deankxf

spewing i sold that car, only needed a replacement engine in the end.. had to move, and no mates were keen to take it on even for parts amazingly.

the odo gears often died in the original clusters,(also wasn't hard to swap in another or even reset the kms) you can not really trust them entirely, the best gauge for Kms is often how worn the carpet/mat, steering wheel and seat and arm rests/console lid etc. (assuming they haven't been changed also) My XF ute had 300,000kms on it, but the interior and cluster wasn't reflecting that, because none of it was original.

This thread on FFAU (fordforums.com.au) has links to basically anything you might need. look here first. https://www.fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=11244844

yeah i'd expected unless there's a computer thingy that would light a dash light from a low pressure reading in the extra panel, it wouldn't have had an oil pressure "manifold" for the sender AND switch on the engine.. I've seen enough engines to know they only come with one or the other. you could put a T piece fitting in the block and run both, you also shouldn't be too worried if the oil pressure is on the low side with an engine with close to 300,000kms, I've had them idle with the light flickering or the gauge reading low on several clapped out crossflows, they don't die, they will more than likely easily do another 100,000ks without oil issues.. when they are worn out they usually wipe a lifter lobe or just burn a heap of oil from either rings, glazed bores or worn valve guides etc. (they very rarely failed to run, i fitted a second hand lifter to one of My engines every few months from a wiped out cam lobe before eventually swapping the engine. doing about 800km per week at the time.) if the gauges reads enough pressure not to flash, or the switch type put the light out, good enough was good enough for a standard daily car.

you just need an oil sender from a ZL fairlane or S pack XF or even the XE s pack/ghia oil sender will work, EA to ED (extinct basically will also work but are slightly different range, i can't remember if they read higher or lower oil pressure by a small amount but it's negligable) there was no oil light on S pack, but possibly Fairlane ZL or LTD FE may have had some extrapolated thing in the trip computer extra gauge on the dash (were 2 types, one was just a bunch of lights, the other a trip computer.. won't fit in a standard dash though.. you could probably tap into one of the unused light positions on the fairlane cluster, i can't remember what they had.. radiator low level was one of them, use that as an oil light spot if you wanted to keep the on/off oil light. may be others also (shine a torch in the globe holders and see what lights up)

yeah they share the same warning flash.. (if it's got low oil pressure it will flash, or if it's got a battery issue it will flash.) it always annoys me when you see these high series clusters for sale and they haven't included the oil sender.. (it's fine if it's for the same spec level car, but retrofit = annoying and difficult to track down the senders, cheap at least) tacho is likely the needle rubbing on the lense or backing plate in my experience, fragile needles or it's slipped off the pin is another common issue. never seen a fix with the VFDs, (never seen an issue with them actually) so it would be interesting to see a pic of the issue before also.

post your suggestion below, and I'll find some time to add them into the forum. there will be a detailed and specific AU section for sure, as i am a new owner and would like to see info easy to find for Myself any anyone else lucky enough to find themselves a non skidder classic to own and enjoy. so should we have an EA to ED, EF and EL and AU, BA BF and FG section added? is there any structure you'd like to see or just a facebook style rolling Q&A style for the moment (much easier initially for Me/admin to establish) Thanks for your time and input, Dean.

Harveys is/was very good still, being further out makes it probably less popular for people to risk heading out to (fuel prices so high, probably $25 plus any toll road fees and half a day gone just to have a look if nothing is there) that's where i got My headliner for My AU wagon, far cheaper than even redoing the one i had myself.

SELF SERVE WRECKERS I thought i'd post up something mildly concerning . parts are getting hard to find cheap. wrecking yards and parts getting hard to find. I spotted this car on pick a part's facebook page last weekend(less than a week ago) figured i'd go sus it out yesterday (been sick with some spicy cough/flu/cold thing for 2 weeks and finally came good) this car is almost stripped bare in only a few days. nothing useful for Me in there. Victoria lost a GREAT wrecking yard last year (imlach's in Clayton) they were a self serve wrecker with good stock and prices.. Jolly's Geelong when i went there last year had what i assume were RESELLERS walking around with garden trolleys filled with parts and tools, likely taking advantage of the same price regardless of brand (like a BMW headlight same price as a Kia one for eg.. potential upside to resell?) anything i wanted was basically stripped bare.. same seems to be happening at other yards now, well even more than ever. (the old saying, "they aren't making them anymore" comes to mind..) so consider stocking up on parts that might be hard to find as they wear out (things like steering wheels, seat trim, console lids, tail lights and headlights etc.. )

the only place i use nolathane etc is on sway bar link bushes and D bushes.. gives a noticable improvement. anything else i'd choose rubber (Rubber lasts decades in many cases also)

fixed the sticky handle today. was actually tight on the pivot spindle (under that screw, torx T20) decided to try remove the handle, it's risky, the bolts came out though with ease (they have a locking compound on them) access through the door by removing a grommet once i got the handle out, the area i thought it was catching on, already had clearance T20 torx for this self tapper (could probably cut a slot in it and use a flat head screw driver) washed the handle up, taking photos of how the spring went together sanded the spindle with 320 grit sanded the inner hole .. got sick of that fast after testing it several times with no change taped the sandpaper to a bit and used it like a flap sander in the hole for a while until it was a loose fit. crap video of it not sticking anymore. i wiped some engine oil on it, because i couldn't find my grease tub.. (should probably have put silicone spray on it?) it appeared to have NOTHING on it from factory though? works perfectly after refitting it. also took the opportunity to wash out the dirt from the inside of the door and clear the drains (found some rust also, but door trim covers it fine, non issue)

STICKY DOOR HANDLE ISSUE (outside rear right in this case) could cause your door not to open or close (see above post for possibly more notes on the issue) NOT AN ACTUATOR ISSUE, but Could have been a locked up actuator due to the door handle sticking (not sure) knee pad, look after your knees, you'll miss them when they are gone. I THINK it's a T30 torx.. these screws can be super tight (rusted) i had to drill the heads off some spare doors here to remove the mechs (haven't tried fixing them, but the mech may have parts so i kept them) front left and rear right mechs.. I am working on the rear door, but thought i might need to use parts from the actuator.. (the front one had the stuffed mounting bolts, so it was the sacrificed one if needed.. not needed in this case) not much to see here, but this is the drivers rear one before I cut the zip ties and before the handle lever rod fell out. (take photos, so you know how to put it back together) there was nothing wrong, but i forgot to heed the warning in the video a few posts back about the spring flying off when you remove those geared parts and motor.. (took me 2 minutes to reassemble after looking at this picture of how it was meant to be.) THE OFFENDING DOOR HANDLE (from the inside, rod lever disconnected, and you can see the lever arm stuck down, it should spring back to the top, the rod shouldn't have tension on it when installed) even closer pic arrow pointing to the tight area, I'm going to sand this down and grease it. as long as the lever arm isn't going to be affected by sanding some clearance, i'll give it at least 1mm of clearance if it's easy to do.. (going to try not remove the handle to work on it, as the mounting bolts can also be a problem to undo on these cars) that center pivot screw i don't want to mess with, i can't see how it would be too tight? (however, if it was too tight, i'd mess with it ) and a crap video of My observation for your viewing pleasure.

mine initially wouldn't open.. from either door. now you mention it, i did check the child lock, and it seemed sus also.. but i think it was possibly unrelated to the issue. (found it today, partly fixed) I think the CAUSE is possibly from pressing the lock button (has to be with the remote or central locking) while the door handle is trying to open .THIS ISSUE is due to the outer door handle rod puller sticking in the open position.. (I'm uploading pics for a detailed post now) if it doesn't lock, check back soon on My next post. It could be the outer handle sticking. . this is the drivers side rear, but it would easily be possible on the rear doors (front door handles are a different actuation )

you'd have to look around and see what you can find. try the facebook groups etc for bargains (a mate bought a full BTR transmission from the wreckers with sender unit in it for $165 or something like that. )

had an issue with the AU today, rear door wouldn't unlock, or open.. then later when i was cycling the locks with the lock/unlock button it unlocked and opened, and now won't close (car can't lock either now) guessing i'll be pulling an actuator apart tomorrow . (i have spares, so should be able to fix it in the same way this guy did)

The black 8 pulse one (XD XE) is the rare one The red one is same even on AUs (XF XG XH EA EB ED EF EL AU will all be same) just need to change the gear on the end to suit the EB ratio, the corrector shouldn't be needed. (unless it was in an XD XE, because the red 10 pulse one will read 20% higher with the same gear on it) should be easy to find locally in wreckers, but what often happens to them is one or more wires snaps off at the transducer end, could try soldering it on again if there's enough left on it. here's ONE of 3 on ebay, $150.. seems dear, but ebay is convenient and maybe cheaper if you can find one from someone wrecking one of the above cars https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/298141705342?_skw=speedo+transducer+XF&itmmeta=01KW1MTJT1SWPM4PHT849G9WFN&hash=item456aa1647e:g:UXwAAeSwkQVpvHqb&itmprp=enc%3AAQALAAAA0GfYFPkwiKCW4ZNSs2u11xCvVWbQijWydBZSB2KR5PfHa3bSEY4Bho3eG9%2FFPKLJDwOZUqAQIlAb2qHdUKtDWH%2FzMkXR73YKkGS4ig94FRBCqWR2yg5OdIDiVeJzFIkKOtG%2BsdKBrKY2zF7z%2BhDgINECUJqJ6ywHooklZXvu2hZf7d1P6NfC6VO54xj130AnMxAZGe2ybcKDT1e%2BiZ7YP5tGpTpjisVQ44M%2FWWRq7BAxRkAVs23GlQmVd8BMtpkUlc7hU4n9MGXsyteo%2BEbT99I%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR6Ct6rTgZw

it wont clip off like modern cars if it's like the base model XD XE XF seats. you need to unskin the seat trim and then there are two clips that are extremely strong and brittle that you need to prise up a bit so the headrest can slide out (if you release those clips, it will slide out like a modern car one, but it's release clips are inside the seat back under the foam) you might be able to just take the head rest cover off.. that's probably the best way for a beginner. have lots of swear words ready, and ideally a location of a spare seat.

the seats I've dismantled personally (not a ghia one but I expect are same) had clips that are a proper pain to release the headrest (they break probably 50% of the time, you'd do well to use a hair dryer etc to heat the plastic before trying to release the clip part) It's comparable to Peter Anderson's video at the 4 minute ish mark (although these headrests remove easy unlike XF ones) it's similar at 4minutes because these retainers clip into the frame similar to how the headrests clip into the plastic clip on the XF seats. unfortunately, taking the seat backs off is not as easy as these toyota ones (He may have video'd or someone else may have videos on falcon seats, but i haven't seen them. ) but to get the head rests out, the seat trim needs to be "peeled off" (as shown in this video) it's risky for material rips/tears and cuts on your hands etc(dangerous job, lots of sharp stuff to either stab or slice your hand on inside seat frames) personally if you can buy another seat, that would be My first option. (spare seat trim and foam is worth having for the drivers seat anyway) if not, then you might be able to take the headrest trim off without removing the headrest ?(will be either possible or extremely hard) by probably finding the joined edge like in the video below and it's probably got hog rings holding it on.. take the trim off, and see what's loose, missing or broken (suspect a spring issue)

what i did with My drivers seat, and it might be an option for your passenger seat perhaps, is have the seat trims removed and fitted to a GL seat (i did this to rid the broken tilt mechanism on the drivers side while fixing some other issue) i haven't seen what's inside the ghia head rest, but it might be possible to repair if it's just broken a spring inside only. (no idea how they work, )

6cyl XD XE will be same V8 cluster is same other than the tacho calibration (adjustable also, can be changed to either with adjusting a trim pot and calibrated correctly) even the GL without tacho will be mostly the same (i had one where the tacho wire wasn't in the XE we had, i just added it to the plug)you can decode nearly all of the wires if need be by following the tracks on the circuit board (will need to undo the 6 screws on the back to release it from the housing. what car is it going into?

it probably will work like new for ages now. i submerged an XG mech (same as e series) in petrol and swished it around, was absolutely caked in dusty grease. worked mint afterwards. i'd just spray it with WD40 or similar and it's probably good for another 10+ years if it's working fine now.

at least you can get them now. back when i was playing with this old stuff, it was off to the wreckers for a whole lock mech.. with ford parts saying NLA (no longer available) for anything you ever wanted. (plus side back then, you could buy a whole car for $500 or less and get 3 or 4 of those springs and a host of other spare parts)

there's a hole either side in a gap, it just needs to have one of the spring parts in each side.. bit of a fiddle to get it in there. found a photo of it on ebay. edited it to show where it goes.

grease the pin, it latches on, grease that spring latch part, oil the door hinges and oil/grease any of the mech parts.. if you probably drowned that key lock in some WD40 or similar it might flush the dust out of it.. ideally locks are supposed to have a graphite powder in them, but they can still get that oxidized build up that WD40 etc seems to prevent.. (for a rarely used lock, i'd go with the WD40..) you can pull the tumblers out of that lock easy which will also make it easier to turn. ..any key/screw driver will open it.. but it's not likely going to have people trying to get in there.... same process for the door locks if you wanted.. My Dad had one lock on his car without tumblers for decades and a spare ign key under the seat for when he went fishing.. just incase he lost his keys overboard etc. (these days they smash windows etc rather than play with locks anyway)

yeah they are pretty bad and very hard to line up to work properly. i've had several that had home made latches and gate locks etc and one had the pin filed down so it would close easier (this is the one that fell open easily) i used the number plate screws to screw into the panel behind . (did this by accident once also) good luck, if you can turn the key, it should come open with some prying