Re: [Chrysler300] Digest Number 15

[RAKFAR@xxxx]

In a message dated 9/2/2001 2:57:45 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

<< Any one have an ideas as to the corect placement of the decals on the F 
air cleaners.

Dave Schwandt >>

Hi Dave--

This is an excellent question, and addresses the most common 
mistake I have seen on 300F's. There is even a certain expensively restored 
300F convertible belonging to a well-known TV star that has it wrong!

If you open the hood of a 300F and see both air cleaner stickers 
facing forward (let's call this the "six-o'clock position, looking from 
above), while appearing logical, this is DEAD WRONG. Since the F's two air 
cleaners are identical, but are mounted asymetrically (being rotated 
differently), the only way to get both stickers to face forward is to place 
each sticker on a different place on each air cleaner, and then not mix up 
the left one and the right one. This is NOT how Chrysler did it. 

Instead, as is more logical for production operations, ALL 
stickers were placed on all air cleaners in the same location, BEFORE the air 
cleaners were placed on the engine. As a result, left and right air cleaners 
are EXACTLY the same, and more importantly, when placed on the engine, one 
side (the driver's side) appears to face nearly BACKWARDS! Nearly all 
restorers get this wrong.

When viewed from the front, the passenger-side sticker should be 
in the seven or seven-thirty position (if six o'clock is exactly to the front 
of the car), and the driver's side sticker should be about ten or eleven 
o'clock (which seems backwards). As a result, swapping air cleaners from side 
to side will make no difference; the stickers will remain in the same 
relative position! Of course, make sure you have oriented the air cleaner 
"dents" properly (passenger side "dent" at about ten o'clock to clear small 
vacuum pot, etc.) first. 

Concours judges (and entrants) please take note.

300F'ly,

Roger Karlson