Re: {Chrysler 300} 1959 300 E mystery

The 1958 Cadillac featured optional air ride (rear) with bags instead of coils (unlike Brougham which was never designed for coils and used domes). It used a V2 air compressor with cooling fins and was the real thing, air ride. Funny how GM could make that tech work for a century on trucks and busses but had to give it up on cars by 1960.

Chrysler, inextricably wed to torsion bars and leaf springs couldn't find a legitimate engineering purpose for air bags on its fleet though they did so anyway.

-----Original Message-----
From: "John Nowosacki" <jsnowosacki@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2025 4:10pm
To: "John Lyons" <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "Chrysler list server" <chrysler-300-club-international@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: {Chrysler 300} 1959 300 E mystery

My memory is a bit sketchy, but I had a friend with a 58 Cadillac that had something that looked like that under the hood of his car. It was some sort of auto leveling system, but I never saw what was on the other end(s) of the system at the rear wheels. I don't think it did anything to the front of the car, just the rear when people were loaded in the back seat and/or lots of luggage in the trunk. I do remember that the system malfunctioned on his Cadillac and sent the rear end way up in the air to maximum lift a couple of times. Pretty funny.

On Thu, Nov 13, 2025 at 1:49 PM John Lyons <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi all, I've attached photos of an air ride device. That is on my 1959 300 E convertible.

It looks. Correct but to the best of my knowledge Chrysler never offered air ride.

It's an ingenious unit, which is oil lubricated so it's connected to the oil system for the engine.

We've removed it, servicing the car and plan on reinstalling it.

I've attached a couple of pictures of it, does anybody know what this might be?

Many thanks.

John Lyons

Excuse any typos.

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