'66 Steering wheel and door speaker installation | Ford Thunderbird forum club group 1955-2005 models

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'66 Steering wheel and door speaker installation

  • Thread starter Thread starter Fesiwig
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Fesiwig

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1966
Good morning,

My '66 came with after market steering wheel with remote horn button mounted below the dash. Can someone give me details on how the original steering wheel is mounted? Is there supposed to be a washer between the nut and the steering wheel hub? (mine won't tighten up without a washer so I don't know, if there's not supposed to be a washer, what takes up the slack so the wheel hub fits tightly). Is there some type of spring arrangement that goes between the wheel hub and the hub in the column for the horn contacts? Right now I've got the 4 wires (2 per side) that run from the horn levers to the hub and presumably bolt to the steering wheel hub but don't know what happens between the steering wheel hub and the hub in the column to make the necessary contacts.

Also, do the door speakers on cars so equipped mount to the door or do they just bolt on to the door panels; i.e. speaker grill bolted to the speaker with the door panel sandwiched in between; and then the whole assembly mounted to the door through the bits and pieces that hold the door cards to the door. If that's the case, sounds kind of flimsy.

Appreciate the help... Thanks, Mitch

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Mitch, I can't tell you much about the steering wheel on the 66, as mine is a 64. I know they're different, and I also know the 66 is the first version to have the cruise control buttons on the wheel itself. Should be interesting, whether your car is equipped or not.

Speakers, each door has two 4x8 speakers, four total. If I'm not mistaken, the speakers for each door are wired in series, as the tape player has only two stereo channels. Such speakers are only used with the AM/Stereo 8 player; the AM and AM/FM sets have a dash speaker and (optionally for AM) a speaker between the rear seat backs.
 
Fesiwig said:
Good morning,

My '66 came with after market steering wheel with remote horn button mounted below the dash. Can someone give me details on how the original steering wheel is mounted? Is there supposed to be a washer between the nut and the steering wheel hub? (mine won't tighten up without a washer so I don't know, if there's not supposed to be a washer, what takes up the slack so the wheel hub fits tightly). Is there some type of spring arrangement that goes between the wheel hub and the hub in the column for the horn contacts? Right now I've got the 4 wires (2 per side) that run from the horn levers to the hub and presumably bolt to the steering wheel hub but don't know what happens between the steering wheel hub and the hub in the column to make the necessary contacts.

Also, do the door speakers on cars so equipped mount to the door or do they just bolt on to the door panels; i.e. speaker grill bolted to the speaker with the door panel sandwiched in between; and then the whole assembly mounted to the door through the bits and pieces that hold the door cards to the door. If that's the case, sounds kind of flimsy.

Appreciate the help... Thanks, Mitch
Click to expand...

I have owned 2 "66's, the first with the standard steering wheel with a horn button on either spoke, and one now with cruise control, (uses a semi-circular horn ring.)

I have had the steering wheel off the first one, (horn buttons) and do not remember a washer between the wheel and nut. I looked on my wiring diagram drawing and shop manual drawings, and neither of them show or mention a washer. Only a nut.
If the nut will not bottom on the steering wheel, I would look for damaged threads at the lower part of the threads, shaft, or, whoever installed the after-market wheel modified it and buggered it up! In any event, I do not see why you cannot put a washer under the nut, as long as the steering wheel does not bind on the column housing. Can't remember how the horn wires connected to the buttons. Spade connectors?
And, as you surmised the door speakers do mount to the door panels. the face plate/grille clamps the speaker to the panel and is actually quite sturdy, providing the lower panel hardboard is not all soft and mushy like most of them.
Good luck, hope this helps.
 
Many thanks for the replies and the good info. I think this gives me what I need; of course we'll see when I get things apart and hopefully put back together! One note, according to my manual's wiring diagrams, the door speakers in each door are wired in parallel. Thanks, Mitch
 
Fesiwig said:
Many thanks for the replies and the good info. I think this gives me what I need; of course we'll see when I get things apart and hopefully put back together! One note, according to my manual's wiring diagrams, the door speakers in each door are wired in parallel. Thanks, Mitch
Click to expand...
That would be interesting. I'm not home now -- out of town, but next chance I get, I'll look in the Sams schematics and also the Motorola manuals to see what they show. Typically car radios of this period were designed for 8 ohm speakers. If these speakers are 8 ohms each, wiring them in parallel would be 4 ohms -- an improvement, actually, but I'll have to see what that radio was designed for. These single-ended sets only offered 3 watts (natural limit when using 12 volts DC power) and dropping output impedance to 4 ohms will double that to about 6 watts. Stereo gives you two channels, meaning 12 watts total, and for 1966 this was pretty good.
 
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