More car stuff (sorry)....

[TC Chris]

Going through lots of paper at my Mom's house. She kept receipts for everything, which is why I have the dealer invoice for the Chevy. This time I found receipts and such for Dad's first new car, a 1950 Dodge Coronet 4-dr. Then there were receipts for the used '50 Chevy convertible he bought in 1953, and the 1955 Ford Country sedan wagon, and the 1956 Chrysler Windsor 4-dr. sedan, and the 1960 Plymouth Fury wagon. It's fun seeing the prices and imagining how much money they represented back then.

That 1950 Dodge had something called a "Gyromatic" transmission. Haven't looked it up yet but it must have been pre-Powerflite (which the '56 Chrysler had). Maybe one of those odd "semi-automatic" transmissions that Chrysler offered?

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

Gyromatic was Dodge's nomenclature for Chrysler Fluid Drive. I have a story about changing the oil in a 1947 Dodge with Fluid Drive......

[TC Chris]

Well don't hold back.... If you have a story, it must be interesting.

The '50 Dodge was purchased from a dealership called Zeder's Zeder was the son of a big Chrysler engineer of the same name. Likely junior wasn't too bright or too ambitious so dad wangled him a dealership.

Chris Campbell

[Hydrolastic]

Would love to hear a good interesting mechanical tale. Like the time i was working on a hydrolastic mini i was sprayed with hydrolastic fluid (stinky stuff) just minutes before i went on a date.

[TC Chris]

What on earth is hydrolastic?

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

My first paid job was when I was 13. I went to work in Mr. Cooksey's Cities Service station. They had an old hand there who ran the shop. Curly Reed was his nickname. His name was Lawrence, but, as you may expect, Curly didn't have a hair on his head. But, I digress........

Curly and his right hand man, Tom, were pretty good gas station mechanics. Tom was a mechanical genius. This job was one of my favorites. I was hired to be a gas pump jockey. Pump gas, wash windows, check fluids, all the things one was expected to do in the 1960's. I begged Curly to let me work on cars. I worked on cars with grandpa, so, naturally, I thought I was the best wrench in Hamilton County. Curly would quarter no snot nosed kid working in HIS shop. I kept after him. One Saturday morning, in the summertime, the station was hopping. Cars backed up on the drive, but even more backed up in the shop. There were about a dozen oil changes waiting. Curly called me in off the drive and asked me if I wanted to do an oil change. Sure, I did! He pointed to Mr. Faker's (real name, not making it up, Frank Faker) old Dodge. A gray four door 1947 Dodge. This was in 1963, so the old Dodge was an antique. It was already parked on the rack, so I hoisted it, grabbed the oil drain bucket, and removed the drain plug. About that time, the driveway bell went off. I left the Dodge and went out to pump gas. I pumped gas in three or four cars before I caught a break and got back to my oil change business. The oil was drained, so I replaced the drain plug. I greased the chassis, inflated the tires, checked the rear end. Looked her over real good for something about to fall off. Satisfied, I lowered the old Dodge to the floor. The hood was up, so I pulled the oil fill cap and started dumping in good old Kendall SuperB 20W20. I changed the filter while the oil was dumping. I finished, checked the dipstick, found it full, then started the engine. The oil pressure came up, then disappeared. I shut the engine off. I went around to the front and checked the oil. Nothing on the dipstick. I looked around to see if Curly saw me. I dumped in six more quarts. I started the engine, the oil pressure came up, then disappeared, again. I checked the oil again, found nothing on the stick. I added one quart, checked again. Found it to the add mark. Added another quart. Halfway between add and full. Added another quart, this time if was full. Started the engine, oil pressure came up and held. By this time, Curly and Tom were hiding behind another car laughing their tail ends off. You see, they had set me up. When you drain the crankcase on a Chrysler with Fluid Drive, the engine oil is also in the fluid coupling, so when you drain it, it takes 14 quarts, plus one for the filter, to fill it up. Not the six quarts held in just the engine. I learned not to leave a car until the oil was all out. This would give me an idea of how much oil was in the engine. I never made that mistake again.

[Firedome]

Hydrolastic was the hydraulic suspension on the Alec Issigonis designed BMC fwd cars of the 1960s. Citroen's version was considerably more complicated.