Hey,

posted in the new member area, but i guess here is it more
grand marquis specific:

I am from Germany and
I am planning to buy a 1977 mercury grand marquis:

http://www.rdclassics.de/car_details...p?oldtimer=181

What are the problematic parts on the car, what to especially look at,
is rust a problem with this model, are there workshop manuals worth buying, any interesting internet sites???

Any hint on how to prepare for the eventual buy would be appreciated...

Greetings from Germany

 

well... the car would be 30+ years old now. about rust, it all depends on how the car was taken care of and location of where its life was spent. i can say that one that old would have the bigger V-8 carbed engine in it and would be different than what i am used to. i can say i was offered to buy a 1978 Ford LTD for cheap from a guy who knows i like the cars. it has been garaged and he asked if i would buy it instead of him leaving it to outside storage. i wouldnt mind having it as a classic car to add to my 1987s i own. at any rate good luck on you findings.

 

since it's an old carbureted engine, you will have to take more care of it (keeping it in tune). Other than that, I haven't heard of anything that is a major issue other than the oiling of the engines. keep them clean (run seafoam or some other engine oil system cleaner through it every once in a while to keep things lubricated and flowing well). And be prepared to replace every running part on it as they wear out. A good transmission rebuild and a good tune will make it last a long time.

 

WOW what a beauty!!!! However, with any 32 year old car there will be some issues.. Most age related..

Rust woudl be the biggest issue to look out for, and by the looks of that beauty it looks pretty clean.... Good thing is with no vinyl top that will prevent alot of rust problems.. Places to look for rust are around the rear wheel wells, the frame rails behind the rear axle, inside the rear bumper, inside the trunk (Usually caused by a leaky rear window), and the bottom rear of the front fenders (the heel).. I don't know if you guys use salt on your roads in the winter, but that seems to be the bigges killer of cars of this era.. Salt and mud... Keep it clean and waxed and you shoudl be fine..


THe engine trans and rear axle are all pretty much bullet proof, but with age things do tend to wear...

Like Slymer mentioned, keeping it tuned up is a big must.. It should have a Motorcraft model 4350 Spreadbore 4v carb.. When working properly they did perform well with decent economy. They would tend to be troublesome with wear though.. They are kinda tricky to rebuild and get retuned properly.. Generally when these go bad people would replace them with a Holley 600cfm 4bbl.. I've met a few people that seem to know their way around this particular carburetor that can rebuild them to work just as good if not better than when they were new.. Inspect all the engine vacuum lines as they can dry rot with age..

The timing chain is something else to think about.. They used plastic coated cam gears back in the 70's and early 80's.. Eventually the plastic woudl get brittle and break off causing the timing chaing to jump which in turn causes the car not to run right, or not at all.. THe good thing is if it does break, the engine is not damaged and a new chain and gears will fix it.. The most difficult thing is getting all the bits of plastic slushed out of the oil pan.. This repair would not require the engien to be removed or a major teardown..
the 7.5L was acutally one of the few engines with a decent oiling system.. Keep the oil changed and you should be good..

Valve stem seals are another small issue.. AS the rubber seals age they get hard and brittle, and may crumble all together.. This will usually cause small puffs of blue smoke at startup after the car has sat for at least an hour.. It'll also cause some smoke on deceleration and at idle.. Very minor issue and can be rectified without a major teardown..

Anything else engine related would be things that normally deteriorate with age and milage.. Belts & Hoses, Water Pump, Valve Cover Gaskets, spark plugs, wires, distributor cap.... The ignition module (aluminum square box mounted on the inside of the left fender with 2 connectors) Have been know to cause a few headaches on these.. Not too hard to replace and were used for years so should be fairly easy to get one.. I used to always carry a spare one with me just in case...


AS far as the transmission.. Aside from seals leaking from age the only things to really think about with that is to change the fluid and filter, adjust the band, and possibly replace the vaccum modulator.. The vaccum modulator is a little diaphragm that is on the right rear of the transmission.. It uses engine vac to help with shifting.. The diaphragm can deteriorate and cause a leak.. This will cause odd shifting, and and cause a bit of trans fluid to be sucked into the engine.. This won't necessarliy hurt anything unless too much fluid is sucked out of the trans. But it can cause ALOT of white smoke out the exhaust,
Unless the transmission had been rebuilt sometime after 1982 USE ONLY TYPE F transmission fluid.. Type F has different frictional properties and will not work with the older type clutches and bands.. It will shift horribly and slip... IF the trans was rebuilt sometime after 1982 or you have it rebuilt then you can use regular old Dextron or MerconV fluid..

The rear differential will be the Ford 9".. Again the only real problems with these are seals.. If any of the wheel seals start to leak (where the axle come out of the housing) plan on replacing the wheel bearing at that time.. These used permanantly gresed wheel bearings.. When the seal leaks it allows gear oil to leak into these bearings and maxes with the grease making it inadequate to keep the bearing properly lubed..

The catalytic converts are one other troublesome part on cars from this era.. Carburetors just don;t burn clean continually like fuel injection.. With time these can plug, or the internals (sort of a ceramic like honeycomb) melt causeing a HUGE exhaust restriction.. Pending on your emission laws over there you have options.. IF they do plug the practice around here was to either completely remove them, or take a big bar and punch all the "guts" out of them.. Some areas here in the US do require them yet even on a car that old.. Universal aftermarket replacements are available if needed.... Dual exhaust does wonders for performance and economy on these cars!!


The suspension on these cars is pretty robust.. Although with the weight and age the springs do get weak.. Usually this is most noticable by the rearend of the car sitting lower than the front.. Or it drives like a waterbed.. Good shocks are priceless!! Power steering is notorius for leaks.. Generally the pitman shaft seal (the one on the bottom of the box) is what leaks.. The power steering pump itself is known for leaks around the shaft seal.. Age usually makes this more prominent..

I had a 1979 Lincoln Continental which is essentially the same car as what you are looking at.. I had all the issues as listed above and probably a few other wear related problems..

I had 318,000 miles (512,000 km) on the car when it developed and engine knock.. Those were some very hard and well abused miles.. I did alot of towing with that car.. If the rust would have not been so bad I would have rebuilt the engine and kept running it...

 

Wow, thanks for your responses and
the very detailed check list!!!!
This will help me a lot when I inspect the car on the weekend.
I will take pictures and post my decision...

THANKS VERY MUCH!!!

 

One thing I did fail to mention is the rubber suspension bushings.. The upper and lower control arms, as well as the arms that go to the rear axle all pivot on rubber bushings.. And with age rubber deteriroates.. This causes the steeting to feel extremely sloppy.. The car kinda wanders all over the place down the road, they can even clunk of the rubber is completely gone..



Bring on the pics!!!

 

Hi,

so the car-check was a bit dissapointing. We did not buy the car for the following
reasons:
the car has scratches and dents complete around the car. Back bumper
chrome comes up on 2 places of about 5 cm in size so it definitely needs to be rechromed. Front bumper has a dent on the left side. Trunk got
2 rust holes about 10 cm in size. The right back fender where it goes to the backdoor is completely rotten and also the back of the wheelhouse. These rust wholes needs definitely to be welded to get the german TÜV check completed to be allowed
to drive it on the road.
Technically the car was really solid, engine and transmission runs good.
But the rust problems and the fact that the whole car has dents and scratches all
over the place (all 4 doors, all front and back fenders, chrome trim around wheelhousing) mad us not buy this car.
The dealer would go down to 6.000 Euro but we think that this also is too much.

i will upload some pix on tuesday when i got a faster internet connection

 

heh... that car here wouldn't sell for $2000 to someone who didn't know about cars, much less a restorer that really knows their cars. they're dreaming if they think they can get 6K Euro out of a car in that condition.

 

american cars like the one he listed go for big bucks over seas.

 

Sorry to hear that tschombe..

The worst part about rust is it is expensive to fix properly, and once it sets in it is near impossible to stop.... ANd American cars from the 70's were already beginning to rust out they day the left the factory...

That does seem a bit too much money for something you would have to dump alot more money in to get the body fixed up... Not to mention other problems that will arrise from shear age...