The Engine Compartment - Day 2

Emptied all the catch cans right after work, so I could start on the engine compartment.

Air Cleaner removed and out of the way, followed by removal of all the drive belts.


Cooling system drained, and radiator removed.


First casualty under the hood. This vacuum port on the upper part of the radiator lost its two vacuum ports when I brushed the radiator against the battery trying to manuever it out from inside the car. Oh well, this is a junkyard part easy to find.


Here's the empty space left by the radiator and shroud. Hard to believe under all that mess of hoses and wiring there is actually an engine in there.

Diving Into The Engine Compartment....Almost

This evening I started on the main event, prepping the engine for removal. Since this is my first engine removal, I'm following along with the steps outlined in the Hayne's Manual. First order of business was to remove the hood. It's now resting on the roof of the car. As I read along, there wasn't much more I could do. The next step was to drain the cooling system. I had nothing to drain it in, all my catch cans were full. So, I elected to cut the night short and wait for tomorrow.

Decoding the T&C Fender Tag

Tonight I finished pulling the rest of the interior parts out of the T&C. The last two door panels were removed. The only other parts that I want to take are the outer rubber weatherstripping panels from the doors and the power window motors. That requires removing the windows, and I wasn't up to the task last night.

So I pulled the fender tag and decoded it. There were two, and here they are:

First Tag
M25 M31 N21 N37 N88 CTD
L81 M15 M18 M21 M25
G11 H51 J52 J55 L31 L61
RY3 U 3 B41 C06 C57
RY3 DYU5 000 C23 BD8900
E46 D32 FH45 H8G 219378

Second Tag
26 END
N95 P31 P41 R32 R37

Decoding the tag (the tag is actually read left to right, bottom to top)here is what all those codes mean:

E46 - 318 CID V8, 4V Carb
D32 - A998 Torqueflite automatic
FH45 H8G 219378 - VIN number of the car
RY3 - lower body color Classic Cream
DYU5 - interior trim color, color name unknown.
000 - vinyl top color, color name unknown
C23 - build date, C=October 23
BD8900 - order number
RY3 - upper body color Classic Cream
U - built in USA
3 - ??
B41 - power front disc brakes
C06 - ??
C57 - 60/40 split bench with recline
G11 - tinted glass all around
H51 - single air conditioning w/heat
J52 - inside hood release
J55 - undercoating with hood padding
L31 - fender mounted turn signals
L61 - dome lamp switch for rear doors
L81 - door ajar warning
M15 - upper door molding
M18 - ?? (this maybe the wood delete on this car)
M21 - roof drip molding
M25 - wide sill molding
M25 - wide sill molding (it was on there twice)
M31 - belt line and hood molding
N21 - air pump
N37 - ??
N88 - auto speed control (cruise control)
CTD - continued to next tag
N95 - California Emissions
P31 - power windows
P41 - power door locks
R32 - dual rear speakers
R37 - AM/FM stereo with 8track
26 - 26" radiator
END - end of tag

Interior Is Almost Gone

Spent some more time this evening pulling parts off of the T&C. I removed as much as I could that was left of the dash. The lower right side dash I managed to crack while trying to take it off, so that part is now unusuable. I removed all the rest of the interior trim. This includes the header panel, A-pillar trim, upper door trim, B-pillar trim, and lower door trim pieces. I also removed the left side door panels, both front and rear. Here's a few photos of the current state of deconstruction.

All that I have left to pull from the interior is the right side door panels, and all 4 power window motors. Then comes the fun of removing the interior wiring harness. Who knows what I will need from it. And I still haven't decided if I want to keep the tilt steering column or not.

More parts coming off

Yesterday, I had a few moments to spare after work and dinner, so I pulled a few more parts off of the T&C. This was just the radio, HVAC controls, and the intrument cluster support structure.

I did have a revelation. A couple of months ago, while in the junkyard I swiped the HVAC control unit from a 1981 Chrysler Cordoba. I got it because the control unit looked to be a bit more upscale, it had fake chrome buttons on it and a nifty temperature scale (vs. the cool ---> warm of the Aspen). The HVAC control unit in the T&C is the same one as in the Aspen.

When I pulled the one out of the T&C, I noticed that the temperature control arm moved a lever on the opposite side of the unit compared to the one I had from the Cordoba. I compared the two, and that is when I noticed the letters "ATC" stamped on the top of the Cordoba's control unit. I managed to swipe out the Automatic Temperature Control unit. It doesn't look like it would work for the Aspen, unless I snagged the full heater box unit out from a similar ATC car.

Stripping The T&C

Today, I spent the morning cleaning up and organizing the garage to make room for the T&C. Once I got the T&C into the garage, I started pulling parts off of it.

I started at the rear, and pulled the taillights off (they will go to eBay).


I pulled all of the interior pieces out from the rear cargo area. Trim panels, the carpeted areas on the cargo floor, weatherstripping aroudn the tailgate opening, etc.


I then moved to the front seat area. I pulled the Instrument cluster, instrument panel, and dash pad and top.


At that point, it was getting to hot and sweaty in the garage and that became a stopping point. More disassembly coming soon.

Pictures Of The Town & Country

The previous photos I've posted of the Town & Country were from the original web posting that Nick had to sell the T&C. Now that I've gotten it home, and things have slowed down a little bit, I have finally gotten a chance to snap a few photos of the car. I haven't yet started parting it out, that will begin shortly. Here she is in all her glory.

Here are a couple of shots of both wagons in the driveway. These photos show that the Town & Country is essentially a luxury version of the Dodge Aspen (even though Chrysler called the Aspen & Volare an "F-Body" and the Chrysler was called an "M-Body"). On the outside, the roof, doors, tailgate, rear quarter panels and all glass are completely interchangeable between the two.

In this photo, you can compare the rear side windows. The Town & Coutnry has a small vinyl trim piece that is attached to the D-pillar. This effectively makes the rear window shorter in length than the Aspen, but if I had to guess there is window buried under there.

Here are some photos of just the Town & Country.

A neighbor of Nick's backed her car into the driver's door of the Town & Country. Here you can see the damage left behind. This causes the lock mechanism in this door to always be locked, so you either have to keep the window rolled down, unlock it with the key all the time, or climb in another door.

The vinyl top is coming off.

Here's a closeup of the taillight area. You can see that the taillgate has the same cut around where the Aspen taillights went. Also, you can see below the taillight a filler piece that was poorly installed to fill the gap where the Aspen's taillights should have gone.

The main reason for this parts car, the 318 4V V8 engine. The engine in this car is actually a cop motor out of a 1989 Dodge Diplomat police car, so it makes a bit more power than the 318 that would have been in this car in 1978. Runs real nice. Once the engine is out, I'll do a mild rebuild on it.

A few shots of the interior. Tan & Brown, to match the exterior. The leather front seats are torn up, but the driver's seat is a power seat. The back seat is in suprisingly good condition for it's age.

Power windows too. I think I may transfer these parts to the Aspen, to give it some new features it never had.

Here are a few shots of the dash and gauges. I'm still contemplating moving these parts also over to the Aspen. One part that makes the Aspen an Aspen is the square speedometer and instrument cluster. However, most of the mid 60's and early 70's Chrylser products had a standard dash and a Rallye dash. The standard dash was very plain looking, typically square or rectangle in shape (of the instrument cluster). The Rallye dash had round gauges, and more of them. There never was a Rallye dash for the Aspen, but I'm thinking I'm going to create one. Just have to see how that works out.

This is definitely more luxurious than the Aspen. The entire cargo area is carpeted. These parts are definitely coming over to the wagon. The rear tailgate even has speakers (the Aspen came from the factory with one speaker in the dash).