Ford Tempos: am i twisted?

TOZOVR wrote: No. AWD tempo...I know ford service guys from the late 80's who STILL have nervous ticks because of that car....

Ok... this is giving me something to point out. You do all know that the 2nd gen Tempo could be had in AWD, too, right? Is there any difference in strength or crappiness when compared to the first gen?

I remember being shuttled around in an 88-89 AWD in the early 90's. It had a switch on the ceiling above the rear view mirror to engage the 4wd system. It was not a full time awd, just an on-demand in bad traction system.

Although it was not in our family I recall lots and lots of problems due to the unique awd system. I also remember the day when it was upgraded by trading it in on a used corsica. That fixed all the problems.....

Jim Merksamer from Dinger Ford in Braintree MA used to do all the work on the NESHOC SHO Taurus's (Tauri?). If you mentioned the AWD Tempo near him, you risked a knife to the eye.

Brings back bad memories of thinking that a 2.8 V6 Merc Bobcat had to be a pretty good package. Wrong there too.

One single word:

positive front camber.

That is all.

Joey

I remember that my parents had a silver '87 and my grandmother had a black '88 when I was young. The friggin' door handle come off the silver one when I was four. Four! I was only trying to get out, which is what any reasonable person would do if they found themselves inside of a Tempo. I remember my grandmother kept hers for a lot longer than my parents and there was a recall about the dash catching fire. My parents ended up with a '93 Sundance, which we liked much better, even if it did develop a hole in the driver's footwell. I could tell the kids at school that my family car had a wading pool in it. Now that is impressive. Why not look for a modern Duster if you're after a Tempo? Or a Shelby CSX?

And as for not-being-able-to-stop stories on vintage 80s iron, my parents had a Jetta (89?) with the infamous perma-throttle problem. I don't remember it, but we experienced that quirk firsthand.

Jackie Stewart would not approve of the opinions in this thread. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4Ws_Bp7WYA

Do not...ever...buy a AWD Tempo for any purpose other than jumping it off a cliff. You can't buy any parts for the driveline, nor the suspension struts, which are unique.

If you want to punish yourself with a Ford AWD sedan, get yourself a Jag X type. That should convince you quickly that the Ford engineers never peeked under an Audi or Subaru. Complete, utter crap. And I generally like Ford stuff.

daytonaer wrote: Although it was not in our family I recall lots and lots of problems due to the unique awd system. I also remember the day when it was upgraded by trading it in on a used corsica. That fixed all the problems.....

A used Corsica was an upgrade. I think that's all anyone who is considering a Tempo needs to know. It seemed like half the people I knew in the late 80s/early 90s had a Tempaz of one flavor or another. FOR THEIR TIME, they weren't horrible cars to drive, except for that agricultural 2.3 HSC motor. My one buddy used to say "Forgot to add the fabric softener" whenever he'd start his because it sounded for all the world like a washing machine. At this point, if you can find a running one, I'd say it's neat that you found one, but I'd spend my money on something else.

daytonaer wrote: I remember being shuttled around in an 88-89 AWD in the early 90's. It had a switch on the ceiling above the rear view mirror to engage the 4wd system. It was not a full time awd, just an on-demand in bad traction system. Although it was not in our family I recall lots and lots of problems due to the unique awd system. I also remember the day when it was upgraded by trading it in on a used corsica. That fixed all the problems.....

My grandmother had an AWD Tempo. With the way you had to switch the AWD on, I suspect the system was controlled by a clutch instead of a center diff.

This whole idea of even considering one of these boxes of E36 M3 makes me puke in my mouth a little. They're a solution to no car at all or if you want to run one in LeMons but otherwise I wouldn't want to be associated with one.

I take back the "solution to no car at all" part of my previous statement after running this simple search;

http://craiglook.com/cars.html?q=volvo+240&l=1000&s=1

That Jackie Stewart Ad is a crackup!

Who knew that Jackie was just another Ford Whore (??)

Rog

pres589 wrote: This whole idea of even considering one of these boxes of E36 M3 makes me puke in my mouth a little. They're a solution to no car at all or if you want to run one in LeMons but otherwise I wouldn't want to be associated with one.

It's just an exercise in hilarity.

If just the thought of one makes you puke in your mouth, imagine what getting annihilated by one would do.

considering all the hate on this oddball forum (where there are nuts who race yugos) I would say we have found the perfect starting point for the ultimate sleeper...

Capt Slow wrote: considering all the hate on this oddball forum (where there are nuts who race yugos) I would say we have found the perfect starting point for the ultimate sleeper...

Seriously, i thought this would be the only place on the internet that would have reacted with a "berkeley yes!!!!"

Apparently, people everywhere expect a fast Tempo about as much as the Spanish Inquisition.

May I purpose we add another fundamental law of the GRM boards (I think this is fundamental law number 2,137)

All threads about miserable E36 M3boxes(except for this one) must have at least comment stating:

"yes, I used to autox those back in the day, you would be surprised at what they could do with some coilovers and good rubber under em."

I thought I made mention of the positive front camber????

Joey

joey48442 wrote: I thought I made mention of the positive front camber???? Joey

Yep you did. Ever seen a stock 2nd gen EGT? Positive front camber out the ass.

Easy fix on a tempo. Go to town with a 20lb sledge until it looks right.

This thread just confirms to me that the Tempaz is the ultimate spec BABE car. I've been looking for a car that we wouldnt be inspired to nurse back to health every time it had issues and that we would leave behind in New Orelans when done. I'm pretty sure I'd ditch one of these for running out of gas.

2011, BABE rally, a fleet of Tempos and Topaz's trailing parts from NY to NO. The first car to die gets descended upon by the other teams for its parts. By the end there will only be 2 running cars using the parts of all the others...yeah!

This thread is about the Ford Tempo. There is already an "Ignore" thread. Admins, please move this.

ddavidv wrote: Do not...ever...buy a AWD Tempo for any purpose other than jumping it off a cliff. You can't buy any parts for the driveline, nor the suspension struts, which are unique.

About 10 years ago or so, a good friend of mine had an AWD Topaz (bought in VT) that he hated so much he didn't even want to talk about it. A LOT was wrong with it regularly.

Hmmmmm.......... maybe the Vega has finally met it's match.

93celicaGT2 wrote: Seriously, i thought this would be the only place on the internet that would have reacted with a "berkeley yes!!!!"

That's what I was expecting too. But I think there's one other place on the internet that would have said "berkeley yes":

http://www.tempotopaz.com/

People actually love these cars. I don't get it.

Bob

Oh dear Lord, I must be drunker than I thought. I've been looking around tempotopaz.com and found a Tempo I like.