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TCParts

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  1. Chris, Since I supplied the original factory valve cover gasket for this project I suppose I could donate a spark plug tube gasket also. Let me know when you are on my side of town. Larry
  2. It is a "Technical Service Bulletin" issued by a vehicle manufacturer of items not usually found in the service manual, usually discovered after the cars are on the road. They differ from Recall notices in that they are not directly safety related. In this case, the bulletin is not on the US DOT database. I know I have a copy of it at my ranch, but won't be back home until August 6th. I can try and find it then if nobody else comes up with a copy before then. I believe Hemi Andersen did an article on this issue in the 1990's for the TC America newsletter. I'll ask Karleen if this is something she may want me to do an update on.
  3. Chrysler issued a TSB on this item. Go to the NHTSA website and the notice may give you enough information to fix it easier.
  4. These models go for up to $275 on E-bay if in perfect condition. Since there are two major flaws, probably Alan's offer is not too far off.
  5. The ones we tested from GM direct and Amazon were "Made in West Germany" (may say Federal Republic of Germany) over 20 years ago. The shelf life for accumulators according to Ed Peters, one of the TC engineers, is 10 years. You may want to check the box. I did an article about this for the TC America newsletter.
  6. Alan, I've had a factory pressure gauge for 15 years. It is NOT as effective as the "pump the brakes" test. I wrote an article for the newsletter how the accumulators on our TCs are similar to the Citroen spheres that have been around for over 50 years. Old, worn accumulators can give a good pressure reading, but only for a short time - hence the number of times you can pump the pedal before the yellow Anti-Lock light goes on is a much better indicator. If you can get 10 pumps, that is as good as new system out of the box. It is a shame that the Citroen spheres currently can't be used on the TC, as they can be recharged every few years for a few bucks. But..... I'm working on that......
  7. Tim, I can now get the custom color Haartz fabric softtops for a fraction of that price. The brown Haartz is what should have been on all TCs with the brown vinyl roofs, but at the time the manufacturer could not get the dye to resist fading. Now a few owners have put the "intended" ones on their cars. A few of the wooden steering wheels are out there also. I love mine, but it was a very expensive birthday present to myself....
  8. Andy and Amy Lamana have a continental kit on their 1989 TC. They have been to a number of meets on the east coast and drove the car to at least one national meet in Nevada. It looks pretty good. I think Karleen had a photo in one of the newsletters.
  9. We sell ours for $20 - not old NOS, but fresh from the manufacturer in Germany. We also have new hood struts, trunk struts, tonneau cover struts, accumulators and every other part for a TC you could need.
  10. There were 4 different versions of the Umbrella that came with the TC. Both of his are correct.
  11. It is better to repair your old unit than leave it not working. With many repair shops, emissions stations, dealers and insurance companies reporting mileage to CarFax and other agencies (for a fee) a non-functioning odometer would show up as a box "c" and devalue your car. The reason we only repair odometers is that we do not have to report that to the Feds. If someone purchases a used odometer head it has to be reported as a "true mileage unknown" title. AZ laws are very strict on this and every aspect of dismantling vehicles. Nothing can be done without reporting the VIN to the proper agencies. Bonding, licensing and insurance is very expensive to run a legitimate business and we have to report monthly to the state on all activity.
  12. If I may get on to the subject at hand... Lou, the lubricant for the pull-down gear is red lithium - available at quality auto shops in a black metal and cardboard tub about the size of hand grease remover or the old wheel bearing grease containers. It is around $5 or $6 - twice the price of the cheap stuff around here. Pretty much the only reason the gear or housing breaks is because a soft top is not adjusted properly. Note that there were at least 4 different versions of the pull down assembly and they do not necessarily interchange. The clear ones from GM are too thin, need to be filed to fit, and fracture easily. Someone not too long ago bragged about pulling five from a junkyard so he could keep on fixing his. It would be a whole lot easier to just have the top adjusted properly.... For the odometer gears, I do not personally do ANY repairs on odometers. All the ones sent to us are done professionally by a shop that has been in business since the 1960's. For what it's worth, they tell me that they use "special" lubricant that is designed for the gears and remove old grease from the rollers. The ones they use are not the cheap ones that are available on the internet. They compared theirs to the cheap ones I bought on the internet and there is a noticeable difference in thickness and texture. At LEAST half of the units we get in have been previously repaired by a non-professional, and we have done hundreds over the past 15 years. Some fail at 15,000 miles and some fail at 250,000 miles. I believe the angle of the bezels causes more problems than the lubricant gumming up, but I only have 150 TCs, not thousands to compare, and issues in the low humidity desert are different than issues which happen in humid areas. Around here finding a non-warped dash bezel is only possible if there is a dash mat on it, so I recommend that the bezel is pushed down with one hand while pushing in the reset button with the other hand.
  13. I did an article on this for the TC America newsletter last year. In the case of NOS accumulators it is quite easy to tell if you have a cheap, old accumulator from GM direct or Amazon. On the box it will say "Made in West Germany" (or a variation thereof). That guarantees it is over 21 years old. Ed Peters, one of the head engineers on the TC project warned against purchasing an old NOS accumulator because the nitrogen filters through the plastic membrane over time. 10 years is the shelf life of an accumulator. In this case you definitely "get what you pay for". We buy the newer style units directly from Germany which have greater capacity and an easier bolt design to R & R. BTW the TC system is NOT THE SAME as a Reatta system. FYI, all the electrical parts are different and not interchangeable. I have written on this forum about that fact previously. Only the mechanical actuator, tank and block are the same. If ever the accumulators are not available in the future, I have a fix using rebuidable accumulator spheres from a Citroen DS, which I have experience with for over 30 years. Since the TC system has the brass stalk under the accumulator and the Reatta does not, I do not know if it will fit the GM versions of the ABS system.
  14. I was part of a year long project team in 2000 that tested a number of different products to restore the leather in our TCs. It is important to note that Lou's renewal process will only work best with the 1989 and early build "soft" leather version of the seats and armrest. Later builds used 3 different versions of plastic coated leather, similar to domestic hides and need a modified process. The Leatherique products by far worked out the best, and we published the results back in 2001. The process is not difficult, but a bit time consuming. Leatherique made a formula for us to get the correct shade of Bordeaux and ginger for the 1989 models. Anyone that has seen Jim Wyffels (the last car built) with the Bordeaux interior, can see how much better the later built leather was.
  15. I did an article on the this for the TC America newsletter, using information that Ed Peters, one of the engineers on the TC project in Italy provided. The speedometer heads were sourced in Japan not just for the TC, but all Chrysler speedometer heads from that era. The first few thousand used a bad lubricant which gums up the small white or blue gears. If the lubricant is on the rollers, they too will fail. We get in a number of units where owners try to repair their units just using the gear and end up breaking the connections on the circuit board or fail to remove and replace the lubricant on the rollers. In addition, probably the MOST common way the gears break are when an owner pushes in the reset button for the trip meter and the bezel around the instrument cluster is warped and pushes against the button upward. If the button is pushed in on a sharp angle, the gears can strip. I always recommend that that bezel be pushed down when pushing the button in, to avoid the stripping of the gear. These issues have been addressed in the TC America newsletters several times over the past few years.
  16. Alan, I'll be happy to sell you a perfect airbag for $50. Larry
  17. You must know Rick at the Chrysler Auto Salvage. He is a wonderful guy and I get a lot of stuff from him for my other Chryslers.
  18. TCs do very well in the snow, and can handle almost a foot of it with the bumpers removed.
  19. One of the easiest fixes for the water drip problem is by tightening the "J hooks" on the hardtop and softtop. This usually stops the dripping water on your knee and window controls. We have demonstrated this a number of times at the TC America national meets. In addition, make sure the drain holes in the bottom of the tonneau area are debris free. If water in the tonneau area does not drain out the way intended, it ends up in the passenger area drenching the carpet. At one Florida meet the owner had a few inches of water sitting in the tonneau area - Sally Lane took a pencil to unclog the two holes and it drained in a matter of seconds.
  20. I do insurance arbitration and offer free inspections for fellow TC America Club members.
  21. I saw the clunker list a while ago. I was surprised how few TCs there were on the list. Far more good ones get crushed and/or parted out each year on EBay and Craig's list. The Allante number was over 50, and they have much higher market values than our TCs. Considering the 5000+ Mercedes cars on the list and the low market values our cars have had for the past few years, it shows that by far, most TC owner's think their TC is worth more than $3,500 or $4,500, which we all know is at the high side of the market for a TC with a number of miles on it. That is a sign that our cars have a higher intrinsic value than the current market value. It is a very good sign that most owners may think the cars will gain in value soon, and are *worth* more than that. Of course the down side is when the insurance bill comes in. ;-)
  22. We sell new OEM hood struts for $29 ea.
  23. There were at least 3 different versions of the hose set up for the 16v. Did you need an early 1989, late 1989 or 1990 setup?
  24. If you need the 3 way pressure switch, it is very expensive from the dealer. The GM ones do NOT fit, as the electrical connections between the GM and TC systems have different connectors. You may want to consider a completely remanufactured system with warranty for basically the cost of the switch and a new accumulator the remanufactured system comes standard with.
  25. Lou, You are completely correct - and trying to get any reasonable information from a customer or their mechanic is sometimes hopelessly futile. I still was not able to get a hold of her again today to ask more specific questions. Of course, if a car is maintained properly throughout its life and the radiator fluid is changed at the proper intervals, a radiator should last the lifetime of the car and never need replacing. One of the first articles I did for the TC America newsletter was regarding how important it is to change the anti-freeze - the consequences of not doing so is the fluid becomes acidic and starts eating away at the soft metal parts like the head gasket and freeze plugs. I have never had to replace a head gasket or radiator in *any* of my vehicles, and one has 300,000 miles and my 16v TC, close to 200,000. Of course many TCs are on their second or third owner and especially the lower mileage ones may not have had proper maintenance done "because they did not have that many miles" on them. I charged her $175 for the radiator so where the mechanic has her at close to $500 is beyond me - the R&R of a TC radiator takes only a few minutes. Hopefully one of us will be able to get more information so the issue can be resolved. I took a perfectly good radiator out of one of my show cars today and took it down to the radiator shop to be recored, in the extremely unlikely event there is something wrong with the one we sent her and it needs to be replaced. Otherwise it will be ready for the next person who needs one......
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