Eric's 1960 T-Bird

[Eric S]

John

what is the Cowl?
I assume I will have to find a way to remove wiper arms and the grille on the bottom of the windshield and see what I can find there.

Beside I remain to have 2 open questions below
Anybody can advise anything on that?

On the gear shift lever, the retaining pin has made an oval hole in the bell housing behind the wheel. I understood that this is a common occurence that can be adressed by drilling oversize the whole thing and add a large pin. Am I correct?

On the gas tank level indicator, I have an L Shaped plastic connector that is cracked and do not make positive contact. Any chance to get a replacement or should I go with a simple round connector under the nut?

[p38fighter]

59 convertible

Here's the cowl John is referring to. The circled bits are the attaching screws and the wiper stem collar. Remove all the screws and the collars and remove the cowl and wiper stem covers. Then you can inspect the cowl floor to see if you have holes or leaks at the wiper stem seal. My car had small rust out holes which were tricky to get to weld them up. Good luck with yours.

[Eric S]

Great

I had a quick look but can not find out how to remove the wipers... Any clue? Just popped on?

[DKheld]

That's a "push on" style connector that goes on the threaded fuel tank sending unit.

Old cigarette lighter connections used to be the same "push on" style. Do you have a big auto parts supplier similar to our NAPA stores? (Valeo, KNK?) Maybe they could find something similar in stock although the 90 deg type might be a problem.

Here's the type I'm referring to on ebay.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Car-Auto-DC...dbB4Fs&vxp=mtr

A round connector should be fine but be very gentle when tightening not to let the threaded portion of the connector turn or it could ruin the sending unit by breaking the internal wire connection.
If I went that route I would leave the existing nut in place and install another nut on top of the round connector with a lock washer. Just be sure the connection doesn't hit the metal cover and ground out.

[p38fighter]

This is the underside of the wiper arm. Note the spring as circled. That's all that is holding the arm on. Lift the wiper arm up off the glass as high as it will go and try to pull off the wiper. If its stubborn I sometimes use a brake spoon as shown and pry it off. USE a pad of some sort under the spoon to protect the paint!!

[Eric S]

Easy when you know.
Thank you P38 !
We will be in NYC next week. I saw there is some NAPA stores there. I will try to get there.

[Eric S]

Hi there

I just noticed the advertisment on thunderbird.org for the shift detent plate.

http://www.squarebirds.org/detent_thunderbird.htm

I planned to order that part from Bird Nest but does it make any difference to get the one from ttbird.org?
I would like to avoid multiple shipments.

Also should I replace the Shift Collar or re-drill for a large pin and sage 99$?

[YellowRose]

Eric's 1960 T-Bird

Eric, in regards to the Detent Plate we sell. When Alexander was alive and leading the Forum he created, he realized there was a problem with the detent plate wearing. He had new ones made for the various years of Tbirds. I have never heard of anyone saying anything bad about the replacement detent plates that he designed and had them manufactured. As has been said in the past, it is not always just the detent plate that causes the problem, but other areas also, like the shift lever, and the shift collar select arm at the end of the drive shaft.

I cannot vouch for those being produced by Tbird Hqs. Most people that I know of have been ordering them off our Home page, from Marianne, Alexander's sister, who took over the Detent program for us after his passing.... As for the shift collar, if yours is showing wear, I would certainly replace it. I will let others answer your other question...

[Tbird1044]

Eric:
The shift collar has 2 wear points.
One is where the pin attaches to the shift Lever arm. This can be drilled oversized and a larger pin installed to solve that problem. I used a shoulder bolt I found at the local hardware store and made the fit so this does not rotate in the shift collar, as the shift collar is a soft pot metal. I'll include a picture of what I used.
Now the second wear point is where the shift collar slides on the steel keyway on the shift tube. Again, the softer metal of the shift collar usually wears and the fit to the steel key becomes sloppy or loose. The bad news is, that the new shift collars that I have installed still have a really loose fit to the steel key on the shift tube. I always felt that when they made the mold for the reproduction shift collar, they used a worn out one as the model. I read on previous posts where some guys have tried to shim the shift collar fit in the keyway area. Not sure about their success. A new shift collar would probably be a good investment, but don't expect it to be factory tight.
Nyles

[scumdog]

My 2-cents worth as ‘66 Thunderbird owner:
The detent plate is VERY hard, ( you can’t mark it with a file) I find it hard to imagine them worn down to the point the won’t lock the shift lever in place.
HOWEVER, the end of the shift lever that bears on the detent plate does wear down readily to the point the contact surfaces are worn down and rounded off.

I had an engineer build up the contact face of the shift lever with a hard face welding rod and then I ground it back to the correct profile.
I also ground the Park detent down a bit deeper than the factory has to make extra sure the lever stays locked in the Park position.

[Eric S]

Anybody could post a picture or an exploded view of the Idler Arm as I am not sure mine is correctly assembled.

[OX1]

Eric:
I read on previous posts where some guys have tried to shim the shift collar fit in the keyway area. Not sure about their success. A new shift collar would probably be a good investment, but don't expect it to be factory tight.
Nyles

I welded up the raised area on the lower end of shift tube to make it a perfect fit, but I should have done the upper raised surface where it interfaces collar also. I think those two areas would cure 90% of play for most people (assuming shift arm pin is not super loose).

[DKheld]

Anybody could post a picture or an exploded view of the Idler Arm as I am not sure mine is correctly assembled.

Here are a few old pictures of mine.....

[Eric S]

It looks like it takes a washer only on top of the part here :

https://www.macsautoparts.com/ford_thunderbird/ford-thunderbird-idler-arm-power-steering-with-bushings-washers-nuts-and-cotter-pins-1958-60.html

Whereas here there is a second washer on bottom of one of the arms

https://www.dearbornclassics.com/1963-1964-galaxie-idler-arm-with-power-steering.html

Same set up I had on my car although this latter is listed for 1963-1964 cars?

[jopizz]

The only washers are at the top under the nuts.

John