Been off a while. School is stomping a mudhole through me (and I still have one more semester to go. How do these kids here do it?!) Been daily-driving the Imperial locally for the most part, minus one exceptional trip to Phoenix/Scottsdale (more on that in a minute...) It's been doing fine for the most part, plenty of squeaks and rattles to keep me awake for a while, but nothing that has kept the car from being driveable. For the most part.
I have been having trouble keeping coolant in the 323. This has been a common occurrance since the motor was freshened, but the source has changed. It used to be around the thermostat neck housing on the Edelbrock intake. Now I'm not sure if it's a heater hose, or a split coolant hose. I clean it up, start it up and it magically disappears. I drive it and it looks like Slimer from Ghostbusters went through the fan and all over the engine. This one will piss me off until I find and fix it. Odd thing though, the coolant level isn't dropping. Earlier on, I killed a thermostat and radiator cap because I forgot to rinse out the puke tank recovery system and what looked like cooked egg remnants choked out everything.
Front end rattles and shakes above 65mph on the speedometer. PST kit is planned, as well as a rim/tire swap...what's on the car now has been on three cars, starting with the "Warhammer" Diplomat I bought in 2005. Because yours truly was young and dumb, and drunk with power, I just bought 15x8 mags and figured they'd fit. The rims are so deep that any interior balancing weights get knocked off on the A-arms and I have to run 1/4" spacers on the front. The speedometer's accuracy is not only questioned but absolutely doubted...it is highly optimistic. Need to put the correct trans reader gear into it.
Now, back to that frontend for a second...Spring Break Friday I decided to pick my wife up from the airport in Phoenix in the Imperial, go to the GoodGuys Scottsdale show, hit up the Pavillions for the weekend cruise, and head home. Here's how it went, in short:
Airport to GoodGuys: She likes it. Good, since she was PISSED when I bought it.
GoodGuys to Pavillions: Loves it. Except when I did a donut in a back intersection, lost, trying to find a restaurant with a group of friends.
Things are great! But that's where it ends. After dinner we went up to the Pavillions. Excepting a handful of rice and three rather blah cars, nobody was there but us. So we headed home. About ten miles into the trip, in North Phoenix, I go to make a steering correction in lane and about :pottytrain5: when the steering wheel travels 120 degrees before input registers into a direction. I limp off the 101 Freeway quick, fast and in a hurry and call my friend, telling him to bring a jack. Turns out the Pitman arm castle nut and cotter pin had enough of my shenanigans and had packed up and left for Aruba. The Pitman arm was holding on by less than 1/4". A run to the parts store fixed it, and that cotter pin ain't coming off without a die grinder. Drove fine back North, but the damage was done. The Imperial is now "Satan's Chrysler", "Christine's Bitchy Sister", or less dramatically, "Your ----ing car."
Currently it's splitting DD duty with the new arrival, a 2006 300C, and not much is going to happen between now and the end of summer. Plans include interior work, stereo work, the PST kit and some minor restoration work before graduation in December.
I have been having trouble keeping coolant in the 323. This has been a common occurrance since the motor was freshened, but the source has changed. It used to be around the thermostat neck housing on the Edelbrock intake. Now I'm not sure if it's a heater hose, or a split coolant hose. I clean it up, start it up and it magically disappears. I drive it and it looks like Slimer from Ghostbusters went through the fan and all over the engine. This one will piss me off until I find and fix it. Odd thing though, the coolant level isn't dropping. Earlier on, I killed a thermostat and radiator cap because I forgot to rinse out the puke tank recovery system and what looked like cooked egg remnants choked out everything.
Front end rattles and shakes above 65mph on the speedometer. PST kit is planned, as well as a rim/tire swap...what's on the car now has been on three cars, starting with the "Warhammer" Diplomat I bought in 2005. Because yours truly was young and dumb, and drunk with power, I just bought 15x8 mags and figured they'd fit. The rims are so deep that any interior balancing weights get knocked off on the A-arms and I have to run 1/4" spacers on the front. The speedometer's accuracy is not only questioned but absolutely doubted...it is highly optimistic. Need to put the correct trans reader gear into it.
Now, back to that frontend for a second...Spring Break Friday I decided to pick my wife up from the airport in Phoenix in the Imperial, go to the GoodGuys Scottsdale show, hit up the Pavillions for the weekend cruise, and head home. Here's how it went, in short:
Airport to GoodGuys: She likes it. Good, since she was PISSED when I bought it.
GoodGuys to Pavillions: Loves it. Except when I did a donut in a back intersection, lost, trying to find a restaurant with a group of friends.
Things are great! But that's where it ends. After dinner we went up to the Pavillions. Excepting a handful of rice and three rather blah cars, nobody was there but us. So we headed home. About ten miles into the trip, in North Phoenix, I go to make a steering correction in lane and about :pottytrain5: when the steering wheel travels 120 degrees before input registers into a direction. I limp off the 101 Freeway quick, fast and in a hurry and call my friend, telling him to bring a jack. Turns out the Pitman arm castle nut and cotter pin had enough of my shenanigans and had packed up and left for Aruba. The Pitman arm was holding on by less than 1/4". A run to the parts store fixed it, and that cotter pin ain't coming off without a die grinder. Drove fine back North, but the damage was done. The Imperial is now "Satan's Chrysler", "Christine's Bitchy Sister", or less dramatically, "Your ----ing car."
Currently it's splitting DD duty with the new arrival, a 2006 300C, and not much is going to happen between now and the end of summer. Plans include interior work, stereo work, the PST kit and some minor restoration work before graduation in December.
