Rusty_OToole

Two uses from the teens and twenties for old powerful luxury cars: Cut off the back of the body and build a tow car or service car for garage use. Or, discard the body entirely and turn the chassis into a giant vacuum cleaner. No kidding, they did this. Attach a blower to the engine and connect it to a big box or tank with vacuum hoses running out. Tow the chassis to the client's house, run the hoses inside, and do their spring cleaning. These giant portable central vacuum cleaners predated the home vacuum cleaner.

Only if you allow me to add the Scott Flying Squirrel

There are a lot of things that don't make sense to you or me that have been worked out by experts. Why re invent the wheel? In this particular case if you have more accurate measuring tools why not use them? I have no problem with that. But I would trust Chrysler's knowledge and experience over what some local machinist pulled out of his ass.

When it comes to car names no one can compare to the English. Who can forget the Humber Snipe, the Lea Francis Leaf, the Siddeley-Deasy Stoneleigh, the Austin Herford, the Sunbeam Mixmaster?

If you are looking for the original owner you can probably dig him up if you try hard enough.

That is why they went to so much trouble to design a piston that would automatically compensate for heat expansion. But if you think your machinist knows more about designing a motor than the whole Chrysler corporation by all means let him do it his way. Fitting the pistons loose probably won't do much harm. It may shorten the life of the engine a bit.

Operating and servicing the Fluid Drive and transmission have been covered in depth. Do a search for Fluid Drive in the Chrysler section, you will turn up much food for thought. There were a couple of threads in 2008 that covered the subject in depth.

The New Yorker was one of the best built cars of its day. Also one of the best performing road cars. The station wagon body makes it even rarer and more desirable (to some people). Parts are available but not as much as for more common cars like Chev and Ford. It would be an expensive car to restore. But not especially valuable if you go to sell it. Just not popular with the car buying public. However if you can find a good one that needs minimal work you can have a lot of nice drives in a unique car. I would buy one if I had the chance. It would need to be in decent shape (no major projects) with no or few parts missing. And not too many miles.

The Carbking posts on here all the time. He really knows the old model carburetors. Good carburetion is fuelish hot air! Owner - The Carburetor Shop LLC (of Missouri) 573-392-7378 (9-4 Mon-Wed central time)

The Carbking posts on here all the time. He really knows the old model carburetors. I forget the name of his business but a web search should turn it up.

You must do the major adjustment first to align the shoes. After that you do a minor adjustment from time to time to take up wear. If the major adjustment is not done the brakes will not work correctly.

Where are you? Could be important to someone who wants to pick up some parts.

Congratulations on getting your car all fixed up. Hope you have some nice drives in it. Did you do the major and minor adjustments to the brakes? Major adjustment needed after an overhaul, having them all apart or replacing the linings. Did you clean the linings with brake kleen spray? If they are soaked in brake fluid you may need to buy new ones.

51-52 Chrysler owner's manual has a similar warning about thin chrome covered with clear lacquer. Wash with mild soap. I guess it was general in the industry. Wonder if getting away with sleazy chrome and other cheap substitutes during the Korean War inspired the general cheapening of quality in the fifties?

For the reflector tape, get a razor blade scraper from the hardware store. Warm up the tape with a heat gun. If you are careful you won't scratch the chrome.

You could also check the oil in the transmission. Unscrew the pipe plug half way up the side, it should be filled to the hole with 10W motor oil. Stick your finger in, if you feel oil and it is like motor oil, good enough. By the way now days we use TDH tractor oil, ISO22 grade, if you can't get ISO22 get ISO32. TDH stands for transmission, differential and hydraulic oil, it is good for the trans and the Fluid Drive. If you do a search for 48 Chrysler Imperial and find the Imperial club web site, they have some original factory books on troubleshooting and repairing the fluid drive and transmission. They are identical on all Chrysler models.

I think it refers to upholstery color and pattern.

How Henry did it. Building the Model T, wheel assembly about 1:10 to 1:48. I imagine yours took more than 38 seconds lol.

If you break the fittings loose the line will actually bend or twist slightly. If you squirt some penetrating oil on them and work back and forth, back and forth sometimes they come loose but usually not. If not, you can cut them off short with a tubing cutter and splice with a piece of rubber as suggested or scrap the whole line and put on a new one if you want 100% originality. By the way some cars come new from the factory with the lines spliced together in this way, it is perfectly safe especially if you take your flaring tool and bubble the ends slightly where the rubber goes on.

Quote from Chrysler factory repair manual: The clearance between the high spot of the piston skirt contour, about 1/4" from the bottom of the piston, and the cylinder wall should be .0005" to .0010". The fitting should be done at normal room temperature (70* F) before the piston has been assembled to the rod. This clearance can be checked by using .002" feeler stock, 1/2" wide, and long enough to reach down into the bore the full length of the piston. The piston should be completely inserted upside down into the cylinder. The feeler stock should be placed between the piston and cylinder wall on the high spot of the piston contour. Draw out the feeler stock with a spring scale. The amount of pounds pull required to withdraw the feeler stock should be between 5 and 7 pounds for all models. (an illustration shows measuring the high spot at 90* to the pin bores, 1/4" from the bottom of the piston). Do not bore the cylinders any bigger. The pistons are specially contoured to fit tight with no slap when cold and take up expansion without tightening when hot. Your engine originally came with a Spitfire head. These were used on Chrysler only, from the late 40s to 1954. It does not mean anything very significant. Spitfire was just a name they came up with for their 6 cylinder engine, like Firepower V8, Oldsmobile Rocket, Chevrolet Blue Flame 6, Buick Dynaflash 8, etc. But they do look cool especially if you pick out the Spitfire and lightning bolt in red on your silver engine. Evidently someone changed your head at some time. You may be able to hunt up an old Spitfire head but if not, the head you have will work just as well. About the carburetor. Your car requires a special Carter B&B carburetor with 2 built in electrical switches. The switches are for the transmission, it will not shift correctly without them. 46-48 cChrysler requires model EX1-2, EV1-2 OR E7A1. Which is for your car I'm not sure but suspect one of them is for the straight eight model. If you look up The Carburetor King he can help you. He posts on here regularly, answering difficult carburetor questions.

Except for the very earliest, alll cars with carburetors had some form of heat. It started about the time your Mercer was built or a few years earlier. The very first cars ran on gasoline that resembled naptha or Coleman fuel. One early motorist remembers filling the tank on his car (it held about a gallon) after returning from a journey and finding the tank empty a few days later - he forgot to put the cap on and the gas all evaporated. Such volatile fuel was sold as gasoline because the low grade gas was being put into kerosene. There are many accounts of kerosene lamp explosions and of kerosene having a piercing odor, all before 1910. Later on, kerosene became safer and less smelly. In the early days all the demand was for kerosene lamp oil. There was a little demand for gasoline for gasoline lanterns and stoves, practically none for cars as there were only a few in existence. By 1910 - 1913 that all changed. There were more cars, more demand for gasoline, while kerosene lamps were being replaced by electricity and gas. The result was a drastic drop off in the quality of gasoline as the low grade gas, and kerosene as well, went into the gasoline. Suddenly the gas became heavier, oilier, harder to vaporize and slower to burn. The first response was to lower compression ratios to prevent knocking. Then the designers had to add hot spots and vaporizers to get the gas to even burn. The next result was a change from square cylinder dimensions to oversquare. Previous to 1910 a typical engine would have cylinders of 4 inch bore and 4 inch or 4 1/4 inch stroke. The new long stroke motors would be more like 3 inch bore by 5 inch stroke. Some owners of old cars with long stroke, low compression motors add up to 25% kerosene to the fuel. They find it makes the car start easier, run smoother and cooler, and develop more power. They were just designed for a heavier fuel than modern gasoline.

First I set the handbrake. By that I mean pull out the handle until the brake is on, just as you would leave the car parked. Normally the handbrake is set when I get in the car because I left it that way when I parked the car. What I do is to start the car in neutral, let it warm up for a minute, touch the gas pedal to make the engine idle down, step on the clutch pedal, shift into gear, and release the clutch fully without touching the handbrake or the gas pedal. At that point the car is idling, in gear, with the handbrake on, and the clutch fully released. The engine does not stall, no more than it would with a Dynaflow or Hydramatic. Hope that is clear. At that point I release the handbrake, step on the gas and drive off as if I were driving a car with a modern automatic transmission. In general I find it best to drive it as if it was an automatic transmission that happens to have a clutch pedal. Once you get going you can ignore the clutch pedal and stop for stop signs without touching it. The clutch itself is a conventional dry plate clutch but about half the normal size. I prefer to use it as little as possible and avoid slipping it. The Fluid Drive unit is meant to do most of the work of the clutch. You could drive it like a manual transmission but it would be awkward and it would cause a lot of unnecessary wear on the clutch and transmission. Or, just release the clutch quickly to avoid slipping and wear, and let the Fluid Drive do its job. All this is making it a lot more confusing than it needs to be. If you drive the car around for a few days it will all become clear. Just treat it as a funny automatic with a clutch pedal. In a short time, driving it will be completely natural and a real pleasure. Incidentally I would be interested in your impressions of the car compared to the Cadillac and Buick, bearing in mind it sold new for about the same money as the lower priced Buick Special. I might also mention that Chrysler was the first to make the automatic transmission standard equipment - the transmission in your car. But on the models on which it cost extra, it cost half what Buick charged for Dynaflow and a third what Cadillac charged for Hydramatic.

Your local auto parts store or Chrysler dealer. Left hand threads for left side, right hand threads for the right side if you want to go stock.

Have you tried Andy Bernbaum? Home | Andy Bernbaum Auto Parts for Chrysler's cars from 30's to 70's

Hope you don't feel as big a prat as this guy looks. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.