What have you done to your wagon lately? (Let's keep the thread going!)

Fixing #10 went a long way toward fixing #9.

 

What color are you going to have it painted?

 

Well, now the hood won't close. I won't drive the 90 Grand Marquis while salt's on the roads but I'd like to fix this hood issue so I can drive the Wagon at all next year. I've never fixed a hood that won't close, is there anything special to it on this model?

 

Do you mean it won't latch? Or is something preventing it from going down all of the way?

 

Check the release cable. If it's too old, it'll stick in the release position, preventing the latch from closing. My '83 had that problem.

 

It won't latch shut.

Thanks, Andrew. I'm looking into the cable replacement and I'm having a bit of difficulty finding one; Autozone doesn't have one, Advance Auto Parts has one that is rated poorly by one person, NAPA doesn't have one but O'Reilly's at least has one that comes up in the search; it's a "Dorman HELP! Hood Release Cable Kit (Part # 03323, a Universal Kit) for $22:

https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/...1990/mercury/grand-marquis?q=hood+cable&pos=2

The same cable kit at Dorman's website:

https://www.dormanproducts.com/p-930-03323.aspx

This universal cable is 94 inches long. I haven't measured the length of the hood release cable on my car, does a 94 inch cable sound right for my 90?

 

Pretty darned close. But, first verify that the cable is the fault; push on the handle and then try shutting the hood. If it does latch, it's the cable; if not, it's the latch.

 

Why don't you try working the latch and the cable with some oil/grease and make sure they are free first before you start replacing parts.

 

Drove it!

 

Watching mine turn into a snow bank.

 

The block heater was quoted as saying "Fick, es ist kalt!"

 

The rubber bushing for the top motor mount in the Freestyle has been disintegrating for a while now. I only think about it when I drive the car (which isn't much, since it's the Wife's DD) but I finally got around to ordering the new one.

It doesn't seem like it would be that complicated to R&R this piece, but as with most repairs on modern vehicles it turned into a real pain in the neck.


New mount


Old mount:


New mount installed:


Only took about three times longer than I figured it would...

 

Looks like a tight fit

 

It was. My forearms were soar for a week after squeezing them in there to get to the last two bolts.