New SC Owner from Oregon.

thesecretblack

Registered User
Hey, my name is David and I'm from Eugene, OR. I just bought a 1990 SC and so far it's living up to it's rep! The transmission is slipping a little, though, and there are some small dents and dings, but it was only $800 so I can't complain.
 

Attachments

  • sc2.jpg
    sc2.jpg
    160.7 KB · Views: 206
So you're the guy that bought the red 90 in Springfield! Congrats on your SC purchase. I've been looking at that for some time now. I'm in Eugene as well and would be happy to share what little knowledge I have. I did just do a trans swap last year so perhaps we can talk about your options. If you want to meet up sometime I'd be interested to chat with you.

You know there's another 90 out in McKenzie Bridge area - guy wants $650.00 for it.

That really cleaned up nicely. Did it have a small dent in the right fender like it appeared to in the Craigslist ad? Forgot to also mention - welcome to the forums!

Scott J
 
So you're the guy that bought the red 90 in Springfield! Congrats on your SC purchase. I've been looking at that for some time now. I'm in Eugene as well and would be happy to share what little knowledge I have. I did just do a trans swap last year so perhaps we can talk about your options. If you want to meet up sometime I'd be interested to chat with you.

You know there's another 90 out in McKenzie Bridge area - guy wants $650.00 for it.

That really cleaned up nicely. Did it have a small dent in the right fender like it appeared to in the Craigslist ad? Forgot to also mention - welcome to the forums!

Scott J

Ha! Yep it was me. The car runs surprisingly well for an $800 car and has just over 100k miles. The only major issues are the ignition doesn't start unless you bypass the starter solenoid and the transmission slips, but not to the point where it can't be driven. I swapped out the solenoid, but it seems like it's not getting any power from the ignition wire, and when I checked it the voltage was all over the place so I'm not sure what's going on with that. I will probably be replacing the transmission, soon, if it looks like something I can tackle. I've heard it can be a lot more expensive to rebuild than to replace. As far as the body goes, yeah it's got some dings. The most major blemish is the hood and front bumper. The hood has a couple of small but sharp creases and the bumper is bent out of shape by about a half inch on one side. There's also some yellow showing where the black stripe has chipped away, and it's sat under some pines for a while, so there are a lot of dead needles in every little gap. The interior is perfect, though, and those seats! The adjustments on the front seats are incredible.

If you happen to see a my car around, don't hesitate to say hi!
 
Looks nice for the price ;) Welcome to SC ownership.

> The only major issues are the ignition doesn't start unless you bypass the starter solenoid

Are you sure it's not a safety feature...try pressing the brake pedal when you go to start it. That's how my '90 Anniversary SC w/auto trans works.

Ken - Salem
 
When my transmission died I shopped around for repair - it was upwards of $2500.00. Really pricey. I opted for a really low mile unit from a B&R wrecking. If you want help sourcing and swapping the transmission let me know. You can swap later Mustang transmissions into our cars. I put a 2003 Mustang trans into my 94' - LOVE IT. Not that hard to do either - did the whole job including fluid for less than $300.00.

You don't have to be too specific but what part of town will I find you driving around most of the time?
 
Last edited:
Looks nice for the price ;) Welcome to SC ownership.



Are you sure it's not a safety feature...try pressing the brake pedal when you go to start it. That's how my '90 Anniversary SC w/auto trans works.

Ken - Salem

You know, I've probably owned 20 different cars in my lifetime, and NONE of them required this. You nailed it, though, I held down the brake and it started right up. Thanks!
 
When my transmission died I shopped around for repair - it was upwards of $2500.00. Really pricey. I opted for a really low mile unit from a B&R wrecking. If you want help sourcing and swapping the transmission let me know. You can swap later Mustang transmissions into our cars. I put a 2003 Mustang trans into my 94' - LOVE IT. Not that hard to do either - did the whole job including fluid for less than $300.00.

You don't have to be too specific but what part of town will I find you driving around most of the time?

I spend most of my time in West Eugene, but I live in East Springfield, so it's tough to say. I do spend a lot of time driving though, and it's mostly through town so I'm sure we'll cross paths at some point. $300 for a tranny sounds great! I think that's the route I'm going to go. Did it require a lot of tools (jacks, hoists, whatever) to change it? I have heard of people swapping transmissions on the side of the road just using a jack and a curb, but I doubt I'd be that lucky lol.
 
Yes - you'll need enough stuff to get the front end on jack stands. Once you have the car up the exhaust needs to come out, the gas tank needs to be lowered, the drive shaft comes out and then you pull the trans. Now that I've done it I could probably remove and replace a transmission in about 4 hours if you have everything you need. Having a transmission jack is super handy but you can lower a trans without one. I highly recommend doing this in a garage space. Doing this on the street would suck IMO.

There are many threads on later model trans swaps. I went from 4R70W to a newer 4R70W. There's a little more to going from an AOD to a 4R70W but it seems to be mostly around wiring up the connector to the car. If you want to meet for coffee to talk through all this I'd be glad to meet. I travel a bit for work but am home for the next two weeks. LMK.
 
One thing to check on the trans is the TV cable adjustment at the throttle body.

It's fairly easy to set. You need to release the clip, tension the cable just a bit and then re-commit the clip. Search here for details, but be careful to not get carried away as going too far one way or the other can do much more harm than good in a hurry.

Also, if you decide to do a filter change or drop the pan to inspect, know that in some cases new ATF is not your friend....it can release built up compounds and raise heck with the internals in high mile/older units so be cautious and only use as much as is necessary to replace what you can't capture while taking things apart.
 
One thing to check on the trans is the TV cable adjustment at the throttle body.

It's fairly easy to set. You need to release the clip, tension the cable just a bit and then re-commit the clip. Search here for details, but be careful to not get carried away as going too far one way or the other can do much more harm than good in a hurry.

Also, if you decide to do a filter change or drop the pan to inspect, know that in some cases new ATF is not your friend....it can release built up compounds and raise heck with the internals in high mile/older units so be cautious and only use as much as is necessary to replace what you can't capture while taking things apart.

Ken can you offer additional detail on the TV cable adjustment? I'm going to start searching the forums but am interested in why this would influence slip.
 
One thing to check on the trans is the TV cable adjustment at the throttle body.

It's fairly easy to set. You need to release the clip, tension the cable just a bit and then re-commit the clip. Search here for details, but be careful to not get carried away as going too far one way or the other can do much more harm than good in a hurry.

Also, if you decide to do a filter change or drop the pan to inspect, know that in some cases new ATF is not your friend....it can release built up compounds and raise heck with the internals in high mile/older units so be cautious and only use as much as is necessary to replace what you can't capture while taking things apart.

To be honest, I don't have a lot of mechanical experience and I'm not exactly sure where the TV cable is. After scouring through the engine compartment, I did find one thing that was obviously broken, though. I've highlighted it in the pictures. It had some kind of clip on it to hold it in place, but the clip was gone and this piece was just wiggling freely. The location is at the top of the hose to the air filter. I put a little tension clip on it to keep it in place, but I'm not sure how well that will hold.
 

Attachments

  • sce.jpg
    sce.jpg
    151.5 KB · Views: 126
Yes - you'll need enough stuff to get the front end on jack stands. Once you have the car up the exhaust needs to come out, the gas tank needs to be lowered, the drive shaft comes out and then you pull the trans. Now that I've done it I could probably remove and replace a transmission in about 4 hours if you have everything you need. Having a transmission jack is super handy but you can lower a trans without one. I highly recommend doing this in a garage space. Doing this on the street would suck IMO.

There are many threads on later model trans swaps. I went from 4R70W to a newer 4R70W. There's a little more to going from an AOD to a 4R70W but it seems to be mostly around wiring up the connector to the car. If you want to meet for coffee to talk through all this I'd be glad to meet. I travel a bit for work but am home for the next two weeks. LMK.

That sounds great. I'll have to see when I have some time in the near future. Do you know where I can check the compatibility of a transmission? I've seen some of the 4R70W transmissions for sale but they're usually close to a grand. I've seen other transmissions from early 90s Mustangs going for two or three hundred, though. It's tempting to buy that SC out in McKenzie Bridge and use that tranny, but I think the cost of towing it home would probably be a little painful.
 
To be honest, I don't have a lot of mechanical experience and I'm not exactly sure where the TV cable is. I put a little tension clip on it to keep it in place, but I'm not sure how well that will hold.

Bingo - that's it. You may want to see if a local trans shop/dealer (Scott or someone familiar w/these cars?) can fix that asap. Don't drive with it disconnected. You can smoke the trans in short order (if it isn't already).
 
If you take it to a shop I'd visit Transmission Solutions on West 11th. Tony knows what he's doing. He rebuilt the trans on my Toyota minivan a while ago and its still pwnin

I could look at it if you'd like or you could look under the hood of mine to see what kind of parts you're looking for. You might be able to rob parts off of an LX but I kinda doubt it.
 
That sounds great. I'll have to see when I have some time in the near future. Do you know where I can check the compatibility of a transmission? I've seen some of the 4R70W transmissions for sale but they're usually close to a grand. I've seen other transmissions from early 90s Mustangs going for two or three hundred, though. It's tempting to buy that SC out in McKenzie Bridge and use that tranny, but I think the cost of towing it home would probably be a little painful.

Switching to a 4R70W would require several parts like shifter, drive shaft and a stand alone controller for the transmission to function. Not worth the cost and considerable effort required to make it work for an $800 car. Better off just fixing the AOD. Ford also sells a kit with a brass bushing and retaining clip to hold the TV cable to the throttle linkage. See this post for a picture and Ford part number.

http://www.sccoa.com/forums/showthread.php?134482-TV-cable-adjustment&p=1075237#post1075237

David
 
Thanks for the clarification. I went from a 4R70W to a newer one - never had the AOD. I mistakenly thought that they were essentially the same. My bad.
 
After reconnecting the throttle valve cable the transmission doesn't seem to slip almost at all. The only times that it does (routinely) slip are when I'm going from reverse to drive (takes about 4 seconds to engage) and for some reason when I'm making a sharp right turn it takes a couple of seconds before it catches. I ordered a brass bushing, but in the meantime I just used a plastic one that I got from the local hardware store for 24 cents. I don't know if adjusting the TV cable would help with the slow shifting, but for some reason the slider on the TV cable doesn't budge so I can't really check it. The little white tab wont come out of either side, no matter how hard I try to force it. I blasted it with WD-40 and elbow grease but it seems to be locked in there pretty well.

Anyway, with the car being driveable, I'm tempted to focus on replacing the other things that it needs (bumper and hood, specifically) and putting off the tranny work for a while.
 
That keeper that locks the thing together sits flush when committed, as I think you've figured out. You push it up, as I recall, just a bit to unlock so that the end slides free a bit, then pull the end of the cable just enough to take out all slack, then attach the end to the throttle body lever, then set the keeper. This is how it's set at the factory, but there are subtleties that some owners apply case-by-case that vary the process.

With it together right now, how much slack can you see if you grab the cable end with pliers and pull gently towards the front of the car, or is it very tight?

My '90 takes it's time going from reverse to drive too...

>I'm tempted to focus on replacing the other things that it needs (bumper and hood, specifically) and putting off the tranny work for a while.

Just don't want to see you smoke it in the mean time :)
 
Last edited:
Back
Top