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Brad Hogg's 1990 Chrysler Imperial 4-Door Sedan - Repairs


Background:

In August of 2002, I purchased this 1990 Imperial that had exceptionally high miles on it. It had 313,000 km. Although the car appeared to be in excellent shape, and seemed mechanically sound, when my mechanic did the safety inspection on it, it turned out to need quite a few items before it would pass. This page details those repairs.

The repairs included the following...

2002

2003

  • Drive Axle and Front Strut replacement

    2004

  • ABS Brakes Retrofit to Vacuum Power Brakes

    2005

  • Radiator Replacement

    One Legged Imperial One Legged Imperial One Legged Imperial
    Working in the Rain Working in the Rain Working in the Rain Working in the Rain

    Rear brakes


    Replacing the service brake rotors and linings is a snap!

    Replacing the parking brake linings is somewhat more difficult. This is because the parking brake system uses a small drum brake system that is built into the inside of the brake rotor hub.

    The hard part came in when I decided to change the parking brake linings as well as the service brake linings. You see, as with most rear disk brake systems, the parking brake is made up of a normal drum brake system that resides inside the rear brake rotor. When you remove the rotor, you can see the small brake linings for the parking brake. Replacing these is not all that hard although it is harder to do than the disk brake linings. The hard part really was finding/affording the replacement parts. The new brake shoes were only available from my dealer but of course they had a 'change-up'. Basically I had to buy new adjusting screws. Each screw consists of three parts, since I was replacing both sides, that is a total of 6 parts. Chrysler lists these parts at between $20.00 and $25.00 EACH! With Chrysler linings at $89.00, the total parts bill for replacing those little linings would have been about $225.00! I called around and found a better solution. I found a place in town that does re-lining. I took the small parking brake shoes down there and in a couple ways I had effectively new brake shoes for a grand total of $35.00.
    Rotor On Caliper Bolts Rotor Off Lugs Off Brake Springs Brake Shoe Assembly Parking Brake Cable
    Another complication was the fact that all four brake "adapters" on the car (one on each wheel), were somewhat worn and needed to be repaired or replaced.
    Brake Adapters
    I sent the parts to my cousin's machine shop and had him build up the worn areas with his welder. He shipped them back to me and I used my angle grinder to smooth down where he had welded them. The worn areas were the "rails" or "slides" where the brake linings sit on the brake adapter. It's very hard to explain because I don't know exactly what those parts are called. After I got the brake adapters ready, it was raining so I decided to paint them. I cleaned and dried them and sprayed a few coats of nice black paint on them. They look great!
    Rear Brake Adapter Face Rear Brake Adapter Back Rear Brake Adapter Back
    Rear Brake Adapter

    Rear Brake Assembled Parking Brake Parking Brake
    Parking Brake Assembly

    Rear Brake Assembled
    Rear Service Brake Assembly

    Rear ABS Sensor
    Rear ABS Sensor

    Rear shocks


    This car was available with three types of suspension systems. (Imperial, New Yorker, and Dynasty are all the same parts but not all systems were available on all models)
  • Standard Suspension:
    I think this suspension was available on the Dynasty and possibly New Yorker but I doubt it was an option on the Imperial. Regardless, it consists of the regular coil springs and shocks that you would find on any car.
  • Automatic load Leveling Suspension:
    This system, I believe was available on the New Yorker and Imperial only. Regardless, it consisted of the regular struts in front and coil springs with air shocks in the rear. It had an air compressor and leveling valve. This is the system that my Imperial has. I've opted to replace my rear shocks with High Performance Air Adjustable shocks. These seem to be affordable and will still offer me the convenience of rear axle load leveling
  • Automatic Leveling Air Ride Suspension:
    I believe this suspension was available on the New Yorker and Imperial only. Regardless, it consisted of air spring (bags or bladders) in place of the normal coil springs, and regular shocks. The tricky part of this system is that each of the front shocks and the right rear shock contained an integrated ride height sensor. This system has been known to be troublesome and is often removed from the car once it breaks down. Personally, I think it is a shame to remove the air ride from a car but I'm not facing the repair bills.

    I opted to buy the Automatic load Leveling Suspension. I really like the idea of having load leveling in my car. I comes in handy in my 78 when I have a back seat full of people and/or a trunk full of cargo. Anyway, the installation of these shocks is very straight forward. The hardest part was the fact that to remove the lower shock mounting bolt, you need a 15mm combination wrench. I don't have one. I used a crescent wrench on one side and then remembered I had a new, never been used, set of metric crow's foot wrenches. I was able to make use of that for the other side. For the top bolt, you need a 15mm and a 5/8 socket. I imagine two 15mm sockets would work if you had two but I don't and you HAVE TO use a socket in there because a wrench won't work. I used a swing bar on one end due to the tight confines. Nothing else to that, just wrench the thing off and push out the bolt...same on the bottom. The bottoms were quite tight.

    I noticed that the air fitting on the new shocks was slightly different than the old ones. I opted to not buy the air line kit when I bought the shocks because I thought it would just hook up. I guess I'll go buy that kit to make things easy.

    After I had all that installed, I decided to check out the air compressor system. I was horrified to see where Chrysler had mounted that compressor. It is behind the right rear wheel, in the mud, salt and dirt. It was in terrible shape. I'll be surprised if it works at all. I removed it from that location and will mount it, or a replacement should it not work, in the trunk area somewhere, along with a small air reservoir. You see, they apparently didn't use a reservoir on these systems and they didn't use a conventional leveling valve either. There was some sort of electric ride height sensor mounted on the right rear shock. That told the compressor when to run to boost the ride height and when to release air to lower the ride. I plan to install a regular ride height leveling valve such as those found in semi tractor trailer units. I did so on my 78 and it works great. There will be a little mounting and plumbing to do but it certainly isn't rocket science! I'll probably do that after I get the car to pass inspection. I'll just install the manual filler valve until then.

    Replacing the shocks themselves was fairly easy. Basically, remove the top and bottom mounting bolts and remove the old shock and then bolt the new one back in place. The only snag I ran into was the fact that I needed a 15mm open end wrench to remove the lower mounting bolt. I didn't have one but I did have a 15mm crow-foot wrench. I used that and my air impact to remove the lower mounting bolt. I used a ratchet and a swing bar to remove the top mounting bolt. The only other thing to do is connect the plumbing for the air supply. There is a stock sheath that runs from one side of the car to the other so I removed the old air line and inserted the new air line into it. I routed both air lines into the trunk area through the access opening where the wiring for the air compressor normally routes. I had already removed the air compressor from its location, directly behind the right rear wheel. I plan to install a different air compressor (because the stock one is not in good shape) in the trunk along with a small reservoir that I salvaged from my previous 1977 New Yorker Brougham parts car. I'll also leave this part till after the inspection. For now, there is just a tire valve stem type fitting in the trunk whereby I can inflate the shocks.
    Air Shocks Air Shocks Lower Shock Mount Lower Shock Mount - Rear View Air Compressor Air Compressor

    Front brakes


    Replacing the front brake rotors and linings is a snap!
    The only complication was the fact that all four brake "adapters" on the car (one on each wheel), were somewhat worn and needed to be repaired or replaced.
    Brake Adapters
    Removing the front brake adapter (sometimes called the steering knuckle) involves removing the following items from it...

    The steering knuckle will slide off the drive shaft simply by removing the front wheel bearing retaining nut. You also need to remove the brake caliper and rotor of course.
    I sent the parts to my cousin's machine shop and had him build up the worn areas with his welder. He shipped them back to me and I used my angle grinder to smooth down where he had welded them. The worn areas were the "rails" or "slides" where the brake linings sit on the brake adapter. It's very hard to explain because I don't know exactly what those parts are called. After I got the brake adapters ready, it was raining so I decided to paint them. I cleaned and dried them and sprayed a few coats of nice black paint on them. They look great! When reassembling this part, I also bought new seals for the steering knuckles. The seal goes where the drive shaft goes through the steering knuckle. It's fairly easy to replace by tapping the old one out and tapping the new one in.
    Front Brake Adapter Face Front Brake Adapter Back

    Left and right drive axles


    The drive axles on this car are quite easy to replace. I only ran into one snag during this repair. The two axles are identical. They are the same part number etc. The left axle came off the car very easily. The right one however was a different story. To remove the drive axle, follow these simple steps:

    Left Drive Shaft Right Intermediate Shaft Right Intermediate Shaft Right Intermediate Shaft Bracket Right Drive Shaft Opening (output shaft seal)

    Left and right ball joints


    I did this at the same time as I replaced the drive axles so as to not be doing the job twice.

    Left and right tie rod ends


    I did this at the same time as I replaced the drive axles so as to not be doing the job twice.

    Steering rack


    I did this at the same time as I replaced the drive axles so as to not be doing the job twice.
    Steering Rack Assembly K Frame Cross Member

    Rack Spline Rack Spline Spline and Roll Pin U-Joint Assembly U-Joint Spline U-Joint Upper Slip Joint Upper Steering Shaft
    Rack Assembly Rack Assembly Rack Bolted to K Frame Rack Bolted to K Frame Rack Bolted to K Frame

    K Frame Assembly Ready to Install Power Steering Pressure Hose Installed

    Power steering pressure hose


    I did this at the same time as I replaced the steering rack so as to not be doing the job twice.

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