- Joined
- Nov 14, 2010
- Messages
- 28,156
- Reaction score
- 27,320
Service manual should be helpful but I’m not sure that there’s enough there for someone who’s never done it before to be able to use it as a step by step guide. This is from the ‘67 FSM.
Meet Gertrude: the Newest Morris Mopar, 1968!
- Thread starter Gerald Morris
- Start date
Gerald Morris
Senior Member
When I get a chance with clean hands to handle the phone/camera. Today, I have a LOT of upkeep to do.
Gerald Morris
Senior Member
We'll get to know her better tonight, after my Final washup for today. I have about 1 ****-TON of crawling under old Mopars to do today. Will post when I have free time again.
Gerald Morris
Senior Member
I'll have to peruse this stuff and see. I ordered he Detroit Iron CD for 1968 last night. I loathe paying out for labor, but IFF it saves me enough time, it will be worth it. BIG THANKS for this!
cbarge
World Famous Barge in a Budget
The engine would be nothing special. Standard 2bbl 383 with 9.2 compression.
But the CAP pollution schtuff could quite possibly be part of the "export" equation.
Not knowing the cars history it have been added to conform to state law/emmision standards back in the day.
Gerald,
Since the same family had the car since 1977 would they have any prior history? Previous owner before them?
She is one heckuva car with a heckuva story!
Just looked in the '68 Chrylser parts book. There is a 383 2bbl "L.C., Export" piston listed, but found no VIN engine code for such. Further mystery . . . LH HP manifold for the 383 4bbl and 440HP also fit the LH of the 383 2bbl 3-spd manual trans cars, according to the same '68 Chrylser parts book. FWIW
Enjoy!
CBODY67
Enjoy!
CBODY67
Gerald Morris
Senior Member
UPDATES: 09/25/2021 A.D.: Changed the crankcase oil for 1st time in ~ 12 yrs I reckon by appearance of old stuff. Worse, the previous owners, while I praise them in most regards for their excellent upkeep used FRAM filters. Oh well, I too did so once. Anyway, since I'd just changed Mathilda's oil 1 week before she met her Nemesis, I just drained her, took the NAPA/WIX filter too, and recycled the Lucas Hotrod & Classic oil I'd just put in Tilly into Trudy. She purred her gratitude for this. Transmission HORRIBLY LOW, as in dry stick! Poured 1.5 quarts of Type F in, as that's what I had lying around. At least I got Trudy's tranny up to just 1 pint low. Will remedy immediately after finish of this entry.
Out w the 12 yrs OLD!
In w the proven GOOD!
Breather now properly installed, attached to crankcase oil cap. Figure I'll Clear-coat over the old labels on the breather, then mask off, repaint the rest in good hi temp resistant engine lacquer, black. Fuel filter WILL be relocated to behind alternator plate too.
Note the original style hose clamps on the breather tube! There are others still on this motor, here and there. EVERY ONE will be preserved and used.
Out w the 12 yrs OLD!
In w the proven GOOD!
Breather now properly installed, attached to crankcase oil cap. Figure I'll Clear-coat over the old labels on the breather, then mask off, repaint the rest in good hi temp resistant engine lacquer, black. Fuel filter WILL be relocated to behind alternator plate too.
Note the original style hose clamps on the breather tube! There are others still on this motor, here and there. EVERY ONE will be preserved and used.
Last edited:
Gerald Morris
Senior Member
No surprise in any of this. The exhaust appears to be factory original. Check out these pics:
Note how nicely they snaked the tube well around the circumference of that starter. I DO believe that MaPar Herself made and installed both tube and original manifold just so. I wonder how much back pressure delta exists between odd and even cylinders due to that HP manifold...
This Y is exactly the same as the original one on Mathilda, but unlike THAT one, THIS one hasn't so much as a pinhole leak. In some ways, it appalls me how badly these engines must strangle on these undersized exhaust tubes, BUT OHHHH does Gertrude SNEAK around the driveways and byways of our trailer park and the rest of this miserable barrio. Not even the modern stuff runs so quietly as this old MoPar pleasure cruiser. The torsion bar balloons appear to be in perfect condition, as does the crossmember, and the stub-frame rails. I used my metal punch quite a bit hunting for punk metal, happily to NO avail!
Not so much as a DIMPLE in that 14 gauge American steel frame rail! I'm a LOT happier about this purchase. Didn't really want a damned ragtop, BUT THIS WAS THE ONLY RUNNING C-BODY IN THE STATE IN OUR BUDGET!!!! God moves in Strange and Wondrous ways at times....
Gerald Morris
Senior Member
thethee
Senior Member
Incredible car but can someone please tell me what's wrong with the battery or circuit leads? 
I somewhat doubt that the LH exhaust manifold really helps or unbalances the flow, side to side, as backpressure does not really happen until WOT happens. Ages ago, a reader of CAR LIFE put a pressure/vac gauge on his later-'60s Coronet and discovered that real pressure does not happen until higher rpms and WOT, surprisingly. In the rpm ranges that the 383 2bbl normally sees, that makes backpressure a non-issue of sorts. On a 2bbl engine, the carb sizing is more of a limiting factor than anything else, typically.
In general, Chrysler had better exhaust systems than GM or Ford back then. From the cyl head to the end of the tail pipe. Pipe sizing was generally a notch or two larger, as the exhaust manifolds tended to be about flow rather than just getting the exhaust gasses to the end of the tail pipes, it seemed. Look, too, at the later-model GM pickup truck exhaust system. Other than modern advances in muffling and individual-port tubular exhaust manifolds, the sizing is generally a bit smaller than Chrysler used and they are getting over 300 net horsepower with a single exhaust system on a litttle bit smaller engine. Horsepower and quietness. FWIW
Glad everything is continuing to look good on your purchase and salvation of a rare, low-production number, Chrysler convertible!
Enjoy!
CBODY67
In general, Chrysler had better exhaust systems than GM or Ford back then. From the cyl head to the end of the tail pipe. Pipe sizing was generally a notch or two larger, as the exhaust manifolds tended to be about flow rather than just getting the exhaust gasses to the end of the tail pipes, it seemed. Look, too, at the later-model GM pickup truck exhaust system. Other than modern advances in muffling and individual-port tubular exhaust manifolds, the sizing is generally a bit smaller than Chrysler used and they are getting over 300 net horsepower with a single exhaust system on a litttle bit smaller engine. Horsepower and quietness. FWIW
Glad everything is continuing to look good on your purchase and salvation of a rare, low-production number, Chrysler convertible!
Enjoy!
CBODY67
FWIW not all export cars actually got exported, some might have been diverted to fill a customer order. i know of a barracuda that had export tags but never left the states. the then owners bought it new from a dealership
Gerald Morris
Senior Member
Incredible car but can someone please tell me what's wrong with the battery or circuit leads?
OK, if you look carefully at the starter relay, you will see that its a MANUAL starter relay, lacking the neutral safety switch connection. The NSS itself must be disabled, as the car runs along, goes into gear et al despite the NSS lead dangling in aether nnear the relay. This I shall remedy ASAP. I strongly suspect the trucker who flipped her to me to be the culprit here, as in the case of that Carter F & F* (Finagled & Fukt) carb that came with her. God be thanked my Stromberg still works very well! The tiny leak I imagined last month turned out to be the fuel line.
I'll take a closer pic of the relay if you want to look....
Gerald Morris
Senior Member
Thank YOU!
Gerald Morris
Senior Member
We all rejoice here, and doubtless will MUCH more once I get her covered properly!
Yes, Mopar exhausts, like damn near every other working component WERE superior! I saw that right away in my 1966 New Yorker back in 2004. THAT car, despite the rear main seal leak which damned her for me as the pneumonia, kidney stones, periodontal ROT and a CIA authored BLACKBALL on me all combined to deprive me of Mopar, guns, and finally house, and within a hair's breadth my life, converted me FOREVER from Ford to Mopar! Merely owning and driving that car for one year sufficed to show me how an automobile SHOULD BE DESIGNED!
God bless Will Wirtman.
thethee
Senior Member
Definitely would not have caught that. Nice car still
Gerald Morris
Senior Member
I figured that MIGHT have been Gertrude's case, BUT, wherever this car went, at one time she required a 110VAC plug-in coolant heater, which attaches to the normal plug on the passenger side of the block via the usual 5/8" heater hose, and runs into a factory Tee up in the heater hose above. THAT SUGGESTS SERIOUS COLD to this old Sonoran Desert reptile.
She might have just gone to Canada. Plenty cold up there, even now with global warming on and all. Just ONE BIG volcano can set that **** back several centuries. Oh well, another Forum for such....
thrashingcows
Senior Member
Cool car and I love the fact that it still have the steel rims with Chrysler specific poverty caps. Think this is the first 68 Chrysler I have seen with the OEM set-up still on it after all these years.
Gerald Morris
Senior Member
Pretty much. Somebody put damned Gabrielle Hi-jackoff air shocks in the back, but I'll attend to that **** God-willing before Turkeyday. Admittedly, Gertrude rides LOOOOOoooooow, which further impresses my neighbors, sabe? I hope to slightly improve the elevation with somewhat thicker 14" tires, but I suspect I'm already close to the max w these 215/75s on her. I PROBABLY can put those lovely new rear springs I bought for Tilly and installed just 5 months ago onto Gertrude sans issue, BUT be sure, I WILL check into my supposition here BEFORE wrenching. The rear springs would pick Trudi's arse up a couple inches, which would do her good on these barrio crater-gardens.
I'll keep these wheels, SAS! Nobody has original steel down here, which makes mine so much MORE valuable, aesthetically AND financially.
Similar threads
