1994 Thunderbird LX needs help..

[neosangria]

I have a 1994 LX (4.6L) with 140,000 miles on it. Within the last month, I've put close to a $1000 worth of new parts on it and was pretty satisfied with my car up until a few weeks ago.

I guess I have 3 major problems:

1. The door pins on the driver side are bad and over the course of time have completely screwed up the door striker and the metal around it on the inside door jamb from just opening and shutting the door. The welds have broken loose on the door striker and the door does not latch now. I took it to my local Ford Dealership and dropped it off at the body shop. I came back after hours to pick up my car, and instead of an estimate laying on my seat, I got a note saying that they weren't legally able to fix my car due to safety issues. I grabbed my key and the note and went in to see if there was anyone still around in the body shop. Luckily I managed to find the guy who looked at my car.

He told me the only way that they could fix it would be to replace the entire driver side quarter panel since the door striker was a part of it. From a legal standpoint he said, they couldn't do it for anything less due to safety/legal/liabilty issues which I could understand. He recommended that if I wanted to half ass it and just to get the door to latch for the time being, to take it to an independent body shop and have them weld something in there.

I'm not one for half assing anything, especially when its my ride. So I guess my first question is this.. I've looked up ordering new quarter panels from places like JC Whitney and they seem to be resonably priced. I know the labor of putting a quarter panel on is going to be the bummer but would a new replacement quarter panel come with a door striker? There isn't a single dent, ding or spot of rust anywhere on my car so I'd hate to order a major piece like that and have it shipped to me, only come to find that it doesn't have what I need on it...

As it is right now, I've taken both door panels off and I am relying on good old bungee cords stretched across the back seat to keep my driver side door from flying open. Its embarrasing, not to mention a bit dangerous and I'd like to see what some others thought about the best way to remedy that situation would be.

Secondly and Lastly, the last two problems are sorta interweaved. After putting a new fuel filter, plugs and set of plug wires on my car. I drove it out of town and on my way back, I went to pass some old fogey on the interstate who was severly going under the speed limit. I pushed the pedal to the floor and when the transmission kicked down, my car just lost power.. No popping noise, no grinding...I just went from 90 mph to a coast.

I managed to coast off the interstate and into a gas station where the car chugged to a stop. I could smell something burning so I crawled under the car to see what the issue was and I could see what appeared to be smoking rolling out of the rear of the tranny, where the driveshaft meets the back of it. No fluid was leaking onto the ground but when I went to go back into my car to see if it would start. It would turn over but instantly die...

At first I thought the two problems were related but an hour later, I had an eager buyer who had a car trailer (a friend of the family) so I told him to come get the damn thing as I was tired of sinking money into it. I was an hour from either home in both directions and had already missed an appointment not to mention was out of transportation for the weekend.

Anywho, a month went buy and I received no money for the car, so Title in hand, and a short trip to the police station later..I received the car back into my clutches once again..ready to tackle the mechanical issues.

I checked all the vaccum lines and fuel lines and they seemed to be in proper working order. After about an hour of dinking with it, my buddy and I thought the fuel pump might be out in it. We didn't have a pressure tester but we could hear the fuel pump kicking on when I turned the key over. However we had to pump the hell out of it to get the car running for 5-6 seconds before it would chug out and die. Otherwise, without pumping the gas, the car would start and immediately die.

I have another Thunderbird that I bought the monday after my old one died and I have planned to sell the one in question here. I really don't want to sink anymore money into the car but I'm not sure if the transmission is screwed and Im not even 100% certain if the fuel pump would solve the problem of the car not staying running.

Any suggestions on what else might be causing the car to not run or what would have caused the rear of the transmission to smoke if it was just a mere fuel pump failure that caused my car to die in the first place?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

Much thanks,

~G

[TBIRD430]

WOW!! That is ALOT of stuff to digest there!! I just think it is sad (and hopefully a lesson to others) that letting the door hinge pins & bushings go bad for sooo long caused the door jam striker mount to be SHOT & then lead to an entire quaterpanel replacement!!!

I'll "bump" u on the rest of ur concerns though...

[neosangria]

It was a matter of money placement and what to fix first..I only had so much money saved up and set aside for the car. The fuel filter was so clogged I was amazed to find the car was still able to stay running. You couldn't blow thru it nor could I feel air come out the other end when we blew the air hose thru it

The plug wires got ate up inside by the drivebelt...dont ask me how that happened but it did..The plugs looked like they hadn't been changed in years, and the rear brakes were completely shot thanks to 2 leaky wheel cylinders going out at the same time. The check engine light was on and I had the codes checked. They came back with "No EGR flow detected" so after replacing the EGR sensor, EGR Valve, and entire rear brake job, valve covers, plugs, plug wires, alternator, battery, oil sending unit, oil change, and paying my buddy to help me when I couldn't get to things myself. I had exhausted all my money I had set aside for the car. It was a matter of trying to figure out what to fix first..I only paid 1000 for the car a year ago and the usual maintenance stuff wasn't taken care of because it was a family loaner car for the guy I bought it off of from work. When someone in his family had to take their car into the shop, they borrowed the thunderbird.

Otherwise it just sat outside his house. So I didn't chalk the door problem up as a necessary concern right away since it didn't directly concern getting me from point A to Point B.