1969 Imperial progress thread

[Big_John]

BJ, I was being totally serious.
That was another new thing I did not know.
What years was that true on? I want to file that away upstairs.

I took it as you were joking around about not knowing that Imperials can be a lot different.

Oh well... Sorry.

I have no clue if it's different or not. All I know is what I experience and what I read. As it's been established, the 69 parts manual lists a different pittman and idler arm. Does that mean that the Chrysler arms won't work? Sorry... No idea.

As I said, I just have read a lot of people going "WTF?" when it comes to steering arms and Imperials. Combine the two and my head starts to explode.

 

[commando1]

OK. My bad.
I thought you said that the idler and pitman arms were the same.
Now, come on. That deserved a WTF. LOL

 

[Big_John]

Oh... I see that now!! It made perfect sense to me.... But then again, Mr Beam and I were having an afternoon discussion.

LOL!!

 

[Mr C]

But your car is not a c body its a d body, Mr C please clear this up.

Sorry that I'm late to reply (work gets in the way sometimes). The Imperial has different Pitman and Idler arms than the Chrysler. To my knowledge nobody is making them anymore. You will need to rebuild the ones from the car.

 

[vdk2010]

Then I'll do that. In this case, back to "getting it off " ;)

 

[ceebuddy]

But your car is not a c body its a d body, Mr C please clear this up.

It would kind of surprise me if this issue had not been discussed earlier.

A 1969 to 1973 Imperial is basically a Chrysler body with a special stub frame. Not only is that Stub frame 3" longer than on a Chrysler, it differs in some ways from the one in a Chrysler or a Dodge (thanks again to svent300 for his thread). The 1969 Imperial stub frame was probably a carry-over from 1967 or 1968, but that's just a guess.

The cowl, roof, doors, glass and quarter panels - the actual body - of a 1969 to 1971 Imperial is identical to that of a Chrysler. The formal rear window treatment in a LeBaron is achieved via a fiberglass board sitting in the regular backlight opening. Hence I dare say that a 1969 and later Imperial is a C-Body.

 

[obelix]

PST lists it special for my car?!

On their webside and on Ebay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1967-73-Chr...69|Model:Imperial&hash=item1e81fe934d&vxp=mtr

the idlerarm is not the same as that from a c body,, the pittmanarm i don t now.

 

[70bigblockdodge]

Yeah I believe the 67-68 were the worst for specific parts the 69 up did much more parts sharing. I know from experience that a lot of these suspension places lump them together that's why I was on the bandwagon to get him not to cut. Julian since you have the box out you might be able to get someone to press it off, use a bearing press and push the shaft downward out of pitman arm saving you having to buy a pitman arm puller that you can't find locally.

 

[vdk2010]

I will use the pitman arm and try to find someone who can press in off the steering box for me because it's in good shape! But the idler arm on the other hand doesn't look very good...




The internals of the ball joint are crumbling out of its housing and gives it a lot of play....


I made a video of it ;)
[video=youtube_share;AXIZIU7rG8c]http://youtu.be/AXIZIU7rG8c[/video]

 

[70bigblockdodge]

See, loose and floppy no good for your idler arm also.

 

[kmccabe56]

It would kind of surprise me if this issue had not been discussed earlier.

A 1969 to 1973 Imperial is basically a Chrysler body with a special stub frame. Not only is that Stub frame 3" longer than on a Chrysler, it differs in some ways from the one in a Chrysler or a Dodge (thanks again to svent300 for his thread). The 1969 Imperial stub frame was probably a carry-over from 1967 or 1968, but that's just a guess.

The cowl, roof, doors, glass and quarter panels - the actual body - of a 1969 to 1971 Imperial is identical to that of a Chrysler. The formal rear window treatment in a LeBaron is achieved via a fiberglass board sitting in the regular backlight opening. Hence I dare say that a 1969 and later Imperial is a C-Body.

I would need to go and check exactly when the change occurred, but I'm pretty sure that from '69 on, and possibly earlier, Imperials were known as "Y" bodies. Chrysler considered them to be different enough to garner their own body designation. Prior to the change, Imperials were considered "D" body cars. The inference I always took from listening to Chrysler guys talk about them was that they were both larger than a "C" and also sufficiently different.

Interesting sidenote on bodies and such. When Bramalea first started producing LH cars (New Yorker/LHS, Intrepid, Concorde and Eagle Vision), they also started producing a version of the Vision sold in Europe as a Chrysler Vision. These Euro spec cars were SO different from the N/A versions, that the plant considered them to be a fifth car line.

 

[patrick66]

The first character of my 1966 Imperial VIN starts with "Y".

So, why is this considered a "D"-body?

 

[polara71]

The first character of my 1966 Imperial VIN starts with "Y".

So, why is this considered a "D"-body?

It doesn't work that way...

 

[ceebuddy]

I think the "Car Line" found as the first letter of the VIN and also referred to in the parts book may be confused with the more or less official body designation. In the Parts book P stands for Plymouth Fury, D for Dodge Polara/Monaco, C for Chrysler and Y for Imperial (since the "I" could have been confused too easily with a "1"). Other Car Lines were "X" for Dodge Chargers or "J" for Dodge Challengers, for example. But these are not the body codes we are referring to (A, B, C, D, E).

I found this on Allpar.com:

Gil Cunningham [Chrysler engineer (1963-1982)], of the Chrysler 300 Club wrote: “The earliest of the body charts I have that specifically use the D body nomenclature is for 1964 MY. 1962 does not use it and I never located a 1963 chart so can't say about that. The D body designation is used up to C Series (1967) when the Imperial is listed as a C Body.”

Bill Watson agreed, “The 1967-75 Imperials were C bodies and Y car line.” They were listed in parts books as C bodies. Only in 1981 did the Y body appear.

On a side note, I found this comprehensive Guide to Chrysler Corp. Passenger Car Body Families on the Chrysler Museum/Chrysler Heritage Website years ago.

 

[MrMoparCHP]

Car Line
C-Chrysler
D-Dodge (full size)
P-Plymouth (full size)
Y-Imperial

B-Barracuda
L-Dart
V-Valiant
R-Belvedere
W-Coronet
X-Charger

Series (not body) found on things like the engine
A-1965
B-1966
C-1967
D-1968
E-1969


Alan

 

[vdk2010]

I think the "Car Line" found as the first letter of the VIN and also referred to in the parts book may be confused with the more or less official body designation. In the Parts book P stands for Plymouth Fury, D for Dodge Polara/Monaco, C for Chrysler and Y for Imperial (since the "I" could have been confused too easily with a "1"). Other Car Lines were "X" for Dodge Chargers or "J" for Dodge Challengers, for example. But these are not the body codes we are referring to (A, B, C, D, E).

I found this on Allpar.com:

Gil Cunningham [Chrysler engineer (1963-1982)], of the Chrysler 300 Club wrote: “The earliest of the body charts I have that specifically use the D body nomenclature is for 1964 MY. 1962 does not use it and I never located a 1963 chart so can't say about that. The D body designation is used up to C Series (1967) when the Imperial is listed as a C Body.”

Bill Watson agreed, “The 1967-75 Imperials were C bodies and Y car line.” They were listed in parts books as C bodies. Only in 1981 did the Y body appear.

On a side note, I found this comprehensive Guide to Chrysler Corp. Passenger Car Body Families on the Chrysler Museum/Chrysler Heritage Website years ago.

Very cool chart! I remember Stan posting parts of it before. According to this, the information about D-bodys I found were right. 57-66.

But the most important informationis , I still have a C-body, what means that this awesome forum is the right for me! ;)

 

[vdk2010]

I contacted PST about the pitman arm they're offering for the 69 Imperial and they say it's the Imperial specific one. I also checked their part number against the other C-body pitman arms they're offering and it's different.

And if noone here with a '69 Imperial will order one to check it, I will probably give mine to my cousin from NY and let her check it because sending it to germany and back if it's the wrong would be crazy expensive.

Unfortunately, they told me, they don't have the correct idler arm... just the bushings.

 

[kmccabe56]

The first character of my 1966 Imperial VIN starts with "Y".

So, why is this considered a "D"-body?

Initially, I believe it was just a case of "Size Matters". The bigger the car, the higher the body letter designation. At least until 1970 when the alphabet started going crazy. "E", then "X", then "R" for RWD stuff and "L", "K", "E", "G", "H" and "J" for FWD stuff and then once they thought they'd gone through the alphabet, they started with two letter designations. But that's a whole 'nother site than this.

 

[kmccabe56]

I think the "Car Line" found as the first letter of the VIN and also referred to in the parts book may be confused with the more or less official body designation. In the Parts book P stands for Plymouth Fury, D for Dodge Polara/Monaco, C for Chrysler and Y for Imperial (since the "I" could have been confused too easily with a "1"). Other Car Lines were "X" for Dodge Chargers or "J" for Dodge Challengers, for example. But these are not the body codes we are referring to (A, B, C, D, E).

I found this on Allpar.com:

Gil Cunningham [Chrysler engineer (1963-1982)], of the Chrysler 300 Club wrote: “The earliest of the body charts I have that specifically use the D body nomenclature is for 1964 MY. 1962 does not use it and I never located a 1963 chart so can't say about that. The D body designation is used up to C Series (1967) when the Imperial is listed as a C Body.”

Bill Watson agreed, “The 1967-75 Imperials were C bodies and Y car line.” They were listed in parts books as C bodies. Only in 1981 did the Y body appear.

On a side note, I found this comprehensive Guide to Chrysler Corp. Passenger Car Body Families on the Chrysler Museum/Chrysler Heritage Website years ago.

Isn't it fitting that this chart ends in 1998 when "Chrysler Corporation" ceased to exist thanks to that MF Eaton.

I was at Meadowbrook right after the announcement had been made that Eaton sold out to the nazis and he happened to be there and walked right by me. Never, ever felt so badly that I didn't have a gun.....

 

[70bigblockdodge]

The first character of my 1966 Imperial VIN starts with "Y".

So, why is this considered a "D"-body?

My Challenger Vin starts with a J its not a j body, if it is the value just went in the toilet.
Also D is after C,1965, and before E, 1970.