40 ford dry air cleaner question

D

Dennis

Member
I just bought a dry air cleaner for my 40 ford 85 hp. Stamped on the bottom is 78 9600 I can't find this number as is in the parts book and between the two ribs it measures 3 inches. The judging book says it should measure 3 5/8 inches. The question is what is it for? Thanks in advance for your help.
Dennis
 
A person would likely have to look in a chassis parts book for 37 or 38 to find that particular part number. Many parts were considered obsolete by the time the green bible was printed in November of 1950. A dry type filter may have been an accessory at the time of manufacture but in any case it seems to have been superseded. I looked in my 38 through 41 parts manual and it's not in there either. If it had another character in the prefix like 78A or 78T or something of that nature, a person could tell if it was for a car or truck application. All the 78 will tell is that it was designed for application in 1937 and as likely for some V8 application of some sort or as an accessory.
 
Dry type filters were standard issue on all 1940 Fords. Oil type were optional.
Dry type air filters were supplied to Ford by four companies in 1940. Oakes products, Industrial Wire Cloth Products, Burgess Battery Co. and AC Spark Plug Co. Three of them had "91a" prefixes stamped in to the bottom of the filter followed by "9600" and a suffix that identified the supplier. One of them, supplied by Burgess Battery Co. had 78-9600-A stamped in the bottom.
If yours does not have the "A" suffix it is most likely for an earlier model.
Your filter should appear like one of these pictured...
 

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Thank you all for the information, I thought the filter looked shorter than what I have seen on other cars! I will keep looking now that I know what to look for.
Thanks
 
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