Interior parts Questions

[Luva65wagon]

Erick,

Glad you were able to resolve the steering column issue.

FWIW the cone is split normally (from the narrow end to the wide end) so it will compress as it is being pushed on by the spring.

The nuts and the bolts that cinch up the turn-signal housing is an assembly that I have seen installed wrong more than right anytime I've had to dig into someone's column. You can tighten them and still not have the bolt-part "hooked" into the column. You generally know they are hooked correctly when there is only a couple threads extending beyond the edge of the nut. It's not like it's going to go anywhere or anything, so you're probably OK as long as it's not sloppy.

Jeff and Gene are right. Personally I think most of the aftermarket parts are not all that good. Some are, but most are not. If you can even find a NOS part, you may still have 50 years of oxidation on the rotary rheostat. Getting these polished up helps. Tuner cleaner is great for keeping them clean and conductive, but I've had to polish them with some abrasive too. Also, the shaft goes into this part to rotate it, and I've seen new ones that are pretty sloppy around this shaft causing it to ride unevenly as you rotate it. Welcome to 50 year old technology!

[falcon cobra]

Last fall I was working on that problem with a LM-317 adjustable voltage regulator that looks like a transistor, it works good but gets quite hot with all the bulbs it controls, I quess if it was heat sinked to the unibody it would work, they are only good for 1.5 amps, but dim the dash lights with one knob....jh

[2erobrd]

I did a little digging in my falcon box of parts and it looks like I still have the original light switch so I'll clean it out and give it a try and see if it works better than this $26 model. I also just noticed my horn is now acting up so it looks like I may get a second pass at removing the steering wheel one more time (ugh). Oh well I guess same rule applies as when cutting wood.....check everything twice before you button everything up..