What did you do to your LS today?

(Little) progress report

joegr said:
Cheap tool. Just need a good compressor (and eye protection).
Click to expand...

So I attacked this sway bar bushing project today and was able to get to the point where I only have 2 more bolts to remove - the one at the 45 degree angle holding the DCCV bracket on and of course the front passenger side bushing bolt which is under the DCCV. I hope to get those out tomorrow. Going to attack the 45 one from the top. 2 things happened during this work:

1) Once I got the three bushing bolts out I was able to move the sway bar around fairly freely. I noticed at this point that the bushing on the passenger side is NOT bonded to the sway bar as the bar rotates freely within that bushing and even moves side to side a bit. I'm thinking there may be a chance I can force that bushing and bracket off the bar without cutting it. We'll see.

2) Unfortunately during the freely moving the sway bar around fun time, the bar somehow contacted the pressure line from the PS pump in such a way as to cause a leak at the pressure connector on the underside of the pump. Great. So looking at the Lincoln DVD I see there's a seal that's supposed to prevent this that should be inside on the threads. So I got a little side project now to find this seal and the 'special tool' needed to install it and see if I can stop the leak this way. Hoping I wont need to get the entire hose cause it's bound to be expensive. Course luck says the copper? line got bent a little at the compression nut and will need to be trashed. Yeah I just looked on rockauto and these parts are surpisingly inexpensive. But there ae several similar and some not similar and how do I know which one I need and do I dare think it's NOT the one that's 'out of stock'. If anyone has any thoughts beside 'you knucklehead' cause I already had that one please chime in. Otherwise happy weekend to y'all. Not so much for me.
 
Deaconblue said:
We got 6" of wet heavy snow on Friday April 8th, so I was glad I still had the winter/snow tire on the car. The snow was all melted by the following Monday morning and the forecast called for rising temps. So Tuesday after work I installed the summer/warmer weather wheels/tires on the both the LS and the wife's daily driver. It felt great to have those Michelin Pilot Sports tires back under the LS as I drove her to the airport parking lot Wednesday morning.

I got back home over this past weekend and decided to finally install the K&N cold air kit #57-2562 yesterday on my Gen II V8 Sport. Now I have never really liked the oiled cotton gaze filter media that K&N uses if their filters. The oil tends to foul the Ford MAF sensors. So instead of using the K&N #RC-4630 filter that is included in the kit, I ordered an AEM #21-2147DK dry flow air cleaner. It is almost the exact same size, so there were no fitment issues. I love the sound of the car now. Up to 3000 RPM with a light throttle you can barely hear any difference - even with the windows down and the stereo off. But nail the throttle and/or run her to 6000 RPM and she now has a very nice healthy growl. You finally realize there is a V8 under the hood. The darn OEM setup with the Helmholtz tubes in the intake makes the LS as quite as a Towncar. I will most likely swap back to the factory setup in the winter months, due to the fact that it offers better protection of the filter media from any potential snow build-up in the engine compartment. Sorry for the bad picture in the bright sun light and the dirty engine compartment.
Click to expand...

Is the car any faster performance wise? Not sounds faster?
 
I was planning to clean the engine bay but something got my atention,dammm a fkn rat, i saw bits marks on the AC filter cover and discover a power steering leak.

I could not take a visitor's pic :shifty:

rat mess.jpg

rat mess.jpg
 
jgscott said:
Is the car any faster performance wise? Not sounds faster?
Click to expand...

No way to know for sure unless you do a before and after dyno pulls to confirm the K&N power increase claims. Or, do before and after runs at the drag strip to see if the claimed power gain translates into a faster trap speed or quicker ET's. Not sure I can trust my but dyno to be that highly calibrated. Does it seem faster - maybe, but the baritone growl has boosted the cool factor by a whole lot ;)
 
Brake kit and outer tie rod for the 03 LS V8 arrived and to be installed this evening.

brakes.jpg


Had ordered some new FOB's for my 04 LSE and 01 LS, FCC ID's all matched up should make for easy programming.

Just changing out a couple of worn out and one broken remote.

fobs.jpg



Got to run to the Post Office and pick up the replacement Chrome Magnaflow Tips for the little lady's 03

brakes.jpg


fobs.jpg
 
heyjewel said:
So I attacked this sway bar bushing project today and was able to get to the point where I only have 2 more bolts to remove - the one at the 45 degree angle holding the DCCV bracket on and of course the front passenger side bushing bolt which is under the DCCV. I hope to get those out tomorrow. Going to attack the 45 one from the top. 2 things happened during this work:

1) Once I got the three bushing bolts out I was able to move the sway bar around fairly freely. I noticed at this point that the bushing on the passenger side is NOT bonded to the sway bar as the bar rotates freely within that bushing and even moves side to side a bit. I'm thinking there may be a chance I can force that bushing and bracket off the bar without cutting it. We'll see.

2) Unfortunately during the freely moving the sway bar around fun time, the bar somehow contacted the pressure line from the PS pump in such a way as to cause a leak at the pressure connector on the underside of the pump. Great. So looking at the Lincoln DVD I see there's a seal that's supposed to prevent this that should be inside on the threads. So I got a little side project now to find this seal and the 'special tool' needed to install it and see if I can stop the leak this way. Hoping I wont need to get the entire hose cause it's bound to be expensive. Course luck says the copper? line got bent a little at the compression nut and will need to be trashed. Yeah I just looked on rockauto and these parts are surpisingly inexpensive. But there ae several similar and some not similar and how do I know which one I need and do I dare think it's NOT the one that's 'out of stock'. If anyone has any thoughts beside 'you knucklehead' cause I already had that one please chime in. Otherwise happy weekend to y'all. Not so much for me.
Click to expand...

OK, more progress. I was finally able to get the last bushing bolt off. It was a nightmare. Deaconblue's procedure kept me on track but I had to do a little more work to get at the passenger front bolt. I had to unbolt the fan reservoir to get a straight route to the bolt from the top. And in addition to removing the mounting bolts for the DCCV I had to remove one of the hoses on the bottom back of the unit to finally be able to get to the bushing bracket bolt. Had to drain a lot of coolant. I used 24 inches of extension along with one universal. this was just enough to be able to turn my pivoting head ratchet. The bolt I found had not been torqued down like it should have been. The bracket I could move ever so slightly before i undid the bolt at all. Certainly was contributing to the clunking since the bottom of the bushing is metal as is the top of the mount for it so they could bang off one another. I think the shop that installed the new style sway bar for the PO in this 2000 LS must've forgotten to torque the bolt down. They also apparently forgot to properly position the clamp on one of the DCCV hoses. Ughg.

So next I am going to try to get the sway bar out as I don't trust myself not to slice open an AC line or something while trying to dremel the bushing brackets in the confined space under the car. So I must remove the lower ball joint bolt and the shock/spring bolts to drop the drivers side lower arm and get the knuckle out of the way. Getting that lower ball joint nut off may be a huge challenge as it should be torqued to 111 lb-ft !

One little request for anyone who has the Lincoln maintenance DVD 96-02. Maybe it's on line I dunno. But here's my request - Go to the Suspension->Front Suspension->Bar-Stabilizer writeup, Section 204-1. Once you're there, kindly look at the drawing in step 2, # A0001093.gif and tell me what bolt they are referring to.

Thanks.
 
George... IIRC, the bar is supposed to be removed through the driver's side wheel well...
 
heyjewel said:
OK, more progress. I was finally able to get the last bushing bolt off. It was a nightmare. Deaconblue's procedure kept me on track but I had to do a little more work to get at the passenger front bolt. I had to unbolt the fan reservoir to get a straight route to the bolt from the top. And in addition to removing the mounting bolts for the DCCV I had to remove one of the hoses on the bottom back of the unit to finally be able to get to the bushing bracket bolt. Had to drain a lot of coolant. I used 24 inches of extension along with one universal. this was just enough to be able to turn my pivoting head ratchet. The bolt I found had not been torqued down like it should have been. The bracket I could move ever so slightly before i undid the bolt at all. Certainly was contributing to the clunking since the bottom of the bushing is metal as is the top of the mount for it so they could bang off one another. I think the shop that installed the new style sway bar for the PO in this 2000 LS must've forgotten to torque the bolt down. They also apparently forgot to properly position the clamp on one of the DCCV hoses. Ughg.

So next I am going to try to get the sway bar out as I don't trust myself not to slice open an AC line or something while trying to dremel the bushing brackets in the confined space under the car. So I must remove the lower ball joint bolt and the shock/spring bolts to drop the drivers side lower arm and get the knuckle out of the way. Getting that lower ball joint nut off may be a huge challenge as it should be torqued to 111 lb-ft !

One little request for anyone who has the Lincoln maintenance DVD 96-02. Maybe it's on line I dunno. But here's my request - Go to the Suspension->Front Suspension->Bar-Stabilizer writeup, Section 204-1. Once you're there, kindly look at the drawing in step 2, # A0001093.gif and tell me what bolt they are referring to.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

The Gen II must be a bit easier without having the hydraulic fan fluid reservoir being in the way to get at that last bolt.
 
Deaconblue said:
The Gen II must be a bit easier without having the hydraulic fan fluid reservoir being in the way to get at that last bolt.
Click to expand...

Easier in that way, but to remove the bar, one of the AC lines has to be disconnected.
 
Just ordered for the 04 LSE, from R1 Concepts,

Qty 1 x [COMPLETE KIT] Black Cross-Drilled Brake Rotors & Ceramic Brake Pads CBX.6109002

s-l1600.jpg


~ good deal, worth a try, see how they hold up.

s-l1600.jpg
 
LS4me said:
George... IIRC, the bar is supposed to be removed through the driver's side wheel well...
Click to expand...

Yes, the DVD agrees with you.

Also I still wonder about this bolt? Maybe if I had removed it the whole job would have been much easier? Can anybody chime in?

One little request for anyone who has the Lincoln maintenance DVD 96-02. Maybe it's on line I dunno. But here's my request - Go to the Suspension->Front Suspension->Bar-Stabilizer writeup, Section 204-1. Once you're there, kindly look at the drawing in step 2, # A0001093.gif and tell me what bolt they are referring to.
 
Picked up a bit of oil on sale. 45% off.

oil.jpg

Enough to last all three Lincoln's at least well into next summer.

oil.jpg
 
Should be about two and a half oil changes for each of the three. Sounds about right to me.
 
joegr said:
Easier in that way, but to remove the bar, one of the AC lines has to be disconnected.
Click to expand...

Joegr;

Hmmm ... I may be the lucky recipient of both problems cause this is a Gen 2 sway bar I'm trying to get out of my Gen 1 LS. The DVD I have goes to 2002 so does not cover removing the Gen 2 bar. One of the steps to remove a Gen 1 bar is to remove the bushings and brackets from the sway bar. And of course I can't do that. And of course the bushings and brackets are making it tough to get the sway bar out. I've got the knuckle and brake positioned aside but the bar is now hitting the shock which I have disconnected but won't get out of my way. I guess I may have to remove the shock.. I hope I dont have to remove an AC hose as well. Do u have any knowledge of this situation?
 
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