Golden Lion Grrrages
1957 Chrysler 300C
Page 4

Talking with our friend Al about 300C power windows, he mentioned that the switches in his 1959 Chevy Impala looked pretty close to the ones in his C. Finding nice 1957-59 Chrysler window switches has become a tough and expensive job. Al looked into the Chevy switches and found you can buy brand new switches for low prices. He decided he would use those switches on his C.
I looked into his idea. Sure enough, new master switches, new single switches and new pig tail connectors are available on the web. I bought all the pieces needed for one car for $265 (tax and delivery included.) These are brand new pieces with great chrome and crisp, tight switch action.

I decided to install them on this car in a way that preserved original wiring should a future owner want to go back to Chrysler pieces. The Chevy switch bodies are too wide to fit into the existing metal surrounds. The best way to install them is to remove the original metal surround and install the new switch as an assembly. You use the new bracket tangs to anchor onto the door board. The switch sits fine, fills the hole and is secure. One note, the new Chevy switches are also tightly clamped together -- they do not release from their mounting bracket as easily as the Chrysler switches do.

On to the pigtail connectors. Since I didn't want to cut the Chrysler terminals or splice into the existing wiring, I looked into barrel or bullet connectors to join Chevy wires to Chrysler terminals. I didn't find any small enough (in the .125" diameter area) but I found that a 6-32 x 3/8 screw fits great. You screw it in, it bites and won't pull out. Put a nut on it to capture the blue connector. This is a solid connection that can be disassembled when needed. I have completed the 3 single switches and will get to the master when the window motor comes back. While I was into this project, I also cut Tyvek tube and placed it as a wear protector over the door edges where the wires come through. Probably over kill but....

Adjusting the side glass. The alignment of the driver and passenger door glass was poor. We started on the passenger side. We could see the quarter window was having trouble reaching full travel. On these cars, full travel of quarter windows is not only full up but also full forward.
The quarter window gasket had not been installed properly. Reinstalled for better fit, the quarter glass now comes full up. Now we can work on the gap between the front and rear windows.
On the front door, two rubber plugs to come off and two metal cap plugs. The A pillar needs to be loose. There is a lower slider bolt, a lower support along with the upper mount bolt. Two rear bolts loosen the rear track. The window can now be tilted inward.
We were able to get tilt and reduce the end gap but learned the upper gasket is strong enough to over power the tilt adjustment; it pushes the glass back out. By combining tilt with the front and rear window up stop adjustments, we got a much better fit although it is not perfect. I think any further improvement will have to come from quarter window tilting.
All of this effort is for closing the door with the window up. How about raising the window with the door closed? This presents a different set of problems. For years, replacement roof rail gaskets are made too stiff, too strong. it acts like a top stop and you can't get the window full up. I don't think there is a fix for this problem without a proper roof rail gasket.

On these quarter windows, they have a strange motion; at the end of their up cycle, the window moves forward more than it moves upward. This closes the gap between the front of the quarter window and the rear of the front window. For best sealing, you would move the quarter window top stop up as far as you can. But there is a danger -- these regulators can run the transmission drive gear right off the end of the moon gear and you are stuck. The window can not go backward to catch the moon and re-engage. You have to disassemble things until you get to the transmission which must be removed. Then the window can move back and the transmission can find the moon gear. This is a lot of work, plus one of the transmission bolts is not accessible. You can disconnect the regulator from the window, or you can drill an access hole for the bolt. The point being, it is a lot of work. You are better off being conservative in your top stop adjustment. We have a video here.

It was very cold outside, low of minus 2 and high of 18, but it was nice inside the garage so I decided to work on the wiper motor. I got out the electrical diagram. The switch is pretty simple once you remove the wires for the washer pedal. Feed is black wire with white stripe going to what I marked as "1". There is a terminal next to it I marked "A" which goes to the pedal. The rest of the wires are in bundle connectors that install only one way. The feed wire comes from the accessory post on the ignition switch.
I was able to snake the wires out of the dash. They had run up over the defroster duct which was binding the loom. Able now to remove the whole assembly, I hooked it to aux battery on the bench. It works with feed to "1" and ground the motor. In order to test for park, turn the switch off. It will continue to run until you ground the switch body, then it reverses and shuts off. "Park" works fine. Checked for interference of drive nut on mount screws, all is clear. The motor should be grounded to the mounting plate but this one is not. I added a jumper ground wire. I took a look at the dash mount plate for the wiper motor. Sure enough, they have a mix of 1/4-20 and 1/4-28 bolts. I retapped all four to 1/4-20 and got 4 correct bolts. Even with the re-tap, they fit good. If when I install the wiper and the bolts don't have enough bite, there is room behind to install nuts for secure mount.
We have a video of the fun here.

We will be installing new wiring soon so I thought I would get ahead of the game and install a mechanical brake light switch. These mechanical versions came out in 1961 and are much more reliable than the hydraulic switches. I take a switch from any newer Chrysler, modify the bracket, and install it by the brake pedal.
For new wiring on these old cars, the two primary suppliers are YnZ and Rhode Island Wiring. I bought the tail light harness from YnZ and the engine-instrument harness from Rhode Island. The tail harness arrived first. Installation is straight forward. You re-use the original tail lamp sockets but new terminals are provided. The interesting thing about 57-59 Chrysler is the trunk light. There is no switch by the trunk lid like you see on 1960 and up. Instead, there is a "Mercury" switch built into the trunk lamp socket. It is not obvious this switch is there. The idea is that the light goes on only when the lid is raised and the orientation of the lamp socket changes to engage the switch. If you happen to be checking the trunk socket for continuity, remember it has to be oriented properly to trigger the switch.

Since we are doing wiring, might as well take a look at the dome lights. The circuit for these things is different in that it is unfused and always hot. They are fed by a pink wire from a junction in the harness at the trunk kick up area. I add an in-line fuse there just for safety. That pink wire snaking its way up to the dome lights runs under the head liner and over several sharp edges, so a fuse is a good thing. To the dome lights. I was dismayed to find DUM DUM on the passenger side light, both on the front and on the back sides of the bezel. The headliner is new, and DUM DUM got on it. Careful cleaning got it all off. Both bulbs in the dome sockets were bad. I replaced with new. Installation of those lamps is difficult due to limited access and that you have to rotate the base over two connectors, not just one. I use a tiny screwdriver or an awl to help with the final rotation. Bulbs installed, both domes work. On these cars, dome lights only work from the switch on the driver side dome light bezel; they do not go on with door switches. While we were working in the area, we also reinstalled the coat hooks which were in a bag in the trunk.

Chasing the engine oil leaks. Looking at oil lines behind the distributor, I took a close look at the Y connector at the back of the block. There are two lines here, one for the AC solenoid and one for the dash gauge. On cars without AC, there is only one line, for the dash gauge. Here is a picture of a non AC 392. Imagine the engine installed in the car, and the limited access you have to that area.
I decided to remove and plug the line to the AC solenoid to remove the possibility of an oil leak in that area. Plugs are 3/16" hex head inverted flare plug Dorman 785-450D. The connections on that line were tight but while working there, the connection on the dash oil pressure line came apart. I dressed that joint; it is now strong and secure. It is possible that is the oil leak but we won't know until the next time it is running. Degreased that area to make it easier to see oil leaks. We also plugged the oil dip stick hole at the block temporarily. On a warm day we got it running and were delighted to find no oil leaks from the engine. Video here.


Checked the differential. It was 1/2 quart low but no obvious signs of pinion leak. This is not a limited slip ("Sure Grip") differential. Limited slip was introduced in mid year. Checked the front turn signal lenses, cleaned and added polish. The housings are bright and the bulbs test OK, sockets look recent. Did you know: original lenses were made with Mercury. We can't do that today. Repop lenses are not quite as clear and bright as originals.

Let's tackle the gas tank. I noted there was no ground strap over the sender outlet. This may be the reason for no reading at the gauge. The rubber fuel line at tank is old and hard. I could hear some gas sloshing in the tank but not sure how much. Loosened the gas tank strap nuts (they are at the back on 57). The 57 tank has a drain plug (1963 was the last with a drain). There was 17 gallons in the tank. Minus fuel, the tank is removed after removing the filler pipe grommet. The outside of the tank is in good shape. Removing the sender, the inside of the tank is spectacular. The sender is an old one and still has a cork float. Testing the Ohm reading, it says 30-200. The new sender I ordered is wrong at 10-70 Ohms, but should work on a 1960 - 1964 tank.

We had a warm enough day to roll the car outside, hook up radiator flush kit and flushed. Ran the water for 10+ minutes, I didn't see tons of dirt come out. We rolled the car back inside and added new coolant.
Noted from the green C that the pass rear trunk cardboard panel goes straight up. It is not curled over at the top so no support is needed. I changed this one, it fits fine and looks good.

I noticed one of the nuts on the valve cover (passenger side) was not sitting down. Another case of somebody trying to put a coarse thread nut on a fine thread shaft. The fine thread was damaged but might be saved if I can get a die on it. The valve cover has to come off for the die to fit and that is when I found two bolts on the cylinder head! I am glad I took off the cover. The bolts had not been there too long and had not done any damage. I was able to dress the thread and save the stud. These studs are fine thread (5-16-24) on one end and coarse thread (5/16-18) on the other.

Just to be safe, I removed the other valve cover to check for loose parts on the cylinder head. There were none. I did notice that the spark plugs were still with their base gaskets. On Hemis, the spark plug tubes act as the gasket and the ones on the plugs are supposed to be removed. A quick cut with wire cutters, and all is well.
On the driver valve cover, there is the bracket which is the coil support. It has two bolts to hold the extension plate (which is missing on this car). One of those bolts had damaged threads. I was able to run a die and salvage the bolt (1/4-20).


Here is the third video of the correction series.

To page five