#1963 ford thunderbird wiper switch manual#
#1963 ford thunderbird wiper switch professional#

The trunk floor has a built-in access door for servicing the fuel sender so one does not have to drop the fuel tank. My experience tells me, however, that when the good Ford taketh away, the good Ford also giveth. Additionally, noxious gas fumes emanating from hidden 50-year-old fuel hoses with rusted twist clamps can be hard to find when many mechanics, both amateur and professional, would never expect them to be hidden in such a manner. The cavity behind the aforementioned splash shield is a nice home for 50-odd years of detritus, the kind of detritus that will rust fenders, causing previous owners to bondo over said rust and not look any further into its root cause. This fuel hose, one of three, is completely hidden from sight behind a splash shield. And while “intense” may be a strong adjective to describe a nice year in the garage (a bad day in the garage, and so on and so forth…), I have found some of Ford’s engineering choices “very distressing.” My experiences with the Thunderbird, however, have been a little more frustrating, maybe a 5 or a 6. For example, my experience so far with General Motors products of the 1960s and ’70s that aren’t Corvairs has been on the green side of the scale, maybe a 2 or a 3.

If we instead modify the pain scale to relate to antique car ownership, I can simply and directly relate my thoughts and emotions regarding the “ownability” of my fleet. If you’ve ever been to a doctor’s office, the pain scale will be familiar, although I’ll never understand how someone suffering from “discomforting pain” could be smiling.

Therefore, I’ve certainly had a few late to the game questions for Ford’s engineers since I bought my ’63 T-Bird last year, questions that mostly start with “Why?”. Having maintained a growing fleet of mid-century Americana from Detroit’s Big Three longer than I’ve been driving, however, I am in a unique position to judge such sundry criteria as the ease of maintenance, parts availability, and general functionality of the cars that collectively form our automotive heritage and landscape.

#1963 ford thunderbird wiper switch professional#

At the very least, go through the various T-bird vendors' catalogs and look for illustrations showing systems like the PS setup to see what you may be missing rather than guess.I am not a mechanical engineer, nor a professional mechanic. GET OUT YOUR CREDIT CARD AND ORDER THEM NOW!! You can't work in these cars without them.

#1963 ford thunderbird wiper switch manual#

I'm assuming you don't have the '62 shop manual and '63 supplement, nor any of the factory body/trim or electrical assembly manuals. You should be able to find an original-style pump fairly cheap, and they're rebuildable by a mechanically-inclined person with a reseal kit and a basic understanding of how they go together (study the shop manual). T-bird parts vendors also have this stuff as well as places that specialize in old-car brake/fuel/PS lines do have the hoses and hard lines. Chances are someone parting out a '63 will have everything you need for the wiper motor/fittings, PS pump and brackets (you need to tell us if the car has A/C or not, as the original pumps differ in terms of reservoir on the inner fender (w/ A/C) or not (non-A/C has reservoir on top of pump). If you're using a '65-newer Ford pump with the fluid cannister surrounding the back side of the pump you should be able to run a hose for the return line from the hard line that's bolted to the side of the inner structure to the return nipple on the reservoir if it has one. Your power steering pump should be irrelevant as the supply line goes from the power steering box to the wiper motor, and the return line from wiper motor to the power steering pump to complete the circuit. You're better off to get the original-type parts and put it back together.