69 firewall insulation and wire/hose routing

[Richard R.]

I am reassembling my L46 and working on the firewall insulation. I got the replacement from Paragon and when comparing to the one I removed 5 years ago, it is a bit different. And it doesn't fit very well in one area where there is a notch in the firewall (circled on 3rd picture). the accommodation for the notch in the new one is not big enough for a good fit.

I did go through the AIM and found where there where perforated portions of the rubber backed insulation removed for air conditioned cars. Mine is not air conditioned. I looked at pictures I took while disassembly and came across the first one below that shows a cable/wire going through the firewall(circled) where the AIM says is for AC hoses and wires. My original insulation had that notch removed (second picture) to accommodate the cable going through the firewall. I believe the cable to be the front fiber optics that run to the console since it is the only thing I can find with the same looking rubber seal.

Before I cut this notch out of my new insulation (third picture) to make it fit better and accommodate the cable I wanted to check to see if this was a change not documented in the AIM where the fiber optic cable on non AC cars was routed through the firewall in this location?

Although the engine had been rebuilt once before, the car was never restored and the hole in the firewall looks factory and the routing of the cable seems to make sense and has all the normal sealing stuff on it that is consistent with the other firewall grommets.

Thanks so much for your help!

Rich

[G A.]

Re: 69 firewall insulation and wire/hose routing

Richard,
I'm pretty sure your yellow circle on the first picture is around the hose that supplies vacuum to your heater control panel in the shift console. The hose originates from a very unusual "T" generally located near the cars brake master cylinder, which has something like 1/4" openings across the top of the "T" and 3/64" opening at the base of the "T".

Search the archives for vacuum supply heater control panel for some good pictures of originals.
In the AIM I have its shown in UPC 1 Sheet M3
Dan

[Richard R.]

Re: 69 firewall insulation and wire/hose routing

Dan,

Thanks! you are right on. Yesterday I got to look at an unrestored 69 and it had the same configuration. I found the hose and grommet in with my interior vacuum parts.

I have had to make 7 different modifications to the firewall insulation that I bought to make it fit properly and accommodate all the holes in the firewall.

Best,

Rich

[G A.]

Re: 69 firewall insulation and wire/hose routing

Rich,

There's a lot of guys here that I have learned a from. Anything I say is just repeating the lessons learned from them.

Dan