Slabside Clock question

[Dan Case]

Originally Posted by barry950

We have an original 289 Cobra and the clock and the wiring loom were from a '63 Fairlane

I will suggest that your car has been repaired with Fairlane pieces somewhere back in time. Ford spent a lot of effort to deal with the warrantee issues of early Cobras and many revisions that occurred with the order starting at CSX2201 were aimed at ending those problems.


The 1962 Ford Galaxie clock used as a starting place was sold as a dealer installed set up as C2AZ-15A000-A ELECTRIC CLOCK KIT, which is not a Fairlane anything.

Cobra chassis wiring harnesses for cars with Ford electric system and SW gauges are quite a bit different than 1963 Fairlanes as new cars. The stock harnesses (there are multiple sections) have Ford part numbers unique to those Cobras and the two main sections had FoMoCo® part number labels on them. Like many Cobra unique parts on that series of cars the part numbers started off with unusual X(plus one of three other letters) prefixes and not the C3OE prefix 1963 Fairlane parts. Example: The harness section for the front of the Cobra that plugs into the rear firewall connectors is FoMoCo XB-954434. A few low mile original owner cars still have their paper tags intact. People have been using pieces of Fairlane harnesses to repair Cobras since the 1960s, probably because they were easy to get. (I found parts of a cut up and spliced in 1964 Falcon harness in a Cobra once.) I laid out an original harness set from a low mile wrecked Cobra we were repairing next to a Fairlane harness set. I consulted a Ford wiring supplier that had original drawing information. After it was determined that lots of work would be required to modify a Fairlane harness to exactly match a Cobra the manufacturer made a new harness from NOS components for the project.

[Mark IV]

Dan,

So are you the guy Ken Rubin at Alloy Metal Products made a Cobra harness for? He told me years ago he did one for someone "who insisted" and he was not gonna do another he said!

[Dan Case]

Originally Posted by Mark IV

Dan,

So are you the guy Ken Rubin at Alloy Metal Products made a Cobra harness for? He told me years ago he did one for someone "who insisted" and he was not gonna do another he said!

Name doesn't ring a bell. By the time I got one, five (5) harnesses were made with new Ford specification wire, vinyl wrap, and cloth weave but with NOS plugs, connectors, and FoMoCo 1963 vintage fuse blocks. The only things missing were the paper part number tags. Right now at least three different shops make replacement harnesses and two different places have made part number labels. All of them are expensive. One shop has made new headlamp and turn signal extension harnesses based on my reverse engineering of original sections.

I have purchased two harnesses. One with NOS ancillaries and one from another shop will all reproduction (no FoMoCo logos) ends. Both were expensive.

It is getting common to replace the 45 year old harnesses now as more and more original cars experience insulation cracking up. Wiring fires in a Cobra are real exciting I am told.

At least I don't have to mess with original GT40 harnesses. Their replacements are insanely expensive.

[Dan Case]

There are two large harness sections plus
- a harness for the fan in front of the radiator, connects Ford ends to Lucas ends.
- a harness for each head lamp, Ford to Lucas adpaters in affect as above
- a harness for each front turn signal, Ford to Lucas as above
- a harness for each tail lamp, Ford to Lucas as above
- a harness for the SW XF- tachometer and XF- tachometer sender
- a harness for the tag lamp which is also a Ford to Lucas adapter

The diameters and lock in features of the Ford and Lucas "bullet" connectors don't match. I learned the hard way that buying Fairlane harnesses, loose wires, Lucas male and female connectors, and part of a big Ford harness for the 1963 alternator plug wasn't going to be acceptable to fix my red car. Yep, bought all that stuff. Hated to toss most of that stuff but since I was trying to get away from wiring problems I let the professionals make harnesses.

[xb-60]

CSX2514 has a 2 5/8" SW fuel pressure gauge in place of the clock in a street dashboard, if that is of any interest. It's a customer ordered FIA bodied car though, not a slab side. I have a picture somewhere of the dash ....
Cheers,
Glen

[S1013]

Had no luck uploading a photo of the 62 Galaxie clock but here is a link to a website for identifying clocks that has an excellent photo of one for anyone who is interested. (They are in alphabetic order by manufacturer, will have to scroll down a bit). If I am understanding correctly the plastic case is 2-piece and the front can be taken off & chromed. Now to find one.

[S1013]

Originally Posted by S1013

Had no luck uploading a photo of the 62 Galaxie clock but here is a link to a website for identifying clocks that has an excellent photo of one for anyone who is interested. (They are in alphabetic order by manufacturer, will have to scroll down a bit). If I am understanding correctly the plastic case is 2-piece and the front can be taken off & chromed. Now to find one.

Here is link:
https://sites.google.com/site/identi.../clocks-page-4

[S1013]

Wish I had this kind of luck on the lottery. Put an ad on Craigslist and in under 15 minutes a guy called with the clock!!