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"Numbers Matching" Question- Chrysler 300H


Guest fsascaddy

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Guest fsascaddy

I have an interesting inquiry. Does the transmission of a vehicle affect whether or not it is a "Numbers Matching" car? Here is the story behind my inquiry.

My Grandfather Purchased a 1962 Chrysler 300H brand new in 1962. It was white with a red interior. He had some engine troubles with it in the late 60's (probably as he didn't believe in changing the oil in any of his cars. SMH) He took the car to a machine shop and was going to have the engine repaired when he fell on hard times as the union was slow with work at the time and his health was deteriorating so he was unable to pay for the work done on his car, and they kept it for several years before getting a mechanics lean on the car and selling it. The car had been long gone and forgotten about until 2010 when I was playing around on the internet and I came across a classic car dealer in Canada selling a white 1962 Chrysler 300H. I obtained the vin number from the seller and found out that this was in fact my grandfathers car. The seller had it listed as a "Numbers Matching" car, but I found that a little peculiar considering that I have the original transmission in my garage where it has been since the 60's. After talking to my grandmother, I learned that the car had been having issues for quite some time and my grandfather thought it was the transmission and replaced it before realizing that the engine was the problem instead. I would love to get this original transmission back with the original car, but I would imagine the most recent seller would be hesitant to put me in contact with the new owner, because of the obvious misinformation regarding the car.

my point, and my question is : should I just forget about it and scrap the transmission? ( which I would hate to do) but it is taking up space in my garage. I didn't know if the transmission is considered when making a "numbers matching" car? Thanks for any help!<!-- google_ad_section_end -->

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  • 2 months later...

I am always amused by folks with that claim on pre-68 Mopar vehicles.

The 'numbers matching' deal is a fairly recent invention by the GM crowd. Until about 1968 Mopar did not use a vehicle identifier on engines and transmissions.

...are you anywhere near Oregon? I would be interested in that trans.

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For the Chrysler Corp engines which did not get any sort of stamping to tie that engine to a specific vehicle, the casting date on the block becomes more important. For example, if the car is a 1968 and the engine block has a 1966 casting date, it didn't come that way from the factory. If the VIN shows the possible build date to be earlier in the 1968 model year, then a 1967 casting date would be more correct. From what some have mentioned in their search for 426 HEMI blocks for particular model year vehicles (back before these things came to be re-cast by Chrysler), a block with a casting date about 6 months prior to the possible build date of the vehicle is considered acceptable for "un-changed" vehicles. Therefore, when searching for used blocks to rebuild, that was the criteria they used in their search.

Enjoy!

NTX5467

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Your trans from a 62 300H, if indeed it was an H, will have a unique part number.

This number should be 2205 190 which indicates a heavy duty unit as used in the 300H as well as police cruisers w/383 engine.

It willbe located on the lower rail/flange of the case where the pan bolts on.

Many of the 300's had their trannys swapped out as "cores" w/an "off the shelf" unit at trans shops in which case, the originals were rebuilt

as by the shop time became available and could ave wound up in "who knows what" Chrysler, Dodge, Plymouth or Imperial over the years.

That being said, many Chrysler 300's no longer sport their original or "correct" thrannies.

The 300H also has a unique VIN # and should begin with 8423 plus 6 more digits which make up the sequence number

You mentioed the car as having a red interior. This would have been a special order item as the H's came standard w/beige

leather bucket seats w/a full length console.

I would suspect you car was/is a standard 300 "sport" series and not an H. These models were vitually identical in outward

appearance to the H, the tiny letter "H" on the deck lid being the only exterior indication as to what lurked under the hood.

However, an H could have been ordered with a

special interior, quite possibly red in your case, in which case the trim code would have been "888"

Also, the 62 model year was the 1st year for the "morden" style aluminum tourqueflite transmissiio, replacing the older

cast iron version that had been used in one form or another back to the mid 50's.

Dave S.

Edited by finsruskw (see edit history)
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