IML: Getting '65 ready for the Nats

[William Parker <parkerw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well I'm having a lot of fun, sort of.  We decided it was
time to give the Imperial its turn to go to the Nats.  Ever
since buying it on eBay in '99 I've just driven it, doing
the necessary things to keep it going such as new battery &
tires, and not really looking too closely underneath.  I
picked up a bunch of parts over the last week such as hoses,
belts, timing chain and gear, gaskets, etc, and got her up
on the lift Saturday to get started.  The first thing I
wanted to do was install the new "Sensa-trac" rear shocks,
with spring assist.  The tail drags even with no load, and I
want to be able to haul parts back and forth, and eventually
make use of the heavy trailer hitch installed by a prior
owner to tow our pop up.  Ran into a problem immediately, in
that one of the lower shock mounting studs had the threaded
part broken off; it had been drilled out and tapped for a
1/4X20 bolt which with a fender washer had held everything
together.  I pulled a mounting plate from a '62 Fury parts
car and cleaned it up and painted it, and put it on.  Next,
the shocks proved to be about 2 inches short of reaching
when the springs were fully unloaded.  It was a simple
matter to raised the rear end enough to get them mounted up
but I don't like having the travel limited like that, so I'm
going to double check with NAPA today to make sure they got
me the right parts for an Imperial, if so I guess I'll
assume that they've been found to work OK.  

Then I went probing at the driveshafts.  The center carrier
had the rubber holding on only about 1/2 of its
circumference, which I hated to trust for a 600 mile round
trip on the interstate.  I pulled everything apart (needed
to unbolt both the shock plates and pry the rear backwards
off the pins an inch or so, much harder to do with those
Imperial upper torque arms in place).  I'm not sure where to
go to get a replacement center bearing carrier on short
notice, so for now, I welded strap around it, permanently
and solidly joining the two halves and making the rubber
redundant.  I hope I'm not going to have unbearable
vibration doing this, I guess I'll find out later.  On the
good side, a previous owner apparently had the U joints
replaced, all were tight and a couple obviously fairly new. 
The center bearing seemed smooth and well lubed also.  In
this whole procedure the only casualty was the shop rag in
my pocket which I set on fire from dripping flaming rubber
while welding on the carrier. 

Next I checked the rear brakes.  Both bleeders broke loose
OK after a 24 hour soaking with Kroil.  The driver's side
has nearly new shoes, while the pass side has old, cracked,
and worn ones.  Argh!  How could someone do that!  The shoes
come as an axle set for goodness sakes.  After adjustment,
they are making even contact so I may leave them until
returning unless I find extra time.  

The front brakes will need some attention.  ONe hose has
been replaced with a too-short one, and to compensate, the
mechanic or previous owner just removed the hard line clip
from the bracket and let the assembly float in the bracket. 
The other hose is cracked, so I'll check today and see if
new ones can be had in time.

Maybe soon I'll finally get to work on the timing set, I
don't want to make a long trip with a nylon gear ready to
shread or a chain ready to snap.

Some good news, the underside of the body is very solid,
with only one small area of inner trunk extension trying to
rust through, so I guess I could have looked underneath much
earlier and allayed my fears of rustout.


Bill Parker, South Central Indiana
'56 Chrysler Windsor; '60 Chrysler Saratoga; '62 Plymouth
Max Wedge; '64 Dart Convertible (Kathi's car); '65 Imperial;
'65 Barracuda \6 (Kathi's other car);'68 Barracuda Fastback
340-S; '69 Barracuda Fastback now 360 (20 y.o. son's car);
'72 Cuda 340


-----------------  http://www.imperialclub.com  -----------------
This message was sent to you by the Imperial Mailing List. Please 
reply to mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and your response will be 
shared with everyone. Private messages (and attachments) for the
Administrators should be sent to webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To UN-SUBSCRIBE, go to http://imperialclub.com/unsubscribe.htm