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wptski:
I think you are being a big help.
It would be interesting if you ran some experiments in your yard. I would use the incoming water pipe as the reference, assuming it is copper, and then maybe a long extension cord for a flexible wire from the 43B signal input to a probe. The probe only needs to slightly penetrate the ground, and a 10" to 12" screwdriver will work.
The people I mentioned were process engineers or supervisors in the axle assembly areas. Craig Becker was the big boss (title may have been superintendent) over the main final assembly line and T-bird line at Sterling. I think that main line ran about 300 to 400 parts per hour. The T-bird line was about 100 to 120 parts per hour. Bhim Rally was a process engineer in axle assembly at Van Dyke, and Fraser Anderson was a supervisor of axle assembly. Later Fraser became plant manager of Livonia Transmission.
Since you were mostly in the machining areas you probably had less contact with the assembly areas. I think that Becker also had responsibility for the T-bird carrier machining line.
77 to 78 was when Ford switched from the Banjo to the Integral Carrier type axle. The high bay area of Sterling was for the banjo forming presses. Ford banjo type axles have had a lot of use in various types of race cars. The 1980 date you mentioned may indicate when you started at Ford and thus would be after the banjo was out of production. I believe at one time that Sterling production was in the 12,000 to 15,000 axles per day.
For those not familiar with axles here are just a couple references I quickly found:
http://www.automotivearticles.com/123/Suspension_Design_2.shtml
The following one has cutaways of both banjo and integral:
http://www.mustangii.org/decoder/axle/
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