Thanks for sharing this Richard!,
Your father is absolutely right, you need to
adjust the cam adjusters (4 in the front and 2 in the rear) frequently to
get a good working braking system.
I have adjusted the way you father described
it, and I must say I have a firm pedal that travel only halfway to the
floor!
Maybe the other 60 owners, Paul, Tom, Kenyon
and Charles can jump in on this and tell us how much pedal travel they
have?
And since we are talking about 1960 Imps here,
what is the correct reading for the temperature of our cars?
Since the weather is almost freezing cold here,
my car doesn't reach normal operating temperature. It just passed the Cold
mark on the dial and thats about it. Since it is a Californian car I thought
the former owner might have installed another termostat that opens earlier,
so I checked it and I was right!
The previous owner installed a 160 degrees
thermostat!, I guess to prevent the car from overheating in hot Californian
summers.
I now have installed a 180 degrees thermostat
(OEM standard temperature) and the needle on the gauge goes higher then ever
before! It now stays exactly in the middle of the dial.
Is this correct?
I have never seen the needle climbed that high
before, so I am a little worried allthough common sense tells me that the
middle of the dial sounds quite good...
Just curious to know the readings on other 1960
owners temperature gauges!
Thanks,
Robert
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, October 22, 2007 2:47
PM
Subject: IML: 1960 Imperial brake
bleeding
Hi Folks,
After spending countless hours working on the brakes on my '60 Crown
they are finally working properly. I think we bled them entirely
three times before getting everything repaired properly. The shop
that "restored" my chasis did not double flare the brake lines correctly
and had overtightened the flares at the bronze blocks creating distortion
and leaks. We ended up replacing all of the lines again and the
blocks as well, at the front frame and on top of the axle. The IML
web site was helpful but did not really address the issue of pedal going
to the floor. See below. Another tip, we elevated our brake
bleeding bottle on a small step ladder, that really helped keeep the air
from returning to the cylinders during the bleeding process. After
all of this my father had this to say:
For Imperial Club under "Repair" , "Brakes", "Brake Bleeding".
The 1960 Imperial and like years brake systems can be perfectly
bled and the pedal still go to the floor if the brake shoes are not
adjusted to require minimal movement to brake the
drum. The bottom line is that with six cylinders to provide
fluid too, the master cylinder will be at the end of its stroke (to the
floor) before the wheel cylinders have enough fluid (pressure) to push the
shoes tight against the drums. Chrysler knew this,
as in the Maintenance Manual under "Pedal goes to Floor" you (a) check
fluid in master cylinder and (b) adjust for worn linings
. The obvious implication is that it does not take much slack at the
brake shoes to allow the pedal to go to the floor. With the shoes
properly adjusted tight against the drum and just loosened enough to allow
the wheel to turn freely you still will not have a firm pedal until you
almost reach the floor. That's just the way it is. If you want
to see this then tighten all the shoes against the drums and then see
how much pedal you have. You cannot see this by pumping the
pedal as the strong shoe return springs will push the fluid back
out of the wheel cylinders faster than you can stroke the master
cylinder. Adjust the shoes properly and frequently and you can get
good braking.
Richard Burgess
'60 Crown
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