Re: Saving the original paintwork and trunk emblem - 1951 200 barn findand

Posted by HH56 On 2019/6/16 17:59:52

To get the turn signal switch out you remove the steering wheel. The switch is screwed to a couple of mounting pads on the shroud and the lever unscrews from the switch. Disconnect the 6 pin plug coming out of the column at the edge of the dash and the pins should be able to be pulled out of the rubber base. Keep track of which pin goes where and try not to be rough as the old rubber could be hard and brittle. I believe most of the bases have slots around the side the wires fit into but it has been a long time since I had one apart and memory could have failed. After the plug base, lever, and mounting screws are off the switch and wires will pull up out of the shroud. It is tight pulling around the wiper switch so there may need to be a bit of finesse. Getting them back down is more fun.

Headlight switch has a self resetting circuit breaker on the end and that is probably what is cutting in and out. The breaker could have aged and not be able to hold the rated current anymore but more likely is a direct short has caused the breaker to trip, reset after a few seconds and if the short is still present trip again. It will keep doing this until the short is fixed or the breaker fails. The problem can be anywhere as the headlights, park lights, dash lights and tail lights all come off the breaker. A wire with old insulation falling off is the most likely problem but who knows where. You will just have to search carefully for a wire touching metal. The rheostat at the other end of the switch usually just affects the dash lights in that they won't turn on or if they come on turning the knob just a tiny bit kills them again. Shorts in dash lights can happen if the insulation shrinks back and the center wire touches the socket base as it exits the shell.

The 51 oil light needs a switch type sender not the gauge sender for 55-6 that was discussed a few days ago. A Napa OP 6742 turns off the light at 6psi and is probably a good choice. For a higher safety point since the light will come on earlier but probably more flicker and the light most likely coming on at idle speed the OP 6741 is a 15psi switch. Both are 1/8-27 pipe thread.

Kanter may still have repro fuel senders or if not some of the 57 Ford senders will work but you need to watch arm length on those because of the different tank capacities. You can also get a fairly inexpensive Ford universal sender and do the work to cut the float arm to fit the tank and modify the mounting plate. You need an ohm range of around 75 empty to 10 full. Before Kanter had the repros I did this on my car and there is a how to adapt a modern sender instruction in the literature section.