I recently acquired a 1957 F-600 farm truck in reasonable condition.

I have it running, the clutch system bled and operating smoothly and Im just working through the various things that need attention.

My question at the moment is concerning the last photo...

Does anyone know what the two broken wires are in this connection? What is this relay/switch/etc . . .???

Thanks!

 

Horn relay

 

thanks for the reply....any help on the specifics of the broken wires?

 

WAG, that looks maybe like somebody wanted to tap into a "hot" fir some reason if that's what it is, or, say maybe the horn ring doesn't work anymore and they plumbed a handy dandy wire and button into the cab so they could still alert people to get out of their way.

I see a generator regulator in the pic too. Be sure to clean up all the grounds, cables and electrical connections shiny bright and tight. While it's removed, crack the lid off the regulator and clean the point contacts inside or the battery will backfeed sooner or later, usually sooner. There's cutout, voltage, and current relays inside. Use a fine riffler or spoon file only, Emery board or sandpaper will get ya goin' but it trashes them permanently. Those old school voltage regulators are waaay better than anything made today.

 

Nice looking truck. Great patina!

 

well the horn ring definitely doesn't work...thats a whole other ball of wax. I haven't found a good wiring diagram for this truck yet so I am trying to track down where things should be connected. There is a broken "hot" wire off of the positive batter connection directly under the battery that is a yellow wire that I think goes into one side of this relay. Im not sure if the blue wire should be the horn "ground" wire or not. The outbound yellow wire from the relay also doesn't have a location I can find..perhaps its supposed to connect to the horn (which is not connected) There is not, nor does there appear to have been, a button horn. I may wire one in just to save the difficulty of working with a broken horn ring anyway.

 

Thanks. I am working on saving it. I am going to buff with Nortons Liquid ice and see how that turns out. If I dont like that finish I will probably clear coat everything to preserve what's there.

 

You should really consider a shop manual for this thing. saves a lot of headaches.

https://www.f100central.com/1957-for...op-manual.html - reprint

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1957-Ford-T...wAAOSw14xWJ9Ib - original

they also sell digital ones on disc.

 

I found my 1955 Ford Truck Shop Manual at the library. Well not my library, but an interlibrary loan program they have here in Michigan. Contact yours and see if its out there. Our district libraries ship books back and forth with no charge. Good luck.

 

good coat of turtle wax does just fine.