Ok I know I should go ask this on the Mercury club site, but let's just say some of the people there are making it not a very informative or enjoyable experience. Anyway, I just got a 1977 Mercury Marquis Broughm that I'm getting paid to restore, this is new to me as I mostly work on 60's stuff. I still have two other cars I'm restoring, I need more people to help me, and a better shop. So the reason the guy stopped driving it was he changed the tranny filter then it started spewing out the tranny vent tube and wouldn't work right. I'm assuming he put too much fluid in it. My problem is there is no tranny dipstick. The car has 400 and I believe a C6. I tried several from different C6's I have here and they are all too long or must be too short as I get no fluid reading. So would anyone know what length the tranny dipstick is? If it helps I can give the lengths of the ones that did not work.

Totally unrelated it also needs tires and want to get the correct size and the door tag has funny numbers, the tires it reccomends are: HR78-15, J78-15, JR78-15, LR78-15, HR-70-15, JR70-15. He does not want to buy new springs or shocks so I was thinking of getting him some truck tires, I'm guessing a 225/75-15 would fit with no issue.

Also I have no books for the 70's Mercury's and was curious if someone could decipher the door tag codes for me. Color: 2MRD DSO: 51 Body: 65K Trim: VD Sch. Date: 21F Axle: K Trans: X A/C: A

Thanks for any info it is greatly appreciated.

 

Alpha-numeric tire sizes, another brain-dead idea from the 1970s:

Tire Guides, Inc. - Publications on tire fitment, sizing and grading, tire tread designs, tire forensic, etc.

 

Dont know what happened my post didnt post but ill make it shorter this time around.

Those are the way tires were measured in the 70`s, only thing is I dont recall two letters and numbers. I recall a letter and a number. But for mine I am running a 215/75R15 on my 78 Mercury.

Following is taken from my 1978 Ford shop manual but I dont think theres much difference considering the Mercury Cougar was the same from 77 - 79 so it should be very close if not identical

2MRD = 2M Reference # 3413 Dark Red / RD Crosshatch Half Red/Russet Vinyl Top

51 = Denver Colorado

65K = Mercury 2dr Hardtop Marquis Brougham

VD = Red Vinyl (closest I could come up with)

21F = June 21st

K = No K code for axle in 1978, might be for 77 only

X = FMX 3spd Automatic Transmission (Not C6 or C-series orignally)

A = Factory installed A/C

As far as posting here bout it dont worry about it. I do it all the time, mainly because any cougar forum you come across is always first gen 67 - 73 or the new age post 1980 generation. There is one forum that says they welcome all cougar owners but if you own anything other than a 67 - 73 you are an outcast.

 

Thanks for the info

I got the car running finally today and it seems to be in worse shape then I had thought. The owner might chalk it up to a lost cause if I can't fix it cheap. I got it running after replacing many parts. And it seems to have a head gasket leak on the number 5 cylinder, not good. And the valve seals are shot. The thing that has me a little confused is the transmission. It goes into gear hard and when you get it into the right position it will only go after you rev it up, just easing it won't make it engadge you have to rev it up then on the rev down it kicks in. It does this for every gear so I'm assuming it can't be the modulator valve as if that was bad it would not do it in reverse. I took the pan off, changed the filter in it, drained the fluid and the torque convertor and put fresh fluid in, same problem. It seems like a valve body thing, I wonder if I can run something through it to clean it out? The owner will sell it before getting the transmission rebuilt as he changed his mind about me restoring the car and just wants it to be driveable once he found out the cost. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

The second letter is an "R" which means radial tire. With a single letter it is referring to bias belt tires.

That sounds like old, hard, worn seals. It will take a rebuild to fix those.

 

Thanks, that gives me an idea!

 

Mine is a FMX like in this car and mine does the hesitation to shift into drive after going into reverse. But it only does this when its cold weather and you dont let the car run long enough. In hot weather it doesnt matter. Its sort of like in cold weather the fluid contracting and draining out of the trq converter or something. I am not sure but the transmission doesnt leak and it operates fine. Shifts fine too. I just noticed if its cold outside it takes a moment before it will go into drive that first time. After that it works fine then.

But thats like me, I feel its a lost cause for my car as well because there are zero restoration parts made for mine and she needs replacement parts such as the white plastic housing that the gauges bolt to that holds the tape circuit board is falling apart more and more each day. Sometimes it becomes all too much, just like I need a driverside kick panel but you cant find those plastic panels. I even looked at T-bird restoration companies selling parts for the 77-79 tbirds which are simmilar but they have their differences as well.