Yeah,it's me again, with my '73 wagon. There is a vacuum line from the firewall to a pump on the left fender apron and lines from the pump which go to the rear shocks (I haven't seen that part yet). There is also a Schrader valve at the pump, maybe to pump it up extra with? There is a mention of it in the owner's manual,as an accessory with a dash control, but I don't see one of those. Has anybody seen one of these? The system does seem to sort of work, although when you shut the car off, it sits down. I think those shocks with springs around them are the way to go, but since the air system is in place, I may as well go with it.
If you can get the part numbers for the bits and pieces, you can look for them in two places, for NOS parts. To get the part numbers: http://squarebirds.org/Manuals/1965/1965-72FordPartsTextCatalog/ To look up who might have them: http://www.rearcounter.com/ The usual companies that will come from those result lists are: http://www.greensalescompany.com/default.asp http://millerobsoleteparts.net/ and: http://www.nospartsltd.com/Default.asp Besides Dearborn Classics and Dennis Carpenter. I've bought NOS parts from Green Sales (by phone only), and I am impressed with their service and pricing. They'll ship via USPS, and even with the border and customs issues with Canada, they did it all, efficiently.
I've used rearcounter.com a lot to find parts, with a part number. Slidemanic, I've never seen that. Can you provide pictures?
I've got the 1979 Ford Shop Manuals, and looking through all the models with that system, I kept thinking of the much nicer system in the late 1950s Caddy, Buick and Olds cars. A 100 PSI compressor opposite the AC. The only nicer system was on the early French Citroen sedans. You could jack it up on 3 wheels to change a flat! But the Ford system is nice for its simplicity, compared to the compressor-equipped cars. I've been looking for the elusive Amplifier switches for my Premium Sound system for at least 9 years. I got one from a 1980 TBird, another from a 1979 Mustang, and one from a 1982 Crown Vic. The mounting is different on the TBird, and similar on the Mustang and Crown Vic switches. But they made the core of the switch easy to adapt between models. I think if he uses Rearcounter and just inserts the middle 4 or 5 digits, he'll get a decent list of parts to pick from, and look up on EBAY too.
n2... I should mention for all those non-Ford owners (Brand X ), that Rearcounter.com works for their parts too.
Not sure if this is what you are talking about, but I believe it is. I have assembled what I believe to be a complete NOS set-up that I can photograph if anyone is interested. P.
While I was under the car replacing the muffler, I noticed that at the rear axle, there is one open rubber tube sticking out of the junction block for the air shocks. Is this just venting excess pressure or is it supposed to be attached to something?
Yeah,I see that now. There's a level sensing device too. The shox look original, so I want to assume they leak down when the engine isn't providing vacuum to the pump, or whatever that thing is called. The car sits right up even with a heavy load, but kinda droops when parked.
At one point,the hose came off the vacuum-powered unit on the left inner fender, and led to a droopy situation. I put a hose clamp on there after that. I can't figure out why some systems had the knob & gauge underdash and some,like mine,didn't come with it. Now that I have got most of the big problems fixed I am driving this car every day and boy does the general public love it! I haven't had so many thumbs up and nice comments and "What year is that?" and reminiscences about wagons they rode in back in the day...since I drove a blue '57 Ford convertible. Nobody reacted at all to my '85-'86-'89 Crown Vic wagons or my '88 Country Squire LX. I guess the '80s cars just weren't cool or even remarkable...they were just...cars to most folks. Anyway,the car sits up as long as there is engine vacuum, and that's OK for now. I am still wondering about that Schrader valve fitting next to the vacuum-powered unit. What is supposed to be done with that? Maybe just attach a pressure gauge?
Thanks. Yeah,that makes sense. My '88 Country Squire LX had the system too, but that was seven years ago, son I don't recall much about it.
