MN12 Differences Between the Years

I am wondering about the door panels on your 89. Do they have cloth on the vertical surface above the armrests, or vinyl? I had a 1989 base model (non-SC) with a lot of options, dark blue interior. It had matching blue vinyl on the door panels, which I thought looked pretty sharp. I also really dig the stainless trim on the early cars' door panels and rear speaker panels.
My 89 has the dark blue colored interior, and matching cloth on the surface above the armrests.
 
Has anyone else seen this?

When I was stripping the paint off of a 1990 Thunderbird SC trunk lid, I noticed "SC" written in what looks like permanent marker on each side of the deck lid where the Thunderbird reflectors would cover. I don't think there is anything SC-specific about MN12 Thunderbird trunk lids, so I don't know why this was done; still cool though.
 

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The lids themselves are the same, but the tail lights were different from the LX to the SC, so that might have been a mark made at the factory to ensure that the factory workers put the correct tail lights on the trunklid. I've never seen it before, but I've never really looked for it either.
 
Yes, there should be. Unless the front bumper cover was replaced at some point in the last 25 years. All of the ones I've owned, the hole for the front license plate bracket was popped right through the SC script.
 
From my experience usually the 89-90 SC's have the Embossed SC logo and anything after that is a craps shoot. of the 92/93 SC's I've owned none of them have had it...91 May depending on the build date.


-Tim
 
Reason for different dia half shafts in IRS

The thicker half shaft on the right side is not necessary. The CV joints are the same on both axles and you'll snap the 26 spline outer joint long before breaking even the thinner shaft.

If memory serves, the heavier right side shaft was to help control wheel hop on the earlier cars. May have been only 5 spd cars. My 91 5 spd had the heavier shaft and the 95 auto uses the same (smaller) in both sides.


You're correct about using different diameter half shafts to control wheel hop. If the shafts are the same diameter, they wrap up and release at the same rate resulting in wheel hop. Different diameter axle bars are used so the axles would wrap up and release at different rates, allowing the wheels to release at different times helping to reduce wheel hop.
 
I removed the license plate cover from my 1990 SC the other day, a little disappointed there was no SC :(

It looks like the bumper was repainted and the Vin sticker is missing.
 
Your bumper was most likely replaced with the more common 92-93 style. All 90's had the sc molded in from the factory regardless of a front licence plate braket.
 
96-97 differences

the 97 used a tarus type instrument cluster, The 97 got working cup holders and the air duct at the bottom is different also, The 97 moved the premium amp from the trunk to behind the low fuel warning and other lights in the center counsel. The 97 started using a single key for door, trunk and ignition. 97 lost the lower strut on the glove box. 97 lost the locking glove box, 97 lost inside locking trunk release, the 97 lost the chrome ring around the sun roof seal. The 97s lost the door lights. some 97 don't have torques feathers in the grill emblem. The 97 does not have a under hood light. The under hood engine wiring harness is completely different from a 96 one. On the plus side only early 96 cars with out abs had rear drum brakes but I think that in October all car regardless if they had abs or not received 4 wheel disk brakes.

I wish that if ford wanted to save money they would have discontinued the 3.8 v6 in 96 and only offer 4.6 variants.
 
The 97 moved the premium amp from the trunk to behind the low fuel warning and other lights in the center counsel.

Actually, the MN12 lost the VMM in '97 as well. The amp was tucked under the center stack, forward of the '97-only center-stack ashtray (where the VMM or cubby used to be).
 
I pulled an Electronic Climate Control Console from a 1993 Thunderbird, could this work in a 1990 Thunderbird? (I know that it wasn't an option until 1991)
 
I pulled an Electronic Climate Control Console from a 1993 Thunderbird, could this work in a 1990 Thunderbird? (I know that it wasn't an option until 1991)

Not trivial. You'd need to add the 2nd temp sensor to the heater hose on top of the engine, the cabin temp sensor to the dash wiring and the vacuum hoses for the controls.
 
Not trivial. You'd need to add the 2nd temp sensor to the heater hose on top of the engine, the cabin temp sensor to the dash wiring and the vacuum hoses for the controls.

Would it be possible to pull those parts from the junk car, or are they too integrated and/or too easily broken to be removed?
 
Would it be possible to pull those parts from the junk car, or are they too integrated and/or too easily broken to be removed?

I pulled the just the main unit from a wreck, which was a bit tricky getting the group of lines off the back...had to break some dash pieces to gain access to save time for removal, then spent time studying the additional components - in the end, for me it looked to be just too much work and I was worried I'd end up hacking my dash, so I chickened out. The vacuum manifold and control lines look to be too major of a job to make it all worthwhile alone. Adding the temp sender to the heater hose wouldn't be that big of a job, but then you'd have to route the sendor feed inside the dash as well.

Might be easier to swap the entire dash instead, where you'd have an excuse to open things up so you could change out the internal vent controls on the heater box, etc. Lots of work just to have those controls, but it would be an interesting conversion, I guess. Could be an excuse to trade up ;)
 
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