Below are some pictures of a 1989 ford crown victoria station wagon. At the time these pictures were taken, this crownvic was around 20 years old.

Here's the Front Steering Linkage



The idler arm and the front engine oil drain plug.

Also visible in the picture is the bottom of the catalytic converter smog air pump. This located where the air conditioner compressor would be in the 1992+ crownvics.



The idler arm from a different angle



Here's a closeup of the steering box mounting bolts and also the front swaybar bolt. Unlike the later cars, the front swaybar bracket bolts thread directly into the frame. No fancy clip nuts, studs & nuts like you'll find in the later cars.



Here's the old style 1979-1994 pitman arm. The 1995-2002 cars use a different pitman arm and centerlink.



Here's a closeup of the smog air pump that the pre-1992 cars used. This pumps air into the catalytic converters to reduce emissions. Most 1980's american cars had one of these.



A closeup of the holes in the passenger front frame rail that you can access the idler arm stud heads through



Here's a closeup of the passenger side front suspension. The 1979-1991 crownvics had a swaybar with links that mount directly to the lower control arm. In the 1992+ cars, the links mount to the spindle instead for reduced body roll. On crown victoria discussion boards, you'll periodically find someone insisting that they want to downgrade their 1992-2002 car to this setup because they found a good deal on an old style swaybar with some aftermarket polyurethane end links. This is a misguided project that will likely increase front body roll, but some people are really stubborn and don't listen.



Also in the picture is the tierod adjuster sleeve. The 1979-1994 cars use a sleeve that is close to an inch shorter the the 1995-2002 cars.





Here's a picture of the oil pan from underneath. This is a somewhat oddball oilpan in the sense that it has two drain plugs, one towards the front of the car and one towards the rear of the car. Many oil change shops just remove one plug during the oil changes. But with the curvature of the pan over the #2 frame crossmember, you'll need to remove both drain plugs to get all the oil out.

And yes, the transmission is missing from this car.



If you look closely at this picture, you can see a couple rust holes in the frame that aren't supposed to be there. Rot holes in the frame torque boxes have even been reported on 20+ year old southern crownvics where chloride road salts aren't used too.





Here's the floorpan. This is the old style floorpan with the different seat mounting system that was used in the pre-1990 cars.



Here are the crash brackets for the two front seatbelts. In the 1990+ cars, the seatbelts mount to the seat frame which is then bolted to the floorpan.



A closeup of the two front seat mounting brackets



Here's the trunk floorpan. Actually this is a station wagon, so this would probably be considered the rear luggage compartment floor. But station wagons & sedans both used essentially the same floorpan. However, there are a couple crash brackets spot welded to the floorpan for the seatbelts.



Here's a closeup of the rear axle where the lower control arm and shock absorber connect. Pre-1998 cars didn't have a watts linkage setup.



Here's the other side of the car. Also visible in the picture is some of the emergency brake cabling and the muffler mounts. Also notice no rear swaybar in the car. And if the vehicle did have a swaybar, there are no holes cut into the frame to mount the links to. In the pre-1992 cars, the swaybar would be mounted to the two lower control arms.



The gasktank in the earlier cars seems a little further away from the rear axle than in later cars.



Being a station wagon, this car has true dual exhaust



The solid metal rear chrome bumper doesn't have any cutouts in it for the exhaust pipes. Instead of exiting under the bumper, the pipes make a 90 degree turn and exit just in front of the bumper.



Chrom plated metal bumpers have fallen out of favor with manufacturers for some reason



The pre-1992 cars use rear drum brakes. You won't find disc brakes in the rear of this car.



Those big black metal weights hanging off the exhaust pipes are dampers that supposedly limit objectionably NVH.



Here's the e-brake cable equalizer



The cables are a little beat up with cracks in the protective jacket though





That thick black cable with the white gear on the end is for the speedometer. The speedometer in the pre-1990 cars was driven by a mechanical cable. But an electrical vehicle speed sensor was present for the cruise control and engine fuel management system.





Here's the oddball oil pan with two drain plugs again.



Here's the bottom of the control arm showing how the swaybar link passes through. On the later 1992-2002 crownvics, the hole for the swaybar link is still cast into control arm but it's left empty and unused. Also visible in the picture is the steering gear box and the tierods and short adjusting sleeves.



Here's the engine block around where the starter connects. Also visible in the picture is one of the engine mounts.



A closeup of one of the exhaust dampers



Where the transmission rear crossmember would normally connect to the frame



Here's the rear axle brake holes. In the pre-1992 cars, one big brake pipe ran to the rear of the car which then connected to this hose. The other end of the hose fed two smaller diameter brake pipes which connected directly to the drum brake wheel cylinders.



The thick brake line under the driver's floor



A closeup of the bracketry that the lower control arm and shock absorber connect to on the rear axle





The passengers front suspension from a little different angle



Here's the engine block plate that's nromally wedged in between the engine and transmission. This is a 5.0L plate that accepts the two bolt starter



The other side of the block plate



Here's the transmission



From the front. Note that this bellhousing accepts a "2-bolt" starter rather than the "3-bolt" setup used in later crownvics.



Here' the transmission from the other side. The linkage might look a little odd here. This is a two part linkage, one part connects to the transmission gear selector rod, the other part to the tv cable.

The later 1993+ crownvics don't have the two part linkage because they use an electrical solenoid to control main line pressure instead of this troublesome tv cable setup. In the 1993+ cars, you don't have to worry about burning up a transmission because your tv cable bushing broke. The later cars default to maximum line pressure if they have any electrical problems with the circuitry leading to the epc solenoid. The early pre-1992 crownvics with the AOD transmission default to minimum line pressure if the tv cable setup fails which can burn up your transmission just driving less than a mile "around the block".





In the pre-1990 crownvics, the gear selector lever on the steering column was linked to the transmission using a mechanical rod. In the 1990+ cars a flexible cable is used instead.



Here's the vehicle speed sensor setup again





And here's the fuel filler neck that connects the hole that you insert the gaspump nozzle into to the gastank underneath your crownvic. Also visible in the picture is the rubber hose that drains water out from around the filler neck.



Here's the transmission crossmember





And the driveshaft