UPDATE:(December 3, 2004) WOW! Has it been ages since I've updated this page. I'll not waste any time...here's what's been going on with my Mark IV since my last update. First off, I failed to mention I shipped the car from Virginia to Arizona back in early 02. In Arizona is where the fan clutch, carb and manifold were replaced. Things were fine for the rest of the year until 2003 came. In May I determined that tranny fluid leak was getting worse and took it in. Turns out to be a cracked case. I decided to spend the money and have it rebuilt by the guys at Palo Verde Automotive in Tucson. They did an outstanding job and the old thing shifts smoother than butter!

Things were fine until 2004 when the car turned 30. The car just dropped dead on the way to work one day. I troubleshot it down to no spark from the distributor but couldn't isolate it specifically. Once again, Palo Verde hooked me up and determined the ignition box on the firewall was out. I didn't know one was there! I figured, hell after 30 years it was bound to go...so replace it they did. Job was done and back on the road I went. Shortly thereafter I upgraded the rest of the ignition with an Accel distributor and coil, Accel wires and Bosch platinum plugs. I must say the flashes of yellow under the hood do look pretty cool. I was never about restoring this car, just maintaining it and upgrading when I could.

One more problem would rear its head just recently. At the end of November, the blower motor burned up. Yep...pumped a burning smell into the car whenever I wanted to defrost the glass. Also, I noticed a perpetual fogging on the passenger side of the windshield which never cleared up. While trying to replace the blower motor myself I learned I had a probable cracked heater core. The blower motor was a bitch to try to get out so, after several hours, I soon gave up and took it back to Palo Verde. They got the motor replaced (using the part I bought) and did the core change; I was only out of a car for a day and a half! Those guys are AWESOME!/

The car is now back on the road and sitting right outside my house. The heat and light of Arizona has destroyed the vinyl roof. The dryness of the air also slowed the cancer down underneath as well. However, I am moving to a humid state soon and need to get this fixed. So, I've scheduled an appointment for some body work and soon I'll have a new roof and repaired body panels. Next up...complete engine rebuild with Edelbrock heads and hedders....probably do custom exhaust as well!

UPDATE:(July 20, 2002) Since the time of the creation of this website, a few incidents have occured. First off, I damaged the passenger side door. This was partially due to me and almost wholly due to the garage I was pulling into not being wide enough for me to pull in. That, plus the line of deadline vehicles in front of the garage required me to try to angle the car in. It's impossible to navigate 19 feet of Lincoln in 20 feet of open space. This results in crimping the passenger side door and bending the door trim. It's not too bad, just pisses me off.

Next, I had the fan clutch go out on me while in traffic. I was able to get a new clutch rather easily. The installation was a piece of cake. Also, the fuel pump developed an external leak. I figure the diaphragm finally went after 137,000 miles or so. That replacement wasn't too difficult, but defenitly a pain given the small amount of space to work in.

Lastly, I have replaced the stock Motocraft spread-bore carb with an Edelbrock Performer (#1406), which is a square-bore. Immediate gas mileage increase has been noted, pulling closer to ten miles per gallon in the city than before. This carb proved difficult to mount on the E-brock manifold I recently put on, since the EGR plates are not compatible. See my postings at clubs.yahoo.com/lincolnloversline. Essentially I converted from a 74 carbegr setup to a 79 carb/egr setup, with an 85 plate thrown in. I'm not particular about keeping this car accurate for 1974. I just want to keep it running in the best possible way.

History: One day a friend and I were out car hunting. We had been all up and down Jefferson Avenue, hitting every used dealer we could find. Then, there it was...just sitting there! Awash in a sea of trucks and wagons, mini-vans and full sized sedans, sports cars and pieces of crap, this Mark IV humbly sat. I took one look at it and was hooked. So was my friend, as it was he we were buying a car for.

But, his wife didn't like it and he had to pass. I believe her words were "You can buy it, but you aren't getting me in that thing." So, he got a Suzuki Samaurai two weeks later. I put the car in the back of my mind and it stayed there for about three months.

One day there I was heading up Jefferson Ave again. I happened to glance over to the dealership we found the car at, craning my neck to see if it was still there and it was! I pulled in, looked it over again and asked for a test drive. A half hour later, I knew I had to have it. I did some dealing and got almost a grand knocked off the price he was asking. Two days later, I had the keys and was tooling around town feeling like a million bucks.

That old 460 still had some balls left in it, and the tranny was still fairly tight. Brakes needed some work but it still stopped rather well. The interior was in great shape although the door pull handles were cracked from age and some electric stuff didn't work right. The AC was in operable but I didn't care. It had been repainted and the vinyl roof replaced. I figured I had gotten a really sweet deal and, as long as I could stomach the gas prices, would have a decent daily driver.

My high was quickly shattered that afternoon when the window drive gear broke on the driver's side. The glass only went partially down if it went at all. As I drove home from work that night, the bypass hose on the water pump blew, taking all the coolant and the water pump with it. Sucked for me as the cabin filled with steam due to the window being stuck. Good thing I had AAA. Turns out the bypass hose was the original 1974 hose installed at the factory, still showing remnants of the blue engine paint. Well, I had to expect something to go. I figured better to get these problems now then later.

Well, shortly after the pump and drive gear was replaced, the passenger side exhaust manifold cracked wide open. Six inch crack at least, and it wound around the exhaust flange. Talk about loud! A few days of searching yielded a used 1975 manifold that, with a little playing around, managed to work. I was back in business, but not out of the woods. The power steering pump died about three months after the manifold was replaced. Pep Boys hooked me up on a new one so back on the road I went.

It's 2001 now. I have registered the car as a classic, complete with black antique liscense plates. Which, in the commonwealth of Virginia, means that the Mark is exempted from vehicle inspections and I don't have to pay a yearly registration fee. The drawback, of course, is that you are limited to the amount of driving you can do. DMV states that you can only drive the car to or from car shows (not to exceed 250 miles from home), to or from repair facilities or for testing of a repair, or for occasional "leisure" driving. As you can tell, this puts a major damper on my daily driving, yet I have been able to get around the law so far.

I have noticed that the cops just don't seem to care (knocking wood). I drive by several in a day and they never seem to notice the plates. I've also noticed that there are some major pieces of shit out on the roads in Virginia, many of which sport the antique plate. I find it hard to believe that a 1960s era VW bus, rusted out from stem to stern, is being taken to car shows on the weekends. Same with that generic Ford pickup I saw two weeks ago. Not exactly a show quality vehicle if you know what I mean. In any event, I feel justified in putting antique plates on a car of classic status and DRIVING IT! Even if it means bending the rules a little bit. After all, any car that lasts this long deserves distinction of being registered as a classic. Any owner of such a car deserves the luxury of driving it.

The 1974 Lincoln Mark IV is currently not for sale. It is on the back of a truck heading from the Right Coast to the Left Coast. I can be reached at [email protected]. Here are the current stats for the car:

Some electrics on the inside don't work, such as vanity mirror lights, opera glass lights, map lights. One of the power seat motors runs slow, and one rear window is off track.