66 Monaco Wagon Preservation

Hello;
Just stumbled across this thread. I have a 66 Town and Country, sort of a sister. I am curious about your comment on brake self adjusters. My wagon has 3" wide drum brake shoes on all four corners, appears to be factory. This setup did not use self adjusters, from all of the information I have found. I am curious what size brakes are on your Dodge. Mine work well enough that I am not upgrading to discs, but am doing the dual master conversion. Like Ross, I had a brand new single master fail withing weeks of install, very scary.
BTW, it also has a unique 14" wheel with a different, deeper offset. I have a parts car wagon with the same wheel, not sure if this was true on all wagons.
A bit late, but I put KYB shocks on all four corners. A pain to install the front ones, but the transformation in ride and handling was amazing. The only downside is that they are oddly soft in very low speed (parking lot) maneuvers.
Good luck on the A/C work, mine doesn't work either but not as critical in Michigan. Its original, but I also have a dozen or so cans of R-12.
 
@michiganhotrod1 - 3" brakes on all four corners is an option typically found on police/taxi/fleet/heavy duty vehicles, where servicing was to be performed on a regular basis, hence no adjusters. Likely to save a few pennies for Mopar. The 3" option was not usually found on regular street vehicles, and if so, often the adjusters were included, like my 66 Monaco 2 dr, 440 4 speed car. Sometimes they weren't, like your wagon. I bet it depended on where and/or who assembled the car.

I also have a 66 Town and Country, and it had orihinally 2 + 3/4 " on the front and 2" on the back, but I put discs on it. I believe all C body wagons with 3 " front brakes got the deeper 14" wheel, but not necessarily with smaller brakes, but I'm probably not remembering correctly.

I expect Don's wagon got 2 + 3/4 " on the front and 2" on the back.

Don's AC is sorted out and working well AFAIK.
 
It is highly recommended that theses drum brake cars are equipped with properly arced carbon-metallic lined shoes. The organic linings you can buy from the parts store are junk. The stopping power of the modern lining material is fantastic and makes hi speed braking fade a thing of the past. These linings will not eat your drums so don't let the nannies chirp. Any competent clutch and brake manufacturer can provide you with these linings however I read over on another site that there is this place and apparently the owner is a mopar guy. https://www.rochesterclutch.com/
BTW the cost of the good shoes is not prohibitive at all.

I personally do not like self adjusters on either the front or the rear. It's important that the front wheel bearings be set with an inch pond torque wrench and NOT the old age way of doing it. Try 90-100 INCH-pounds on the nut after seating the bearings tight by hand, backing of the nut and setting the number while spinning the drum or rotor.

As far as the special wheels for the big brakes check the GG white books and doesn't anyone have a parts manual for 1966?
 
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Disc would be good.

I just sold my 67 dual M/C setup with the correct distribution block.
(You can't just bolt up the dual M/c and add a line. unless you want the rear wheels to lock up under a panic brake situation.)
I don't think that would happen. It is just a distribution block, not a pressure regulator like with disc brakes.
 
Hello;
Just stumbled across this thread. I have a 66 Town and Country, sort of a sister. I am curious about your comment on brake self adjusters. My wagon has 3" wide drum brake shoes on all four corners, appears to be factory. This setup did not use self adjusters, from all of the information I have found. I am curious what size brakes are on your Dodge. Mine work well enough that I am not upgrading to discs, but am doing the dual master conversion. Like Ross, I had a brand new single master fail withing weeks of install, very scary.
BTW, it also has a unique 14" wheel with a different, deeper offset. I have a parts car wagon with the same wheel, not sure if this was true on all wagons.
A bit late, but I put KYB shocks on all four corners. A pain to install the front ones, but the transformation in ride and handling was amazing. The only downside is that they are oddly soft in very low speed (parking lot) maneuvers.
Good luck on the A/C work, mine doesn't work either but not as critical in Michigan. Its original, but I also have a dozen or so cans of R-12.
Welcome to the forum, we need more wagons here! My car has 11" brakes all around, 3" wide in front and 2 1/2" wide in back, all with self adjusters. I think I have the deeper wheels you describe, I am still looking for a matching wheel for the spare if you have one. I completed the A/C conversion and it is still working fine, here is my thread on that:
66 Monaco Wagon A/C Resurrection

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Welcome to the forum, we need more wagons here! My car has 11" brakes all around, 3" wide in front and 2 1/2" wide in back, all with self adjusters. I think I have the deeper wheels you describe, I am still looking for a matching wheel for the spare if you have one. I completed the A/C conversion and it is still working fine, here is my thread on that:
66 Monaco Wagon A/C Resurrection

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So - that supports my theory about 3" brake adjusters sometimes being installed and not.
 
I don't think that would happen. It is just a distribution block, not a pressure regulator like with disc brakes.

It's more of a metering valve than the 70's version of the "Proportioning Valve" setup.
The one I had from a 67 Polara did have a safety switch.

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67 was the first year with the safety switch, 66 is just a plain distribution block.
 
#michiganhotrod1, about the wheels, the wheel I need is deeper dish to allow mounting of this style cap. Here is a pic of the PN stamped into the wheel.

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#michiganhotrod1, about the wheels, the wheel I need is deeper dish to allow mounting of this style cap. Here is a pic of the PN stamped into the wheel.

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Those came standard on Polara and Monaco 500's, and were optional on the base models. Also on 66 Chargers. Should be able to find a wheel, one would think. Sorry I never got around to checking my wheels, but that number helps a bit. I'll still see what I have.
 
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Here are pictures of the wheels from my 66 wagons. Cant find a stamping number, but I also have the deep wheel covers, Chrysler version. I has a set powder-coated to prepare fro the Diamondback Auburn H78-14 tires. I almost got messed up years ago thinking the wheels would interchange from my 65 300 convertible, until i thankfully
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checked out the wheel cover fit (actually, lack of fit). Where these wheels just for the deluxe wheel covers, or?
 
Where these wheels just for the deluxe wheel covers, or?

All 1966 thru at least '68 Chrysler products with 14" wheels used a similar wheel. It's just that the wheel needs to be at least 5-1/2" wide for the deep dish covers to fit. Some of the B bodies came with 5" rims and certain A bodies may have used rims as narrow as 14" x 4-1/2".

The wheel in your bottom photo with the extra holes was used up to 1965, and then somewhere along the line in the late 60's or early 70's they changed the 14" wheels over to the "modern" design that had a center similar to the 15" wheels.

Jeff
 
I just had a frustrating but educational car electrical problem. Last Friday I started the car up and moved it to the center of the garage to do a little maintenance. Shut it off, did my stuff, then went to start it and take a ride. One click, then no power - complete electrical shutoff to the whole car. OK, checked the battery voltage, it was 12.8. Checked and cleaned the cables, found a loose ground cable that was tightened to the max - Aha! Bought a new parts store cable and installed it, still dead. Posted to a couple electrical threads on here and the horror stories began, mostly about fusible links and the bulkhead connector. No obvious visual clues, tried jumping connections, wiggling wires, etc. with no effect. Pulled wires from starter solenoid and horn relay and cleaned all terminals, no effect, By now I had fiddled into Saturday and gave up pissed. Late Saturday night I saw a post from #davealux talking about jumping the negative terminal - I realized I had been spending all my time on the positive side, ASSUMING the negative was good since I had replaced the cable. Ran out to the garage, pulled the headlight switch and jumped the negative post to another ground - the lights worked!

When I did my A/C conversion I connected the ground cable to the compressor frame and it worked great - until Friday when it stopped working. I switched the cable to an exhaust manifold bolt and the whole problem was fixed, everything worked fine. I have to assume my compressor ground turned bad due to painted and powder coated surfaces, just surprised that it worked initially. Good lesson for me and a reminder of the immutable laws of car electrical systems:

RULE #1: Double check for a good ground, stupid!
RULE #2: See rule number one.

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Glad you got it worked out. Technically speaking (and I don't give a darn anyhow), the neg cable is supposed to go to the intake manifold bolt nearest the battery.

Engine bay looks good Don!!
 
#michiganhotrod1, about the wheels, the wheel I need is deeper dish to allow mounting of this style cap. Here is a pic of the PN stamped into the wheel.

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The wheels for the deep dish hubcaps are 14X6 and are stamped Kelsey Hayes.
The shape with the tire off looks like an hour glass or an X
I did post a while back that I have a set of deep dish wheels froma 67 NYer, plus the Chrysler NOS deep dish wheel covers for sale...no bites.
Being sold as a set will not separate.
 
Glad you got it worked out. Technically speaking (and I don't give a darn anyhow), the neg cable is supposed to go to the intake manifold bolt nearest the battery.

Engine bay looks good Don!!
Thanks Ross. The cable was originally attached to the head but that location was not accessable after the compressor conversion.
 
Well, can't believe I haven't posted here in more than a year. I thought about a lot of things on this car but actually have done nothing but try to drive it about once a week weather permitting. Now that we may actually be seeing a bit of light at the end of the tunnel I need to get busy. If you have seen my other posts you know that brakes are probably top of the list but the other main topic I want to address here is the suspension.
When I first got the car all the shocks were real bad. I went the cheap route and put basic Monroes on the front and Monroe overload shocks on the back along with replacing all the sway bar bushings on the front. The ride greatly improved and turning a corner could be done without screaming tires. On a smooth road it just floats majestically along which is what I assumed they were like as new. But after a year of driving I realize that's not true. On less smooth roads with drops or sudden rises it really porpoises and bottoms out in the front. The back is harsh over sharp bumps or holes in the pavement and the car sits too low. Here is what I'm thinking so far in order:
  • Good heavy duty shocks in the front. I see a lot of reference to KYB, are there other choices, what has worked well for you? I want to do this first to see if it will solve the bottoming issue or if torsion bars may be the problem.
  • New leaf springs in the back with wagon specs. I have followed some other threads regarding this and Eaton Detroit looks good. were all Monaco wagon suspensions the same or were there heavier duty factory options?
  • New HD rear shocks eliminating the overload springs.
What I really want here is to have this car ride and handle like it came from the factory unfortunately I have no knowledge how that felt. I DON'T want it to ride like a truck. What have you done on your C's to solve these issues, I would really like to hear from other wagon owners.

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Check the FSM to see how many leaves the wagons are supposed to have and if any HD springs were optional. The EatonDetroitSpring.com will give specs for "ride rate" and such for each of their springs.

Get the front end height adjusted first. Then see how much out-of-parallel the rocker panel is with the flat road surface. An imaginary line from the rocker panel should intersect the front and rear wheel covers in the same place, too.

What tire pressure? Which can affect ride quality a good bit, especially impact harshness.

Which Monroes on the front? From when I removed the rear overload shocks on my '70 Monaco and then went with Gabriel Hi-Jackers (just to level things out), there was no real difference in ride quality, just that it was level, but it did act more like I'd put a rear sway bar on it in the corners. Just my experiences.

At this point in time, I kind of suspect that an OEM-spec '67-era ride is not truly attainable. Due to differences in what was OEM-spec on the cars and also available in the aftermarket (badk then) vs. what's out there now. Some NOS Monroe Super 500s would be nice to find, as would a set of 1970s Gabriel Striders (adjustable). Firm but not harsh.

Just some thoughts and observations,
CBODY67
 
Seems that the station wagons had 6.5 leaf rear springs. "Std" had the waxy interleaf pads and the "HD" had zinc interleaf strips? The '65 or so FSM has a methoc of measuring rear spriung height.

CBODY67
 
Thank you immensely for starting this thread. I need to do all of what you've already done on my 66 T&C along with new paint. Here's my rear springs and drum. The drum measures 3" along the flat to the outside lip. The front drum is beefier and about 1/4"+ deeper.

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