stangs-R-me

In 1969, Power Front Disc Brakes were N/A with 200 Six (pic of price page from my 1969 Facts Book). Looking at the 1970 Facts Book online, is it was the same deal (page 22): https://media.ford.com/content/dam/fordmedia/North America/US/2013/11/18/1970_Mustang_Data.pdf

It is a fact that the 250 Six came with the same brakes, 5-Lug Wheels etc. as the 302 cars did. However, the base 200 Six in 1969-70 DID still come with 4-Lug wheels and smaller brakes etc. like the '65-68 Six cars did. Doug

Heated needle nose pliers ... YES. I even have a micro Craftsman pair that has smooth jaws that I've never found a use for ... well here we go !! I no longer need to do this as I shipped those lamps back for credit, but great discussion as this can pertain to refurbishing other areas of an automotive wiring harness. I actually bought a length 1-1/8" Heat Shrink when I bought the 3/4" as I was not sure if the 3/4" would go over the 3-wire plug. As I don't really need to have either laying around now, I really should return them (w/b $10.50 credit @ Menards). Thanks, Doug

I was guessing the tool that does this has the heating element built-in, but YES something like that with a heat gun would probably work too. I wonder if a bag sealer could get warm enough to do it. Doug

Figured I should share my back-up plan using the MUSCLE CAR GT lamps if I could not find a matched set of ACP lamps ... I first did a test re-tapping an M4x0.7 nut I had laying around with an 8-32 tap and threads seemed to be strong / not stripped out as I thought might happen. So, I was going to do this to the MUSCLE CAR GT lamps so I could use the correct O.E.M. screws. Then bought a 6" piece of Heavy Wall 3/4" 3:1 Shrink Ratio Heat Shrink Tubing and was going to cut in half and try and replicate the way the 80's vintage N.O.S. lamp was done with the heat shrink over the back end of the bulb socket This tubing is just large enough to slip over the 3-wire plug end. I don't know what I was going to use on the wire end to get it to seal flat around the wires like OEM, but I at least got this far. Doug

As I stated in my post on 04/11, but not seen in my pic ... On my original harness, it exists the looming alone 16" further down about even with the trunk floor. Looking at the 1969 Electrical Assembly Manual, the Fuel Sending Wire departs from the main harness at the trunk floor in all the diagram variations. So yes, this is what both me and Randy believe to be normal ... thanks for adding this picture of what appears to be an untouched "as factory installed" image. Doug

ACP Lamps came from Kentucky Mustang yesterday. They are BOTH Silver (or Clear) Zinc Plated so they at least match. Main benefit to being Silver instead of Yellow/Gold Zinc is I did not need to paint the inner reflector/bezel silver as ACP was NOT doing that on the yellow/gold ones either. The NOS Lamp I've got from the 80's is more silver than yellow/gold, so I'm fine with the color change ... better than my black painted originals for sure. The OEM 8-32 screws were tight going in on these (as they were on the yellow/gold one I got from NPD), so I chased the threads with an 8-32 tap. Even made little red wire loops like the OEM harnesses had out of some solid 22GA wire I had laying around. Smaller in OD vs. the OEM so 20 or 18GA wire would be better. Saga is finally over !! Doug

Very nice and welcome to the site !! Doug

I figured the fuel sender lead coming out 16" too soon was an Alloy Metal goof up ... could also be that this is just how they do them and I don't feel like making it an issue with NPD (or AMP). May wrap this single fuel sender wire in black electrical tape the 16" to protect it / hide it and use a couple of pieces of friction tape to hold it to and behind the harness in a couple spots along the way. Thanks for the feedback !! Doug

Interesting !! I've got an Alloy Metal non-tach Headlamp harness on my car that I purchased in 2005 / installed in 2011. My Ammeter Gauge does not move as much as it did when I 1st bought the car in the early 80's, but I've swapped to nicer clusters a few times since then. Current cluster has been in the car since the late 80's, and I don't think this particular Ammeter has ever had much movement before or after the new headlamp harness. Doug

Never heard back from Stangaholics or TopFlight, so I did a bit more digging and found Kentucky Mustang sells the ACP Lamps as a LH&RH Kit and showed 8 in stock, so I ordered a pair. Also ordered a pair of the Daniel Carpender correct gray gaskets & FoMoCo Lenses and an AMK correct Lens SS Screw set as they had all this in stock too. Kentucky Mustang also sells the ACP LH&RH '69-70 Back-Up Lamp's as a complete Kit, so I ordered these as well. Currently on B.O., so this will ship when available. Now I just need to send back the mis-matched ACP/MCG pair to NPD and the Scott Drake (Muscle Car GT) pair back to Summit. Hopefully this will be the end of the saga. Thanks everyone for the replies & feedback, Doug

Got the harness from NPD a few weeks ago and it looks great, bulb sockets and all. Basically a question for MIDLIFE, but anyone can chime in ... My car originally did NOT have the Convenience Group (trunk light), but I took all the wiring & parts from a parts car and added it to my car in the 80's. On this new Alloy Metal 14405-CB (Convenience Group) harness, the Fuel Level Sending wire exits the braided looming with the trunk light wire & dome light wire. On my original harness, it exists the looming alone 16" further down about even with the trunk floor. Looking at the 1969 Electrical Assembly Manual, the Fuel Sending Wire departs from the main harness at the trunk floor in all the diagram variations, so it seems strange that it comes out of the looming 16" earlier on this new harness. So the QUESTION IS ... is this an Wiring Assembly Error or is this correct ?? Also, this NEW harness came with the Fuel Sender FM bullet plug and the Dual Exhaust Extension Lead to exit the RH side drop off out to the sender. On my factory Single Exhaust car & harness, there is no separate extension lead to the fuel sender, the wire just continues and exits out the center of the trunk to the sender. This is also a bonus for me, as my car has had the factory correct crossover muffler dual exhaust on it since the late 80's and until recently, I had no idea they re-routed the fuel level sending wire out the RH drop off on dual exhaust cars. You can buy this special Dual Exhaust Extension wire from a few places ... Dead Nuts On is one for $30.00, but no need to as it comes with this harness !! So technically there were originally 4 different OEM rear harnesses: Single Ex w/o Conv Grp Single Ex w/ Conv Grp Dual Ex w/o Conv Grp Dual Ex w/ Conv Grp Doug

Same with the 600 CFM Holley Double Pumper I had on my car before. I cut up a 1969 2BBL carb bracket to work on this Holley, maybe you could do something similar:

Same situation I'm in ... both were supposed to be ACP but instead LH is ACP and RH is Muscle Car GT. They must have gotten new ACP RH inventory now and I just got one of the last of the other brand, however all the new ACP RH's they have is stock are Silver Zinc Plated instead of Gold ... so they have a new issue that is not any fault of theirs. I see the ACP's on Ebay from CarID. I'm checking with Stangaholics (ACP) to see if their inventory is in fact Gold Plated and TopFlight (Mr Mustang branded) to see if their inventory is actually private labeled ACP and if they are Gold Plated or not. Doug

Here is the Custom Bracket I made for a Summit 600 CFM M08600VS Carb. Made from a repro Boss 302 bracket (NPD # 9741-6A) and an old RACO electrical box cover I had laying around. The drop on the Boss Bracket is similar if not the same to the one RogerC posted, but I needed more drop to clear the bottom of the Summit carb. The MOD to the bracket is basically not visible or obvious once installed.

Here are the original lamps from my brother's '69 Convertible he bought in 1985. It was a low milage all original car (IIRC under 50k miles on ODO) including factory Winter Blue paint but lived those 16 years in the Chicago area ... only things reusable on them are the SS Lens retaining screws !! Typical Chicago junk yard car lamps brackets back then were way worse than these examples, some were completely separated with lamps dangling from the wires or brackets were cobbled up with added sheet metal to hold them together.

Brian, Thanks for posting that, but $500 / pair is a bit rich for me especially since I'm not going for concours correct ... good to know info for someone going concours though. However, "close" is good enough for me and that is what I feel the ACP made lamps are (provided I can find a matching pair). My car was an Atlanta DSO car that had Virginia plates on it when I got it in 1981. It was somebody's beater but still a very clean / rust free car that I'm guessing saw very little if any snow / winter driving. However, my lamp housings are rusty enough that there is some metal missing so they may be borderline candidates for restoration. I guess my point is that if mine may not be restorable, there can't be too many lamps out there that are so a set of "Anghels" masterpieces should not be wasted on my car. In the 1st pic you can see the rusted away / missing metal of the lamp housing ... that edge should be straight across. A little sanding / wire-wheeling then paint them black (right over the rust !!) was as good as the 19 year old me was willing to do in 1981. Doug

I sanded / wire-wheeled & painted my originals back in the early 80's and they really could be replaced. From the pictures online, the new repro's made by ACP looked pretty close to original so I bought a pair from NPD. Well, they ended up shipping me a LH made by ACP and a RH made by Muscle Car GT, and the differences are obvious. Contacted them, and they checked the rest of their inventory and they found all to be ACP, however the LH ones are Gold Zinc and all the RH's are Silver Zinc. So they gave me a label to ship them back. Ordered a pair of Scott Drake from Summit as the picture on Summit's & S-D's sites is the ACP version but what they shipped were the cheaper looking Muscle Car GT. Main issues with the Muscle Car GT version: M4x0.7 threaded inserts instead of the correct 8-32 inserts that the ACP has OEM style Wire Boot is replaced by a molded rubber bushing at the back of the lamp socket The stampings of the MCG are also quite different from OEM where the ACP is very close to the OEM stampings Wire colors are not correct for either version (no winner here) Ground connection is also different from OEM on both: MCG is external like OEM but not correct and the ACP ground goes in the boot with the two other wires. MCG is painted SILVER inside like OEM ... ACP bare Gold Zinc so needs silver paint MCG has a GRAY gasket (lighter color than OEM) ... ACP has a WHITE gasket that needs to be changed Both Lens's are generic w/o Ford Logo and neither have the correct style S.S. screws and both come with incorrect CLEAR bulbs Correct Gaskets, Lens's, Screws, & Bulbs are available so no big deal there The plating on my original and the N.O.S. one are a very close match ... you can tell by the pics that the Repro's are more gold/yellow. I'm now waiting to hear back from a vendor that has 10 each of the "Mr. Mustang" version in stock (which the picture also matches the ACP), to see what the inventory really is. I've got a N.O.S. LH one my brother bought back in the 80's it is super special because it has a 2-wire '70 style plug on it instead of the correct '69 3-wire plug (we also have a N.O.S. '70 RH lamp and the bumper bracket is longer and offsets the lamp more than the '69, with a correct 2-wire '70 plug). I took comparison pics ... From Left to Right ... NOS ... OEM ... ACP ... MCG

I was wondering the same thing until I re-read your last post ... guessing it was the wrong hole comment Bob was replying to !! Doug

Great news for all of you 1967-68 owners that want to run the shorter 20 GALLON 1969 tank instead of the taller 22-Gallon 1970 tank. I now have confirmation and PICTURES showing that the '67-68 22-Gal Conversion Neck fits without modification with the 20 Gallon tank when using the Daniel Carpenter 4-3/4" long hose & clamps # C8ZA-9047 & C5ZZ-9040 (9047-3A & 9047-1AK from NPD). This particular hose is super pliable and has a fiber braid inside it. Hose could maybe be shortened an inch or so, but it was installed uncut/full length in the pics. Pictures ...

Like many things on '70 that are different than '69, it might just be a BETTER designed clip than what was used in '69. Doug

Just got confirmation from Rick at NPD on VMF ... both the 14405-5CA 14405-CB Alloy Metal Harnesses are COMPLETE with the taillight sockets. Link to the thread I posted over there: https://www.vintage-mustang.com/threads/npd-1969-mustang-taillight-wiring-harness.1200032/#post-10622786 Picture of a kit from stock showing the sockets & boots in place just like OEM. Doug

Just posted the Question on VMF, I'll share the answer(s) here. Here are my existing bulb sockets, as said in pretty good shape ...

Thanks for the reply Randy ... I was dreading that your answer / solution was not going to be simple !! On NPD's site, there is a cheaper version 14405-5A from "Mustang America" that states ... WIRING HARNESS, Taillight, repro, good repro, reuse Taillight sockets from old harness. https://www.npdlink.com/product/wiring-harness-taillight/102047/202880?year=1969 The two harnesses from Alloy Metal 14405-5CA & 5CB don't say this but from the pictures I don't see the sockets and looks like you can see the wires with bare bulb terminals in the upper right of the CA picture. I have the Convenience Group, so of course I need the more $$ one. 14405-5CA https://www.npdlink.com/product/wiring-harness-taillight/145582/202880?year=1969 14405-5CB https://www.npdlink.com/product/wiring-harness-taillight/145583/202880?year=1969 Alloy Metal Products does not have a web site, but found a link to their address & phone # ... however I'm thinking they don't was end users calling or bothering them. I'm going to post the question on VMF as Rick aka 69bossnine from NPD would likely chime in with the answer. And if the answer is "no sockets", then maybe Rick or someone else in their much larger member pool will have some suggestions. Thanks, Doug

I've been thinking I need to update my 80's vintage stock replacement front suspension too (creaks a lot) and Open Tracker has been on my radar ... need to open the wallet wider to go down the rabbit hole further !! Doug