Head gaskets, I used a Mopar Performance one on my Lebaron, ran that T2 engine at 14 psi and both my son and I didn't spare the throttle much if at all. When the car was totaled in 2009 it had 5 years of fairly hard use and never had any trouble with it, now that it is back together, head hasn't been off and it still runs fine.

Side window scrapers, I found a place that had them for the K27 body (convertible) which are probably less common than G-bodies, the name is Top Catwhiskers and they actually had them for all 4 windows on the convertible.

I got real lucky, after helping you with the keyless entry, I found a new old stock Design Tech Ready Start on eBay. I had one on my 1985 convertible but had lost the remotes (which are matched to the module). Since Design Tech was bought out by Directed Electronics there is no support for them any more (they were far superior to most other systems and Directed Electronics simply discontinued all of their systems), Design Tech was also lower cost than most others in addition to being very reliable.

 

fan relay..
when the fan relay sticks and the car starts to over heat a quick wack with the butt end of the pool cue ya use for a hatch prop fixes the issue instantly.. right tool...right wack-ing weight ...

as for why ...in the exact same point in the exact same drive through...ONLY..I still dono..

 

replacing the roll pin in the differential pin

go to the wreckers or the car in the yard..a 60's , 70's and 80's dodge car or even later trucks will have THE pin you want in the rag joint for the steering cllm to steering box joint..
USE THAT PIN..even that old used pin..will not fail

 

in a 525 trans , and maybe a 520/555 you can make a quick and easy trans/diff drain

look at the lowest most bolt on the driver's side diff bearing retainer

if you make that hole, not, a blind hole you have a drain.. and a plug without looking for one , instead of drilling and tapping a hole in the bottom

"be like me".. accidental improvement when I left a gob of silicone in the hole and blew out a nickel sized flake inside the diff caseing

 

you must use the 14mm nut that belongs on the long alternater bolt.. the 15mm nut from elsewhere on the car.. that seems to fit will NEVER stay tight
that's why it keeps backing off leaving that annoying washer jingle

 

if it sounds like a box of crickets just pulled up n parked infront of you...
the timing belt is to tight

way to tight

 

scrapyard again..
80's early 90's mazdas..passenger side
they have the solution for your missing foam filter blocks on your vacuum solenoids..
it looks like a little rubber mushroom.. head about the size of a quarter .. on a stem
the cap pulls off the top.. there's a foam filter inside you can remove , clean or replace and a rubber base that fits our needs.. if you trim them down a little
otherwise they stand a little too proud to look like they belong
oh ..but they do
car wash safe to boot as they breath through the underside of the mushroom head

 

you wanna invest in a security system
I can steal your tilt steering ..anything old 80's Saginaw tilt or any L body in under three min

all I need for anything with the daytona style door handle and tilt steering, is a coat hanger
L body requires a piece of hacksaw blade ..and MAYBE a Philips screwdriver..THAT one..I could even drive away wit my own key..cough

edit
OH AND
your daytona style handle..on any door..

OPENS INSTANTLY WITH THE FIRST PULL OF THE COAT HANGER

yeah..it's THAT pathetic

 

hadda buddy..locked his keys in his caravan at the lumberyard
called ..help..

I got there..his van was right out in front and I see him standing at the doors
I stop right beside his van , get out, pull the coathanger into a diamond shape n twist the hook a little
as he comes around the back corner of the van I'm already shoving it down the window sweep.. in the two or three steps he took to get to the back edge of the door..
I had it open N waiting for him...

wish I hadda pic of the look on his face

couple weeks later he told me all his tools got stolen

was a cool shortbox black '84 caravan panel van in really nice condition
be a nice find now

 

..too many parts cars..never enough keys.. you learn ...stuff

 

RE: Missing foam filter blocks on your vacuum solenoids
Dr. Johny,
Good idea about the rubber mushroom for your missing foam filter blocks on your vacuum solenoids. Unfortunately, I do not have a junk yard within 100 miles of me anymore. I used a foam paint brush, cut it and shaped it small like I had seen pictures of original foam blocks. Put a small hole in the foam to slide it onto the nipple, then carefully glued it to the purge solenoid nipple, making sure not to get glue into the nipple. I guess you really don’t need the filter for the little amount of air that may get in there, but it does give it an original look.

 

DAMN That is a beautiful white Daytona!

 

That's actually a great idea about using one of those foam paint brushes to remake the foam filter blocks on the solenoids. Most all of those I've ever seen still on cars at salvage years were either gone or just crumbled to pieces due to age. Going by memory the foam does seem to be very similar to the original foam.

 

#13 on the list was a memory jogger. I bought a Daytona turbo new back in 84' and I had written up a sheet with all the little glitches I wanted to get fixed by the dealer before I picked up the car. I actually still have the list and I had written down about the trip odometer even then not resetting properly.

 

84DaytonaZ please share your list here, it would be interesting for all to see the common problems with our cars, which we all will experience sooner or later. I would like to see if there are other things I'll need to do or if I missed anything about our cars. I'm sure there are more than 16 items after all it is a Chrysler product.

 

Besides the odometer reset issue there really wasn't any mechanical issues I found initially. The list only mentions that, a seat belt holder on the driver's seat side that was missing. The rest were all cosmetic issues with the body. The car had around 1,200k on it when I got it. I'm suspecting it was a short time rental down in FL for a while as I found a plastic key fob for a car rental place in West Palm Beach in the glove box. I was just a teen and it was my first new car so I'm sure the salesman sized me up as an easy mark. I imagine that's where most of the cosmetic body issues came from. I really wanted a Turbo Z but all the ones at the dealer were 5spds and I hardly had any experience driving one so I was afraid of trashing it. The only real mechanical issue I can remember after I got it was a stalling issue and the power limited light on the dash would come on. Had it back to different dealers multiple times for it but it still kept coming on.

 

View attachment 287287 View attachment 287288
My son and I recently bought a 1987 Dodge Daytona Shelby Z and while restoring it here are some of the common problems and the way we resolved them which could help others. These can be applicable for other 1987-1989 Daytona Shelby Z and possibly other years and Chrysler/Dodge models.

1. Engine Head gasket- All OEM head gaskets eventually fail on our turbo engines, currently there are a lot of bad replacement head gaskets out there and NOS is not good as it looses its adhesion properties. Some new current brands I found were Apex and Felpro version 5 (R5 stamped on the corner) with the reinforced corners (see other posts on this site).
2. Engine Thermostat- our cars run hot, and it is best to drill a 1/16” hole at 12 o’clock location for many reasons for example smooth continuous coolant flow, less thermal shock on the aluminum head and gasket when it opens, etc. Chrysler spec is 192-195 F thermostat. You can go with a cooler thermostat, but you are reducing the peak efficiency and performance of our turbo engine there may be other problems.
3. Radiator cap- there are a lot of cheap and defective new caps out there. A/C Delco makes a good one. You can try Gates and Stant but check for it to hold pressure before installing. Even in a new box labeled Stant or Gates a different brand cap comes in the box from Rock Auto and Amazon. Two brand new ones I’ve gotten would not seal properly, one was missing an upper seal and the other had a wobbly top.
4. Power Steering Pressure Hose- some aftermarket pressure hoses come misshaped or defective with a flare end that is too big and not flared correctly, so the oring does not fir correctly. My hose was incorrectly made 0.5 mm or 1/32” larger at the flare end which tore the O-ring when inserting it into the power steering pump nut. If you tighten it enough there will be a metal-on-metal fit (bypassing the o-ring) but eventually that starts to leak from vibration. Better to test everything and see how it fits out of the car before installing. Double check the fit of the pressure hose onto the pump is good, the o-ring is intact by removing and looking carefully that it is not torn or cut.
5. Starter Motor- Because the starter is located right next to a hot turbo, they all fail over time. If you have the top part of the engine head off, it is easier to replace it all when everything is apart. The starer with the NipponDenso solenoid is larger and lasts forever. The starter with the Bosch solenoid is smaller and easier to install if you have not taken the engine head off but does not last as long. With either starter make sure to replace and install the starter insulation with the foil backing to insulate it from the turbo. Our cars originally had it.
6. Oil Pressure sender - they all fail over time. Replacing with the Standard Motor Products PS205 seems to fix the problem reading the correct pressure on the interior pressure gauge.
7. Fuel Injectors – Most OEM Bosch/Mopar injectors fail on top of the injector leaking fuel onto the top of the engine. DblTrbl has a great post titled “Fuel Injector Warning!” write-up here with a list of all aftermarket injectors available for our high-pressure fuel injection systems, but most are discontinued. I would avoid a reman or cleaned OEM Bosch/Mopar design since they tend to leak. If you get a hint of fuel smell after a start up your injectors are leaking from the outside seam on top of the injector casing. I found the STANDARD MOTOR PRODUCTS FJ53 injectors are a better/newer design and works well.
8. Front struts and mount kit – These parts are becoming scarce, got some NOS from Rock Auto which came in dusty old unopened boxes that were garbage. KYB makes new ones but even those could be a decade old depending on who you get it from. I found new ones on Amazon, even those were 3 years old.
9. Side window scraper weatherstrip- now that our cars are 37 years old, the outer side window scraper weatherstrip petrify, fall apart, and need to be replaced before it starts scratching your side windows. Rock Auto (RA) has the FAIRCHILD 11814 narrow weatherstrips to fit our cars. With a modified 90-degree Phillips head screwdriver (I cut and shortened a Phillips tip head and welded it onto a long handled thin flat head screwdriver making a 90-degree screwdriver) the trim can be taken apart. No need to take the windows out only the interior door trim.
10. Sunroof outer seal- if you have a sunroof (not T-top) the outer seal deteriorates. An easy fix is to clean and reinstall a 10mm D-Shape Rubber Weatherstrip seal with 3M adhesive for the outer sunroof seal. An OEM seal is not available anymore and specialty auto websites charge a lot. There is a cheap $10 weatherstrip available on Amazon. See my separate post about this here.
11. Front wheel wells leaking- Our Daytonas have a weak point at the front quarter panel wheel wells. The plastic surround is about an inch narrow behind the front wheels and does not meet up with the metal wheel well behind the front tire. So, all the moisture, salt and debris that’s tossed gets caught in the wedge where the wheel well and the quarter panel meet. Eventually rusting out. On my car even the original seam was poorly constructed as there was two-inch-thick original sealant to cover the 35-year-old un-even weld. This leads to rust and eventually water intrusion behind the wheel well and onto the interior and floorboards at the front and passenger side. If you want a dry car this needs to be cleaned, sealed possibly welding with new sheet metal.
12. Front windshield well (under the cowl) drive and passenger side leaks – As with any old car the body weld seams are all deteriorating and there tends to be a leak at both corners of the windshield well (under the cowl in the engine compartment). It is easiest to repair when hood is off, and cowl removed. By cleaning and sealing these seams the car is watertight again. I used Flex-Seal spray which has lasted thru a very hot summer, so far.
13. Odometer Gear replacement- If you are like me, I always reset my odometer to figure out my gas mileage. Pushing the reset odometer button is a big mistake on our Daytona. The odometer gears deteriorate over time and by pushing the reset button on the trip odometer breaks the gear. In the speedometer/odometer there are two gears a very small 20 teeth gear and a dime size 16 teeth gear-pod. They both need to be replaced. The smaller gear was missing 2 teeth on mine and that stopped it from working, the pod was fine. OdometerGears.com has the gears and a useful video on how to take it apart. Be warned if you have a 1987 model year when taking the circuit board off to get to the gears, the stepper motor on the circuit board is not glued to the board as with other years and if it comes off it is allmost impossible to reattach it. I made a post on how to fix the odometer here. Remember not to touch the trip odometer reset button ever again.
14. Remote Keyless Entry- If your kid is into electronics as mine... He wanted a keyless entry with remote since our cars did not come with one. It's easy to install by getting the DEI/ Avital # 2101 door lock remote kit, because it comes with built in relays for it to work on our reverse polarity power door lock system like ours. Whatever remote you get you need to have relays. I posted the installation blog here
15. Headlight Module Repair (1987-89 Daytona) – Free fix- All Daytona owners are eventually going to have the pop-up headlight problem not going up and down. The problem is that the relays for the pop-up headlight are in the headlight module in the dash where the center speaker used to be located. The solder to the relays breaks down. The repair is basically resoldering 8 solder points to make it work again. It is easy to get to by popping the top of your dash off carefully not to break any of the retaining clips. I used a wooden pop sickle stick to carefully wedge and pull up the dash. This is a common problem and others here on this website have a 3-part instructions blog which I added to here.
16. Chrysler "Ultimate Sound System" Radio- the final repair project is fixing the original Chrysler Radio. The radio and display sometimes works but is out more often now that the weather is getting colder. When it does work the cassette works and the radio sounds great. Apparently my 1987 Shelby has the one called Chrysler "Ultimate Sound System" predecessor to Infinity built by Mitsubishi. Better sound than an Infinity I or II about the same as Infinity Gold radio, I have tried them all in my car. My radio’s display and FM tuner go in and out depending on the temperature outside. There is a fix on Allpar.com for this radio and other Infinity radios by taking it apart and resoldering all the connections, but that will take weeks. Most Chrysler radios I have looked at from 1980’s thru 2000’s all have problems, typically a failed cassette mechanism and old/bad solder joints for the FM tuner and display.
17. Remanufactured Front Brake caliper washers are too thin and may leak. Forgot to add this since I had done it a long time ago. I ordered the Centric remanufactured front brake calipers and they were very good..., initially. When I was able to drive the car after the top engine rebuild the brakes leaked. I could see it was leaking at the caliper brake hose connection. Everything was new so I tightened it and the leak got worse. Luckily I had saved the old calipers and washers. When I compared the old and new, the old copper washers were almost as thick as a penny unlike the new copper washers were paper thin. Because the remanufactured brake calipers surface was not smooth at the brake hose connection the thin washer could not accommodate the uneven surface and leaked. Putting the old 37 year old copper washers worked and stopped the leak. Or make sure the caliper's surface at the brake hose connection is smooth before putting on a new bake hose line.

This may seem to be a lot of problems but our cars are now over 35 years old, it is a Chrysler product and creates many opportunities for fun working on our cars and trying to figure it out. Others feel free to share your experience, modify or add to this list.

Number 11 on your list seems to be my issue. was patching rust earlier (89 GTC Coupe) and the circled section had water pouring out. What do I have to seal up to prevent that?

 

Number 11 on your list seems to be my issue. was patching rust earlier (89 GTC Coupe) and the circled section had water pouring out. What do I have to seal up to prevent that?

I think the water may be coming from two different areas, at least it was on my car.

In the picture on my car you can see problem leak #1 the water/rust pattern coming from behind the e-brake pedal (top left). This was because the front wheel splashed water up into the quarter panel behind the wheel. There is a plastic splash guard but it is too narrow and lets water and salt get behind it and into the body and quarter panel frame, eventually rusting out. In the picture that is the left side of my floorboard.
Problem leak #2, there was also water coming in from he upper cowl of the firewall. It is where the windshield drains on both sides of the car. With the hood up on the bottom of your windshield there is a well where the water is supose to drain, but the body seams in that well were cracked. Those seams give out and drips into the car, traveling under the dash onto the floor under the clutch pedal. Both sides of the car was leaking. With the carpet padding getting soaked the water stands there for weeks rusting out the floorboard.
So it is actually two locations ( items #12 and #13 on my list of problems) I had to seal to stop the water from coming into the car.
I used Phil Swift's (the one from the infomercial) favorite product Flex-Seal spray to seal all the cracks and covered the wheel surround splash guard with Flex-Seal tape, then also sprayed it with spray, like undercoating. This way no water can get into the wheel well behind the plastic splashguard So far it's holding up and no water is getting in.

P.S. My son did the welding on the floorboard, from up top. Pretty good for a 16 year old first timer. We borrowed a welder from a neighbor and learned along the way. I did it from underneath the car and with only a few skin burns.😓 It's hard welding stainless steel sheet metal laying on the floor on your back.

 

Damn that's some serious rust.

 

It looks bad but not too far gone. Can still jack it up. Already gound it down painted and Patched it.

These cars were too far gone.
86 Lebaron vert stripped scrapped.

89 Gtc vert sold it because bending/flexing/couldn't be jacked (crunch) up no floors left just carpet

Used to run these cars till they rot out. Now with oil based undercoating rust actually can be stopped...

 

Here is what the floor in my 1986 Lebaron convertible looked like. A friend was storing it at his place of business and a storm blew a large piece of fence into the right side of the top bending the top frame, breaking the quarter window and pretty well destroying the top.

He called me and asked if a 1988 Reliant 2dr floor would work, answer was it should as the parts fiche states modification required for the convertible.

 

Looks good...Finish that off with Flex-Seal spray in black and that would look like a professional job and seals very well. I saw that the F-S spray is on sale at Home Depot this week.

 

Looks a lot better then the other 2 for sure. I had to finally find my 84' Daytona Turbo Z down in VA. Being in the northeast it was pretty much impossible to find anything that wasn't rusted out. And this was 20 years ago.

 

I found this 2 years ago. Pretty clean. First thing I did was crawl on the ground check out the under side. Driving today actually

10 years ago found these 2 Daytona's should have kept em... 😠

Red 87 Z

89 2.5 Shelby Z

 

That 600 certainly looked pretty decent. Those Daytonas though were looking really great underneath. Shame you didn't keep them. I had a black 87' Daytona Shelby Z 5spd I bought back in 93'. It was my daily driver for 9 years and was a great car. Unfortunately living here and driving it year round the rust was starting to catch up with it. Finally went when the head gasket blew at 250K but up until it went I never had had any serious engine, drivetrain or tranny issues. I've had several Daytonas and will always give them high marks.

 

Had to adjust tie rods so my Shelby rims don't rub on the 600 and sure enough..

The cover is a little different on the 600 one hole on driver side filled it with caulking.


Passenger was clean but still scrubbed it and painted it.

The LeBaron passenger side was much worse...

Made a custom plate

Anyone who owns one of these should definitely check behind those covers.

It's like the Supercharged Regal GS the rear strut mount rots u can't see it easily (besides the car sagging)it u gotta dig to find the rot.

 

Yes, everyone should look there in the wheel well if they haven't already. The blame goes to Chrysler for poorly designing a plastic wheel well shroud. On my Daytona the plastic shroud is one inch narrow and all the water/salt that's splashed from the wheel gets into the quarter panel and sits there. All Chrysler had to do was make it one inch wider and/or better fitting. I guess that would have cost 5 cents extra and make it more difficult to put in on the assembly line.
After cleaning, welding and sealing mine I put on Flex-Seal tape, to cover the gap between the body and plastic shroud then sprayed with Flex-Seal spray so nothing can get behind it. The spray is like undercoating and stays flexible, so hopefully it won't carck. WIth a very hot summer, driving in thunder storms and now below freezing temperatures the seal is holding up... so far. In the picture below you can't even see the tape or the seams because I sprayed so much black Flex-Seal spray to cover it all.

the tape

 

On the Dodge 600 the plastic is shorter and only goes to the lip, on the Lebaron it is a few inches longer and was worse. I think it has to be full coverage or none so it doesn't hold the salt. My aunts Volvo V40 has 3 plastic covers that all caused problems. One under the fuel/brake lines in the back held salt/debris and caused the lines to rot and 2 others let animals nest and eat wires under the hood.

It looks like they didn't do the factory undercoating till after the covers were on so that crease gets loaded with salt with only paint for protection. and the plastic hides it from view. I circled where the factory undercoating stops.

 

Considering the overall condition of my car I'd assume it was okay, but now you have me thinking it might be best to double check.

 

I thought so too, the only rust on my Daytona was on the floorboards and brake lines, then when I followed the water trails and removed the wheel shroud saw lots of hidden rust like AriesKcar.

 

Update:
Very SAD day, finished our Shelby Z car restoration project.
We finally gave up on fixing the OE cassette radio. Tried buying several on Ebay which were DOA and had to return them for refunds. Seems all those Infinity I,II, III, Gold car radios with cassette or CD have all died or have some problem, even some that are supposedly restored were bad. Took apart the radio and tried to re-soldering the original circuit boards of the radio but it is very complicated and would take too long. Decided to go with a Sony 10-band Equalizer, CD, Bluetooth radio at Best Buy which my son found for $54 (new-open box). Sounds almost as good as the OE Infinity radio, using the original Infinity speakers. Wow, I remember when just the CD player option for the Shelby Z Infinity radio was $500 for the CD player alone back in 1988. Anyway my son drives it daily and has been very reliable this winter. It's good that we finished since so he can enjoy it now, because he got accepted to college and will be leaving home in the fall. Maybe he'll be the one that designs an electric Daytona Shelby E-Z for us.

 

1997 Jeep radio looks works fits perfect.