1966 part indentification request

[John K.]

Greetings,
The pictured support bracket is supposedly from a 1966 Thunderbird, but where it goes is a mystery. It's not the front bracket that stabilizes the AC compressor; it's too long and the diameter is too large. It's a hefty bugger. Anybody have a clue?
John

[Alan H. Tast]

Greetings,
The pictured support bracket is supposedly from a 1966 Thunderbird, but where it goes is a mystery. It's not the front bracket that stabilizes the AC compressor; it's too long and the diameter is too large. It's hefty bugger. Anybody have a clue?
John

Wasn't there another A/C support bracket that ran from the right (driver's) side cylinder head from the back of the compressor to the threaded hole in the top of the exhaust manifold? This is starting to beg for a Scoop article on evolution of A/C brackets and additional bracing from the '50s through later years (especially '64-'66), and probably will send me down the proverbial 'rabbit hole' again...

[John K.]

Alan,
Yes, there is a rear compressor support bracket and spacer that fastens to the top of the driver's side exhaust manifold. It's half the diameter and much longer than the one in the photos. I initially thought the bracket in question might be for something on a '66 convertible, but I checked with a friend who's restoring one and he couldn't identify it.
John

[RAVEN]

From memory and I know on some 64s there was also a bracket that came off of the compressor and mounted to the top of the intake manifold. Some intakes had a threaded hole and some did not, buf had the boss cast in to allow for tapping.

[jtschug]

If it for sure isn't the front compressor support bracket, then it is the rear. There were two of them. A/C cars had a special exhaust manifold with a threaded hole to bolt on this bracket. When I put on headers, I had to leave this brace off.

[John K.]

It's not the rear bracket. The rear one is much longer and is half the diameter of this one.
John

[RAVEN]

To my knowledge ALL left side exhaust manifolds had a mounting hole that was threaded. Ford, I do not think would make two different manifolds for air or non-air cars.

[John K.]

From memory and I know on some 64s there was also a bracket that came off of the compressor and mounted to the top of the intake manifold. Some intakes had a threaded hole and some did not, buf had the boss cast in to allow for tapping.

Correct. I think it was a flat bracket, like band iron, which is what I may have to go with since my front A/C compressor bracket flew the coop years before I bought the car.
John

[ELTBIRD]

That's the front compressor support bracket. Here is a pic of mine.

[ELTBIRD]

Here's the driver's side brace.

[Alan H. Tast]

Part numbers-descriptions from the 1966 T-bird Electrical Assembly Manual, pg E6-4655-4 (pg 62 in the Osborn reprint) - these line up with the photos provided by ELTBIRD:

Front brace - C5AA 2888-E Brace-Front - this brace goes from the front top threaded hole in the side of the A/C compressor down to a threaded hole in front of the cylinder block)

66 Front Compressor Brace (from 66 T-bird Electrical Assy Manual/Osborn reprint p 62)

Rear brace - C6SA 2889-B Brace-Rear - this goes from the outboard rear threaded hole in the top of the compressor (also used as one of the mounting bolt holes for the triangular-shaped coil bracket base) to the threaded hole in the left exhaust manifold.

66 Rear Compressor Brace (from 66 T-bird Electrical Assy Manual/Osborn reprint p 62)

Rear brace spacer (exhaust manifold to brace) - C6SA 2A941-C (2 req'd) - these stack on top of each other and screw into the threaded hole in the left exhaust manifold near the #7 cylinder (the Electrical Assembly Manual did not give a unique number for this manifold, BTW - a search of the Master Parts catalogs would be needed to see if one that's just used with A/C exists)

There's also a clip that goes on top of the rear brace at the left exhaust manifold end - C6SA 3E523-A

[ELTBIRD]

That's great info Alan...do you know what that rear clip is for? It's missing from my car.

[John K.]

I'm having a terrible time convincing everyone that the subject part is not the A/C compressor front support bracket. It looks similar, but the two are not the same critter. Hopefully, this quick vid will clear things up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R91-dK1_QGs
John

[John K.]

Hope this works.
This is what the front compressor bracket looks like. The ends are at different angles, whereas the rear bracket ends are at the same angle.
John

[Alan H. Tast]

From memory and I know on some 64s there was also a bracket that came off of the compressor and mounted to the top of the intake manifold. Some intakes had a threaded hole and some did not, buf had the boss cast in to allow for tapping.

Correct. I think it was a flat bracket, like band iron, which is what I may have to go with since my front A/C compressor bracket flew the coop years before I bought the car.
John

The '64's brackets were a mid-year addition that were a subject of a Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) article. The brace from the compressor to the intake manifold, C4SA 2902-A, was a flat bar that was bent to go over the top of the right rear of the compressor on one end, with the other end going into a threaded hole in the intake that was in front of the carburetor. Note the use of the coil bracket with two ears - one slotted to go under the bracket at the top-rear of the compressor.

1964 Compressor-Intake Brace (from 1964 T-bird Electrical Assembly Manual)

There was also a brace for the idler pulley support, C4SA 2888-A, that bolted to the compressor at the top front bolt in the side of the compressor. These can be seen in the '64 Electrical Assembly Manual.

1964 Idler Pulley Support-Compressor Brace (from 1964 T-bird Electrical Assembly Manual)

For '65, the brace setup was virtually the same as the '66's - the part numbers, which are given in the '65 Electrical Assembly Manual, differed to reflect their '65 Ford car origination of design/use (C5AA) for the engineering prefix. Note use of a single-ear coil bracket that mounted on the right (driver's) side top front bolt hole in the compressor.

1965 Front Compressor Brace (from 1965 T-bird Electrical Assembly Manual)

1965 Rear Compressor Brace (from 1965 T-bird Electrical Assembly Manual)

As for the "mystery" brace, I'd have to look at Lincoln parts books/illustrations from the period to see what they show - the Lincoln used the MEL-series 430-462 engine (430 for '65-prior, 462 for '66-early '68). How that would end up in a pile of T-bird parts (if that's what it's from) is probably a story in itself.