Mystery Items

[fab415]

Hi,

I need some help identifying two items under the hood. Please see photos for reference.

(1) There's some device attached to the right inner wheel well (near power box) with a yellow wire attached to it.

(2) On opposite side near the master cylinder, there's a loose black and pink or purple wire.

Not sure if either of these are original or added on.

Thanks,
Fab

[TonyC]

Oh, they're original, all right. The thing in the first picture is the electric pump for the washer system. I don't get why the prior owner ditched the fluid hoses and left the power wire connected. It's very likely toast; you'll have to replace it. Exact repros are available; if the part stores don't list them, E-Bay will. That pump was one of the few generic Ford pieces these cars had, so you should find one easily, even if you have to lie to the clerk and say it's for a Mustang.

The other thing, the disconnected wire, is a ground wire; judging from its location, it likely secures to the steering gearbox. If you find a threaded hole in your gearbox that the wire can reach, then you find an appropriate screw and reconnect the wire. Or, if that wire is already secured to the gearbox at its other end, then attach the loose end to the most convenient hole you find in the inner fender. You may wind up reviving some dash items by doing so.

---Tony

[papawayne]

Ditto. Tony, I replaced my windshield washer pump a long time ago. Where is your washer bag? Not in the picture? Also, we've all had a long and fruitful argument about the purpose and function of the wire in the second picture, even though we all agree it should be there. Tony is 100 percent right. Wayne

[Lee]

I had to go look for the dangling wire, and Tony is correct, it’s a ground wire. But I’m glad I did, because it answered a question that I had in another thread, and forgotten: it grounds with a sheet metal screw (circled in the picture), and the other wire (to the left) under that screw goes down to ground the steering box on one of the cover screws. It isn’t long enough on its own to reach the box. Mystery solved for your wire, and also for how the box got its ground connection. I just flat forgot about it.

I believe it is possible that the original ‘61 design (being bolted to the frame) didn’t need a grounding wire, and when they started adding the rubber insulators as a running change sometime during the ‘62 model run…this was a makeshift. The engineers may have been a bit nervous about getting the total ground connection necessary for the horn off of just a sheet metal screw on the fenderwell. Later I may see if the wire coming from the harness is grounded, even when not attached to the fenderwell. If so, that makes it more certain to me.

So, you may also find another wire dangling off the steering box, but if not, you should run a grounding wire from that terminal down to the box. If you are running the solid metal spacers, that won’t be necessary.

[frasern]

I expect the ground from the harness is unrelated to the steering box, they just use a common ground screw. What year is your car? it may not have a steering box ground.
A previous owner may have changed to a washer bottle with an internal pump, some people didn't like the bag. Put 12 volts to the yellow wire and see if it works, if so, you're half way to getting it back up and running.

[Lee]

I expect the ground from the harness is unrelated to the steering box, they just use a common ground screw. What year is your car? it may not have a steering box ground.
A previous owner may have changed to a washer bottle with an internal pump, some people didn't like the bag. Put 12 volts to the yellow wire and see if it works, if so, you're half way to getting it back up and running.

Great expectation, Fraser. I disconnected both wires at the screw and measured the loom wire resistance to ground. I expected it would be 0 ohms, or infinity, but instead it was 31 ohms. That was unexpected. I tried every accessory, started the car, tested every circuit I could find (including the horn), and everything worked fine, even with that wire disconnected.

I still had the original pump when I bought my car, and it wasn’t difficult to get the motor running, but I couldn’t get the pump part to stop leaking. I just used a generic pump up until relatively recently when they began reproducing them.

[TonyC]

Personally I prefer the bag. There is virtually no real difference in the washer system's performance whether one chooses the bag or a plastic bottle, and it is now easy to fully restore a worn-out washer system without resorting to alien components. The main components are the pump and the bag, and both are easy to acquire. The rest is hosing, which every part store sells (though it seems that NAPA is the only one left to offer it in bulk).

That said, for the '61–3 cars, you won't have much choice beyond keeping the washer system stock. It's a matter of space, or to be precise a lack thereof: The horns are placed on the starboard inner fender, tightly nestled between the battery tray and the washer bag. You can't fit a plastic reservoir in there unless you have the equipment to design and produce one from scratch. That's also why the bags for those years are smaller than the ones used from '64–7.

Until I finally found an OE-spec pump, I had tried using aftermarket pumps to bridge the gap. All of them fried themselves within days of installation. Getting a new pump is very important, because there is one thing I learned, which alludes to another problem caused by the same root cause. We all know that synthetic materials deteriorate with age alone; e.g., nylon. Well, the innards of the washer pump are made of nylon (I don't have to veer off-course with recounts of the camshaft timing gear). That's why 50/60-year-old washer pumps will either leak or fail to produce enough pressure to spray the washer fluid, or both.

---Tony

[Mike]

It comes down to availability and ease. Without internet the bags aren't readily available so the easiest choice people had to get their washer going was to hit up a junk yard and find a container from another car that fit. It might not look factory but there is a lot of them running around with a random washer jug from who knows what stuck in there.

[frasern]

If it were me, I would check out the existing pump before just putting a new one in, but do whatever you want.
I made it out to the farm today, neither of my '62s have a ground to the steering box, but the '63 does, which is what I expected to see.

The ground within that harness appears just black, no stripe. Any ground with a stripe would be highly unusual, I would think.

[Lee]

If it were me, I would check out the existing pump before just putting a new one in, but do whatever you want.
I made it out to the farm today, neither of my '62s have a ground to the steering box, but the '63 does, which is what I expected to see.DSCF9461.JPGThe ground within that harness appears just black, no stripe. Any ground with a stripe would be highly unusual, I would think.

Fraser, do either of your '62's have the insulators? For a while, I thought I must have the only one, but I've seen more now at the forum, and I'm assuming that only insulator-equipped cars had the ground strap that year. Mine is plain black out of the harness as well.

[frasern]

No rubber boots on either '62. I just checked my '67 and can see no ground wire on the steering box, however that year uses a 2 wire horn. Without a grounded horn, there would be no need to ground the box. I didn't think to check the '66, but I would expect it to have a ground wire, as the saginaw column uses a grounded horn button. Tonys '66 should have a grounded box, however with his '67 column, it should no longer need that wire.
I still think the only '62s with insulators are converted. The drag link changed in '63, I have never seen a parts listing that shows a running change date for it, which would be the case, I think, if any '62s were fitted with insulators from new.
I see, in another post, that Fabs car is a '62, so it shouldn't have a ground, and we are probably just confusing him with all this.

[frasern]

Here is a '62 without a ground wire.

[fab415]

Thanks for the help, guys. Appreciate it.

To confirm, I've got a 62.

Re #1, good to know it's an original washer pump. I do still have the original washer bag, just removed it temporarily.

Re #2, good to know it's a ground wire, easy fix. I didn't see any loose wire by the steering box, but I will take a closer look and report back. But sounds like that ground wire wasn't introduced until 63-?

Fab

[Lee]

Thanks for the help, guys. Appreciate it.

To confirm, I've got a 62.

Re #1, good to know it's an original washer pump. I do still have the original washer bag, just removed it temporarily.

Re #2, good to know it's a ground wire, easy fix. I didn't see any loose wire by the steering box, but I will take a closer look and report back. But sounds like that ground wire wasn't introduced until 63-?

Fab

Fab, take a look at the way your steering box is mounted to the frame (from the underside). If there appear to be 3 “donuts” between the box and frame rail, then you have the later issue (or retrofit) insulators. Those required a ground wire.

Fraser, I am still confident that my ‘62 came off the assembly line with insulators. There are three artifacts to suggest this:
1) I bought it from the original owner, who kept all the service paperwork. Nothing to suggest it was ever back for the retrofit, or even that noise or harshness was ever complained about, as a prerequisite to get that retrofit.
2) [And I think this is the strongest clue] There are no add’l holes drilled in the floor pan, per the TSB, for the column plate after the box was shifted.
3) In that same vein, the TSB would have the technician bond the ground wire to the valve spool lock. Mine is grounded to the left-most of the three bolts securing the top sector shaft adjustment plate.

Since mine is a September mfg. car…I don’t know. Maybe they ran a batch off the assembly line prior to the ‘63 release as a sort of prototype field test? I really don’t know, but whenever the literature seems to mention these insulators there often is the caveat that it applied to “some” ‘62’s (and I don’t think that was implying retrofits).

[Mike]

Lee I would think you are probably right. Since all 63s had it they would have known of the issue and had the solution to it prior to 63 production so it makes sense that they would have been pro active and started to do it to the later 62s automatically. Thet should mean any cars built after yours would have it.