OK, here is what I was talking about. Bear in mind, this was in Panama City in the '70s, which was not all that big. Other cities might have had more stuff available.
I was driving my 1976 Ford Torino Elite down by the hospital. I had had it about 2 years. Suddenly I started smelling what smelled like old tennis shoes. It got stronger fast, then I started seeing smoke coming out of the dash.
I whipped over to the side, and started looking for trouble.
Switched the air conditioner off, and the smoke start to subside.
I rolled the windows down, and cautiously drove home. Went into the dash, and discovered that the blower motor switch had done something bad. I never knew if the switch shorted out, or if the connector was not making good contact and causing heat.
The switch had a sort of socket on the back that a plug fit into. Both the socket and the plug were melted.
You can see what the socket and plug are supposed to look like in the pictures below. Since it was only a couple of years old, I went to the Ford dealership. Did not see a reason to put it in their shop, since I already had the switch out.
Went to the parts counter, and bought a new switch. Since Ford had used that same switch in many other cars for a while, they had one in stock. Cost about $25. Told them I also needed the plug to plug into it.
That, they did not carry, and could not order one.
OK, off to NAPA. No luck.
I think I actually checked J.C. Whitney, but nothing even close.
So, off to the junkyard. Was not too worried, since Ford had used that switch in a lot of cars and trucks over the years. I went to one of the yards where I knew them fairly well. Told them what make and model of car, plus the fact that many other Fords would have the same plug. I showed them the switch also.
My friend behind the counter said that he was sure he had lots of them, cost would be $100.
I blinked a couple of times, and told him I did not need the whole car, or even the dash, just that plug.
He said he knew that, but he got $100 for a complete harness. I reminded him again that all I needed was one plug. He said he was not going to ruin a good harness for one plug.
I pointed out the window, and said that I could see several cars of the right make and vintage that had burned partially. Thus the harnesses on them would not be complete.
He said that he did not have time to dig around and find if that plug was in any particular burned car and if it was still good. I offered to do the digging, but he turned me down.
Pretty much the same story at all the other junkyards.
Fortunately, I had recently discovered a wonder substance called Plas-T-Pare. It consisted of a small bottle of a strong smelling liquid, and a larger bottle of finely ground up plastic.
The liquid was a plastic solvent, that worked as a good glue for many types of plastic. If you mixed some of the powder with it, it made a viscus liquid, or soft putty, depending on how much liquid you used.
Then, when the solvent evaporated, you had a solid chunk of plastic. I coated the inside of the socket of the switch with Vaseline, plugged spade connectors with wires soldered to them onto each of the contacts, then filled the socket with the dissolved plastic.
When it hardened, I pulled on the wires, and the new plug came right out. Spliced the wires in, and I was in business.
I might have used individual connectors, but you had to reach behind and under the dash to plug in the wires after the switch was mounted, and the plug made sure the wires went on to the right terminals.
Kept the car 10 years, put well over 150K on it, about 80% of which was 80mph or above, never had a problem with the switch again.
Today, I went on RockAuto, they have the switch and plug in stock, total cost for both around $18. That for a 1976 part I could not find in 1978, and another part that I paid more for.
Here is what they look like. My homemade plug did not have the latch, but it took a real hard pull to get it out, so the latch was not needed.
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