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My 1953 looks like this. Now I know why my back up lights don’t work. Lol. Nothing hooked up to it.

5 cars out of over 100 at a local event, made the newspaper. My Windsor made the cut!

Just to clarify. You dropped the tranny? I assume removed the shift linkage and cover on the side. Found the issue by viewing through window that was created when the shift linkage was removed? Am right to assume the rear section of the tranny was not removed? Thx.

@Worden18 Someone donated the ‘28 Dodge to my local vintage car club. We set up regular work bees to gather help and fix up the car. Various tasks were assigned to members who showed up at the work bees. Depending on the skill level of each member. As the project developed I was asked to tackle the brakes. With assistance from another club member, a retired engineer, we did so. The brakes worked well when we were done but needed more tweaking. The car pulled a bit to the right when braking. So I volunteered to work on addressing that. I asked if I could drive the car home from the car event yesterday to work on it. I was given the ok. They laughed when I thanked them. They said, “You’re the brake guy! Who else do you think is going to do this?” So here we are. I did some adjusting and testing today. I gained some improvements then I went backwards again. Time to pull a wheel as it appears the shoe on the left front is not concentric to the spindle. I am going back in there this evening for a look and see if I can learn how to set it up right.

I’m feeling spoiled this week as I have a ‘28 Dodge Brothers car in the garage. Keeping my Windsor company. I drove it home, it belongs to my Vintage Car Club. I am setting up the mechanical brakes. They are due for an adjustment. The car pulls to the right when braking. You might notice a cool front plate I located for my ‘53. Michigan 1953. Sort of a birth certificate for the old car. I wanted something other than the dull 1953 plate from my Province. The black and white from Michigan looks great. Plates like this are not often seen around here so it will gather attention.

Excellent info! Thanks so much for taking the time to write it up and educate us.

Have a read here. Also suggest you search youtube for the slide show that Chrysler produced. Its on there and quite good. http://www.imperialclub.com/Repair/Lit/Master/012B/index.htm

If you watched my video I posted earlier, you’ll see a tapered roller bearing pressed on to 1 axle shaft. I am feeding grease into it. This bearing is cone shaped. It has no outer race yet on it. Also known as the cup part of the bearing. The axle shaft with outer bearing pressed onto it is placed inside the axle housing. It is held snugly at the diff end by the inner bearing and splines. The outer end, tapered bearing cone pointing outward, needs a home to rest and support the axle. The tapered bearing cup gets pushed into place and seats nicely against the cone roller bearing. How tight you push the cup in, or not, is restricted by the shims. You are pushing the cup into its final resting place against the cone when you bolt down the brake backing plate. After everything is bolted down, the play you feel on the axle when you push/pull on it is the clearance between the bearing cone and cup. Pull you axles. Clean an inspect the outer bearings. You’re in that far, I’d replace the bearings with new. New inner & outer seals too. New brake backing plate dust seals too. Well, then you’re in that far. Hows the brakes? Lol. How about the diff housing gasket?...All a great learning opportunity.

I uploaded a few videos with some explanations, when I serviced my rear wheel bearings. Grease and future service topics are discussed too. https://youtu.be/2TlQvMxLeEY

Following up: Today we arrived in Reno as the sun was rising. About 6 AM. We drove non-stop (aside from fuel stops) through the nite. About 1600 kilometers in 16.5 hours travel time. We took turns driving and sleeping. We found an iHop and settled into breakfast. We were at the National Auto Museum’s doors when they opened at 9:30 AM today. We were pretty excited. We took about 4 hours to tour the museum. I certainly could spend more time there again in the future. 4 hours was about right for my Son and I based on our previous 24 hr travel schedule. Admission was $12 each. There was ample free parking. The museum and its contents were wonderful. There seemed to be a considerable percentage of cars that were pre-1930ish. I saw my first Airflow, Tucker, Thomas, Frankilin, Stanley & White steamers here. First Silver Ghost and many more. I quite enjoyed the gas lamp era antique cars. The tiller equipped horseless buggies too. Rarely ever seen it seems, where I reside. I can’t recall all the exact specs on the museum right now. There were 4 main viewing areas with several cars in hallways surrounding the main theartres as well. Understanding that spend a lot of time around our era Mopars here, I didn’t see enough of them at the museum. Notable to me were the 1915 Dodge Brothers car. The Huge Desoto station wagon, 1947 If I recall. The black 1935 Airflow coupe was wonderful. Seeing the Knight sleeve-valve engine, which was a working display, was impressive. The 1907 “Great Race” winning Thomas Flyer was great to see and enjoy. I know there are many, many notable cars I’m not mentioning here. There were just too many to mention them all. Just too much for this rookie to absord in 1 visit. Next time through the museum I will: -Ensure I am well rested & fresh -Budget yet more time -Likely go solo, to comfortably linger longer There will be a next time. As I will be back. A marvelous array of cars that mattered, all in gathered one place.

I was surprised to learn that the New Yorker, parked beside my windsor, was only about 4”-6” longer overall length. The hood was certainly longer, but the Windsor has a longer trunk.

A friend dropped by yesterday. We both attended my local car club Easter Parade and Shown ‘n Shine. There were 108 registered cars. Great turn out for our area. Many spectators came to check out all the cars. a few old Mopars. Maybe 4, I think it was. 1948 New Yorker. Straight 8. Original paint. We had a great day.

Fluid drive, and fluid torque drive are two different systems. Fluid drive is a sealed fluid coupler. It's not a torque converter. Fluid drive does not multiply torque. My '53 Windsor Deluxe has a Fluid Torque Drive system, The Fluid torque drive (FTD) torque shares common oil with the engine oil. Oil travels though passages in the engine block, out the rear. Into the torque converter that does actually manipulate torque. Oil returns and is dumped in to the engine oil pan. Constantly circulating and cooling the oil. It takes about 13 quarts of oil at a service. The FTD block cannot easily be substituted with a non-FTD block. If the torque converter was removed, and the car converted to either a fluid drive, or the tranny also removed and a 3 speed installed, that block could be used in my car. I am not prepared to do that.

Tough crowd here...I’ll keep it in mind for future posts. I realize what I could have horded off that engine. Then scrapped the rest. I could have taken if from the buyer who actually needed it for his old Mopar. I could have scrapped the block. Kinda selfish isn’t it?

Why would I buy something I don't plan to use? It's not like I could just pop in the back seat, take it home and throw it in the basement if I never used it. There was a guy lined up behind me to buy it. Why feel bad for the seller? The seller was unsure what he had. I let him know. He was grateful and thanked me. In my experience an informed buyer is a smart buyer. I don't have the space nor inclination to buy large components to store around my house just incase some day I can jimmy-rig something together.

Well, I measured the stroke. Indeed it was 4 1/2" making it a 250 CI sized engine. I looked the rear of the block. There were no oil ports for the engine fed fluid torque drive. So I assume this engine was married up to either a 3 speed manual, or a sealed fluid drive unit, or maybe even the automatic? I need the engine fed type. I passed on it. Another buyer was right behind me and planned to take it if I passed. Odd though, the black stamped number, left side rear of the block on my car read 1400229-1. The exact same number was stamped on this 250 block. These Mopar guys, I wish they'd used the same monikers, year over year for the types of drives offered. I am looking at an original sales brochure here from 1953. This is what they said in 1953: Transmission: Windsor Standard Transmission, Manual. Windsor Deluxe Fluid Matic with hydrauliclly operated transmission. (Is this implying the sealed fluid drive, non actual torque multiplier type?) NY'r & NY'r Deluxe: Fluid-Matic Drive, with Hydrauliclly operated transmission. (Is this to implying the fluid drive, non actual torque multiplier type?) Custom Imperial & Crown Imperial: Fluid Torque Drive Then the brochure goes on to say: New Chrysler Torque Converter, with hydraulically operated, controlled type transmission, standard on Custom & Crown Imperial. Available on other models at extra cost. It seems to me my '53 was built with the Fluid Torque Drive. Engine Fed actual torque converter. Factory option. An extra cost option. The specs and options on the transmissions are still unclear. What is the difference between Fluid-matic, and Fluid Torque Drive?

On my way now go inspect. Need to somehow ensure has rear block oil passages for engine fed torque converter. Will report back. Excited to go see this.

Seller says engine is not seized and will bar over. I think I'll take a few times and go measure the stroke. That will tell me what I need to know I think. My 1953 265 engine SN starts with C53.

Thanks. Right! The rear plug. A small wood dowel would do it, if It I can bar it over.

This just came in. C54. Meaning?

Local classifieds have revealed a Mopar 250 CI flat head engine. No SN provided (I asked seller to provide). Just a photo shown and claims that it is a Mopar flathead from the 50's. The price is reasonable at $148 USD or best offer. It's all there except the carb they claim. It does read "Spitfire" on the cylinder head. Maybe this offers some clues? I am interested as I am wondering if this could make for an interesting spare parts engine for my 53 Windsor Deluxe. It has a 265 CI engine. Comparing the two engines it seems that the bores are identical at 3 7/16". The Stroke on the 250 is 4 1/2". The 265 gets 4 3/4". I wonder if the block and head are the same? Compression ratio is listed the same at 7:1. It seems to me that the 250 was used in earlier 1950 Chryler Windsors. Up to 1953 Desotos too. I happen to have a 1949 service manual. I see that the 1949 C45 Royal and C45 Windsors are listed with the 250 CI engine. The 250 is rated at 116 HP & 208 ft lbs of torque.My 265 is rated at 119 HP & 218 ft lbs of torque. Some points I am interested in learning more on are: Crankshaft maybe the same just 1/4" shorter rods in the 265? Cylinder Head and block the same? I would need to confirm cylinder head length. I suspect both are the 25" long heads. For the price. It could make for a good spare parts engine. Thoughts? Thanks. Here is a pic of the claimed 250 for sale. If I'm lucky it could actually be a 265.

51K is closer to the invested hours. Let alone cash output. Lol. Go for it. I sure don’t see many Desotos around here. Pizzaro’s General, Desoto. The Conquistador.

I have my OEM Moapr 1953-1954 Parts manual open here. There are 3 different transmission options listed for 1953-1954. 1. Three Speed Manual 2. Presto-Matic with Pin Type Syncronizer 3. Power Flite The "Presto-Matic", It appears, is the M6 tranny in this book. According to the parts book, the optional Presto-Matic transmission assembly, part number 1408475, with Torque Converter is shared with some the following 6 cylinder and 8 cylinder cars, within certain Serial Number ranges. S18 Desoto Powermaster 6 cylinder Canadian Built S20 Desoto Powermaster 6 cylinder, USA Built C60 Chyrsler Windsor Deluxe 6 cylinder, Canadian Built C62 Chrysler Windsor Deluxe, 6 CYLINDER USA Built D44 Coronet 8 Cylinder, Canadian Built D50 Dodge Royal, 8 Cylinder, USA Built D48 Dodge Coronet 8 Cylinder D53 Dodge Royal 8 Cylinder S16 Desoto Firedome, 8 Cylinder Canadian Built S19 Desoto Firedome 8 Cylinder USA Built The following 8 cylinder cars with the presto-matic M6 transmission option, has a different transmission part number 1324616. Maybe these are different inside than the 1408475 above? Reviewing the parts listings though, I don't see different part numbers for individual parts used in these tranny's below, or above, listed here. C56-2 New Yorker Deluxe Canadian Built C63 New Yorker Deluxe USA built C58 Imperial C64 *Unsure what model this is C59 Crown Imperial C66 *Unsure what model this is Also noted: *Presto-Matic transmisisons were used up tp the following engine SN's: US Built C58 4 door sedan. Town Sed. after C58-8-63900 also intermittently from C53-8-47701 to C53-8-63900 up to C53-8-50163. ...I think. The book has interesting layout. It is not the easiest data to get straight. Someday I may be forced to sort this all out. I have a spare C56 New Yorker tranny that I pulled apart to learn its workings. I own a 1953 C60-2 Windsor Deluxe with the Presto-matic & torque converter. If I ever have tranny troubles and need spare parts, I'll be comparing parts side by side.