"New " Aerostar

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fud2468
Posts: 77
Joined: 18 years ago
Location: Sacramento, CA area

"New " Aerostar

#1

Post by fud2468 »

On Friday I visited my favorite tow yard to look at lien sale vehicles. I had bought 2 there before that served me well.
I had a '91 Aerostar that I reluctantly gave to one of my sons to use in his landscaping work a couple of years ago. I always wanted another one.
To my surprise there was a '93 3.0 shorty window van there this time. Turns out it was not a lien vehicle but belonged to a relative of the boss. Regular service at their shop. Price was $1000, not negotiable but they threw in the smog check, which I felt was worth quite a bit.
135K miles, good rubber, drove well, shifted well and went into lockup as it should. A/C works, but driver power window is stuck closed. I'm finding that neither my Haynes nor my Chilton Aero manuals says anything about PW troubleshooting, but for now that's OK because of the rain.
Oh yeah, professionally painted a couple of years ago, white over maroon with a pinstripe, very pretty. Body is straight. Even the plastic bumper covers are in good shape. Axle is a 3.73 though, not as tall as I would like for flatland travel.
It needs some TLC but I look forward to playing with it.
Ray Mac.
rlaggren
Posts: 541
Joined: 17 years ago
Location: San Francisco

#2

Post by rlaggren »

Everything comes to those who wait..... <g>

Rufus
82 Maxima wagon
fud2468
Posts: 77
Joined: 18 years ago
Location: Sacramento, CA area

#3

Post by fud2468 »

Thanks, I agree.
I've been going back through Al's pics and descriptions of the work he did on his green '93 and finding them invaluable.
Ray Mac.
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asavage
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Re: "New " Aerostar

#4

Post by asavage »

fud2468 wrote:. . . driver power window is stuck closed. I'm finding that neither my Haynes nor my Chilton Aero manuals says anything about PW troubleshooting, but for now that's OK because of the rain.
Based on the PW work I've had to do on my four Aeros, the PW switches are not of the highest quality and many folks have cursed them, but I've only had one Aero PW SWITCH failure, and it was not the usual problem and was therefore a bit trickier to diagnose.

Image

Looks as if you can pull the switch panel out of the door panel, and backprobe the switch to determine if power is being sent to the motor. Backprobe terminals 3 & 4 (both center terminals). Do not try to probe only one, you must put your voltmeter across them both, because the motor is not grounded and the switch supplies both power and ground, and if you followed the link above, you'll see that the ground side of the switch does fail.

If you have juice across terms three and four, the motor is bad. I've replaced three PW motors on the '89 Aero. One of the replacements lasted seven years and crapped again -- the passenger side one!

My money is on the motor being bad.

You'll have to pull the door panel to do anything about that. You'll find the usual door cracking, fix it or ignore it as you wish.

The '93's PW motors are easier to replace than the '89 -- by far -- but it still involves drilling out rivets if you need to R&R the window regulator. I have the 1/4" rivet gun and the special 1/4" aluminum rivets -- necessary to replace locks in modern Fords, so I have to have it -- but I still use 1/4" bolts/nuts/lockwashers on the PW motors & regulators.

ISTR that it's possible to replace the motor without pulling the regulator too. I think the second time I replaced it on the pass. side of the '89, I didn't R&R the regulator. It's not easy though, and unless you have a Kevlar arm sleeve, you'll bleed on some sharp edge.

You'll want to round up replacement push clips to put your panel back on later. The early Aeros take eleven of them (and are sold by Ford in packs of ten!). The later Aeros use ten (IIRC). I can supply both the Ford and AuVeCo part Nos. from my stash, if you need them. I recommend replacing all of them every time you have the panel off. The panel fit is much better if you don't try to re-use those one-time-only clips, and they're cheap enough.

You'll want some spray adhesive to put the water shield back on. I use whatever 3M 777 is now called (it's not 777 anymore, and hasn't been for years), it's stocked by all the better parts stores. If your old shield won't peel back nicely, I use a hair dryer to soften the factory adhesive. You want to treat that shield nicely; I've had to make my own and it's not fun.

BTW, I have the CD .iso image (file) of the factory service manual for the '93-94 Ford Trucks, including the Aero. If you can d/l and burn a CD -- and set the CD volume label to "93_94t11" (critical), it runs OK on a Windoze box, though like a lot of factory manuals it's not a lot of fun to use. It does have the troubleshooting stuff for your PWs though ;)

My burning notes for this CD:
https://asavage.dyndns.org/ftp/Aerostar ... _93-94.txt

CD .iso image file for burning a CD:
https://asavage.dyndns.org/ftp/Aerostar ... _93-94.iso (439MiB)
Last edited by asavage 15 years ago, edited 1 time in total.
Regards,
Al S.

1982 Maxima diesel wagon, 2nd & 4th owner, 165k miles, rusty & burgundy/grey. Purchased 1996, SOLD 16Feb10
1983 Maxima diesel wagon, 199k miles, rusty, light yellow/light brown. SOLD 14Jul07
1981 720 SD22 (scrapped 04Sep07)
1983 Sentra CD17, 255k, bought 06Jul08, gave it away 22Jun10.
fud2468
Posts: 77
Joined: 18 years ago
Location: Sacramento, CA area

#5

Post by fud2468 »

Thanks, Al. I marvel at people who can, and are willing to take the time and trouble, to provide such detailed information. I greatly appreciate it!
All I'm able to do is hunt and peck a little since I came to the computer late in life.
Of course your willingness to go into such detail comes as no surprise--your pics and descriptions on your green '93 Aero already showed us that.
Ray Mac
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asavage
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#6

Post by asavage »

fud2468 wrote:Thanks, Al. I marvel at people who can, and are willing to take the time and trouble, to provide such detailed information. I greatly appreciate it!
Partly it's that I sometimes have the time and little else to do that looks inviting, partly it's the opportunity to play know-it-all, partly it's because I've been there and done that and know how much help it would have been if someone who had experience could have guided me.
All I'm able to do is hunt and peck a little since I came to the computer late in life.
I sometimes feel pretty old and envious when I look at how comfortable the yungins are with tech -- I am just annoyed with my cell phone, it seems complex and hard to use and texting just makes me angry. But "everyone" else seems to love theirs. Ipod? I like music but don't need the distraction; I stopped listening to pop music in 1985 or so, haven't bought a CD in at least two years (do they still sell CDs?).

My fastest computer is 1Ghz, and I run an operating system that was in its heyday fifteen years ago and is no longer supported by IBM at all unless I have 1000 "seats" or more -- but I've also not had to reload the OS since, oh, 1996 or so. You heard me right: I've been running the same OS, the same installation of the OS since 1996, and I have error logs to prove it. Of course, I've jacked up the ashtray and slid new hardware underneath at least three times since then, but the point is that I don't upgrade anymore unless it's necessary, and while XP at work has some nice features, it also has a lot of crap to put up with and is in some aspects just totally not comprehensible, even by Tier II tech support, so at home I keep the old stuff going.

Anyway, that was really too much . . . to get older and gain experience is to know envy. My main gripe is that in years gone by, one could learn a trade -- a body of knowledge -- and use it all one's life. Nowadays, I must learn something new constantly to earn my daily bread, and it wearies me as the years go on.

And I forget things, things I used to know like the back of my hand 25 years ago. I read notes I wrote back then, and marvel at how sharp I was, even while ignorant.
Of course your willingness to go into such detail comes as no surprise--your pics and descriptions on your green '93 Aero already showed us that.
I am too wordy, and I know it. But best to err on too much than too little, I figure.
Regards,
Al S.

1982 Maxima diesel wagon, 2nd & 4th owner, 165k miles, rusty & burgundy/grey. Purchased 1996, SOLD 16Feb10
1983 Maxima diesel wagon, 199k miles, rusty, light yellow/light brown. SOLD 14Jul07
1981 720 SD22 (scrapped 04Sep07)
1983 Sentra CD17, 255k, bought 06Jul08, gave it away 22Jun10.
fud2468
Posts: 77
Joined: 18 years ago
Location: Sacramento, CA area

#7

Post by fud2468 »

Thanks again Al,
I haven't had a chance to play with my new Aero since I last posted; a family member was recently diagnosed with cancer and it's fallen to me to transport her to various Kaiser facilities within a radius of 50 miles. This is several days a week until things get sorted out better.
I bought my first computer in 2002 after my kids, one in Portland and one in Kansas City persuaded me to get one for emailing. To me, it's been great not only for that but for the great amount of info that's available on the net. The secret is knowing the proper keywords to Google and then one can find almost anything.
When not looking on auto sites I like to dig up data on WW1 and WW2 aircraft. I built models as a kid and will probably return to that when I get too feeble to mess with cars and veggie gardening.
I have some thoughts about auto repair and the recession but will save that for another topic and date.
Ray Mac
fud2468
Posts: 77
Joined: 18 years ago
Location: Sacramento, CA area

#8

Post by fud2468 »

PS-I agree--better to have too much information than too little. One can always pick and choose what suits, but if you don't have enough in the first place....
Ray Mac
rlaggren
Posts: 541
Joined: 17 years ago
Location: San Francisco

#9

Post by rlaggren »

My main gripe is that in years gone by, one could learn a trade -- a body of knowledge -- and use it all one's life. Nowadays, I must learn something new constantly to earn my daily bread, and it wearies me as the years go on.
Al has nailed it. That has bother me since '85 when I took a look ahead and didn't like what I saw. I'm just haven't figured out some clearly obvious and compelling proof that

1) there is anything morally _wrong_ about requiring half the people to upgrade their person every 3 to 5 years

2) there is any viable alternative to this kind of "progress" , given the money and glory and simple convenience that come with well-hyped technology

That's one of several reasons I got out of the IT (computer) business in '85 after 15 years making computers jump through hoops and just as the first wave of PC's hit the beaches.

Rufus
82 Maxima wagon
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asavage
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#10

Post by asavage »

Ray--
I gave my Dad a computer years ago for the same reason: it was just plain easier in the long run, because neither of us will write a letter, and neither wants to use the phone all that much either. I've never regretted it, and I gave him his second computer too, and then bought him his first "real" ISP agreement to get him weaned from NetZero!

Rufus--
I began taking CompSci classes in '85, left the field about twelve years later. I could deal with RPG II, COBOL, Pascal, BASIC, C, but 'doze broke me and I never got into the whole object-orientation that is the way most high-level programming is done these days. I can do procedural, anything newer is more or less Greek to me.

Hardware was more fun after that, but hardware has almost entirely gone disposable and there are no resources for repair for 96% of it. You haven't seen any new TV repair shops opening, have you? If TVs cost $1000, you would.

Our supposed higher std of living is predicated on cheap, disposable goods and cheap labor and endless resources.

Anyway . . . this is all just a hobby . . .
Regards,
Al S.

1982 Maxima diesel wagon, 2nd & 4th owner, 165k miles, rusty & burgundy/grey. Purchased 1996, SOLD 16Feb10
1983 Maxima diesel wagon, 199k miles, rusty, light yellow/light brown. SOLD 14Jul07
1981 720 SD22 (scrapped 04Sep07)
1983 Sentra CD17, 255k, bought 06Jul08, gave it away 22Jun10.
rlaggren
Posts: 541
Joined: 17 years ago
Location: San Francisco

#11

Post by rlaggren »

> object orientation...

That was the quitting point all right. I might dig into it some time when I got lots of spare hours just to see whether there's any justification for it at all. I've always wondered...

Rufus
82 Maxima wagon
fud2468
Posts: 77
Joined: 18 years ago
Location: Sacramento, CA area

#12

Post by fud2468 »

Al, I heard on the news today that repairmen for both vehicles and electronics, especially computers, are getting more work now because people can't afford to trade in and get new, or discard stuff any more.
Ray Mac.
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asavage
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#13

Post by asavage »

While there is some support for independent shops to repair vehicles, it's not nearly as good as the support you get as a dealer, and it's very expensive.

However, there is almost NO support anywhere for consumer electronics repair. Even if I'm working as a factory support center, I can't get parts, diagrams, diagnostic trees, nothing. Just very basic, "R&R part with known good and see if symptom changes" crap.

I'm a locksmith now. If you can do math and know how to break things (thus know how to NOT break things), you can do the work. You can even specialize, if you don't want to do it all. In this state, you can even be a convicted felon and be a locksmith -- and there are quite a few that are. In Washington state, you have to have a license and pass an exam to cut hair, but to be a locksmith -- just a business license. We're working to change that, soon.
Regards,
Al S.

1982 Maxima diesel wagon, 2nd & 4th owner, 165k miles, rusty & burgundy/grey. Purchased 1996, SOLD 16Feb10
1983 Maxima diesel wagon, 199k miles, rusty, light yellow/light brown. SOLD 14Jul07
1981 720 SD22 (scrapped 04Sep07)
1983 Sentra CD17, 255k, bought 06Jul08, gave it away 22Jun10.
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