June 9th, 2002 - Last night I went to take my sister Michelle for a ride in the car, since she's never been in it. When I turned on the lights, there was no illumination in the instrument panel. I was less than happy. It occurred to me that when I hooked the stereo up, I had transposed the + wire and the ground, so many that blew a fuse. I bought new fuses, and replaced the fuse in question. Still no lights. I took the entire speedometer part of the dash apart, to see if I had burnt the bulbs or something. The bulbs were fine. While I had it all apart, I was able to clear the lens/window thing which I was happy about. It had been cloudy. Turns out it was just dried on dirt.

I checked to see if the new fuse was okay, and it was blown. I realized something must have been messed up with the stereo. The wire that I was using as a ground wasn't the ground, but rather the night illumination wire for the old stereo! Mystery solved! This was all fine and well... my friend Jimmie came over to help me try and fix that. Afterwards we took a spin in it and went out to eat. It was stalling when I was stopped, or in Reverse. My step-dad adjusted the idle, but now it was stalling again. We'll have to see what that's about, and have the exhaust system replaced as well before I take it for the safety inspection.

As I went to take Michelle for a 'lil spin in my car tonight, the bulb went on the left side of my speedo... so now I can't see what speed I am going unless it's 40 and above! Ha!

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June 11th, 2002 - I am proud to announce that I now have dual exhaust thanks to Carr's in Rockville $371 bought me the dual exhaust. They did a really nice job. They make everything on-site and weld it on, just like at the factory. This guy says I need to replace both Catalytic Converters though. He said that anything made after 1975 needs to go through emissions. Now, when I was getting the temp plates at DMV, the lady said I DID NOT need to go through emissions, just the safety inspection. The dude at Carr's says they're wrong. I think I'll take DMV's word for it! Hopefully we'll get the ball rolling this week and get it to pass through inspection!

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June 12th, 2002 - Oye. That's all I can say. Oye. I went for a ride to Tolland in the car last night. Chris took his Harley there, and we met up with his son Matthew at some auction. The ride was pretty nice. I was happy. I love how the speedo display looks so clean and clear now. The car was so much quieter. I kept thinking how the more I drive the car, the smoother it runs. The auction was really lame, so we left before the bidding started. I go to start my car, and it was pulling he same crap it did at the Mobil station in Bloomfield NJ. They were able to jump me, and I got going. On the way home, the Alternator Light went on, so I rolled up the windows before I lost all electrical, and made it home. Currently the car is sitting dead, in the parking lot of where I live.

 

Here's what that kid Tim with the '78 Marquis said to do.... he had shown me the "EIC" on Saturday and wires and stuff....  maybe it's worth looking into: oz2thamax [9:41 PM]:  I replaced the EIC (electronic ignition control), the alternator, the battery, the voltage regulator and some wires which may or may not have been the problem.  

Here's what my friend Chris from Philly says: Caddichris [11:04 PM]:  Ignition modules act up sometimes, do yourself the favor get prices on these things from different places. It won't hurt to replace them because you don't know how long they have been on to begin with.

So basically at this point I think it's the Alternator, since the battery is obviously not holding a charge. More updates to come! -P

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June 19th, 2002 - Well the car is back from Larry's in Vernon, CT. They raped me on the price of an alternator and voltage regulator, but at least the car starts now, and the battery is holding a charge. I drove it around for a long while last night and when I got home, I shut it off and turned it back on a few times. It's still not right. The engine sort of hesitates, as though it does not want to start up, and turns over really slowly. I think it will go back to Burhoe's to have them look at the starter and maybe the EIC. I also want them to take a look at the timing belt to make sure they're adjusted properly, because the car is sputtering when I turn it off sometimes. Fun, fun, fun.

  

June 24th, 2002 - I picked up my car at Burhoe's today. They replaced the starter and checked the timing. The car ran WONDERFULLY! I went all the way from Bloomfield to East Hartford in it, visited my friend Jen, left it running, shut it off after a while, and it started right back up. I drove it back to my grandparents house and left it there.

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June 26th, 2002 - Well left my car at my grandparent's house and drove the Marquis home. I was so happy driving through town because the car was running so smooth! The dual exhaust sounded so nice! And I was going to finally register it tomorrow! I got home, and checked the lights to make sure everything worked fine, then pulled into a parking space. Shut the car off. That was the last time the car ever ran. We determined that I got a bad starter, so it needed to go back to Burhoe's for them to put in a good new one. I signed up for AAA online so that I can have it towed to Bloomfield tomorrow.

  

July 3rd, 2002 - The Marquis has finally been towed back to Burhoe's this morning. AAA made me wait three business days before the 100mi tow thing would kick in. Below you can see my car being towed away. It just barely fit on the flatbed :)                   

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July 8th, 2002 - Drove the Marquis back from Burhoe's tonight. Got to Grandpa's house. Turned it off. Would not start again. We jumped it, and it started right up. Chris says I should replace it with a really powerful battery. So, I shall do that. The one that's in there is a 655 amp battery. We looked at the one in Grandpa's Roadmaster, and that one is a 955 amp. So, I will start looking for batteries...

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July 21st, 2002 - It's been a busy few weeks! I did end up buying a new battery at where else? No place other than WAL*MART, of course! It's a thousand CC amp battery and so far, it seems to have done the trick. The Chris's Brown & Starzyk went with me to get the car registered on July 14th. We headed up to Enfield because Chris Brown says that it is the quickest DMV. We got all the way up there only to find out that they do not do full inspection any longer. From there we decided to head onto the Willimantic DMV since it was the next closest facility, and probably 2nd 'easiest' to pass inspection. I was really worried about the engine getting 'too hot' again, and not starting during the inspection, so we took the back roads there. En route there, we passed a black Marquis much like Auntie Ro's was. It was in sort of rough condition, but the driver and I waved and beeped 'hello' at each other :)

Once we got to Willimantic, we got in line for the testing, and they made the Chris's get out. While I was waiting, Chris Starzyk yells over to me, "Paul! Turn around, look what's behind you!"   Too bizarre... there was a 1975 to 1978 Mercury Marquis in Green right behind me waiting for his safety inspection! I didn't get a chance to talk to the owner, but it looked as though it was going to be his daily driver. It looked to be in better condition than mine was, by a lot, other than the after-market sideview mirrors he had on there.

My turn came, and things seemed to get off to an okay start. The car started up each time it needed to, and all my lights worked. I never expected him to look at my interior indicator lights, like blinkers, and etc. Neither the HI-BEAM nor E-BRAKE indicator lights worked! Argh! I must have screwed something up when I had that part of the dash apart. I thought I was going to fail the inspection from that point on.

Needless to say my car did not pass that day... but not for the indicator lights! The brackets that hold the bumper were rusted and rotted away, and the inspector saw "wetness/leakage" on the rear axle. The good news was that we didn't have to go through inspection again! Once I had both items addressed, they could be signed-off by my garage. So, I did just that. Chris Brown called Burhoe's and they recommended a place to do the welding, and then they looked at the "leak" and said that it was grease from the brake job, or some melted undercoating from when the exhaust was put on. They wiped it off, signed-off on it, and I got my plates! Yay! We had the honor today of driving it to my friend Jetty's picnic, and then Jimmie and I made the car's maiden voyage to WAL*MART SUPERCENTER in North Windham, CT this midnight!

Check it out! "Early American" plates AND the right rear bumper strip! Things are definitely coming along nicely. I drove it all day yesterday, and all day today and it was pretty good both days. The engine did a little bit of "Dieseling" tonight, but nothing too bad. It's started up each and every time so far.

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