- Joined
- Jul 12, 2010
- Messages
- 5,009
- Reaction score
- 3,036
- Location
- Killingworth, CT
- My Car
- 71 Mach 1
71 XR-7 hardtop
71 Country Squire
65 hardtop
You guys are overthinking this.
Ford designed these cars to be put together by relatively unskilled labor with minimal knowledge as quickly as possible, so they built in devices to "dummy proof" the assembly process. The wheel has an alignment mark punched into it, that matches up with the punch mark in the shaft. The coupler has eccentric sized pins so the steering column flange can only be clocked one way. The coupler and box input shaft have a flat so the coupler only lines up one way. The sector shaft on the box has four mating ribs in the splines, so the pitman arm can only be installed in increments of 90* - and if it's wrong, you're not going to be able to hook up the linkage at all.
The Lares 201 application chart is huge, it fits many more vehicles than just the 71-73 Mustangs. It's also applicable to GM F-bodies (Camaro/Firebird) among other things. The metal shield they include is a safety device as well, and I remember seeing it on the 70's F-bodies. It's there to keep the steering column flange from disengaging the pins in the event of a coupler disc failure. It would also rattle like crazy, so maybe the clueless driver would have the vehicle brought in for service.
Ford designed these cars to be put together by relatively unskilled labor with minimal knowledge as quickly as possible, so they built in devices to "dummy proof" the assembly process. The wheel has an alignment mark punched into it, that matches up with the punch mark in the shaft. The coupler has eccentric sized pins so the steering column flange can only be clocked one way. The coupler and box input shaft have a flat so the coupler only lines up one way. The sector shaft on the box has four mating ribs in the splines, so the pitman arm can only be installed in increments of 90* - and if it's wrong, you're not going to be able to hook up the linkage at all.
The Lares 201 application chart is huge, it fits many more vehicles than just the 71-73 Mustangs. It's also applicable to GM F-bodies (Camaro/Firebird) among other things. The metal shield they include is a safety device as well, and I remember seeing it on the 70's F-bodies. It's there to keep the steering column flange from disengaging the pins in the event of a coupler disc failure. It would also rattle like crazy, so maybe the clueless driver would have the vehicle brought in for service.