If anyone has had a repair shop in northern NJ do the coil conversion for them, please let me know. I came home tonight and right rear corner is 2" lower than the left. Everything else normal. I thought it might have been a little low once a couple weeks ago, but the difference in height was much less, only a finger's difference which I chalked up to how it was parked. Not this time, it was in it's regular spot; I took another ride, it was back to normal half way through, but when I got home, low again and again, right rear. I will be making trips up and down the coast, don't have time or place to work on it myself right now so i have to find someone to do it. Will call tomorrow for the kits with all the parts and so hope to get this done before next monday. I'd appreciate any suggestions. Yes, I was going to keep the air springs, but this forces my hand; I won't start fiddling with a system that could strand me when I already know parts are starting to fail.
Oh, crap. Need north new jersey shop that will do the coil spring conversion, asap.
- Thread starter nightfly
- Start date
I already have enough things to fix, I don't need another project sitting idle. As I mentioned, I don't have time to work on it right now, and don't have a place to work on it other than on the street until I move to Florida, so that's out of the question. Besides, I think anyone getting ready to drive 1000 miles with something that they know has a potentially crippling problem is out of their mind if they have another option, which I do. Besides, this, I have to empty an apartment, empty and sell a house, move everything and an elderly senile mom to florida. I don't need another thing waiting around needing to be fixed. They're going to pave my area of town and I don't need a collapsed end of a car that might need to be towed, to worry about too. Like I said at the end of the initial post, the decision has already been made, but thanks for your opinion. Under better circumstances, it could wait. But that situation does not exist.
I would have eventually replaced the whole system anyway; it's 18 years old, the parts aren't that expensive, and I know I could do the job. Problem is that I don't have the time or the place to work on it for another few months, and the car must be driven to florida. Towing or moving that far by truck when it's not necessary would be just asinine. I have no problem with coils. Everything else I have ever driven has had them and they work just fine. I didn't pick the Mark because of the air suspension and I won't miss it.
My Great 8
Dedicated LVC Member
It sounds like you need just one rear bag at this point. I have one bag I can offer you. Pay shipping. I do understand the time crunch but this is the only way I could help. Also, if you do convert your car to springs, I would buy your front bags to help offset the cost of the springs. My car was on air but I couldn't find good front airsprings. I can't wait to put it back on air again. Good luck and safe travels.
I somehow knew that I would get these suggestions even though I've already stated why I made this decision. Well, I purchased this car two months ago, and having read a whole lot on line about the potential problems I had already decided on how to deal with whatever came up. I've put a couple of thousand miles on this car, and have also ridden in thunderbirds and cougars in the past, so I know what to expect as far as ride is concerned. I also understand that folks feel that the air suspension is a unique 'feature' of the car, but in all honesty I just don't see the need for it. It was a one owner car, now 18 years old, and the suspension has never been touched. So as far as I'm concerned, it's all ready to be replaced anyway. I've alway been good with preventitive maintenence, and in any other situation this would have already been done. But I'm in the middle of consolidating houses and moving to Florida and have already decided that I will not be doing this job, up here, myself. With that in mind, and not forgetting it, I have two options. 1. replace everything with a coil system, 2. replace everything with new air suspension; I'm not going to start replacing parts 'as they fail', and potentially diagnosing things while in the middle of a 1000 mile trip, flat bedding the car to a hotel parking lot and working on it myself there, that would just be asinine, and when it happened I'd be kicking myself for being an idiot. No, it's not definite that I would have another part failure, but you don't gamble if you can't afford to lose. Bear in mind that I will get no benefit from an air suspension (I won't be towing anything that's what my Navigator is for, and I won't be seating four people in this car, either), it was a very easy choice. The decision has been made, I'm not going to change it, the next step is what shop to have the work done in, not whether it will be done. I will save the fronts for you and if you want, bring them with me to Florida. I'll be in Deltona permanently by the fall, but will making trips before then.
Edit and update. Kit ordered from Eddie at AAS. Still looking for shop recommendations in NJ.
Edit and update. Kit ordered from Eddie at AAS. Still looking for shop recommendations in NJ.
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jerrym3
Well-Known LVC Member
This place does a lot of work on older cars. He's done some work for me on my Galaxie. I'm not making any major endorsement, but he seemed fair. Might be worth checking out if you can't get a stronger recommendation.
(I was going to use him to swap my Galaxie's motor a few years ago, but I decided to have a local guy do the swap in my garage so that I could dress up the engine compartment at my leisure.)
Gazzani Motors, Elmwood Park, NJ
I am NOT connected with this shop in any way.
(I was going to use him to swap my Galaxie's motor a few years ago, but I decided to have a local guy do the swap in my garage so that I could dress up the engine compartment at my leisure.)
Gazzani Motors, Elmwood Park, NJ
I am NOT connected with this shop in any way.
Very funny. Apparently either you haven't read the rest of the posts, or you're a new car salesman just pushing for business!
What smart people do is maintain their vehicles so that we're not driving around in a car filled with parts that are just ABOUT to fail; I know people like that, and their justification is, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. These are the folks you always see stuck on the side of the road in the summer with blown radiator hoses, helplessly staring out into traffic waiting for someone to rescue them, or repeatedly calling AAA in the winter with dead batteries, screeching brakes or fan belts, and oh yeah, windshield wipers that can no longer clear a path on the windshield: Those who wait to replace parts when they fail. I don't know; maybe they like being stuck on the side of the road. Are you one of them? I don't want to be. That's why as soon as I saw this problem with my suspension, I want to fix it asap, and I'm not going to use this car for anything other than getting it to a shop until it's taken care of.
I just purchased this car recently and within a year or so, will have gone through it and replaced anything that is reaching end of life SUCH AS ALMOST 20 YEAR OLD RUBBER AIR BAGS. Do you wait until the rubber falls off of your windshield wipers in a rainstorm before you go to the store to get new ones? Sounds like it to me!
What's really funny is that I have a local mechanic who said something similar. I had an a/c compressor that seized up in the middle of the winter; I took the truck to him and asked him to replace it. He told me it was so old (it was 9 years old at that time with about 120K miles on it, which is nothing for a domestic 1/2 ton pick up that doesn't get used for hauling very often), I should not put any money into it and should buy a new car. Where upon I told him that if he didn't want to repair cars, why was he working as a mechanic, that he should close up shop and become a car salesman. That pissed him off, but it didn't matter, I was leaving anyway. The rest of the truck ran fine, the body was rust free and in good condition. A new one would have cost $35,000 plus, vs <$1000 to repair the old one. I kept that truck another six years with I think, only changing the brakes and one alternator, both BEFORE they died, but as soon as symptoms that they might started showing up. Now unless you have a ego that needs to show off how much money you can waste, why would you buy a brand new one when the one you already have only needs minor repairs?
Some people are just hard to figure out.
Thanks, Jerry! I met a guy from over on the lincolns of distinction forum, his name's Bryan, who offered to do the job. Got a second recommendation of him from Mike over there as well. So I'll be talking to him tonight about it. I already ordered the parts from Eddie at AAS and he says to expect the package of parts next week. So I'm getting there. If for any reason it doesn't work out with Bryan I'll check out Gazzani. They're only about 5 miles away, and I'll keep them in mind for the folks I know who live around here.