For some reason, the horns were not working. One thing I did not know was that on the 300F, the key must be in the ON position for horns to blow. That confused things for a while. Another odd thing was the horn relay used in 1960 and 61. I was familiar with the 1962-1965 style so I had to learn this 1960. The service manual was some help. It turns out there are two 12 volt feeds to the relay -- the blue wire and the violet wire. The blue powers the relay, the violet powers the horns (green wires). The black wire with the bullet terminal is the ground that runs to the horn button. With the key on and the ground terminal jumped to the battery negative post, you should get horns. I didn't. Eventually I concluded it was the relay that was bad. A spare relay from stores solved the problem.

The next project was to replace the oil pan. Somehow the pan on there received a major dent to the base. I had a spare pan, had it painted at the body shop. The new pan looked perfect. To remove the oil pan, drain the oil, remove the steering link at the idler and at the pittman, remove the motor mount bolts at the frame, remove the exhaust at the manifolds and two of the four heat tubes at the rams. Jack up the engine. We used a rope around the water pump and the engine hoist. Now you have the clearance to slide out the pan. Install the new pan, reverse and install the exhaust. And that is where the argument started. Nothing lined up. It was as if these exhaust parts didn't belong on this car. Yet we had just removed them, and they came off with no tension, no twang, nothing that would say they were under any strain. It took more than an hour to get the exhaust back in. I learned a long time ago that exhaust work is full of gremlins. But the new pan is in and looks perfect.

Moving to the rear of the car, we removed the gas tank. 17 years ago, replacement tanks were not available and so the restorers used the original. Pulling the sender revealed rust, so a new tank and sending unit was installed.

With an aux gas can feeding the fuel pump, it was time to fire the engine. See the video here. The oil pressure came up nicely, she settled down to a reasonable idle. The transmission engaged all gears (on jack stands), the speedometer registered. We need to look at the brakes and the charging system but the to-do list is becoming short.

The generator ended up requiring a complete rebuild. The repair shop polarized the generator and so the installation was quick and easy. We found one heater hose chafed from the generator (hose was too long) and it was replaced. Things are progressing nicely.

In May of 2021 we had the first road test of the car, albeit only up and down the driveway. We found the radiator top tank was leaking under pressure, the right front turn signal had stopped working, the dome lights and the Electroluminescent lights were out, and the heater buttons were stuck. The radiator went off to the repair shop and came back good as new. The turn signal was a head scratcher because we knew it had been working. The lamp was fine. We had a hint it was a ground problem when we noticed the right turn signal indicator on the dash was lit when the parking lights were on. When the housing was removed, we found the underside of the fender was painted so well that the housing was having a hard time finding ground. An inconspicuous jumper wire from the housing to the body provided the ground and the system once again worked fine.

The stuck heater button is a common issue on these cars. I have replaced half a dozen or more. New button assemblies can be found on the web or you can have yours rebuilt by John Grady at Forward Look Parts. The replacement job is also on the web with this video.

Let's see what is up with the brakes. The master cylinder was dry when we got the car out of storage so a new master went on. The new master reservoir slowly lost fluid so there is a leak somewhere. The rear drums were removed. The shoes were dry and the wheel cylinder cups inspected; no leaks here.

The rear drums were removed. The shoes were dry and the wheel cylinder cups inspected; no leaks here. Things to check about brakes -- see that the return springs are anchored correctly and check the return springs for correct coil count. Return springs are different on the front brakes and maybe a previous brake job got them mixed up. The springs on this car are correct and properly mounted at the shoe. These shoes show good wear pattern.

On to the front brakes. The shoes were wet on the driver and on the passenger side. The wheel cylinder cups were inspected; no leaks. There is an "S" shaped pipe that connects the upper and lower wheel cylinders. Each fitting there took maybe 1/8 of a turn before going full tight. Both sides were sprayed with brake clean, front wheel bearings repacked and reassembled to test for leaks. As we wait for this to dry, let's move on to the lack of instrument panel lights.

The Electroluminescent (EL) panel lighting on the 60-62 Chryslers is really something. But it wasn't working so let's get into it. The first thing to do is pull the headlight switch to the parking light position and rotate the knob for maximum brightness. There is a rheostat in the switch that corrodes and sometimes heals itself with repeated back and forth rotation of the knob. We are looking for two things here -- do the EL lights come on and do the normal 12 volt bulbs that illuminate the transmission and heater push buttons come on. If the push button lights come on and the EL does not, you have a problem likely to be the oscillator. If neither comes on, the problem is likely the headlight switch. The wiring diagram will help understand how things work. See that the wire E2 comes off the headlight switch terminal "I" and feeds both the oscillator and the push button lights. There is also a picture of the headlight switch with the wires still installed. You can see it is pretty easy to bypass the switch and feed power with a jumper to each wire. We supplied battery power to the orange wire and got the pushbutton lights to work but not the EL. That says the oscillator is bad. A new oscillator went in and we did the same bypass, now the EL works and the pushbutton lights work. The headlight switch is being sent out for repair. The headlight switch is unique to 60 and 61 and apparently there were two styles as shown. The wiring connections are different but easy enough to figure out.

New shoes for the front brakes were installed along with a final bleed. No leaks and a nice brake pedal, ready to go.

The repaired headlight switch from JC Auto was installed and the panel lights work once again.

As we complete the project, front wheel bearings were adjusted. The service manual (page 8 of Lubrication and Maintenance) has this information:

They changed the spec a few years later -- the 1963 manual says: tighten the wheel bearing adjusting nut to 90 in lb while rotating the wheel. Position the lock nut on the adjusting nut so one pair of the cotterpin slots align with the hole in the spindle. Back off the adjusting nut and lock assembly to the next slot and install the cotterpin. Since wheel bearing failures are few and far between, I'd surmise either method works just fine.

Checking things on the list. We had the engine up to temperature and checked the repaired radiator for leaks (none) and the temperature gauge on the instrument panel. How about some new tires too --

Temperature gauge needle, ignition on accessory, cold.

Temperature gauge needle, ignition on accessory, warm.

P235 14 inch radial from Coker Tire.

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July 2021

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Virgil in Texas, August 2021