So we got back from my In-laws house yesterday afternoon and I had some free time. I couldn't resist the opportunity to get some maintanence done on the Scorpio.
One of the first things on my list was to check the cooling system for fitness and to replace the temp sending unit. (I had already performed a drain and fill to get rid of old antifreeze and any sediment build up)
The sending units are notorious for going bad with age and this one was no different. I had already purchased a sending unit for the other Scorpio and I had a new thermostat waiting to be installed. I had noticed that the bypass hose from the thermostat housing to the coolant bottle always had coolant flowing through it. I figured either the thermostat was gone or just weak.
In order to get to the thermostat and the temp sending unit I needed to take apart the throttle body assembly so it seemed like a good time to clean it up also. These are also known to cause driveablitity issues when dirty and coched up with carbon build up. This Scorpio had idling issues. It started right up but never has idled very smooth.
Unfortunately I didn't think about taking any before and after pictures, I have to get better about that.
The whole process took about two hours. This included removing the temp sending unit from my spare Scorpio since it had the "good" sending unit installed in it. After I got it all put back together I topped off the coolant tank and started her up.
She started right up and had a much improved idle. I let the car warm up enough to have the thermostat cycle to make sure it was going to work correctly. The temp gauge worked reading in between the "n" & "o" in the normal range. I will call it a success!
Next up is to R & R the instrument cluster. The tachometer is non-funcitonal, a lot of lights out, and the gas gauge is erratic. In addition to these items the entire cluster face is flaking off. I assume from exposure to sun or heat. I have two spare clusters so I plan on replacing both the tach and the temp/gas cluster and pull the face off of the speedometer and re-attach a "good" face to it. I think it will look fine.
I promise to take pictures next time.
Later,
Darren
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Progress
A couple of good things happened this week! I went ahead and replaced the rear transmission mount on the Scorpio. I will post pics soon, the old mount was totally trashed and in two pieces. The bad vibration I felt in the car is totally gone. I believe the car is able to drive without tearing up the driveline. Next up is to R & R the instrument cluster and check the cooling system out. I already drained and refilled the radiator, but I think the thermostat is either stuck open or gone.
*Edit* Here is a pic of the old and new transmission mount:
The other good thing that happened this week is I received some info back on the Title process for the car. I got a receipt from the Texas Dept. of Transportation showing I had applied for the bonded title. I had applied for the "suretey bond" with a title company in Texas. After I signed the paperwork and sent it back they applied for the title for me. This is great because I thought I was waiting for them to just send me the bond and then I would have to apply for it. I hope this will shorten the time for me to get the title.
Keep your fingers crossed!
Later,
Darren
*Edit* Here is a pic of the old and new transmission mount:
The other good thing that happened this week is I received some info back on the Title process for the car. I got a receipt from the Texas Dept. of Transportation showing I had applied for the bonded title. I had applied for the "suretey bond" with a title company in Texas. After I signed the paperwork and sent it back they applied for the title for me. This is great because I thought I was waiting for them to just send me the bond and then I would have to apply for it. I hope this will shorten the time for me to get the title.
Keep your fingers crossed!
Later,
Darren
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Not much going on
Been a slow week. Sent paperwork back to title company, ordered a rear transmission mount from OPMD. Hopefully I will get everything this week so I can finalize the title here in Kansas and to get the car moving!
Later,
Later,
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Quick Update
I got the paperwork back today for the bonded title. I just need to sign and return and I should get the bond back shortly. On the restoration front I got a rear transmission mount ordered tonight. That is the only thing really keeping the car from being driveable. I will update again when I get more news on the title. I am really looking forward to actually doing work on the car! That will be the fun part.
Later,
Darren
Later,
Darren
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!
The first issue I have to deal with on my "new" Scorpio is getting the title situation cleared up. When I picked up the car from Texas, the owner didn't have a title for it. The car was given to him by a neighbor and the neighbor had lost the title. After some research and a couple of helpful conversations with some folks from the Texas Department of Transportation, I have started the process of filing for a "Bonded" Title. Basically kind of like title insurance, but it protects the State of Texas in case a previous owner or leinholder shows up looking for the vehicle after they issue me a title. The vehicle only has 75k on it. The plates that were on the car were last stickered in 1993. The last activity the State of Texas has on the car is 1997. So basically I think it has set for a decade in someones driveway or barn.
I sent a package to a bond company last week complete with a check for the appropriate fees to get the process rolling. I am hopeful that I can file with the State of Texas in the next week or two and get the title issue straightened up.
After I get the title in my posession there are few things I need to do to get it driveable to our DMV for inspection and get it tagged here in Kansas.
1) Replace rear transmission mount. The mount is totally collapsed and the transmission tailshaft is sitting on the crossmember.
2) Replace the "Guibo" a rubber donut looking thing that goes between the transmission and the driveshaft. Its purpose is to dampen any vibration that goes through the driveline.
3) Check all brake and tail lights.
4) Replace hood latch assembly.
That is about it!
When I got the car it wasn't running. The previous owner thought it might be a fuel pump. I used a fuel pressure gauge and verified it had fuel, but there was no spark. I pulled the codes on the vehicle and it showed that the ignition pickup sensor had failed. I swapped the distributor out of my "parts" car and the Scorpio started almost on the first turn of the key.
I will post an update when I get news back from the bond company.
Darren
I sent a package to a bond company last week complete with a check for the appropriate fees to get the process rolling. I am hopeful that I can file with the State of Texas in the next week or two and get the title issue straightened up.
After I get the title in my posession there are few things I need to do to get it driveable to our DMV for inspection and get it tagged here in Kansas.
1) Replace rear transmission mount. The mount is totally collapsed and the transmission tailshaft is sitting on the crossmember.
2) Replace the "Guibo" a rubber donut looking thing that goes between the transmission and the driveshaft. Its purpose is to dampen any vibration that goes through the driveline.
3) Check all brake and tail lights.
4) Replace hood latch assembly.
That is about it!
When I got the car it wasn't running. The previous owner thought it might be a fuel pump. I used a fuel pressure gauge and verified it had fuel, but there was no spark. I pulled the codes on the vehicle and it showed that the ignition pickup sensor had failed. I swapped the distributor out of my "parts" car and the Scorpio started almost on the first turn of the key.
I will post an update when I get news back from the bond company.
Darren
Thursday, August 6, 2009
History continued
So, have you ever had your wife say, you can't get it unless it is free? That was the state of our conversation about me getting another Merkur Scorpio, or Xr4ti. Which I was fine with, because I really had no business investing money in a third vehicle that I would only be using for play. Fast forward to Summer of 2008. I belong to a couple of Merkur user groups online, the only way I could feed my addiction. One day very nice gentleman by the name of Paul posts on Merkurclub.com that he has owned a Scorpio for just under 20 years and is wanting to get rid of it. He lives in Minnesota, but if someone wanted it, he would give it to them for free. My wife couldn't believe it. The next thing you know we are planning a trip to Minnesota. Here is a picture of the Scorpio after we got her back home.
Beautiful car, love the color. The problem? Rust, lots of rust. In the doors, in the frame, in the wheel wells, just about everywhere.
At first I was very hopefull that the rust could be dealt with. After time and a lot of examination it became apparent I could spend way more money / time, and get far less enjoyment out of the car than I needed to justify the vehicle in the first place.
So it stayed in my garage. The leather is nice, somedays I would just go sit in the car and think of what could be, if I had an unlimited budget.
Time goes by, I keep in touch with the Merkur guys, I miss out on the annual pilgrimage to Carslisle PA. for the All Ford Nationals where an annual gathering of Merkurs takes place each year. I am resigned to the fact that this Scorpio is probably not going to see the road again. The 2nd week of June I come across a post on Merkurclub.com about a guy in Texas who has an 88
Scorpio that was given to him by his neighbor and he doesn't want it. He at first is trying to sell it, but there is little interest in a vehicle that won't start and has a lost title. After a couple of days he puts it out there that if someone wanted it, they could come and get it for free.
Happy 40th birthday Darren, you just got another Scorpio!
This is an "early" 1988 model, which means it is actually an 1987 model year, but was held over and imported for the 1988 model year. It has a few oddities that the later cars didn't have.
Example: Cloth interior. 95% of the vehicles had leather interiors. This okay by me, because the leather had issues with it falling apart with age. The cloth interior in this car looks remarkle for its age
Example: Rear "air" option. All of the Scorpios had floor rear air vents, only the early ones had a vent control for it.
Example: Deleted fuel computer option. This isn't much to brag about, they just didn't include a fuel trip computer. It is worthy of note, because only a few "lucky" cars had this "non-option".
Beyond that, it is just a nice black 1988 Merkur Scorpio with 75000 miles on the odometer, paint is sun damaged, but NO RUST. I repeat, NO RUST. This vehicle is a lot farther ahead as far as a starting point for restoration.
Well, its late and I need to get to bed.
Later,
Darren
Beautiful car, love the color. The problem? Rust, lots of rust. In the doors, in the frame, in the wheel wells, just about everywhere.
At first I was very hopefull that the rust could be dealt with. After time and a lot of examination it became apparent I could spend way more money / time, and get far less enjoyment out of the car than I needed to justify the vehicle in the first place.
So it stayed in my garage. The leather is nice, somedays I would just go sit in the car and think of what could be, if I had an unlimited budget.
Time goes by, I keep in touch with the Merkur guys, I miss out on the annual pilgrimage to Carslisle PA. for the All Ford Nationals where an annual gathering of Merkurs takes place each year. I am resigned to the fact that this Scorpio is probably not going to see the road again. The 2nd week of June I come across a post on Merkurclub.com about a guy in Texas who has an 88
Scorpio that was given to him by his neighbor and he doesn't want it. He at first is trying to sell it, but there is little interest in a vehicle that won't start and has a lost title. After a couple of days he puts it out there that if someone wanted it, they could come and get it for free.
Happy 40th birthday Darren, you just got another Scorpio!
This is an "early" 1988 model, which means it is actually an 1987 model year, but was held over and imported for the 1988 model year. It has a few oddities that the later cars didn't have.
Example: Cloth interior. 95% of the vehicles had leather interiors. This okay by me, because the leather had issues with it falling apart with age. The cloth interior in this car looks remarkle for its age
Example: Rear "air" option. All of the Scorpios had floor rear air vents, only the early ones had a vent control for it.
Example: Deleted fuel computer option. This isn't much to brag about, they just didn't include a fuel trip computer. It is worthy of note, because only a few "lucky" cars had this "non-option".
Beyond that, it is just a nice black 1988 Merkur Scorpio with 75000 miles on the odometer, paint is sun damaged, but NO RUST. I repeat, NO RUST. This vehicle is a lot farther ahead as far as a starting point for restoration.
Well, its late and I need to get to bed.
Later,
Darren
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
In the winter of 2004 a lot of things happened. I got a new car, a 2003 Focus ZX5 SVT (CD Silver) It is a 6 speed manual, moonroof, 6 disc changer, it is a blast to drive. I still have it today.
I also was offered and accepted a job back in Kansas. It was great living in Illinois, the job I had there was awesome, but things were right for us to move back home. In April of 2004 we made the move.
We also were surprised to find out that we would be expecting an addition to our family. Little Abbie would join our family the fall of 2004.
One thing I didn't expect about my focus, were the similiarities it had to both our Scorpio and the XR4ti. The European styling was evident in the design of the car and it drove so nice. This stayed with me and started a process of thinking about getting another Merkur sometime in the future.
Go to go,
Darren
I also was offered and accepted a job back in Kansas. It was great living in Illinois, the job I had there was awesome, but things were right for us to move back home. In April of 2004 we made the move.
We also were surprised to find out that we would be expecting an addition to our family. Little Abbie would join our family the fall of 2004.
One thing I didn't expect about my focus, were the similiarities it had to both our Scorpio and the XR4ti. The European styling was evident in the design of the car and it drove so nice. This stayed with me and started a process of thinking about getting another Merkur sometime in the future.
Go to go,
Darren
Sunday, August 2, 2009
1st Time with a blog
First of all, this is totally new for me. I don't usually expound to an audience, so forgive me if this is kind of dull, or mundane.
About me: Just turned 40 in July, have been happily married for 12 years. I have three great kids, two daughters, and one son. We live in the midwest and I work in the bowling business.
The purpose of this blog is hopefully to follow the restoration of a 1988 Merkur Scorpio. For those of you who do not know what this car is, checkout merkurclub.com, or google it. Wikipedia has a good entry about it also.
My history with the Merkur brand goes back to 1995. I was dating my future wife, working at a local grocery store and bowling as much as possible. College had been great, but a Bachelor's degree in Earth Science had not paid off yet, so I was still looking for a career. In the next couple of months life would change as life does. The owner of the local bowling center was looking to expand and he asked me if I would be willing to manage a center if he bought another one. I met with him a couple of times and in the end I was on board. He purchased an 8-lane center in a small town and the next thing I was moving in. I asked my girlfriend to go with me, which she did, but she was still in college so we needed to find a more "reliable" car for her to drive.
I had kind of watched a car that was on a local car lot for at least a year without ever stopping by to drive it. It was an 1989 Merkur Scorpio. A four door sedan, power everything, leather interior, this one was kind of a champagne color, with a light tan interior. It had 72,000 miles on it and was in perfect condition. Originally the lot was asking $8000 for the car. It sold for 28,000 new, so this was probably a fair price. In the year that I had kind of watched it, the price kept dropping. My girlfriend and I made a decision to take a closer look at the car and fell in love with it. To make a long story short, we traded in her beat up little chevy, and got the Scorpio for $4000.
Our 1989 Champagne Merkur Scorpio
We moved and she started driving it back and forth to school. We kept the car for over six years. It had various quirks that kept me busy with it, but it was for the most part reliable. In the end we parted with it because we had moved to Chicago, I was now working for a large bowling company, and the salt started eating the car to pieces. It had 155,000 miles on it and we now had two kids. I didn't have a garage to work on the car and Chicago winters are brutal. I had owned the two door sibling of the Scorpio, an XR4TI during our time in Chicago, but traded it in for a mini-van for the wife.
Our 1989 Black Merkur XR4TI
So after driving the car for another six months or so we decided I needed something more reliable, so we traded it in for a Sebring convertible. I know, I know, not reliable, and not practical. It was fun, unfortunately it was a Chrysler and it had all of the problem that they tend to have. The junkie transmission being the most notable.
I need to go for now. I will finish this up soon
About me: Just turned 40 in July, have been happily married for 12 years. I have three great kids, two daughters, and one son. We live in the midwest and I work in the bowling business.
The purpose of this blog is hopefully to follow the restoration of a 1988 Merkur Scorpio. For those of you who do not know what this car is, checkout merkurclub.com, or google it. Wikipedia has a good entry about it also.
My history with the Merkur brand goes back to 1995. I was dating my future wife, working at a local grocery store and bowling as much as possible. College had been great, but a Bachelor's degree in Earth Science had not paid off yet, so I was still looking for a career. In the next couple of months life would change as life does. The owner of the local bowling center was looking to expand and he asked me if I would be willing to manage a center if he bought another one. I met with him a couple of times and in the end I was on board. He purchased an 8-lane center in a small town and the next thing I was moving in. I asked my girlfriend to go with me, which she did, but she was still in college so we needed to find a more "reliable" car for her to drive.
I had kind of watched a car that was on a local car lot for at least a year without ever stopping by to drive it. It was an 1989 Merkur Scorpio. A four door sedan, power everything, leather interior, this one was kind of a champagne color, with a light tan interior. It had 72,000 miles on it and was in perfect condition. Originally the lot was asking $8000 for the car. It sold for 28,000 new, so this was probably a fair price. In the year that I had kind of watched it, the price kept dropping. My girlfriend and I made a decision to take a closer look at the car and fell in love with it. To make a long story short, we traded in her beat up little chevy, and got the Scorpio for $4000.
Our 1989 Champagne Merkur Scorpio
We moved and she started driving it back and forth to school. We kept the car for over six years. It had various quirks that kept me busy with it, but it was for the most part reliable. In the end we parted with it because we had moved to Chicago, I was now working for a large bowling company, and the salt started eating the car to pieces. It had 155,000 miles on it and we now had two kids. I didn't have a garage to work on the car and Chicago winters are brutal. I had owned the two door sibling of the Scorpio, an XR4TI during our time in Chicago, but traded it in for a mini-van for the wife.
Our 1989 Black Merkur XR4TI
So after driving the car for another six months or so we decided I needed something more reliable, so we traded it in for a Sebring convertible. I know, I know, not reliable, and not practical. It was fun, unfortunately it was a Chrysler and it had all of the problem that they tend to have. The junkie transmission being the most notable.
I need to go for now. I will finish this up soon
Darren
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