While doing work on my car i noticed a pair of wires going to a sensor on the bottom part of the air filter. The wires are old and one managed to come off. could anyone tell me what sensor this was so i can find a replacement?
I believe you are referring to the Ambient Temperature Switch... see if this link helps http://www.1bad6t.com/Maverick/repair/emission_controls_04.html#d
so far ive found this. I dont know if its the one i need though. It looks like it except the one i have the wires go in the bottom of the switch and this one the wires go in through the top. maybe because its a different brand. Could you help me find a good one of these? http://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-1972-Fo...Parts_Accessories&hash=item20e672c3dd&vxp=mtr
Are you living in an area that does emissions testing? ... and on a vehicle this age? The reason why I ask is that in the early 70s, they did a lot of hokey things to crutch the motors into lowered emissions. It typically resulted in worse gas mileage and performance. (how in the world do you get less emissions by pouring more gas in a motor?... somehow Detroit figured it out, but not well.) That switch likely retarded the timing at certain temperatures. If not subject to testing and you aren't doing a 100% restoration, etc., you might consider configuring the motor back to a basic late 60s set-up, bypassing a lot of the goofy ignition controls that they saddled the car with. Your car doesn't have a catalytic converter, so I feel that you have a bit to gain in driveability. You wouldn't hurt anything. As a sidenote ... did you notice the car driving any worse with this not functioning?
Awesome where can I find a guide on doing that? I would much rather that than spending money on replacing it.
Good luck, there won't be any guides as it's basically illegal t tamper with emissions controls... Of course on a 40 year old vehicle that parts are unavailable, I don't think they'll toss you in the pokey for removing it... Probably hasn't functioned in the last 20 years anyway... Cut the remaining wire, disconnect the plug and motor on...
I am digging this up from memory from a long time ago. If your engine is like one that I "fixed" back then, it has two vacuum lines going to the distributor. If this is the case, run a vacuum line from the intake manifold to the port that points furthest away from the body of the distributor (the other would be closer to the mainshaft and likely 90 degrees to it). Leave the port that is closer open ... no line ... no cap, leave it open to atmosphere. Anything else that was hooked up to that distributor becomes excess weight and pointless .... Something else that you can do that will wake the motor up for next to nothing is change a spring for the advance weights inside the distributor. You will have to take the plate with the points out to do this. You will see a heavy spring and a medium weight spring. Get another medium spring (think junkyard) and replace the heavy one. This will help a surprising amount. Do NOT get "racing" springs ... they are too light and will cause the advance to come in too fast. One more thing ... if it still has points, get a Pertronix electronic ignition conversion. One of the best things I did to my 351 motor that has some mods. Made it a lot easier to live with.
