoid this (IMHO)...

-- the long nut has an 18mm head, baffling as the bolt head is 14mm (why not 17 or 19, Moog? I have no SAE sockets, either).

-- do NOT turn the bolt head to tighten the bushings down, turn the nut. This is due to the installed side tilting the bar down a bit, and ruining the alignment of that hole, so the nut has a harder time passing through as it should. If you turn the nut, it'll work its way through the hole and Bob's your uncle. If you turn the bolt, the nut will stay where it's at binding atop the bar, and only the bottom bushing of the pair of upper ones will see any compression, not good.

So when installing swaybar bushings up front, the only way I see to avoid this, is to snug both sides down alternately and carefully, until both links have proper exposed threads. Pain... but then again this is my first time doing this on a car. Maybe they're all like that.

TRE and ball joint: I'll say this again and again -- there is no feeling in a suspension repair, quite like ripping out failing, knocking, wandering parts, and swapping in new that feels creamy, sounds quiet, reacts instantly (my exp is from powersports, but nice to see it's just as satisfying on an Escort). Getting quasi-OCD on that bushing install did some good too, as both sides felt identical.

But despite measuring intensely (I did mention OCD, you were warned ), and getting the new Moog TRE within a mil of where the old one sat (Moog PS TREs are identical to OEM Ford in length, something not all RockAuto TREs for Escorts offer, apparently), the steering felt worse after the swap than before with only one side done. Why? Easy... with a loose side, the car can adapt more to the sudden accuracy of the opposite side. But with both sides aiming solidly, if they're not perfectly aligned, you'll feel it. There is no slop in the steering anymore, but the car isn't as nice in a straight line. Time to get a pro alignment.

Next job: Matt's 21mm rear swaybar and end links. Mevotech link, and stock mount bushings, of course from the wagon. Looks deceptively easy... but then again all of these jobs looked easy. Hopefully, no fogey bellyachers raining po-po on me then...

... o=c

Gents, its funny but the last thing you check seems to always be the problem. The fricking battery, i can't believe it! In 3 weeks of no use the battery was so dead, charged it and in 2 cranks the engine started. i let it run for a few minutes then filled and topped off all the fluids. jumped started it again and let it run for a solid 15 min. everything is great it runs like a champ. took it around the block for a test ride and then back to check for leaks...nothing. Today i will install my stereo and give her a bath inside and out.

The rear swaybar is an easy job, it can be done in under 30 minutes with ramps.

Super-human-combine Haiyan is really kicking up waves in the Pacific bathtub... it's rained friggin' buckets the whole weekend. Just in time for my non-install of the final susp/driveline project (and no, nowhere under overhead cover I can do it, less a mall parking structure... did I mention I'm as tired of seeing the police for goofball reasons, as they are of me?). o=c

However did drive the car a long ways today for weekend work, which wasn't my preference as the front end is technically still pointing as crosseyed as Marty Feldman watching a ping-pong tournament. Not enough to cause vibration or braking problems or anything Darwin-y... but strange steering feel in corners and asymmetric feedback left vs. right (over the same Pali highway I schooled that V-8 van on not long ago) makes me wonder what actual alignment settings the worn ball joints/TREs degraded to, because while it had play on-center and squirrelly braking, when loaded that setup tracked like a BG should. Hopefully the preferred alignment settings someone posted here help it feel closer to a Protegé than a 1st-gen Taurus... plan on taking it to the shop for de-Marty-fication sometime this week...

Ok so let me tell you a short story of a dumb guy who forgot to see if the battery had a juice...end of story. It wasn't any ground or connection problem it was the fact the battery was fricking dead....after jump charging it for 15 mins car turned over 2 times and started. Installed stereo yesterday and today drove it to work...

Installed the studs, got 6 inches of snow yesterday. Might go carving today