SPOTTED: New MA State Police Ford Interceptor!

This morning I caught a very quick glimpse of a marked Massachusetts State Police cruiser on a flatbed... a brand spankin' new Ford Interceptor.  It was on a flatbed headed in the direction of Devens MA.  There is a state police barracks there, along with an EVOC training facility.   I tried to find the car later in the day, but it was most likely deep inside state property by that time...

Crazy Off Roading Crown Vic Video!!

UPDATE: Making Connections...

Yesterday it was 70 degrees outside, so I decided to do something constructive.  One of Vic’s battery cable connectors was acting up.  Every once in a while, I’d try to start it, and you’d get a quick connection, then nothing.  If I opened the hood and just tapped the cable, it would connect again.  Since that connector had already been replaced a while back with a lead one, I figured I’d buy a new, non-lead connector and fix this little issue.

Old connectors... original 14 yr old one at left

It was pretty simple removing the offending lead connector.  The hard part was trying to crimp the new connector to the copper cable.  I tried using pliers, but couldn’t get much bend out of them.  So I just made sure all the copper was inside the new end, and taped the begeebers out of the junction.

Then I looked at the other cable.  That one had the original, 14 year old connector, but half of it had disappeared and was only about the width of a wedding ring.  I decided that it would be too hard to try and replace it, but while I was reinstalling it to the battery, SNAP!!  The thing finally fell apart.  That meant I HAD to replace it.

I cut off the factory insulation, and found out my low budget crimping technique was just that.  The correct way to crimp the non-lead ends was far better than what I could do with pliers… and very difficult to remove.  Long story short, I had to use a small saw I found in the cellar to hack the connector off.  Then I removed a little insulation from the cables, shoved them into the new connector, and taped it all up. 



Then came cleanup, which included putting a zillion sockets away.  Finally, I started the car.  Fired right up, but the car’s clocks were showing different times!  The stereo said it was 1:07, the factory dash clock said 12:07!  It was actually about 1:35PM…

I sure hope my repairs hold up.  Time will tell…

New cable ends... will they work???

UPDATE: 128,000 Miles



Sportin' snow tires... but where's the snow this year??



UPDATE: 127,000 Miles and an Adjustment

On 1/4/12, Vic hit 127,000 miles.  It also needed a little adjustment after the intake job.  There was a nasty smell of raw gas that was getting worse and worse.  It was getting hard to sit inside the car!  When I stopped to get some gas, I popped the hood and started sniffing.  I spotted a lot of standing gas pooling around one coil pack.  After sopping up as much as I could with some paper towels, I started to drive back home (about 30 miles).  I stopped by Taxi Guy, and he had me drive the car into a bay, did a few quick adjustments, and now I can breathe in the car again.  One of the coil packs was not seated right in the intake.  I didn't realize just how little there is to keep them in place!  Loosen the fuel rail, twist the coil pack around a bit, then tighten things back up!  I am told there are O-rings that sometimes don't seat properly, helping such a problem to occur.

New Addition to the Fleet!

After years of driving hand-me-down cars, Dad finally bought himself a car not 10 years old and rusty!  Meet the latest addition to the fleet, a 2010 Mercury Grand Marquis LS.  It started life as a rental, then it was sold to a man who traded it in for a Taurus, as the Marquis was too large for him. 

The car has about 22,000 miles on it and is pretty clean.  There are only a few small scratches on it.  We picked it up this morning, and so far, Dad likes it a lot.  His '95 Town Car (a hand-me-down from my mother) is at his mechanic's, the interior torn apart due to electrical problems.  It is destined for the scrap yard...

The Last Crown Victoria VIDEO