Introduction


The Mustang pictured below (bottom) was first purchased by my father-in-law, Buddy, in 1986, in Connecticut. Shortly after, he purchased a second six-cylinder convertible and sold the pictured one to my wife's cousin, Ronnie. Dad died in 1994. When Ronnie decided to sell the car to finance an in-ground swimming pool in 2006, my wife Sharon and I decided to buy it, and brought it home to Tennessee.
The car had undergone a cosmetic restoration before Dad bought it, and apart from some minor detailing since then, was still in the same condition when we bought it.
In June 2010, I found out it was a Sprint 200, Package A, 3-speed manual transmission. And after reading an article in the archives of the Mustang Times by Jim Smart, went looking for the Broadcast (Build) Sheet. I found it wrapped around the wiring harness behind the speedometer. After a brief search to find out what all the codes meant, I realized that surprisingly little is known or published about these documents. So I decided I'd try to attempt to decode it myself. This blog is a journal of that research.
All discussions below currently pertain to only 1966 Mustangs.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Springs - Rear

The rear springs came in four versions depending upon the body style and whether it came equipped with the increased rate Special Handling Package (SHP).

Rear springs can be identified by the part number stamping and paint dots or stripes. Below are some examples. The first picture shows the part number followed by 16  6E. It's currently believed that the (16) identifies the day of the year, in this case January 16th. And the (6E) identifies the year (6 being 1966) and the plant (E).

If you haven’t done anything to your leaf springs yet, try soaking them in Evaporust. It can be found at your car parts store. It will clean up the surface rust on the springs, and will enhance the paint markings.

Below is a table of information for rear springs:

Rear Springs – 4 leaf – 2-1/2” wide
Model  
Load Rate      
Spring Rate   
Deflection      
Markings
Build Sheet Code
Standard Coupe
Part # C5ZZ-5560-C
610 lb.
85 lb.
7.176
C4ZA-5556-C-E-M-T
(2) white dots/stripes
W
SHP Coupe
Part # C5ZZ-5560-F
610 lb.
110 lb.
5.545
C4ZA 5556-H-J-R-V
(2) red dots/stripes
Y
Standard Convertible & Fastback
Part # C5ZZ-5560-D
650 lb.
85 lb.
7.647
C4ZA-5556-B-D-F-N-U (2) green dots/stripes
X
SHP Convertible & Fastback
Part # C5ZZ-5560-E
650 lb.
110 lb.
5.909
C4ZA-5556-K-L-S-Y (1) green & (1) yellow dot/stripe
Z
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