1969 Imperial progress thread

[73Coupe]

Before fitting the engine, I replaced the original suspension parts with modified parts that I had made myself.

First, I replaced the brand new rubber mounts with welded ones I made myself to prevent distortion caused by the thicker new torsion bars.
I designed new side plates, which I had laser cut from 8 mm thick steel. I then welded new bolts to the top plate and welded everything together.

I hope this finally solves the problem I had with the torsion bars touching the crossmember due to excessive distortion of the rubber.

View attachment 731987

Forgive me for not being too familiar with the Imperial undercarriage, but what are these mounts for? Are they connectors between the center portion of the crossmember and the sides/ends?

 

[vdk2010]

Forgive me for not being too familiar with the Imperial undercarriage, but what are these mounts for? Are they connectors between the center portion of the crossmember and the sides/ends?

Unlike other models, where the torsion bars key directly into the rear crossmember, Imperials have an additional crossmember with these rubber blocks/mounts to eliminate even more possible road vibrations.
Chrysler wanted to ensure that these cars had no road feel whatsoever. ;)

And since the Chrysler 300, for example, doesn't have a particularly harsh ride in comparison, I had no problem with eliminating them.

 

[330dTA]

Unlike other models, where the torsion bars key directly into the rear crossmember, Imperials have an additional crossmember with these rubber blocks/mounts to eliminate even more possible road vibrations.
Chrysler wanted to ensure that these cars had no road feel whatsoever. ;)

And since the Chrysler 300, for example, doesn't have a particularly harsh ride in comparison, I had no problem with eliminating them.

Forgive me saying, but you might want to put those bushings back. Contrary to the 1969 Chryslers, the 1970 and 1971 Chryslers had the whole stub frame isolated with rubber bushings. When new, I never heard anyone claim them to handle worse than the '69 models. And if you want a more modern reference, the Peugeot 406 of 1996-2004, which had a phenomenal ride quality as well as exceptional handling and stability at speed, had well isolated stub frames both front, and back.

 

[vdk2010]

Forgive me saying, but you might want to put those bushings back. Contrary to the 1969 Chryslers, the 1970 and 1971 Chryslers had the whole stub frame isolated with rubber bushings. When new, I never heard anyone claim them to handle worse than the '69 models. And if you want a more modern reference, the Peugeot 406 of 1996-2004, which had a phenomenal ride quality as well as exceptional handling and stability at speed, had well isolated stub frames both front, and back.

I'm going to use them now to solve the problem I'm having with the stiffer torsion bars that I bought. I don't think the car will handle much worse without them. The '69 300 doesn't have any additional bushings and drives perfectly well.

 

[vdk2010]

Not only were the fake wood pieces very messy, but they also did not look like wood at all.

The original for comparison:
View attachment 726617

View attachment 726616


Alan, if you can get your steering wheel back before he starts, do it!

Unbelievable, but I finally got my steering wheel back!!!

Since Dave from D&D has been ignoring me completely, I asked my American cousin to call him. Perhaps he would respond to a call from a US number. Voilà! He instantly answered the phone.
After talking to him for a while, he promised to ship the steering wheel to Tom from Rocket Restoration, whom I was visiting during my stay in the US.
The steering wheel is still a mess — the 'wood' grips, at least, are — but I'm glad to have it back.

Thanks @tallzag for stockpiling all my packages including the steering wheel!

Now, I'm looking into replacing these ugly grips with real wood. Perhaps I can find someone to carve them from teak or a similar wood...

 

[marty mopar]

OK I give up! Now you are building a "Woodie". Hopefully you will not toss your grille and make one from pine.
If you do that, I plan on an airdrop from a drone of termites onto your woodie.

 

[crv]

OK I give up! Now you are building a "Woodie". Hopefully you will not toss your grille and make one from pine.
If you do that, I plan on an airdrop from a drone of termites onto your woodie.

 

[chipieal]

Unlike other models, where the torsion bars key directly into the rear crossmember, Imperials have an additional crossmember with these rubber blocks/mounts to eliminate even more possible road vibrations.
Chrysler wanted to ensure that these cars had no road feel whatsoever. ;)

And since the Chrysler 300, for example, doesn't have a particularly harsh ride in comparison, I had no problem with eliminating them.

That is why they they had no road feel? Never driven a new Imperial have you? These cars had an ISOLATED ROAD FEEL. They had do to this because in the luxury car world of the 60's and 70's an absolute disconnect from the road was consider luxurious. Imperial had so much road feel in the early 60's that by the Fuselage era they went to great lengths to dampen this. How do I know? I worked for a road salesmen that drove nothing but Imperials and have first hand knowledge.

 

[detmatt]

That is why they they had no road feel? Never driven a new Imperial have you? These cars had an ISOLATED ROAD FEEL. They had do to this because in the luxury car world of the 60's and 70's an absolute disconnect from the road was consider luxurious. Imperial had so much road feel in the early 60's that by the Fuselage era they went to great lengths to dampen this. How do I know? I worked for a road salesmen that drove nothing but Imperials and have first hand knowledge.

That happened before the fuselage era.

 

[chipieal]

That happened before the fuselage era.

True but the thread we are in is about a 69

 

[vdk2010]

That is why they they had no road feel? Never driven a new Imperial have you? These cars had an ISOLATED ROAD FEEL. They had do to this because in the luxury car world of the 60's and 70's an absolute disconnect from the road was consider luxurious. Imperial had so much road feel in the early 60's that by the Fuselage era they went to great lengths to dampen this. How do I know? I worked for a road salesmen that drove nothing but Imperials and have first hand knowledge.

Don't worry about it. I like doing things my way and I'm happy with that.
If the car doesn't have its intended road feel — or lack thereof — I'm fine with that. The car will drive completely differently to the original anyway, and I'm fine with that.
I love my car for its appearance, not its "intended" handling. I'll be happy if it will drives like a brand new 300! ;)

 

[vdk2010]

I sent my engine back to the engine builder. I'll share more about that when I get it back.

In the meantime, I have time to turn my attention to the transmission!

I've been collecting parts over the past month. The rust-damaged internals were the first priority. Fortunately, I found a pump, sprag race, planetary, and tailshaft bearing in excellent condition here in Germany.

All of the other parts were brand new and came from A&A Transmission, except for the valve body separator plate. My original check ball seats were worn out, so Nick reconditioned a used valve body separator plate for me.

As usual, I took all the hardware and smaller parts, media blasted them, and then plated them with zinc or nickel.

As attentive readers will recall, the case was very dirty. So I shipped it to my engine builder because he has an ultrasonic cleaner large enough to fit the entire case.

The next step was to clean all the casting flashes off the case and prepare it for painting.

Once the paint had dried, I got everything ready to start assembling the transmission.

 

[vdk2010]

I saw a video in which John Cope recommended drilling a 1/16" hole in one of the oil passages to improve lubrication of the inner sprag race, which is only splash lubricated from the factory.
I did that, and then I installed the new bolt-in sprag.

Aaand fully seated!

 

[3175375]

Great progress! A&A is the best in class provider and service shop!

 

[vdk2010]

I began assembling the tailshaft first.

For some reason, my original speedometer pinion gear adapter was badly worn.

Luckily, I acquired a nice used one from Wildcat Auto Wrecking while I was on vacation in the US.
Check out how thin the casting is in places compared to the new-to-me one.

New seals inside and out

The only other thing to install into the tailshaft was the parking hook.

 

[vdk2010]

Next was the pump. Fortunately, the guy I bought it from had already installed the bushing and seal in the housing.
I checked everything for the desired clearances, and they were perfect!

I installed a new bushing and new sealing rings into the reaction shaft. Then, I bolted everything together and put it into the shelf until the final assembly.

 

[vdk2010]

A new bearing and seal went into the forward clutch shell and the piston got a new seal as well.
So far, so good!

I installed new Colene steels and red clutches in the drum, but unfortunately, I found too much clearance after installing the upper snap ring.
I have .125" clearance, which is the absolute maximum.

I talked to Nick from A&A, and he recommended using thicker steels to solve the problem.

The original snap ring for the piston is badly rusted. Unfortunately, it is not included in the snap ring kit I bought.
I have put assembling the front clutch on hold until the new parts from A&A arrive.

 

[vdk2010]

Since I have to wait for parts, I moved on with the valve body.
I decided to install a shift kit, mainly to solve the issue of the pump not pumping in park.

TransGo's smallest kit, the TFSC, resolves this problem.
A few modifications must be made to the separator plate and the upper casting of the valve body.

One of them is filing a slot into the seat of the manual valve:

Another one is to drill a passage hole into the line bypass spring seat:

The '68 separator plate doesn't require significant adjustments to slightly stiffen the shifts.
I only had to enlarge one hole, and I chose to open it up to 2.7 mm, which is in the middle of the range stated in the instructions.

Once all the modifications were finished, I polished all the valves because they were quite tarnished.

That was taken care of with a drill, some WD-40, and a Scotch-Brite pad.

The rooster comb received a new isolator and was ready to go!

It needs to be riveted in place, but the tip of my rivet gun was too big. Here is a tip for anyone who runs into the same issue:
The rivet gun just needs a solid surface to press against. Two nuts did the trick.

One valve after another went into the body.

 

[vdk2010]

The TransGo kit includes a new manual valve and parts for the pressure regulator valve.

Another upgrade to the valve body was the addition of a part throttle kickdown module for the 3-2 shift. A&A provides a brand new unit, so there's no need to gut a later model 727 anymore.

The TransGo instructions recommend checking the position of the new manual valve, which is perfect here!

 

[vdk2010]

The detend ball for the shifter got replaced with a "bullet", which is apparently more secure.

A few years back, @detmatt mentioned that it's good practice to replace the steel check balls with "Tarlon" ones from a later model 46RE.
Given the damage to my separator plate, I agree!

I've finished one more part, and I think it looks quite beautiful!