T2K-CAR

[85lebaront2]

Nice looking car!

One of the things I wanted to do from the time I started was to install a better dash system. I had a 1989 Lebaron coupe with a completely dead steering rack. I had bought it for $75 for front end parts to repair my granddaughter's 1989 Lebaron convertible, both cars had the 2.5L turbo engines, convertible had the 5 speed and the coupe an automatic. Since an awful lot of Chrysler's larger cars were based on the K platform, the width between the cowl panels inside is the same and the steering column location is pretty consistent. I pulled the dash and steering column from the 1989, which had a nice analog electronic cluster and went about fitting it in, found two changes, the steering column is roughly 1/2" offset in the mounts for the 1989 dash to fit, support bracket holes are in the right place even and the windshield angle and curve are slightly different meaning I need a filler on the top front of the dash.

[Gary Lewis]

Nice looking car!

Ray - What model is the Ramber? Early 60's Ambassador? (I don't know Kelvinators very well.)

Bill - Is the T2K the active project now? Looks to be quite a project at that, with parts borrowed from everything. But, it'll be a cool driver when done.

[85lebaront2]

Ray - What model is the Ramber? Early 60's Ambassador? (I don't know Kelvinators very well.)

Bill - Is the T2K the active project now? Looks to be quite a project at that, with parts borrowed from everything. But, it'll be a cool driver when done.

Yes, I want to at least get in running condition so I can take it to a couple of shows this fall even if it isn't finished. BTW, since Chrysler bought AMC, Hudson, Nash and Jeep are all part of FCA.

[Gary Lewis]

Yes, I want to at least get in running condition so I can take it to a couple of shows this fall even if it isn't finished. BTW, since Chrysler bought AMC, Hudson, Nash and Jeep are all part of FCA.

What an odd lot.

[85lebaront2]

What an odd lot.

I took the car to a friend's shop in Newport News, he is replacing the rusted out floors with parts from a 1988 Reliant he picked just so he would have a good floor to start with. The K-27 (convertible) body is a unique piece, the originals were farmed out to be converted from Chrysler or Dodge 2dr coupes. The roof was cut of, trunk torsion bars eliminated and replaced with lift cylinders, rear seat area narrowed and moved forward. On the first ones, in 1983, the top frame came back to the rear edge of the doors and dropped straight down, leaving a huge blind spot. In 1984 rear quarter windows were added, but due to the top mechanism and rear seat position, had to be power even if the front windows were manual. The rear seats in these make an early Mustang look roomy. The cars have all the needed reinforcement to make up for the loss of the roof on the inside in what looks like a squashed down letter H with one upright going across the front floor at the toe board, the other upright across the rear just behind the rear footwells and the crossbar going down the center of the floor about 2" above the tunnel. They are extremely rigid cars, my son made the comment it was a lot tighter than his 35th anniversary Mustang convertible.

Because of all the inside reinforcements, 5 speeds were either not offered or extremely rare. Here are some pictures of the repair work and the donor remainder:

[Gary Lewis]

I took the car to a friend's shop in Newport News, he is replacing the rusted out floors with parts from a 1988 Reliant he picked just so he would have a good floor to start with. The K-27 (convertible) body is a unique piece, the originals were farmed out to be converted from Chrysler or Dodge 2dr coupes. The roof was cut of, trunk torsion bars eliminated and replaced with lift cylinders, rear seat area narrowed and moved forward. On the first ones, in 1983, the top frame came back to the rear edge of the doors and dropped straight down, leaving a huge blind spot. In 1984 rear quarter windows were added, but due to the top mechanism and rear seat position, had to be power even if the front windows were manual. The rear seats in these make an early Mustang look roomy. The cars have all the needed reinforcement to make up for the loss of the roof on the inside in what looks like a squashed down letter H with one upright going across the front floor at the toe board, the other upright across the rear just behind the rear footwells and the crossbar going down the center of the floor about 2" above the tunnel. They are extremely rigid cars, my son made the comment it was a lot tighter than his 35th anniversary Mustang convertible.

Because of all the inside reinforcements, 5 speeds were either not offered or extremely rare. Here are some pictures of the repair work and the donor remainder:

That looks like LOTS of work. How many different vehicles is it taking to make one? (What does that say for K-cars?)

So, help me understand why a manual transmission wasn't or was rarely offered. Wouldn't the manual actually be smaller than an auto? What am I missing?

And, those guys look as old as me!

[85lebaront2]

That looks like LOTS of work. How many different vehicles is it taking to make one? (What does that say for K-cars?)

So, help me understand why a manual transmission wasn't or was rarely offered. Wouldn't the manual actually be smaller than an auto? What am I missing?

And, those guys look as old as me!

I think Frank (in foreground) is about our age, he had a shop and used to be one of my customers at Preston. The other gentleman I believe is Butch, probably in his 60s, Donnie, the owner, is 57 or 58, his dad was 82 when he died. This is in trade for fixing Pete's Chevstang (Donnie's dad and the business's namesake).

As for no 5 speeds, the reinforcement sits roughly 3" above the tunnel and the 5 speed shifter mounted there and had cables to the transaxle and the normal console between the bucket seats would have been below the reinforcement. Circled location is where the automatic shifter cable runs through and is retained with a clip.

[Gary Lewis]

I think Frank (in foreground) is about our age, he had a shop and used to be one of my customers at Preston. The other gentleman I believe is Butch, probably in his 60s, Donnie, the owner, is 57 or 58, his dad was 82 when he died. This is in trade for fixing Pete's Chevstang (Donnie's dad and the business's namesake).

As for no 5 speeds, the reinforcement sits roughly 3" above the tunnel and the 5 speed shifter mounted there and had cables to the transaxle and the normal console between the bucket seats would have been below the reinforcement. Circled location is where the automatic shifter cable runs through and is retained with a clip.

Did some fitting on the engine, the 1991 Shadow turbo air filter and the vacuum harness. I have the rare 1987 only 2 piece intake so a few modifications were in order. The 2 piece manifold tap for control vacuum/pressure is on the back and uses a plastic tee to send it in both directions, it is a royal PITA to get to and breaks easily. With the change to the 1 piece manifold in 1988 everything was moved to the front. The fuel rail sits higher and the injectors are more vertical. I added a front side tap and plugged the rear one, everything is mocked up except the cruise control and one 3/8" curved piece.

I'm glad "old timers", like us, are still getting it done.

Now I understand about the 5-speed. It was the linkage/cables that caused the problem, not the size of the tranny.

On the engine, I can imagine how hard it would be to get to that plastic tee. So plugging that and moving the tap up front makes sense. But, was there a benefit in the injector angles being changed?

[85lebaront2]

I'm glad "old timers", like us, are still getting it done.

Now I understand about the 5-speed. It was the linkage/cables that caused the problem, not the size of the tranny.

On the engine, I can imagine how hard it would be to get to that plastic tee. So plugging that and moving the tap up front makes sense. But, was there a benefit in the injector angles being changed?

Not that I know of, I thing it was more of a normal Detroit decision $$$$. The two piece intake cost more to manufacture and assemble, not to mention an injector change involves removal of the plenum and the 8 bolts that hold it on are put in from the bottom and there is a brace on the throttle body end to be taken loose also. As far as performance, the two piece breathes better than the one piece and all things equal generates more power. The injectors on the 2 piece are aimed right at the back of the intake valves, on the one piece due to the higher angle, the injectors had to be moved further from the ports in order to have them aimed in the same area.

A couple of interesting items, static fuel pressure is 55 psi on these and the injectors are 34#/hr and from 1984-1989 were bank fired, 1-2 and 3-4, starting in 1990 they became sequential. On the pressure, add the boost pressure to the 55 psi, mine will be 15 psi, so under full boost I will have 70 psi fuel pressure and Chrysler used hoses with full circle band clamps, damn things are a fuel leak waiting to happen!

Found yesterday the transaxle had a nice filling of distilled water (rain) in it and the gear set is frozen, thankfully I have the 1989 transaxle I can use and maybe some of my modifications can be transferred.

I worked on my engine electrical harness yesterday, it is the one on the front side of the engine with the negative battery cable, alternator, oil pressure sender and temperature gauge sender along with the two distributor pickups and ECT, and on the 1991 up the ignition coil. The battery terminal was split and I couldn't find a replacement end for it. The original end had a 6 ga cable for the main ground, a 8 ga body ground and a 10 ga ground harness connection (goes to 4 14 ga color coded grounds of which 1 was used) I finally took a long 4 ga cable and went to the main factory splice and secured it on to the cleaned off copper and soldered it using my MAPP gas torch and did the same to connect the body ground (laid it back along the new cable to where I could wrap and solder it) then used the extra pigtail on the new cable for the ground harness. Then I had to add 5 wires, one for an actual oil pressure gauge and 4 for a refrigerant containment system (high speed fan and compressor cut off) those ended up being a Ford binary switch for a 1994 Taurus and a Motorcraft pigtail kit.

[Gary Lewis]

Not that I know of, I thing it was more of a normal Detroit decision $$$$. The two piece intake cost more to manufacture and assemble, not to mention an injector change involves removal of the plenum and the 8 bolts that hold it on are put in from the bottom and there is a brace on the throttle body end to be taken loose also. As far as performance, the two piece breathes better than the one piece and all things equal generates more power. The injectors on the 2 piece are aimed right at the back of the intake valves, on the one piece due to the higher angle, the injectors had to be moved further from the ports in order to have them aimed in the same area.

A couple of interesting items, static fuel pressure is 55 psi on these and the injectors are 34#/hr and from 1984-1989 were bank fired, 1-2 and 3-4, starting in 1990 they became sequential. On the pressure, add the boost pressure to the 55 psi, mine will be 15 psi, so under full boost I will have 70 psi fuel pressure and Chrysler used hoses with full circle band clamps, damn things are a fuel leak waiting to happen!

Found yesterday the transaxle had a nice filling of distilled water (rain) in it and the gear set is frozen, thankfully I have the 1989 transaxle I can use and maybe some of my modifications can be transferred.

I worked on my engine electrical harness yesterday, it is the one on the front side of the engine with the negative battery cable, alternator, oil pressure sender and temperature gauge sender along with the two distributor pickups and ECT, and on the 1991 up the ignition coil. The battery terminal was split and I couldn't find a replacement end for it. The original end had a 6 ga cable for the main ground, a 8 ga body ground and a 10 ga ground harness connection (goes to 4 14 ga color coded grounds of which 1 was used) I finally took a long 4 ga cable and went to the main factory splice and secured it on to the cleaned off copper and soldered it using my MAPP gas torch and did the same to connect the body ground (laid it back along the new cable to where I could wrap and solder it) then used the extra pigtail on the new cable for the ground harness. Then I had to add 5 wires, one for an actual oil pressure gauge and 4 for a refrigerant containment system (high speed fan and compressor cut off) those ended up being a Ford binary switch for a 1994 Taurus and a Motorcraft pigtail kit.

That's a lot of pressure for those clamps. Are you going to change to other clamps? If so, what?

The wiring change is a good upgrade. But I'm surprised, although glad, that you could find good copper to solder to. I guess yours just isn't old enough to have tarnished. Or maybe later wiring is better?

That's a bummer about the transaxle. What mod's have you done to it?