My89Ford

Well, after having it off the road for almost a year, I finally got my '89 up and running again. Unfortunately, it's not quite running as well as I'd hoped. Now, I'm a far cry from a mechanic, so I was wondering if anyone here could give me an idea of what problems I'm looking at so if and when I take her in to get looked at or repaired; I can at least know what to expect. The car is a 1989 convertible, mass air 5.0, with a five speed; essentially bone stock, there are no mechanical modifications to the car.

1.) On acceleration, especially uphill, there is a distinct pinging noise from the engine. More gas means more pinging. From what I know, this is caused by premature detonation of the fuel; however I've gotten gas from a few different places and tried both 87 and 89 grade fuels and noticed no difference.

2.) On very humid or rainy days, the car runs poorly. There is a very noticable difference; to the point where it is difficult to drive in first gear. Giving the car some time to warm up seems to alleviate the problem, to a degree, but it still runs poorly. By poorly, I mean the car is considerably less responsive and bucks severely at lower RPMs. This could be my distributor; the distributor, spark plugs, wires, etc. are all original, as far as I can tell. The car lacks a distributor boot. The car's air cleaner housing is damaged; however the damage is on the far side of the air filter.

3.) When shifting into first, second, and reverse (and possibly 3rd, 4th, and 5th, as well, but I can't hear it) I can hear and feel a rattle coming from below the car. The rattle is very pronounced when manipulating the clutch. Is this something witrh my clutch? My transmission?

4.) When driving, I can hear a whirring noise coming from my rear tires/axle area. I've checked both tires, they have the same amount of air, and niether is conspiciously out of alignment. Niether tire shows any sign of wear (but the problem's only come around recently.) Both tires have about 5,000 miles on them. Any other factors I should consider before shelling out for an alignment?

5.) Every time I put the top up and down; it seems to go a little slower and needs more and more manual help. I assume that the motor is dying; I don't really have the money to spare to get a new one at the moment. If the motor dies completely, will I be able to raise and lower the top manually; or will doing so just end up breaking the top's frame or the pistonlike apparati that move it?

I'd greatly appreciate it if anyone could give me some insight into the problems I'm looking at; and what I should expect to pay to get them fixed.

Hotrod

When reading it these things came to my mind:

Bad fuel
Needs new fluids
Possibly bad altenator
Needs new wires anddistributor
See if filters are clean
Add some fuel injector cleaner

Dont know if any of these would help or if they even relate to your problem. However your gas is probably not good if its been seting for a year.

Redbaron93

After several years away from pushrod motors I'm back with them again. I'll take a stab at this. Have you checked your timing to see if it's too far advanced, could definitely cause your pinging problem, and out of curiousity, have you checked to make sure the plug(Gray) is back in the wiring harness for the distributor. If you don't know what I'm talking about, to the right(drivers side) of the distributor, there should be some wires with a plug on the end. If you want to advance your timing this plug has to be removed. then set your timing, tighten back down the distributor the re-insert the plug. If that plug is not there it could cause your driveabilty problem. Now, about the rearend noise, could possibly be your axle bearings.

My89Ford

Thanks for the input. I was able to get some free time with this long weekend for the fourth of july. The rattling was caused by a shattered bolt. That's all taken care of, now. I've been running it on better gas (ie getting gas in the city where I work instead of my one gas station hometown) and the pinging is not as bad, I've run some fuel injector cleaner through the gas tank as well. This coming week I'm going to pull the spark-plugs and check on the distributor.

Fordracing200

Normally if you use a higher ocatane fuel the pinging will stop, did u try super? but it could be pinging if the timing is off, might wanna try checking that.
The whirring sound in rear could be the differential or just the tead hitting the pavemtn. I would drain the differential and get the correct posi-trac rear end fluid

macd23

My 93 GT had original plugs and wires and every time it rained the car had problems starting.....I know that isn't exactly your issue, but if its only happening when it rains, consider replacing. That fixed my starting issue.