I have found one thing that can be said for working on the 1960 Imperial is this: when I decide that I want to work on a specific thing, I can go right to it, spend a few hours, and see the result. This has been pretty much true of all of my Imperials (newest is '68), while other stuff that I own is not that direct. Even when working under the dash, it is fairly simple to focus on one item without having to disassemble lots of other things to get to it.
Stick with it and don't give up, the more you do, the more you learn. The experience is invaluable, especially if you plan on keeping the car, or buying another Imperial. What goes wrong in one usually goes wrong in another without much variation on the theme. The bottom line is that it is a very repairable machine.
Paul W.
Hi Donn,
Ahhh, the joys of owning and maintaining a 1960 Imperial...
Been there, done that and as a matter of fact.. Still do!!
Isn't it great fun to find yourself under the dash upside down (not too
easy when you are size XXL :) trying to repair something that is hidden
there?
Right now I am trying to fix the wiper motor, it suddenly stopped working
and haven't found out yet what is wrong. Since both the switch and the
wiper motor are really hard to accesss this aint a job for the faint
hearted!
Another problem is that the EL dash lighting system from time to time
fails to work, I have already thrown in a new (=rebuild) power pack but
the dash still gets dark every now and then (after a few days everything
is working again for an hour or so..) Must be one of the gauges that is
shorting out I guess, so in a short time I will finding myself again under
the dash pulling white leads from the gauges to find out which one is
guilty.
Then we have the strange problem with the dome-light, it stays on when the
doors are closed.. And even stranger it shines it's light at half power or
so. There must be a shortcircuit to ground (and no, the doorswitches are
ok and so is the manual switch: with all those switches disconnected the
dome light is still working at half power..) but I haven't found out yet
where.
I learned from Richard Burgess that there is a connectionpoint under the
headliner, running from the manual switch to the domelight and then to
left rear wheel well where it connected to the doorswitches, so problably
the shortcircuit is in this area...
Apart from all these electrical problems (the electrical system of the 60
model year isn't of the same quality as the rest of the car if you ask me)
the car drives beautifully.
Running strong and is shifting gears perfectly, all I have to do in this
aspect is to sort out a rough idle.
I might be in for a new harmonic damper since the timing mark seems to
have slipped..
So enough work to do, but it is worth every minute of time that I have
spend so far to make the car better then it was before I bought it:)
It is fun, and to see all those faces of people looking at a car that they
have never seen before...Well, it makes it all worth I guess!
So Donn, keep up the good work and keep it runnin'
All the best,
Robert
1960 Crown 4 door Hardtop
Op Di, 17 oktober, 2006 5:16 am, schreef Donn Reese:
> In fits and starts the Imperial is getting more roadworthy, but good
> grief is it putting up a fight! Maybe it's just tired and WANTS to go
> sit in a pasture forever. I've certainly been ready to oblige a couple
> times recently.
>
> The heater fan was making a loud scraping noise and the heater control
> valve had been bypassed so I decided to pull the heater and at least fix
> the fan. I was surprised how easy the heater unit was to remove, just
> three screws. Turns out the plastic housing on the outside face of the
> squirrel cage had deformed inwards pressing against the squirrel cage
> itself. I used my heat gun to heat up the plastic then pushed the face
> out, reforming from a concave to a convex (btw, it's pretty crappy
> plastic). But it's much quieter now and I didn't have to cut a hole in
> the housing.
>
> With that fixed I removed the heater control valve and (assuming it was
> just froze up with corrosion) proceeded to lubricate it and get the valve
> working again. I reinstalled it and hooked up the heater hoses and fired
> up the car. That's when I found out why it had been bypassed, it leaks.
> Soooo, I bypassed it again and will have to scout around for a new one.
>
>
> I discovered the cause of the slow turn signals at idle that I reported
> here recently.....bad flasher. I put a new one in and now it works
> regardless of idle. Seems strange to me though.
>
> Amongst all of this, last week the speedometer started making a
> horrendous noise and the needle would jump around. The OIC archive came
> in handy, found the same symptoms there....who would have guessed you
> have to lubricate the speedo head periodically. Definitely a new one on
> me. Especially surprising considering they don't make it easy to get any
> of the instruments out to do any kind of maintenance.
>
> I made another little test run down the highway and back and everything
> seems to be fine for now. Let's hope it stays that way as we're now
> getting frost at night and working outside is getting chilly.
>
> Donn Reese
> 1960 Custom 4dr hdtp
>
>
>
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