THE INVOLVED VEHICLES WERE BUILT WITH AN ALUMINUM REAR BUMPER REINFORCEMENT ATTACHED TO TWO STEEL MOUNTING SURFACES. IN CLIMATES WHERE LARGE AMOUNTS OF ROCK SALT ARE USED, THE ALUMINUM REINFORCEMENT COULD EXPERIENCE CORROSION WHERE IT ATTACHES TO THE VEHICLE.
Manufacturer remedy
DEALER WILL INSPECT ALL INVOLVED VEHICLES FOR DEGREE OF CORROSION. WHERE CORROSION IS SEVERE, THE ALUMINUM REINFORCEMENT WILL BE REPLACED WITH ONE MADE OF STEEL. WHERE CORROSION IS NOT SEVERE, DEALER WILL INSTALL INSULATION MATERIALS BETWEEN THE ALUMINUM AND THE STEEL COMPONENTS. THIS WILL BE DONE AT NO COST TO OWNER.
Power train: automatic transmission: lever and linkage: column shift
Manufacturer
FORD MOTOR COMPANY
Vehicles affected
9,000
Reported to NHTSA
1977-09-13
Owners notified
1977-11-18
Defect description
THE INVOLVED VEHICLES WERE FITTED WITH TILT STEERING COLUMNS CONTAINING TRANSMISSION CONTROL INSERTS INTENDED FOR TRUCKS RATHER THAN PASSENGER VEHICLES. THIS MAY CAUSE THE TRANSMISSION SELECTOR POINTER TO BE MISALIGNED AND THE POSSIBILITY OF STARTING THE ENGINE WHEN THE SELECTOR IS BETWEEN THE NEUTRAL (N) AND DRIVE (D) DETENTS AND THE TRANSMISSION IS IN DRIVE.
Manufacturer remedy
DEALER WILL INSPECT AND, IF NECESSARY, REPLACE THE TRANSMISSION SHIFT CONTROL INSERT, WITHOUT CHARGE TO OWNER.
No remedy is listed yet. This typically indicates the manufacturer reported the defect before finalizing a repair procedure.
Owner complaints
A complaint is one person's report to a federal agency. It is not a finding.
Component
Complaints
Median mileage
Tires
1
—
The 1978 model has about half as many complaints as this one. These figures reflect raw complaint counts, not failure rates. Higher-selling model years naturally receive more complaints.
Safety recall repairs are provided free of charge by franchised dealers, regardless of vehicle age or mileage. This page displays aggregated data for the model year. To check recall status for a specific vehicle, search its VIN at nhtsa.gov.