Placard on air filter

[jopizz]

That is the vacuum "tomato" can. I am aware that some Squarebirds do not have it. Whether or not it is OEM, I do not know. I know it was on the car when I bought it. Perhaps jopizz or Carl ~ partsetal can comment on it.

No Squarebirds ever came with the tomato can vacuum reservoir. That was used on later models that had vacuum door locks, vacuum vents, etc. I have no idea why it's on your car. Maybe someone put it on there to help your vacuum wipers before you changed to electric.

John

[YellowRose]

Placard on air filter

Hi Scott, no, I do not have Cruise Control or anything like that. I really have not understood what that vacuum can is supposed to do, and I know that not all Squarebird owners have it on their Tbirds, from what I had read. I had hoped that John or Carl could comment on it. I have no idea if it came from the factory like that or it was added later. I just saw in email what John just said about this, that it was NOT OEM! Thanks, John! While he was typing that, I was in the OFS CD to see if I could find anything about it and found nothing. So someone added it aftermarket, maybe the previous owner. I knew he was using it to tow his boat from Northern Mississippi to the coast, using that Draw-Tite hitch it had on it, so maybe he found he needed additional vacuum for his wipers on those trips. If so, I can tell you that it certainly did not seem to help it much when I used the wipers in the rain a few times!

[jopizz]

Here's the answer I got from Carl Heller regarding the air cleaner:

"The air cleaner Frank has matches one I have on the shelf. To me it is noticeable because the snout has a smaller neck than the opening, just like Frank's, and it also has the diamond mark where his is. No idea if it was unique to the 58's. The bevel at the back seems to be present on many 1960's and some '59's which also have a snout with a straight neck. These resemble some that I've seen from Mercury's which have a straight snout but the edge is folded over, not just cut off like the ones I've mentioned. Not really sure what is correct for what. "

It appears that the mystery continues.

John

[YellowRose]

Placard on air filter

Here is what Martin just sent me, Carl and John in email...

"Hope I do this right. For your interest if you have not seen this before . From back in the day with the introduction of the ’58 Bird here is a j’peg of the engine bay the way it came from assembly . Original air cleaner. Martin."

Here is the pic he just sent.

[Frango100]

All thanks for the reactions. I saw that the air filter housing can be rotated either way, left or right, without touching anything, but rotating it to the left keeps the most space below the housing. I think i will go that way.