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 79-86 Console Differences

OK this should be another quickie.

Automatic vs Manual

The front ash tray and bracket is not the same for automatic and manual cars.  Apparently the shifter mechanism necessitates a change.  I have not tried an automatic console on a manual car or vice versa so I really don't know for sure.

The ash trays are vastly different.  On the left below is a manual ash tray.  Not the "bump" to the base.  It is also QUITE a bit shorter than the automatic ash tray on the right.  The left one is a NOS ash tray and the one on the right was pulled from a used console.

 

The metal console brackets that reside below the ash tray opening in the console are the other only difference I can find:


Manual bracket looking from the top:

     
 

Automatic Bracket from the top:


Manual bracket looking from underneath:

 
Automatic bracket from the bottom:

The image below shows that there is a light that is supposed to be attached to that small metal arm in the automatic ash tray bracket above.  The manual bracket does not appear to have ever had a light on it.

...and here is what an automatic ashtray looks like in a manual console:

You can also barely see it from the pictures but the ashtray door opens farther on the automatic console.

I have been told that the manual ashtray on earlier cars is flat on the bottom.  It seems that there is a "hump" in the transmission tunnel for the T5 on later cars.

The shifter bezel is also different:

Manual:
      Automatic:

One last note is that it seems the manual shifter boot and inner shifter boot could be different too on early (83 or earlier) manual cars.  Probably another change when the T5 was introduced.  If I get some pics I will post the differences.

Information Center Changes

The only other change I know of that happened from 79-86 (or that I am privy to) is the layout on the Information Center.  The car's image changed and the backlighting.  From 79-82? the image was a side image and in 83? they went to the overview image with yellow writing.  In 84?-86 they changed to blue writing.  The early ones (79-mid 83?) were green and the later (mid 83?-86) were red.  (The picture of the early info center below is from a brochure where they jumbled the pictures around....the clock and idiot lights aren't vertically stacked on the older consoles).  The consoles also got chrome outlines in the earlier ones whereas it was dropped in the later ones.

The Early Style:
      83 Style


The Later Style:

SVO Console Differences

I know very little about SVO Mustangs.  All I currently know is that their consoles have a couple of switches instead of the idiot light area.

The switches are as follows:
      Fuel : Tells the engine which type of fuel is being used.  This equates to changing the timing. (84-86)
      Fog Lamps : Turn the fog lamps on or off. (84-86)
      Radio Amp : Turns the Radio Amp on or off. (84)

Texture Changes

I have been told that the consoles from 79-82(83?) had much more "grain" or texture to them than the later 83/84-86 ones.  Sorry, no pics of that.

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