65 issues & concerns

[wr5x]

I just bought a 65 flairbird, and it seems to have a few issues. Any help or suggestions would be great.

1st. It has all the symptoms with the steering column, moves up and down, have to pull up on the gear shift into park to start it. Will not start in neutral. I am afraid it will drop out of park on its on. It doesn't stay in reverse, drive, or any other gear real good. Does anyone sell a repair kit for these issues?

The sequential signal lights don't work. It seems to have a couple lights that don't work in each side.

The tail lights work, with the same ones not working. I checked the bulbs and they seem to be okay.

The brake lights don't work at all.

It doesn't seem to have emergency flashers. Was this an option in 65? It is a manual window car.

The AC compressor doesn't kick in. I can see refrigerant in the sight glass, but the compressor never activates. The fan blows air from the vents but never gets cold.

I am sure it has other issues, but that is enough for now. Any suggestions or help please!

[redstangbob]

The steering column and shifter problems are common, and parts are available. The stop and turn problems are well documented, how are your electrical troubleshooting skills? The 4 ways were an option, check here for more details on your car...http://automotivemileposts.com/tbird...lections.shtml As for the A/C , I've found that most will need to be overhauled to work dependably, including having new lines made. I know your car pretty well, we can get it going again. Good luck, Bob C

[YellowRose]

65 issues & concerns

Hi Billy,

First of all, if you do not have a 1965 Shop Manual for your Flairbird you will want to get one. You also might want to get several other manuals for your Bird. Such as the Electrical Assembly Manual for that year. The Body & Interior Trim Manual. Perhaps the Engine Components Manual. The Specifications & Features Manual and the Thunderbird Restoration Guide. If you go down to the Advertisements Forum, you will find the listing for many of our Tbird parts houses. You will want to call or email them and ask for their free catalogs.

The wiring schematics are available to you in our Technical Resource Library (TRL) which you can see by clicking on the link under my signature element. Slide down to Wiring Diagrams, right above CHASSIS. There you will find the wiring diagrams for your Tbird, including one for the sequential turn signals, as I recall. They should be helpful in trouble shooting the problems you are finding.

The problem with shifting or getting the car to start could be several things. One might be a worn detent plate in the steering wheel. As far as I know, the Forum does not market a new detent plate for the Flairbirds, as we do the other Tbirds, and other Fords. One of our parts dealers might. This problem could be down at the transmission, as talked about in other threads on this Forum. It might just be an adjustment to be made. There are those on here who can walk and talk you through that. On Squarebirds, we have a Neutral Switch down at the bottom of the steering wheel. If your '65 has one, it might just be a simple adjustment down there to fix that problem. If you are concerned about it dropping out of park, use the emergency brake to make sure it does not, or block the wheels so it cannot roll on you until you can get that problem fixed.

The sequential tail, turn signal and brake light problems could be bad ground problems. You will want to check and clean the ground contacts. Or it could be bad wiring. The brake light problem could be due to a bad brake wiring connection(s) or switch. Check those out.

As for the AC problem, you might need to get a good AC man to check that compressor and the AC system. It could be something simple, like maybe low on Freon.

These are just some things to check out, and I will leave it to some of our very experienced techies on this Forum to step in and give you much better technical advise then I am able to give you. But, hopefully, this will get your started. Find in the TRL and print out those wiring diagrams that apply to the 1964-1966 Flairbirds. They should be a big help to you.

[wr5x]

Thanks guys for the advice. I have ordered the parts for the steering and should be getting this week. i will try and trouble shoot the brake issue this weekend. I do have the shop manual, which helps a lot.