console install problems

Topic: console install problems (Read 3634 times) previous topic - next topic

console install problems

Reply #15 – July 24, 2006, 09:49:09 PM

You know Carm.... While diggin in my garage I found two consolette switch panels. One I know for sure was out of an 88 while the other I'm not sure. Both had an E5 part number. So all consolette cars would have been the same. But I'm still up in the air about the console cars. I've had alot of combinations of switch plates and switches but nothing has ever made it work right.

console install problems

Reply #16 – July 24, 2006, 10:02:58 PM

Now you've piqued my curiosity - I've got an '87 TC switch and harness in the garage. I'm gonna pull the plate from my car and compare the switch and wiring side by side - my originally non-console car to the TC

console install problems

Reply #17 – July 24, 2006, 10:07:21 PM

These are before I got the car, is a 84 if it helps any

console install problems

Reply #18 – July 25, 2006, 01:05:36 AM

I'm surprised no one's mentioned the hole in between the seat controls for the Factory Alarm light. Huh? C'mon. 83Heritage and Cougarcaragar can attest to this.

console install problems

Reply #19 – July 25, 2006, 09:57:47 AM

I've got about a dozen console panels...maybe I'll dig them out and snap some pix.

The 1987-88 panels with the tabs also superceded the older panels. In other words, if you bought a replacement console panel new at the dealer for, say, an '85, you got an '87-88 panel which I believe has an E7 part number. And you also had to get the new plate with the tabs. So technically, you could find a newer part number in an older car and it would be correct as a replacement panel, so long as it has the tabs like that. I've seen it at the boneyard before, several times, on otherwise untouched cars. People just needed to replace that panel for whatever reason...like the usual break in front of the ash tray lid.

And the window switch thing...yeah, that defies explanation as to why some worked one way and some worked the opposite way. Very, very strange indeed. Me personally, I wire all my cars so that pushing forward is window up. It's more intuitive to me. I've only owned even-numbered model year cars so I cannot speak for 1983 or 1985, but my '84 and my '86s all had "push forward, window up". My '88s have all been "push forward, window down" (I know the '87s are that way too). It's always been my belief that Ford engineers got high one day and just wanted to f*ck with us.

console install problems

Reply #20 – July 25, 2006, 03:34:40 PM

My 88 T-bird with a consolette has push forward windows up, push rearward windows down. There must be a difference betwen console and consolette cars but I don't know why

console install problems

Reply #21 – July 25, 2006, 06:07:42 PM

OK, I just took the plate out of my car and completely confused myself. First off, I was wrong - my windows are "push up, pull down", just like Eric's '84 and '86. My car is an '88, which would lead one to think the car should be like Eric's 88's, but it ain't.

The original 88 "consolette" switch in my car and the '87 "console" switch from the parts TC are identical. Same wiring, same part number (both are "E3" part numbers). This leads me to believe that were I to install the TC switch into my car it would remain "pull down, push up".

Now, to muddle things further, my console switch plate has an E5 part number, but it also has the tabs, AND is glued down. AND, to make things more confusing, it would originally have been a "push down, pull up" car - I repainted it long ago, but the "down" lettering is still there (I masked it). *edit* I bought the plate from a junkyard (not from eBay as originally posted - I got the plate from the same '86 5.0 T-Bird that had the FMS spoiler and grille that I posted about years ago. It was the fog light switch panel I had gotten from the '85 TC on eBay)

Aww hell, I'm gonna go take some pics...

console install problems

Reply #22 – July 25, 2006, 06:12:05 PM

I can get better pictures of mine if you guys need

console install problems

Reply #23 – July 25, 2006, 07:10:43 PM

Quote from: 84 Fila

I can get better pictures of mine if you guys need

Yours is an '84, so it's different than the 85-88 models. Tell me, though - do your windows have the push-up, pull-down operation or the pull-up, push-down operation?

The pics from my car (sorry for the small pics, I had to shrink 'em so I could upload 'em through dialup):

#1 is the E5 P/N
#2 shows the tabs on the back of the panel
#3 shows the "DOWN" labelling where it should read "UP" (at least for my installation)

console install problems

Reply #24 – July 25, 2006, 07:14:18 PM

i know there are holes under the little peice of metel but the metal needs them and it use to say pull down windows up push up window down. now its opposite but the controls are the same

console install problems

Reply #25 – July 25, 2006, 07:20:25 PM

I'll have to look. It doesn't say and I don't know, car needs to get a new battary. I'll keep you posted if you like.

console install problems

Reply #26 – July 25, 2006, 07:35:31 PM

Quote from: Ifixyawata

I'm surprised no one's mentioned the hole in between the seat controls for the Factory Alarm light. Huh? C'mon. 83Heritage and Cougarcaragar can attest to this.

You must be refering to this.

console install problems

Reply #27 – July 25, 2006, 07:36:44 PM

Looks just like mine but no light

console install problems

Reply #28 – July 25, 2006, 08:04:37 PM

Also, one thing to keep in mind as well. The shifter surrounds (and shifter-delete "trays") are different between the 83-84's and the rest. The earlier ones are "square" at the junction with the dash and the later ones are angled slightly.

My '83 is push "down" and pull "up" on the windows.

console install problems

Reply #29 – July 25, 2006, 08:34:25 PM

OK, here's what I've got:

From left to right:
E7SB-63044E50-AWA, Rev. W; E7SB-63044E50-AWA, Rev. W; E5SB-63044E50-AWB

Note the holes on the middle panel, and the lack of holes on the right.

Carm: I do vaguely recall seeing an '85 panel with the tabs before. Might have even owned one, who knows. That, I believe, was for some production '85 and '86 cars but not for over-the-parts-counter purchase. Once the '87 model year hit, that's all you could get both in the cars and at the parts counter. I think the '87 part was just a restamped '85 tabbed panel. There are lots of 'revision' stampings all over the ones I have, all E7 part numbers.

EDIT: Now that I think about it some more...the tabbed '85 might have been replacement parts only, while the non-tabbed went into production cars. My guess is that sometime during 1986 the panel was reworked on the fly to accept the tabbed plate, but it still carried a 1985 part number. When Ford changed the cars in 1987 they carried the tabbed design over but applied the E7 part number to keep things current. This makes a little more sense.