lincoln mark viii questions

it sounds like one of my belt tensioner pullies is making a noise like it has a bad bearing. any idea what to do for replacements, any part numbers for them on the lincoln mark viii?

the air ride will not pump up all the time.
would i be able to use the coil springs and lower control arms and shocks off a thunderbird or cougar and eliminate this air ride system?

would a regular tbird or supercoupe be better? i dont' really want to deal with the arc sensors and what not.

if so would the message display still read to "check air ride system" or whatever it says if i eliminated the air ride?

all in all, it seems like i'm making some progress, since i got the new water pump installed.

thanks in advance for the help/advice.

jeff

You can use the springs / shocks from a Tbird / Cougar to eliminate the Air ride suspension, and either swap the lower control arms or use the custom made spring perchase made for this.

There is a conversion kit available through some air ride suppliers.

I would prefer to use the SC springs, they are a little lower and stiffer. You dont have to use the shocks, you can use any shocks you prefer. The mounting hole for the rear shocks may be slightly different between the ARC and non ARC shocks, you might want to just re-use your original ones. They have two bolt holes and a larger center diameter, some of the regular style shocks only have one bolt on the top of the shock to hold it on.

You will get a check air ride message, unless you cut the wire that goes to the Information center - that will take care of the message.

- Dan

thanks,

i have both thunderbird sc suspension and a base model 91 5.0 thunderbird at my disposal, so i would prefer to save money and just use that stuff since i have it around rather than deal with an after market company.

jeff

do you know what wire to cut?

thanks,
jeff

According to the EVTM, there are 2 wires that are Inputs to the Message center.

Air Ride Switch Off Input - 425 - Brown / Pink
Check Air Ride System / Air Ride System On Input - 419 - Dark Green / Light Green

I think that when I modified a Mark 8, I only cut the Check air ride message but that was because I didnt have the compressor on the vehicle and left the switch in the On position. If you are going to ditch the compressor you wont need to cut the other wire, but if you plan on turning the Switch in the trunk to Off and / or leaving the rest of the system intact, you should cut both wires.

- Dan

ok, so this is wierd. i drove the car around tonight. i started out with it like a lowrider, neither the front nor back pumped up. when i got home though after about 10 miles, both front and rear bags were fine and pumped up.

so then i took the back wheels off and when i was jacking it up, it made this "hiss" noise and it let the air out....of the back bags. after i put the tires back on, the front was still pumped up but the back was low. i started the car up, and it gave me the check air ride message on the display. i shut the car off. restarted it, and started reving the engine. i didn't get an air ride message and the back air bags pumped up.....and stayed up. as of right now, they are both still full of air 4 hours later. am i missing something basic that could be wrong? i'd rather not deal with the swap if there is a simple easy fix to these air ride systems based on how mine is acting.

thanks,
jeff

Your air suspension is acting perfectly normal as far as I can tell.

Sometimes when you leave the car parked for a while, or over night it may drop down - usually due to air density differences when it is colder at night and warms up during the day.

When you start the car the air suspenison will activate and pump the front end up first, one side at a time, then the rear wheels, usually while you start driving .. you can hear the compressor kick on - if it is excessively noisy or sounds like rattling it could be bad or going bad.

After you park and turn the car off, it will usually vent the bags down a little, this is the hiss sound.

Anytime you jack the car up, you need to turn the Air Ride switch inside of the trunk Off to prevent damage to the system. When you lifted the rear, it extended the height sensor, making the computer think it was higher than it should have been, so it vented air out of the rear ( hiss sound ) .. and thats why it was lower when you put it back onto the ground, while the front end was still at normal height. Just be sure to turn the switch back On anytime you are done working on it.

Revving the engine wont make the air suspension lift any faster. The pump is electrically operated, so it may be a tiny bit faster at 14 volts instead of 12.

If your air suspension is still okay after 4 hours, everything should be fine. When my Mark 8 had a bad bag, it would let the air out of the bag as soon as I hit a bump and the Check air Ride message would come on - when one front side goes bad it will drop the whole front end down because one strut cant hold the whole front end up by itself - and they should be replaced in pairs, chances are if one is bad the other is getting worse - when you blow out the shocks from drivng with them bottomed out, the oil can eat through the rubber bellow material faster than normal wear and tear. They usually start to leak where the bag folds over the unit at the bottom, if you see alot of tiny cracks it could possibly leak. Sometimes when they leak excessively, the pump can get worn out as a result of constantly trying to keep air in the bags. A new set cost me about $500 for both fronts and it has been workign good since then. As long as you're not getting any error messages, and the air stays in the bags while you are driving or after a couple of hours, everything should be fine and I wouldnt worry about it too much.

Sorry for the long post, but air suspension is something I have to deal with normally with 2 Mark 8's and 1 Tbird with air suspension. Lots of other good air suspension information is available at www.markviii.org and www.baggedbirds.com

- Dan

A couple other things. There could be a hole in one of the bags that only leaks when you drive. As it sits, the pressure of the bag being folded over can actually seal the leak or at least slow it wayyyy down. As far as the conversion goes, I would not use SC struts. They have automatic ride control on them. I would go with an aftermarket setup that eliminates the ARC and go from there. I will agree that the spring rates of the SC are better than the stock LX springs.

Chris

the thing is, the day before i drove it for about 10 miles and they didn't pump up at all. its almost like the air ride system is not functioning at all in that case, maybe a loose wire or something? like i said.....last night when they pumped up, the first time i started it i got the check air ride message, then when i turned it off and restarted it, i didn't get the message and it pumped up.

thanks for the info so far. i wasn't aware of that switch in the trunk.

jeff

Was the pump running when you were having troubles with the rear? There is a leveler switch on the drivers side that can get coroded up from the street use. You can not miss it. Unplug it or give a tug on the wires. Look at those connections and it MAY give you a clue to the rear problem. If the pump WAS running, you have a steady leak.

Chris

where at on the driver's side?

I think its in the rear, should be connected to the lower control arm.

- Dan

Yeah...there is a small nub that sticks off of the LCA on the front (i think). If you can not find it, I will look and tell you.

Chris

so the shocks are pumped up and ok.....but about an hour later they are still up. i go and start the car. then all of a sudden as soon as i turn the key and start it. then all of a sudden as it starts up the front shocks just release air all of a sudden? what would cause this?

jeff

i also noticed that drivers side arc sensor (or so it seems) clicks about 5 or 6 times really quick when i start it up. could this be a problem or is the arc sensor bad?

thanks,
jeff

lowflying90 said:

i also noticed that drivers side arc sensor (or so it seems) clicks about 5 or 6 times really quick when i start it up. could this be a problem or is the arc sensor bad?

thanks,
jeff

Click to expand...

Sounds like it's not activiting the shock. Check the shock/ARC and make sure the actuator can bounce a little. If not, it usually means the actuator is jammed onto the shock, meaning the little thing isn't inserted into the actuator correctly.

I took all mine off, sprayed some WD-40 into the shock top, turned the little thingie (can't think of the word) and made sure they were all reseated properly.

Edit: Realized you meant your Mark. I don't know if their ARC setup is similar to the SC, so disregard the above if not.

yea, here's a picture