I Need Help

I am working on an old Mustang that my dad picked up a while ago, knowing really nothing about it other than the price. He brought it home and let it sit for many years and now that I have moved back to the area he expects me to get it running and working again. I am a Ford tech, so I know my way around a car and a tool box. The problem is that I am running into mystery after mystery and I can't seem to find good sources for the information I need. Thusly I have some questions about the very early cars.

1) Is there any definitive way to differentiate between a 64.5 and a true 65? This seems to be one of the larger sticking points on the car. I know there are minor differences between the two, mostly in the electrical systems, but what I am seeing and finding, which is fragmented at best, suggests this car is a 64.5 or a very very early 65.

2) I need to know about things that were options, rather than standard equipment. For example, I have found that pre-66 reverse lights were optional. I am mostly interested in brake lights. Were they standard equipment, or were they an option? I really can't see brake lights being an option, but I don't have any brake lights working, don't have a brake light switch, and can't find an empty plug where one was removed.

3) Headlight switch. I have the pin-out figured out. I know what each pin is supposed to do. I have an 8-pin plug with the extension on the switch, and the two angled pins. When I look up switches there are three between the 64 and 65. Only one has any angled pins. I have gotten two of these now, BWD part S144. It is a 7-pin switch, but the missing pin is the one that jumps power to the brake light switch. Both will turn on my headlights, neither will activate the marker lights. It is not making the connection between the B1 and P or R pins in any postion. Is this the wrong switch? Is power for the marker supposed to be taken from the brake light pin, rather than the same pin as the headlights?

I bench tested the original switch several years ago, then got caught up in other things for a year, moved the car and all the parts that were taken off when I moved, and now I can't find the original switch.

Any help that can be offered would be greatly appreciated. I am basically trying to re-wire most of this car without know what it really is, and working from diagrams that I consider barbaric at best.

Any more info that is needed to help will be given gladly. I have run the warranty number through the decoder at CJ Pony's site, but it didn't tell me much that I didn't already know.

Tag info:

65A J 86 07E 23 3 6

Warranty # 5f07u128493

No, I do not know for 100% sure that this is the original door. I don't know that it isn't either.

Thanks.

Yup, I have those louvers. I also went back to the decoder at CJ's and, which is broken down by year, and 64 is the only year U is an option. That solves that mystery.

The headlight switches I have been ordering at for the 64, which is why I find that part so odd and frustrating.

I do custom wiring on the side, so the fact that I don't have good, legible diagrams isn't a huge obstacle, so much as a minor irritation. I am used to tracing wires all over the place to make sure I put stuff together correctly before I install a harness and fry a computer.

I will double check the brake switch then. If it is a pressure switch in the master cylinder that makes one or two other things make a bit of sense. Like the pipe plug in the end of the master cylinder. I thought it was a bleeder.

This car came to us with a 1996 safety inspection and a farm registration from North Carolina. I don't know much about NC motor vehicle laws, but if their farm registrations are anything like the ones we have in PA, stuff working correctly wasn't a high priority.

horse sence said:

There is wiring diagrams for all the mustangs that are very easy to read ,CJ poney parts will have them ,i have them for all the years from 64 1/2 up to 73 somewhere around here

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I've been using the ones from AvergaJoe restorations because they are available free online. They aren't too hard to read, if I slept the night before. The real issue is that all the circuit lines are black, so when you get near a plug it can become hard to keep track of your line. I am spoiled by fancy color diagrams with each line being the color of the wire it represents.

Edbert said:

Back in those days the FoMoCo factory tech manual was one volume and all illustrations were black and white. Hell the televisions were too!

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I know.

All the books for my Ranger and Bronco II are black and white print as well. It actually wasn't until around 2011 that they started issuing color diagrams, and even then only for the online versions. They just got better about not jumbling up the lines so you don't go cross-eyes just looking at it.

Edbert said:

I did not know they went that long without color and digital versions. When I first learned to wrench it was on my '68 Fairlane using the proverbial Chiltons from the parts store, of course the same manual was for several other years and even different cars including the Torino. The actual factor "Shop Manual" was amazing! It was only for the Mustang and only one year, plus the pages were bigger and ilustrations did not have the "other models similar" caption...LOL

Those were the days. My eldest son is a mechanic at a local Acura dealer, I was dumbfounded to see the modern equivalent of that book I grew up on.

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Tell me about it. Up until very recently my newest personal vehicle was an 88. I have all the books for my 87, and my 88, and I have had access to Ford's online stuff for many years. It is very interesting to watch the evolution of the diagrams as the years go on.