Hi,
A friend of a friend recently bought his dream car on eBay – a '67 T-bird that was seriously over-sold by the seller. The seller said that everything worked on the car. Unfortunately, that wasn’t true. The new owner is working through the many issues, but is having trouble with the Tilt Away steering. I know the system isn’t exactly the same as on our Cougars, but the folks on the T-bird forum haven’t been any help. My car doesn’t have this option, so I don’t know anything about the system.
I’m hoping someone here will be able to help. Here are some exerpts of his email that explain what they’ve done so far to diagnose the issue:
Everything seems to be correct and plugged together right but still the door switch is dead. The black/blue striped wire to the door jamb switch is dead. I have the relay open that mounts to the emergency brake.Pressing the contacts together with my fingers makes the tilt mechanism work fantastic and the interior lights come on but the relay does not get the current from the door switch so things won’t work on their own. I’m glad to know that all is ok as far as the mechanical components of the flip away wheel. The yellow/black stripe wire is dead at the relay ( maybe this is right or not, I don’t know because of lack of info in the manual). The other colored wires (3)are all hot at this relay the solid black is dead or ground. I see no alterations of any kind in the wiring harness or that anyone has disturbed it previously. The shop manual does show 3 black pigtails of black and black/blue stripe leads off the maplight switch . I can’t see these pigtails and don’t know for sure where they are.
If anyone has suggestions for him, I know he’d appreciate them. His purchase price should have bought a near-perfect specimen. Instead, he’s having to do some major mechanical refurbishment.
Thanks in advance!
Sam in Denver