'88 Tempo AWD

A friend contacted me today saying he was being given a car: '88 Tempo All-wheel-drive. I've never even heard of such thing, must be pretty rare. He hasn't taken posession yet, but told me it had a problem whereby there's a wire on the starter solenoid which needs to be plugged in for it to start, but then it runs badly until this wire is disconnected, after which it runs ok. Anyone got an idea about the problem he's talking about? I haven't seen the car yet, just going by what he described. I have a degree in auto tech, but I'm not a big Ford man--don't own any, rarely work on them.

Reply to
James Goforth
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Perhaps they're just jumping over the solenoid. That would cause the car to run bad until the jumper was removed because the starter would still be engaged.

CJB

Reply to
CJB

In which case it's best to replace the whole starter. Both the starter and solenoid come in a once piece unit last time I checked. If one portion has gone bad, the other portion is not too far behind anyway.

Reply to
eastwardbound2003

I couldn't remember if these had the solenoid on the fenderwell or on the starter motor.

CJB

Reply to
CJB

Well my 90 tbird has it on the fender, so seperate ones were still in practice at that point..

Reply to
Dark1

I'm going to post more about it when I finally see it--was just kind of hoping for a "head start" when I got there. Thanks. Can't believe I've never seen or even heard of an AWD Tempo--and I live in Iowa! (snowy winters).

Reply to
James Goforth

AWD was a $600 option on the Tempo and Topaz for several years. It was a push button DANA system that included the larger engine.

mike hunt

James Goforth wrote:

Reply to
IleneDover

It was a pretty neat system and worked well, when it worked. They were great in snow. The rear end wasn't a standard differential but a viscous clutch setup, like a clutch fan or torque converter. They failed quite often. The rear drive asy ran off of the final drive gear in the front transaxle then through a driveshaft to the rear. When they failed, many folks removed the rear drive adaptor from the trans, installed a standard filter and pan. Mike, are you sure about the bigger engine? I've seen a few AWDs but it seems they all had the 2.3 HSC motor. Maybe just higher output? It's bigger cousin was the

2.5 but I thought those were only in the Taurus.
Reply to
Tom Adkins

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