Resurrecting Grandpa's Dinosaur - a rebuild story. (1963 Chrysler Imperial) by topdawag_mc4

2 minute(s) of a 137 minute read

It's the least we could do for your donation! Thanks again. 

We ended up putting about 60 miles on it this weekend. On the last 3 miles or so the transmission started to slip a little worse.. So it looks like we'll be rebuilding it after all. We're hoping to get it to a couple more shows before then, though. 

From what we've seen, people say the hardest part is the valve body, but we've already done that already and it wasn't that bad  

People LOVE this car. We get 3 or 4 people asking us about it every time we stop somewhere. 

The weirdest thing to me is the steering. A whoooole lot of input for not much output. But, when the power steering is working, it doesn't require any force to steer. 

It's not fast. Not even a little bit. I'm chalking that up partly to the slipping trans. It is extremely loud with the exhaust exiting pretty much right below the front passenger's feet. It's also strange driving a 3 speed automatic. Feels way to high string at (estimated) 45mph. 

The ride isn't harsh, though. About what we expected. A little bouncy, but still seemingly stable. I was worried about the brakes, since neither of us has ever done a complete brake system before, but the brakes are surprisingly good, and we haven't noticed any fluid loss.

4-28-2013

From today's cruise. Transmission is now starting to stink after driving. 

Every time we have drained it (5 times so far, I think) it hasn't smelled too burnt or anything, but the pan and filter have both been filled with old nasty clutch material.