Moving on to the next need, has anyone dicovered a good substitute for the foam insulator used at the lower side of the column tube ? (See picture).
I have read in other threads that nothing was used here but clearly Ford had one planned to be used. Ford was a stickler about engine compartment fumes NOT getting into the interior so perhaps the material used degraded and fell out over early years is why we do not find signs of the insulators on original examples.
Richard : Several years ago, when trying to put all of the parts together for my Tilt-Away installation, I also had the question as to what to use for the insulator. The 1967 only MPC shows this Part # as C70Z-3C577-B (see first attachment), but unfortunately, the 1967 MPC does not have an illustration for the Tilt-Away unit. There is an illustration, however, in the 1960-68 MPC (page dated April 1968) that shows an insulator that appears to be a cylindrical piece with a hole in the middle, presumably like the "standard column" foam insulator. Based on that, I too was going to use pipe insulation to replace my missing insulator.
However, about 3 or 4 years ago, John (67gta289) told me that he had found this Part # at Mustangs, Etc., and it was not foam (
http://www.mustangsetc.com/67-mustang-steering-column-insulator-w-tilt/). As you can see, this appears to be, and is, molded rubber, much more substantial than the normal foam rubber, as well as much more substantially priced. I called them to find out what documentation they had to offer this part as the "correct" C70Z-3C577-B part. They told me that unfortunately they had none. They said that they had bought out a supplier or manufacturer (I can't remember which they said) who had a "bunch" of these that were noted as C70Z-3C577-B. Unfortunately again, these do not have the Part # either molded into the rubber, nor ink stamped on them. I then decided to check all of the resources I had on Tilt-Away adjustments, repairs, etc. This included the other MPC's, the 67 Shop Manual, the Rotunda Diagnosis Manual, the '67 Thunderbird Service Procedures and Program Instruction Manual, and TSB's. I didn't find any verbiage that specifically addressed the insulator, but I did find the attached sheets from the October 21, 1966 TSB. While we all know that one can't count on "Illustrations" as documentation, it is interesting that one of the illustration shown in this TSB shows the "filler" at the bottom of the steering column tube to be more like the molded rubber piece, and another illustration it appears more like the straight cut-off cylinder of foam rubber. Based on that, plus the fact that we can't imagine someone going to the trouble of reproducing a quantity of these parts without having something to model from, John and I are using this insulator in our Tilt-Aways. As we know, many changes were made during the 1967 model year, with a lot occurring in February of 1967. Based on that, plus the fact that the 1960-68 MPC illustration appears to show the insulator as the cylindrical block of foam rubber, the molded rubber
may be correct for the pre-February model (which would include yours). In any case, it will definitely seal better, and definitely last longer.
Bob
