Re: IML: Progress of a sort/Working on a '60 Imperial

Hi Paul,

I think you are making a very good point here, often one get confused and
distracted by all the wiring under the dash.
Yes, the car was a little over the top with all those new technology in it
but most of it still works in 2006.
And when not, it is quite easy to repair both the radio and powerpack for
e.g. Been there, done that :)

The only not so easy thing to repair, as far as I can judge now, is the
wiper motor and parking switch. Even the wiper switch is in-accessible,
you have to remove the complete instrument cluster to get access to it.

But as said before, isn't that part of the fun of owning such a beautiful
car?

I won't give up and will stick to it like glue :)

Robert

Op Di, 17 oktober, 2006 3:12 pm, schreef randalpark@xxxxxxx:
> 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.
>
> Human nature makes it easy to become totally mystified by a problem, and
> get bogged down in the idea of electrical gremlins, or jump to an
> incorrect conclusion, while in fact there are only a few things that can
> be wrong. I believe that the '60 Imperial is a complex automobile. Where
> there could be a light bulb, there is an electro luminescent panel
> powered by a transformer. That is one example of "over the top"
> technology for its time. The radio is a "hybrid", consisting of both
> transistors and tubes, as well as an electric motor, and more electro
> luminescence. Still, owning, driving, and maintaining the car causes one
> to become very familiar with those systems and features, leading to
> little difficulty in trouble shooting and making a repair. There are no
> computers, sensors, or interactive monitoring systems that can create
> multitudes of symptoms from a seemingly unrelated malfunction.
>
> 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.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: r.vdes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Tue, 17 Oct 2006 1:05 AM
> Subject: Re: IML: Progress of a sort
>
>
>
> 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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