Topic: Small Block Power steering hose strap to shock tower - 68 All Plants

[196667Bob]

I finally found the picture of my original plastic fastener.  You should see a small indented circle at the center of the head.  Same thing as you see on Deuce's post two prior to this one.  The metal variety is perfectly flat.  Hard to distinguish unless it is a close up or the lighting casts a shadow in the right location.

John : I had noticed that indentation on several example in the earlier "SJ only" thread, as well as in this "All Plants" thread. I had actually looked for a similar fastener in the S&UPC, and ironically found two tat were possibilities, on the same page as the metal barb fastener. The Type 9 (noted by blue), is close, although does not show the indent, and appears too short ; the Type 11 shows the indent in the center of the head, but its diameter of 1" appears to be too large. Once again, the Plant(s) could have had access to parts other than those designated as Service Parts.

Do you have, or can you get, pictures and dimensions of your fastener's "barbed" end ?

Bob

[196667Bob]

Can you share what the basic part number is as listed in the assembly manual?

John : In Reply # 11 of this thread, Scott Posted 2 pictures from the 1968 Assembly Manual, one of which showed the basic Part Numbers of both the Strap and Fastener. I was unable to find either in any of my MPC's.

Maybe you'll have better success.

Bob

[jwc66k]

In Reply # 11 of this thread, . . .  2 pictures from the 1968 Assembly Manual, one of which showed the basic Part Numbers of both the Strap and Fastener. I was unable to find either in any of my MPC's.

Ford had a unique part numbering system, several in fact, that was rigid in the engineering phase, and "looser" on the assembly line. Briefly: Ford "design engineering" had a part number convention that used a 4 or 5 digit "base" number to identify a specific part and group of parts. With the addition of a "decade letter", a single digit "year number", a "product line origin letter" and a "responsible organization letter" as prefixes to the base, and a "letter" to signify variations which engineering may or may not have used, you wound up with a part number that looked like this C7ZA-1234-A. The key was/is it avoided duplication. That wasn't enough, so a "model number" was incorporated into body part, part numbers - C7ZB-6312345-A.
The "design engineer" was happy.
Then came the "manufacturing engineer". He had one underlying task - keep the assembly line moving.
If the manufacturing engineer was building 67 Mustangs (and other Ford models), design engineering was finished with designing the 67 model year, probably finished desiging the 68 model year, and working on the 69 model year, and thinking about the 70 model year.
Speed was needed on the assembly line like RIGHT NOW. Some leeway was granted to the manufacturing engineer in "creating a special part number". For example, power steering parts used a four digit base number that started with the number "3". To avoid duplications (a mortal sin), a letter was inserted in the base number in the third position from the right - 3A555 (an example) for an assembly line required, manufacturing engineering authorized "we need it now" item. The general idea was to "make the formal paperwork later". The intent was to have design engineering incorporate that "specrial item" in future designs or make "something" for the service department to use. Quite often that did not happen. Once design engineering recognized what the problem was they redesigned the "situation", and the "quick fix parts" went away. That's why you won't find 6E523 or 3C696 documented. Ford Motor Company devised a "quick fix" system to do what the company needed - sell product.
Exceptions were and are common.
Jim

[jwc66k]

Thanks again for "digging" these out.

http://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=11041.msg105582#msg105582
You're welcome. I sort of don't like reinventing the wheel - again.
Jim

[J_Speegle]

Looked through my 68 Dearborn pictures and didn't find allot that I could see around the AC compressors or they were missing and only a possible hole was visible

Found maybe two dozen  starting with 8F10484x (projected date of 25H) and the latest of 8F198xxx. This does not suggest that I found any before or after this period without the strap just that I had no examples with usable pictures from those periods






Often these have engines installed in the pictures but found one with the engine removed which seems to show an interesting possible section strap lower down on the same shock tower on the side side surface. Something that would not be typically seen in many pictures and anything other than a perfect angle from maybe below so it might be missed on other cars for a number of reasons like the one what was found on the unrestored 67 Example discussed on another thread though this strap appears to be much longer on the example below. Noted that the lower one appears to be attached about 3-4 inches forward of where the 67 example as attached

[J_Speegle]

Looked through my 68 New Jersey pictures and didn't find allot that I could see around the AC compressors or they were missing and only a possible hole was visible

Found maybe two dozen  starting with 8F1015xxx and the latest of 8F2202xx. This does not suggest that I found any before or after this period without the strap just that I had no examples with usable pictures from those periods



Some nice close ups of the two straps from a car that is also shown in the Unrestored Picture Thread section.

Appears to be the metal capped barbed retainer




Notice lower hose strap has the "white wall" or white outer layer (just behind the pump) while the upper is just black




The ones that were visible appear to be the barbed all metal retainers





In the pictures from this plant and year I had more that showed the inner drivers side shock tower and the second lower strap, hole or retainer was found in a fair number of cars (currently about 10 spread through most of the year) . Don't want to take the tread off in a different direction  but since they are related I wanted to include them in the survey at this point and since Bob is the originator of this thread he can choose how we proceed without any forward bias

Examples from 8T1699xx, 8T1086xx, 8T1855xx & 8T1943xx (bottom left corner CW)



Will go through 68 San Jose latter. Lots more examples/pictures and I need to go through the rest of the 68 NJ cars since I forgot to survey all the GT350's   

[krelboyne]

Ding Ding, look what I found. AMK B-13167.

[196667Bob]

Scott : Great find ! GM must have obviously "stolen" that part from Ford.

Bob

[J_Speegle]

Looked through my 68 San Jose pictures and again didn't find allot that I could see around the AC compressors or they were missing and only a possible hole was visible so those were not counted given a "new" finding on my part. It appears (need to go back through the other two 68 plants) that the holes were prepunched in all shock towers in 68  and just looking for the holes will lead to allot of false positive findings. Did find the mounting holes in shock towers on 6 cylinder and big blocks without power steering also   Always another twist and turn so the following numbers only are from cars with a strap and or retainer still visible on the sample


Found maybe over 30 examples starting with 8R10355x and the latest of 8R16777x. This does not suggest that I found any before or after this period without the strap just that I had no examples with usable pictures from outside of this identified range. All except one used the black painted barbed style all metal retainer as we've seen used at other plants. The one odd one (likely altered by someone since the car was built) used what looks to be a standard bolt with captured washer like a fender style bolt. Figured it needed to be mentioned at the outside that another finding is discovered. Car was 8R10459x and we do have 8R14030x that was the typical barbed style for reference

Some examples of San Jose cars



I did again look for the lower straps also while going through the pictures and I did again, like the other plants, find some. I did (like the upper shock driver's side shock tower) find some with holes though they were not power steering cars so it is again possible all cars may have received the panels with prepunch holes no matter the option. When foudn and used they again (like other plants) used the same style retainers.