Hey all, I just inherited my great uncles car. Its a Chrysler not a Dodge but the guys at the dealership said this would be a good place to start. Its a 1964 Chrysler coupe. Great uncle bought it used when he got out of the army after vietnam. The title has to go through probate but he left it to me and my aunt told me to bring it home to get the farm ready for sale. It drives okay and is really cool but the brakes barely stop it. Its been in a barn for about 10 years. I pulled the front drums off and the brakes look really weird. Nothing like Ive ever seen. The back brakes have a big nut in the middle and the studs look like they are built in.

It says Chrysler but doesnt have any name like new yorker or newport. Id like to get it to be a fun driver as it doesnt have any rust and I remember going for rides in it. Watching the needle on the console move with the gas pedal was fun.

 

This sounds like a car I had many years ago. Does it have round emblems on the side of the roof next to the rear windows? Do they have a big letter in them? What engine does it have? Does it have air cleaners that stretch across the engine? Basically wall to wall motor? I'm thinking you may have a Letter car. Either a J or a K. The J is pretty rare but the K's are still desirable.

On the brakes, yeah, those are stinkers to work on. You have two wheel cylinders on each side. An upper and lower. They also aren't self adjusting. As for the rear, the brakes are more conventional but the drum can be a bear. I have a puller but those are so obsolete, finding a brake drum puller for a tapered axle will be hard. What you can do is loosen the center nut one or two turns. No more. Take the car out on a back road and swerve back and forth. This will sometimes pop the drum loose.

Mechanically, is the distributor in the front? Look on the flat block under the distributor. It will have some numbers stamped there. This will tell you what engine you have.

 

The engine has the distributor in the front. I thought it might be a 440 but I found 413 under the distributor. It has a regular air cleaner not a wide one. I looked at the front brakes and the drums are rusty inside so I don't think they are working at all. There is a top and bottomcylinder with a metal line going between them. there is an emblem on the side of the rear roof pillar. Another one like them on the trunk lid. They have red white and blue around the edge but the plastic is so dirty I cant read what it says in the middle. Does this help identify it?

 

This is sounding like you have a Non-Ram 300K. That's one of the true Letter cars. They were built from 1955 to 1965. I'll bet if you can polish the plastic emblems it will have a large letter K there. If it was a ram car, it would have two air cleaners and the carburetors would cross the engine on long tubes. The needle you talked about on the console would be the power meter. Basically a fancy vacuum gauge.

On your brakes, the front wheel cylinders sound like they are stuck. What you want to do is remove the shoes. Take a picture first so you can put them back. Put a C clamp on the upper wheel cylinder to hold it closed. Wrap a big baggie around the bottom cylinder and put both feet on the brake pedal. Grab the steering wheel and really ram your feet down. This should blow the cylinder apart so you can rebuild it. Remove the steel line and put a plug on the opening on the upper cylinder. repeat your feet work. Get a good hone and a wheel cylinder rebuild kit. You'll use half for each cylinder. After you get done with one side, do the other. Sand the drums to remove rust and your brakes should work better. I had one of these cars back in the early 90's and they are a blast. There used to be a couple of 300 Clubs that followed these cars.

 

Got off work and stopped by a parts place.Got wheel cylinder rebuild kit. I asked about new wheel cylinders but they aren't available. I also got new plugs and plugwires. They didn't have the condenser cap and rotor in stock. The guy at the counter said he would change it to electronic ignition. Is that hard to do? Itried the trick to blow the wheel cylinders apart on one side. I see why you said to use a bag. I have to reuse the piston to rebuild the cylinder andit would have gone flying. I removed the bottom one and plugged the top one and blew it apart the same way. They didn't have a brake hone in stock so another part run will be tomorrow. I'll do the other side when I have a hone and can put them back together. I'll try the lose rear hub nut when I get the front brakes working. Once I ge the brakes fixed, any tips on changing the ignition to electronic?

 

Clean the wheel cylinders with alcohol and hone them good. Lube them with brake fluid to reassemble and they will go right together.

As for the ignition, Chrysler used to sell a complete kit through the parts departments under the Mopar Performance name. You want the kit for the RB block. It has everything to convert except for some wire. Just be sure to use soap stone or sharpie to mark the distributor when you pull it out and mark the new unit the same. Do NOT use pencil as the graphite will cause arcing. It's also really easy to put the distributor in 180 degrees off. Use a timing light to finish the timing and it should purr like a kitten.

 

What you want is this "mopar performance P3690428" this is the kit for the RB blocks. Do a web search and who has the best price. Another thing you may want to consider is that cylinder heads made before the early 70's don't have hardened valve seats. Back before they did away with leaded gasoline it wasn't an issue, But today it is. I don't know how much you plan on driving it but using today's gas in it will wear the valves into the head. The lead in leaded gasoline "Tetraethyl" acted like a lubricant so this didn't happen. It wouldn't be a bad idea to go over the motor since it is 50+ years old. The timing gears had a plastic that was applied to them that broke off and found it's way to the bottom of the pan(and pick up screen). I'm sure the seals and gaskets are shot also. Any chance you can post pics of it?

 

The nylon gears didn't come around until the early 1970's when all the automakers were trying to make quieter engines. I've replaced many a 70's timing set with the nylon coming off. I always went with all steel like the earlier engines had. The metallurgy did leave something to be desired. The chains would usually stretch by 90,000 miles so a new one might be a good idea. A lot of the Chrysler Corporation engine back to the 1930's often had sodium filled valves. These were resistant to valve seat recession. I'm trying to remember if the non-ram cars had hydraulic or mechanical valves. I know the ram cars had mechanical and it was a several hour job to adjust them as the cross ram induction had to come off.

 

I got slowed by the holidays butfinally have good breaks. I tried losing the rear nut a turn and the drums popped lose right away. I had to replace the rubber hoses too since one came apart in my hand. It was wet so that probably was part of my problem. I ordered a conversion kit for the ignition so that will be going in soon. Now I need to get some new tires as the ones on there go flat over a few days. Any suggestions?

 

Its been a month but the old car is back on the rode. I did the breaks, changed the ignition, got all the old gas out and put a new exhaust on it. I had some trouble with the distributor and got it off one cylinder. I moved the wires one spot and it runs great now. Ill get it right when the weather is warmer and dryer. My neighbor helped me with the plug wires and he told me about big magnets on the tank. He sad to put them where the gas flow would go over them. IDK why, but he was helping so I didnt say anything. Anybody know why?

My grampa asked me to show the car to my great aunt. I went by and she wanted to go for a ride. When they got married its the car they went to florida in. She started crying when I started it as it had straight exhaust and the police made my great uncle fix it. She said the loud mufflers took her back to her honeymoon. When I took her home she was crying and hugging me and said she was glad I got the car. She signed the title and gave me all the papers to transfer it. For an old lady shes really strong.