Free Ford Tempo Diesel and GMC Diesel Pick up

[suspectnumber961]

Originally Posted by vacationtime247

Got the truck all scrapped out. All the aluminum and sheet iron I'm taking to the scrap yard in the back of the Ford truck. Listed the body shell only, stripped to the bones, for $100 on Craigslist. Sold it 2 hours later. Now, just 1 non running car and that's the Tempo but it's in the garage. Going to order a starter tomorrow before work.
VT247

Make sure you have a decent battery and good connxs for that starter....they will DIE if used with a low battery...Ford sells some kind of free replacement warranty? I think it's the windings....

[vacationtime247]

Finished again with fixing it, still needs minor tweaking. Got the timing belt, serpentine belt and alternator belt back on. Rigged a quick fix in for the shift stabalizer. Need to tweak it a little more and it'll be good to go. Filled it up and wanted to do a test run. But, it started raining and the wipers need replaced. Get some tomorrow. Going to put in a kill switch for the wipers so they'll stay up and down.
VT247

Here is the fix on the shifter.





While working on the Tempo



Cleaned up after

[skyl4rk]

Great job on bringing the Tempo back to life. Are you going to get it to run on waste vegetable oil?

[vacationtime247]

Need a place that will give it away or sell it cheaply. Got a lot of used motor oil and trans fluid I've saved that'll be going down the tank. Of course, I still need to filter and dilute it.
VT247

Originally Posted by skyl4rk

Great job on bringing the Tempo back to life. Are you going to get it to run on waste vegetable oil?

[vacationtime247]

Going to drive the Tempo to work today. Wish me luck, it's the furthest I've driven it away from the house. Still trying to work out all the bugs and I don't mean problems with the car. Literally, bugs. Still find spiders and ants whenever I get it. Not many, but a few. Swept it out PLENTY of times but they must have many different hiding places. Need to 'bomb' the inside of the car. Not that I have arachniphobia, but I've seen the damage done by bites.
VT247

[vacationtime247]

Well I made it to work and back without issue. On the way home, the turn signal lights and the high beam indicator stopped working on the dash. Might just be a fuse, but the turn signals and high beams still work, just don't show on the dash. Ants, friggin ants.
VT247

[Rusty Marina]

Nice find !
i have a friend who has the same engine in an Escort. The one thing he told me on his is keep an eye on the temp relay switch to the cooling fan; they can get hot fast. His has a ton of miles and still returns almost 50 mpg

[vacationtime247]

Think I seen my gas gauge move. Still over the Full line and I've driven it 137 miles so far since getting it running. Got it titled, plated and registered. Sent away for just the title on the IROC, may just sell it. Amazingly enough, to register the car, title 2 cars was less than $100! Besides the motorcycle, the Tempo is now my daily driver. The cycle seems geared to low, wish it had another top gear. Still gets over 60 mpg and it's mostly used in town with my backpack strapped to the rear seat rack. Hoping for a 50 mpg tank with the Tempo, but anything over 40 is good. Main goal is to best the Escorts current 37 mpg
VT247

[Frank Lee]

I have an Escort diesel diesel too, but it's completely rotted out and it has a bajillion miles on it. Still, I think someday I'll put the whole engine/trans into an a/t Tempo. I need an excuse to do that transmission swap anyway.

[Dust]

The engine in your tempo came turbo in some vehicles here in Japan. I think that the turbo would help improve your gas mileage a bit if you were up for it.