Imperial Journey

After running the fuel line there was one more major line – the second transmission cooling line.

Automatic transmissions need to cool the transmission fluid, especially under hard operation. The typical way of doing this is to pipe the transmission fluid to the radiator and through a liquid/liquid heat exchanger inside the radiator.

The transmission cooler lines are routed from the radiator, down the block, through the suspension, around the starter and bell housing, close to the exhaust, around the shifter and kick-down lever, and up into the transmission. In other words a twisty turny bendy chunk of 5/16″ line about six feet long. And, of course, this involves working under the car…

I managed to successfully remove one of the lines when taking the engine out – this line went back in with little difficulty. Unfortunately, on the other line one of the tubing nuts was frozen to the line and twisted the last several inches of the line into a mangled spaghetti knot.

My plan had been to cut out a foot or so of the second line and insert a new chunk of line with a coupler. I had never been happy with this plan – couplers are additional sources of leaks, and a coupler failure would be catastrophic for the transmission. In addition, I was having trouble getting the coupler I wanted to use.

After installing the new gas line (see previous article) I had about eight feet of 5/16 copper nickel line left over. I think you can see where this is going…

After finally resigning myself to actually tackling this project, I unrolled the leftover new line and cut off a piece about a foot longer than needed. Remember this, we will come back to it…

The next hour or so was spent trying to make the new tubing match the old one bend for bend. There was no hope of matching it exactly, so the goal was to get it close enough to allow final tweaking on the car. Since the end of the old line was completely mangled the new line was just left straight at this point.

To test fit I needed to install a nut on one end. These lines use double flares like brake lines do. I’ve documented my travails with creating double flares. Since the special flaring tool that makes this easy is only for 3/16″ line, I had to use the standard flaring kit. Being extra careful with alignment of the die seemed to make a difference – or perhaps 5/16″ is simply more forgiving. In any case I was able to produce a decent double flare on my first attempt.

With the nut installed, I threaded the new line from the radiator, down the block, through the suspension, around the starter and bell housing, close to the exhaust, around the shifter and kick-down lever, and up into the transmission, tweaking the bends as I went along.

It actually fit and the only thing left was to make a 90 degree bend near the end to bring it to the inlet fitting on the transmission. Remember the earlier task where I cut the new line “a foot longer than necessary”? This is usually the point where you discover that it is 1″ short.

After all the bending and fitting I ended up with 5″ – 6″ extra. Perfect! Mark the location for the bend on the tubing, undo it from the transmission, and work it out.

With the line out of the car, carefully figure out which direction this last bend needed to go (it is really easy to bend in the wrong direction when it is out of the car!) and bend it. At this point all that is left is to cut it to length and install the nut on this end.

The inlet fitting on the transmission is very close to the transmission tunnel, so the distance from the bend to the end of the tube needs to be as short as possible. A certain amount of space is needed for the nut and the flaring tool. The process is to work the nut as far into the bend as possible, determine how much space is needed for the flaring tool, and cut the tubing.

The result is that you have one chance to make the flare. If you mess up this flare you will have to either remake the whole tube or cut it and insert a join. Fortunately the flare came out fine. And there was much rejoicing!

For the last time thread the new line from the radiator, down the block, through the suspension, around the starter and bell housing, close to the exhaust, around the shifter and kick-down lever, and up into the transmission. Carefully tweak, adjust, bend, and massage the line so that it fits as well as possible and doesn’t interfere with anything. Carefully line up the end of the line on the inlet fitting and try to start the nut. After a few tries, the nut actually went on!

Previous efforts had only run down the nuts finger tight. Since this was the final install the nuts had to be tightened all the way down. Due to the tight fit around the transmission, these nuts could only be tightened 1/32 of a turn at a time. With a bit of patience and perseverance everything was properly torqued and another task completed.

Next: Coming Together

With the engine and gas tank in it was time to connect them. The original fuel line was long gone – like the brake lines, I didn’t trust the 50 year old corroded steel fuel line. The original fuel line had been cut out to make it easier to work on painting the bottom of the car.

The biggest difference between brake lines and fuel lines is that the fuel line is larger and stiffer. Both of these factors combine to make it more difficult to route the fuel line through the tight spaces between the frame and the body.

To make things even more difficult, I wanted to have a single piece of line going from the fuel tank in the rear to the fuel pump on the engine. It would have been much easier to cut the fuel line into 2-3 pieces, install the pieces separately, and then join them under the car. This is also more prone to leaking.

Of course this isn’t bad enough! I also wanted the fuel line to be protected by a stainless steel rock guard – basically a heavy spring around the fuel line.

Have I mentioned that this is underneath the car? Like other “fun” jobs this required crawling under the car and threading things around and through the rear suspension in the back and the engine and accessories in the front. There are days where I really want a lift instead of jackstands. There are other days when I simply want an adequate supply of high explosives… I am really looking forward to the last job underneath this car!

The result was an entire day spent fighting to get the line routed tightly along the frame from back to front, secured with line clamps, and connected to the fuel tank and fuel pump.

The fuel line connects to the tank and pump through short pieces of rubber fuel line. Even though hose clamps are used, it is a good idea to have a lip or bulge or bubble on the hard line to keep the rubber line from slipping off.

In a previous article covering brake lines I described problems getting good quality double flares from a standard flaring kit. It turns out that the first stage of making a double flare produces a bubble that is perfect for securing rubber lines.

My flaring kit supports several sizes of line, including the 5/16″ used for fuel lines. It made quick work of adding bubbles on both ends of the line, ready for installation of the rubber hose.

Although it took much longer than it should have, the end result is a new gas line connecting the new gas tank to the new fuel pump using new rubber gas line connectors that should be leak free for many years.

Next: Cool Transmission

With the engine back in the car it is time to add everything back onto it – alternator, water pump, water pump housing, thermostat, power steering pump, AC compressor, distributor, fuel pump, idler pully, etc. This involved digging out all of these components plus the dozen assorted chunks of metal that are the brackets that mount everything.

After staring at the piles for a while I realized that I had no clue how all of these puzzle pieces fit together.

Fortunately I have been following the Prime Rule of Automotive Restoration: take pictures of everything. At this point I have over 400 pictures – digital pictures are essentially free, both to take and to keep track of.

Digging through these I found half a dozen that, taken together, showed where everything went. To repeat myself “and there was much rejoicing”. Several of the brackets led to the observation “it goes there?!?”. I still can’t believe that Chrysler is actually using one of the exhaust studs as a mounting point. As well as two intake manifold bolts and four bolts through the water pump housing…

After mocking everything up I understood how all the pieces fit together – including the five separate brackets holding the AC compressor!

Once the mockup was done it was time to take pictures of it then take it apart and prepare all of the pieces for final assembly.

The thermostat housing, water pump housing, and water pump all needed to be painted the factory color – Bill Hirsch Chrysler Turquoise 383-440 Big Block 1962/71 Not Hi Perfor. Blocks 5670-5002. I had a partial can from the original engine build; of course it wasn’t enough, so had to order another can.

I had a rebuild kit for the power steering pump, so take it apart, clean everything, paint the housing, and install the rebuild kit. Hopefully this will fix all of the leaks and keep the power steering fluid inside the pump and steering box. This will go back on with new hoses.

The big item was the previously mentioned AC compressor – one of the famous Chrysler RV-2 compressors. These used to be available everywhere; now they are hard to find. A fair amount of research turned up a place that specializes in classic car air conditioning who could rebuild the compressor. The problem is that they have an 8 week lead time.

This is a real problem. Enough things connect to the compressor that it really has to be installed to have a running car. This is really messing up the build.

I had a sudden epiphany – the AC, at least the compressor, has to be installed, but it doesn’t have to work. I can install everything now without charging the AC. Then, in January or February when the car is off the road for several months, I can pull the AC compressor back off the engine and send it out to be rebuilt. Some extra work, but really not that big a deal.

Whew! OK, things are back on track.

Time to put things together for real. The water pump housing and water pump were first. As a side note, I decided to use new Grade 8 bolts for everything. The strength isn’t needed, but the gold finish is attractive. A number of the old bolts were quite corroded, so replacing them was a good idea.

Next was the AC compressor. Start with the big cast steel bracket that goes on the back of the compressor. Next is the diagonal brace going to an intake manifold bolt. Then another brace that goes to an exhaust manifold stud. Now comes the power steering pump, which bolts to the water pump manifold and includes a brace to the AC compressor.

Time to move over to the other side of the engine, bolt the large cast steel alternator bracket to the head, and install the alternator on it. Run the alternator tensioning bracket to the water pump manifold, where it shares another bracket with the AC compressor.

The last step is to bolt the fan idler pully to the water pump manifold. Surprisingly, this doesn’t share anything with the AC compressor!

With all the accessories in place, install new belts. Three of the four new belts were actually the right size! A different fourth belt is on order.

With the front of the engine completed, time to rebuild and install the carburetor. That description is a bit over-simplified…

The actual process was to find the carb rebuild kit, clear a work space, and then start cleaning and disassembling the carburetor.

This is the dirtiest carburetor I have ever worked on. The inside was just as bad, with sludge in the bottom of the float bowls. After extensive scrubbing in the parts washer and use of carb cleaner it was in better shape – not as clean as I would like, but as clean as I could get it. It would probably require a vapor blaster to really clean it up completely.

One of the entertaining parts about rebuilding a carburetor is that the rebuild kits support multiple different carbs – so you always have parts left over! I will find out how I did on the rebuild when it is time to start the engine.

With the carb done, it was time to install the distributor. The secret is to turn the engine over so that it is at top dead center (TDC) on the compression stroke. If it is at TDC on the exhaust stroke it won’t run. I screwed a compression tester into cylinder 1 and turned the engine over with a breaker bar until the compression tester started reading pressure and the timing marks lined up on 0 degrees. I then chose cylinder 1 on the distributor cap and installed the distributor with the rotor pointing to cylinder 1. With any luck this will be close enough to start the engine.

That wraps up this post. We’ve made great progress – starting the engine is almost in sight!

Next: Feeling Fuelish

Installing the motor and transmission didn’t finish the job – transmission controls had to be installed and the drive shaft put back in.

Connecting the transmission controls is more complex than you might expect. Chrysler used a pushbutton cable operated shifter on these cars which is completely different than the usual lever operated linkage.

Fortunately the factory service manual has instructions for installing and adjusting the shift cable. This seemed to go fairly well – we will find out when it is time to start the car and put it in gear!

The actual shift cable didn’t want to lock into place. After following the service manual instructions to put the selector into REVERSE before inserting the cable end into the transmission it properly engaged.

1963 was the first year for a parking lock in the TorqueFlite transmission, which is also cable operated. Again, the factory service manual came to the rescue, providing instructions on how to remove a plug from a service port, insert a screwdriver and pry on a spring loaded retainer, and lock the cable end connector into place. After, of course, putting the transmission selector into PARK. The instructions actually worked!

The biggest problem with installing the speedometer cable was finding where I had left it. Once located it was just a matter of sliding it into place and tightening the lock bolt. There will be more to this story: the Imperial has two speedometer cables: one going from the transmission to the AutoPilot cruise control and the second going from the AutoPilot to the instrument panel. Yes, the speedometer goes through the AutoPilot and requires the AutoPilot to function. The AutoPilot is a complex electro-mechanical mechanism which is currently disassembled into several dozen pieces. I suspect there will be an entire article dedicated to this in the future…

The last step was to install the drive shaft. On the Imperial this is a two piece drive shaft with a center carrier bearing. It is also extremely heavy…

It was finally time to dig out the center carrier bearing that had been rebuilt in 2017. This is an Imperial specific part that hasn’t been available for decades. There is one company that rebuilds these. The good news is that you can get them rebuilt. The bad news is that it is expensive. I choose to focus on the good news.

The process is to disassemble the two pieces of the drive shaft, insert the bearing and carrier onto the front section of the drive shaft, and reassemble. You then install it in the car.

After mating the drive shaft with the transmission (the fixed length part of the drive shaft) I discovered that the bolt holes in the bearing carrier didn’t line up with the crossmember. Yes, I had managed to install it backwards!

So, take it out of the car, take the drive shaft apart again, turn the bearing carrier around, and reassemble the drive shaft. Then crawl back under the car and wrestle this heavy, floppy, overlength chunk of steel back into place.

Success! The front of the drive shaft bolted to the transmission, the carrier bearing lined up with the cross member, and the rear of the drive shaft lined up with the differential. To use an earlier phrase: “and there was much rejoicing!”.

While under the car I added two quarts of gear lube to the differential so that it is ready to go.

This marks the point where the drive train is largely finished – suspension, brakes, engine, transmission,rear end, and drive shaft are all installed. The next step is to connect all of the accessories and wiring.

Next: Accessories are Mandatory

With the suspension finished, the next step is to install the engine and transmission. The engine and transmission were pulled out and rebuilt in (checks receipts and winces at price) 2017. The engine has been sitting on an engine stand under cover for the last three years.

Since the engine and transmission came out together they will go back together. With all of the sheet metal off the front end this should be really easy. Yep, I actually said the magic words that are sure to jinx the project…

Wrestling roughly 800 pounds of iron and aluminum is not a one person job, so time to place a call to the friend who helped me pull it out in the first place. While getting ready I searched for all of the needed parts. Somewhat to my surprise, all of the bagged and tagged parts were where they were supposed to be! They were laid out on the work bench, ready for assembly. I was even able to find where I had left the LocTite!

When the big day arrived we hooked up the engine to the hoist and unbolted it from the engine stand. The flex plate is dished, so we studied it for a minute to make sure that it was oriented correctly and bolted it to the crankshaft. Remember this sentence – we will come back to it…

The torque converter had been removed from the transmission to avoid damaging the seals, so it had to be reinstalled. Fortunately Don Verity had showed me how to reinstall it. Unfortunately this was three years ago so I had forgotten the details.

The challenge is that the torque converter slides into place easily and seems to be ready to go. At this point it needs to go in another 1-1/2″. Knowing this, you just keep fiddling with it until “klunk” and the 30 lb. chunk of iron slides the rest of the way into the bowl of the bellhousing. Hopefully your fingers are not carefully positioned between the torque converter and bellhousing when this happens. Since I was expecting it my fingers were spared.

It is now time to introduce the engine and transmission. The engine weighs ~600 pounds and is dangling from an engine hoist. The transmission weighs ~200 pounds and is balanced on a movers dolly. There are two alignment pins in the block that fit into precision holes in the transmission and then six bolts that hold everything together. Everything has to be lined up exactly to fit them together.

The usual approach is for 3-4 healthy guys to wrestle the engine and transmission into submission. We had two older guys with weak backs and weaker minds. Various pieces of wood were used to shim the transmission on the movers dolly so that it was oriented close to what was needed. We had a load leveler on the engine hoist which allowed us to set the angle of the engine. We then tugged and prodded until the alignment pins slipped into place and snugged up the six mounting bolts.

The last step was to bolt the torque converter to the flex plate so that the engine would actually drive the transmission. This is done through a small access hatch in the bottom of the transmission. One person turns the engine, using the 3/4″ drive sockets and 3′ breaker bar on the crankshaft main bolt, until one of the flex plate bolts is accessible. You then rotate the torque converter until the bolt holes line up, install the bolt, and rotate the engine until the next bolt is accessible.

Recall where I earlier mentioned that the flex plate was dished and could be installed two ways? There was a 1/8″ gap between the flex plate and the torque converter. Clearly we had installed the flex plate backward, and now had to take everything apart, flip it, and put it back together.

While removing the transmission bolts I continued to contemplate the series of events. I was positive I had installed the flex plate the right way, so what could be going on? Just a minute! The torque converter wasn’t fixed on the transmission main shaft – it had some room to float. And it probably didn’t need to be resting directly on the bell housing. Maybe I could slide it forward just a bit?

Time to reinstall the transmission bolts that had been removed and then get under the transmission with a small pry bar. Gently pry on the torque converter and watch it slide forward into place against the flex plate. And there was much rejoicing! Turns out that the flex plate was installed the right way after all. Run this first bolt into the torque converter, turn the engine, and repeat for the other three bolts. Then go through the whole process four more times with the torque wrench to properly tighten the bolts.

At this point the only things left were to install the cover plate on the transmission and re-introduce the engine to the car.

Actually installing the engine was almost anti-climatic. The hugely oversized and expensive motor mounts had already been installed on the engine and the mounting studs installed in the car. All that was needed was to raise the engine over the cross member, slide it back, lower it to go into the transmission hump under the car. and drop it onto the mounting studs.

With the engine high enough to clear the cross member it was hitting the brake master cylinder and heater box. Lowered enough to clear these caused the oil pan to hit the cross member. And the transmission still had to go over the rear cross member. The answer was to carefully slide the engine and transmission back a little, down a little, back a little more, down a little more, and carefully ease it into place.

The engine finally dropped over the mounting studs. The only thing left was to bolt the transmission to its mount. Which would have been easy except that we couldn’t get the bolts started…

We ended up using the floor jack under the transmission tail housing to raise it slightly and slide it sideways a bit. There was a bit of a “klunk” as everything settled into place. After this the transmission bolts went in easily.

With the engine and transmission in place and bolted in all that was left was to clean up from this job and get ready to reinstall everything on the engine. The goal of getting the Imperial back on the road this summer is one giant step closer!

Next: Transmissioning

The rear end is back! Fresh with new bearings and seals and properly adjusted it should be good for another 100K+ miles. The only bad news was the price… Like many other things Imperial, the parts are hard to find and expensive. I keep telling myself that I knew what I was getting into. “Myself” keeps explaining how I’m an idiot.

The first step was to fabricate new brake lines. I had purchased new rear brake wheel cylinders, so I installed these on the backing plates and then installed the center “T” fitting to the differential housing. A flexible hose connects the “T” fitting to the rear brake line on the car. Solid brake lines go from the sides of the “T” to the brake cylinders and have to be routed along the curves of the differential and rear end. Time to follow the same drill as before: cut a length of brake line a little bit longer than needed, carefully bend it to fit tight to the differential and axles, trim it to the exact length needed after bending, install fittings and flare the ends, and then install it on the rear end.

It actually went quite well. Except for cutting one piece so that it was just a little bit too short after bending and getting to re-do it…

The rear end is heavy and awkward, making it a challenge for one person to install. I had planned to use a floor jack and movers dolly to save my back. I had the rear end sitting on jack stands while working on it – this was just the height needed to slide it between the springs and under the car. Unfortunately, the jack stands don’t move and the movers dolly was too low.

After studying the situation for a few minutes, inspiration struck! Put the jack stand on top of the movers dolly, adjust the height, and slide it under the car. This actually worked quite well – I was able to get the rear end into position with no damage and no injuries.

The Imperial holds the rear end with both the leaf springs and with two struts. This design improves handling, but is a bear to install. After suitable applications of brute force, big hammers, pry bars, bigger pry bars, tapered alignment tools, and application of appropriate language at the proper volume (loud), everything bolted into place.

The next step was to install the rear brakes. Like many other things Chrysler, the self adjusting rear brakes are rather ingenious (i.e. complicated). The usual approach is to do one side at a time so that you can use the other side for reference. Unfortunately both sides were completely disassembled. Fortunately the Factory Service Manual had illustrations that provided just enough tantalizing clues to finally figure out where the parts went.

After getting the brake shoes and adjusters installed it was time to slide on the (heavy!) drums and do the preliminary adjustment. The next step was to mount the wheels and then remove the jack stands and drop the car onto the ground.

For the first time the car is sitting on its completely rebuilt suspension and brakes! To quote Monty Python: “And there was much rejoicing!”

The last step was to fill the master cylinder with brake fluid and bleed the brakes. Unfortunately there seem to be problems here, so I’ve got some trouble shooting to do on the brakes before everything is ready to go.

I still have the new rear sway bar to install, but I’ve decided to do that after installing the exhaust. I suspect it will be easier to install the exhaust without the sway bar, and I need to make sure everything fits together.

Next: Return of the Mighty 413

Ahh, the soul satisfying feeling of progress and putting things back on the car!

The first step was to install the new leaf springs, spring shackles, bushings, and struts. Other than wrestling 6′ long, 50 pound chunks of steel on my back in cramped quarters they went back in surprisingly easily. These new springs and bushings should tighten up the rear end nicely.

The actual rear end is still out being rebuilt, but all the suspension is in place. Should be able to just slide it in and bolt it up. Hey, it could happen!

The old gas tank seemed to be in good shape, so I kept going back and forth on whether to reuse it or replace it. I finally decided to just go ahead and get a new one.

When the new gas tank showed up I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was made in Taiwan and is really well made. I was expecting a flimsy tank with marginal fit. Instead, the new tank is at least as heavy as the original and looks absolutely identical. With, of course, the exception of being clean, shiny, rust free, and plated for corrosion resistance…

I had also purchased a new sending unit as the old one never read right – it never showed above half full, even after a fillup. I checked the calibration of the new sending unit while it was on the workbench – right in spec for empty and just a couple of ohms out of spec for full. This should work out just fine.

Just out of curiosity I checked the old sender. It showed infinite resistance – obviously an open circuit; looks like something has rusted through. It went straight into the trash.

With the new tank, sender, and fill spout assembled it was time to see if it fit. I was able to get it into position using a floor jack. Just as it was going into its final position I remembered that the jute insulating pad that goes on top of the gas tank was still sitting on the workbench. Oops! At least I hadn’t completely installed the tank.

So, let down the jack, position the jute pad on top of the tank, jack it back up, and slide/tilt/wiggle the filler neck in place. Install the straps, tighten the J-bolts, and the tank was installed. Everything fit exactly like the original tank – I’m quite happy with this new tank!

The filler neck goes to a door in the middle of the back bumper, between the bumper and the trunk lid. There is a big rubber fitting that holds it in place. Rub a little dish washing detergent on the rubber, slip it into place, and everything is aligned and positioned just like the original.

At this point the only thing left for the fuel system is to run a new gas line to the engine. I’m going to wait until the engine is in so that I can fit the new line the way I want it.

Next: Differentially Enabled