- '61-'62 shown: the 50A breaker on mid-production '62s was mounted under the front upper radiator support on a bracket, then moved to the right inner fender wall by '63 production. The 10A breaker originally was placed by the starter solenoid for '61-'62, and was relocated to the fuse panel on the right kick panel in the passenger compartment for '63.
Re. R&R of the lines/cylinders, here's what they did (if I understood them correctly, and I'm open for correction in order to accurately document this). First, they disconnected parts of the wiring at the plug connectors at the rear of the car, then unpinned the deck lid cylinders, unplugged wiring toward the front of the trunk, unpinned the top cylinders, then lifted out the lines/cylinders/pump motor/solenoids as a sealed system so that they could swap the solenoids out with the new hoses/cylinders on the bench, "close" the system (leaving the fittings loose until back in the car), place back in the car, reconnect wiring, tighten the fittings, then cycle the system to bleed it.
The mystery of the clicking 60A breaker was solved by them yesterday. When the "mechanic" pulled out the hoses and cylinders, they also disconnected various pieces of wiring in order to pull the hoses out. One of the wires disconnected was the 8-ga black wire from the 60A breaker to the bus bar. The "mechainic," thinking black = ground, grounded the wire to the body next to the left relay bank instead of connecting it to the bus bar. Once they traced this down and reconnected the black wire to the bus bar, voila! With the top in the trunk, and the lid closed, they energized the system - the pump started working, the closed deck unlocked and opened, the flipper panel/package tray (which was extended) stayed up, and then...nothing! The pump was working, but the top cylinders were fully extended and not retracting to pull the top up. It was as if the solenoids/hydraulic lines were working opposite of what they were supposed to do. Something appeared to be out of sequence -it seemed like the pump was still pushing the pistons for the top to extend instead of reversing flow to pull the pistons back.
Going back to the aforementioned Handbook, we reviewed the hydraulic circuit and line routing. The deck (rear) solenoid valve was connected to the deck lid, and the deck lid functioned as it should (at least to open and close), so that was OK. The two solenoids forward of the pump and hose connections were "replaced exactly like they were taken out" they said. We actually need to check this out a little closer.
We ID'd the line going from the top of the pump that Tee's to the deck lid solenoid (this line goes from the deck solenoid and feeds the bottom of the deck lid lift cylinders to push the piston up and raise the deck lid) and to the 'upper' top solenoid, which then goes to a Tee placed over the right top cylinder so that separate lines feed into the top of the top lift cylinders (this should be the feed that pushes the pistons into the top of the top lift cylinder body, causing the top to raise).
The lines coming out of the bottom of the pump Tee off like the top ones do - one line going to the deck lid cylinders and then splitting off to feed the top of the deck lid cylinders to push the pistons down to close the deck lid, and the other line going from the pump into the 'lower' top solenoid, which then goes to the bottom of the right top lift cylinder and passes through to the bottom of the bottom of the left top lift cylinder.
At this point I told them to read tbird's instructions on how to bleed the top system and double-check the line connections.
I had previously given them a copy of an article copied from "Thunderbird Illustrated" magazine (and reprinted on the 'Net in 2008) which had diagrams of the relays and a troubleshooting diagram for '61-'63 and '64-66, but not the full-blown wiring schematic (i.e. no wiring colors). The person working on the wiring was missing some vital information (aside from not fully looking into the '62 shop manual and the full wiring schematics in it) by not having the wiring schematics. Part of their confusion was not seeing the difference between the two generations' descriptions, so I had to point this out to them.
By drawing a small sketch next to each part of the Handbook's sequence wiring diagrams, i.e. the deck lid unlocking, deck lid raising, deck lid opening, package tray unfolding, top going down, deck lid closing, deck lid locking, deck lid unlocking, deck lid raising, top tumbling up out of the trunk into place, package tray folding under the opened deck lid, deck lid closing, deck lid locking), it helped him to understand each step of the process. At this point I suggested tagging/marking each plug connector and relay based on the diagrams in the Shop Manual/Service Handbook to ID each relay's part of the sequence (Left bank - LF - Deck unlock, RF - tray retract, LR - deck open, RR - tray retract (fold)) (Right bank - LF - deck lock, RF - top retract, LR - deck close, RR - top erect). By this time, I was due back at the office and had to leave them to keep tracing things down.
I'll report back when I get word if they've made headway in figuring the hydraulic/electrical system out. Meanwhile, the meter is spinning with at least 24 hours' of shop time used already. I'm not going to like this bill...
