anybody know 66 Falcons like the back of their hand

Hey Gang,
I stopped by to talk with my son -in-law and he is working on a '66 Falcon Futura 2door he just got for $50- no motor but he had a sweet 302 / C4 he stuck in.
There is a couple of wires with a push on connector in the middle of the firewall-
red connectors with one exposed and one covered
electrical ends on them
If you jump the two the starter solenoid will work with the key

there is a second wire very close with the same push on connector and it is hot with the key on
any idea what that wire is for.

it has a points ignition ---isn't there a resistor some where
I thought they had a resistor mounted on the fire wall
could those wires be for it

is there any wiring diagram for the '66 on the internet some where

thanks
thanks

If the car was an automatic, my guess is that this wire combo went to a neutral safety switch. the switch would make contact and allow the key to start the car. The only puzzling thing is why one of the wires that is on a seemingly similar plug has voltage.

Have you found anything other than that spot where a neutral safety switch might go?

Don,
You might have hit it with the neutral switch.

any idea where the resistor was mounted or what color wire were used

any links for the wiring diagram?
thanks
hank

Fords usually get a straight pure 12 volt source from the starter solenoid that is mounted on the inner fenderwell. This solenoid usually has 2 fat terminals (one for the battery positive, opposite side for the battery cable that goes to the lone starter terminal) and two skinny terminals (one says "S" and that goes to the ignition switch and gets it's power only when you hold the switch to the START position. This terminal kicks the solenoid to pass current to the starter.) The second skinny terminal on the solenoid says "I" on it, and when you are cranking the engine, this terminal goes to the + side of the coil and provides a true 12 volts to the distributor while cranking. Then when you release the key, after the engine starts, a second wire goes from that same + side of the coil, and ends up on the wire that is only hot when your ignition switch is in the run position.

If you put a volt/ohm meter on the wire that you find is only hot when the key is turned to "run" you will probably find it is putting out like maybe 6 or 7 volts. If that is the case, your car drops the volts to this level via a resistance wire. On some cars the factory uses a special wire that internally drops the voltage over a specified length to a lower voltage, so you don't cook your points while running. It is fine to get pure 12 volts to the coil for the brief period you are cranking, but not for long periods of time. The reason for the 12 volts while cranking is to give you a hotter spark to fire the engine initially.

Sorry for the lengthiness, but I wanted to explain this as best as possible.

Finally if you don't have one, buy one of the inexpensive ($5 and up) test probe lights that look like an icepick with a wire and clamp affair coming out of the top. You hook it to a known ground, and can probe around, and when the light goes on, you have current. Invaluable for finding problems, but you will need a volt/ ohm meter to see actually how much voltage is there.

Good luck.

Thanks Don
that was a Big help
hank

Don ,
you were right on the money with the neutral switch wire and we found out that the other wire was for the back up lights.
The Falcon starts and drives real nice.

My next question
where do we look to find the serial numbers

thanks in advance
hank

Cool. Glad that helped.

As for the serial number, are you referring to the vin (vehcle identification number) ?
If so, it will be stamped into the car somewhere. The most obvious places are: The firewall. The inner door jam, usually the drivers side. The left inner fender panel (somewhere near that solenoid we talked about. The radiator crossmember (upper)

It should correspond to the number shown on your title, if you have one. Later cars had it on a aluminum tag pop rivited to the drivers side dash, and visible when you look through the lower windshield on that side. Don't think '66 did however.

If you still have trouble finding it, call your local police dept, They know where to look. There are lots of hidden places like on the frame or subframe, and under the heater on the firewall, but the ones I mentioned are the most common. And it is usually 17 charactors long, I think starting with "1"

Hope this helps.