kishy's 1991 Plymouth Acclaim

[kishy]

It's been a few years, figured it was time to make some sort of an addition.

For years now, I've been saying that if a rust-free Plymouth Acclaim (not its corporate twins, or any other period Chrysler - just the Acclaim) in a black cherry exterior colour, with a red/maroon interior, turned up for sale, I would buy it. My primary requirement is that it be rust-free, even if it needs some mechanical work. A couple weeks ago, I noticed a car meeting this exact criteria (from how it appeared in the ad anyway) showed up on Facebook Marketplace locally, and after a price drop from $2000 to 1600 Canadian, I sent a message about it. Today, I went and looked at it, found it to be in staggeringly good condition despite its ludicrously high mileage of 475k km, and towed it home with a dolly due to it needing a water pump, for the reasonable sum of $1300.

Side note: the reason that I have wanted one in this configuration is that it was a car I spent a lot of time in the back seat of as a kid, and I've always found them good looking. I'd like to get some seat time in one.

I have purchased the car from the original owner's son. The owner died about 10 years ago and the car has been in the garage of that property ever since. It was parked needing a water pump, the new parts are in the trunk, but it sounds like he died before he got to it. The car has new (in terms of mileage) stuff visibly installed all over, such as new front brakes with coated rotors, newer tie rod ends, and exhaust components. It is, once again, in staggeringly good condition both above and below the floors. There is some Armor-All stickiness to the interior which may be hard to cure, both front power windows do not work, and it has a few "up-option" things to make it more of a LeBaron such as the grille and trunk decal, but this is exactly the car I wanted.

It has the 3.0L V6 which is an early variant of the Mitsubishi 6G72 and the Chrysler A604 (yes, the Ultradrive) 4-speed overdrive automatic transaxle. The car is FWD.



















It is my intent to cruise Woodward in it next summer. For that, obviously, the cooling system needs to be in top condition, and ideally the AC should work. The car does not have conversion fittings installed so it is my belief that the AC did not work when it was parked and surely hasn't somehow recharged itself with fresh R12 since then.

I have absolutely no meaningful background on working on these cars so it will be a bit of a learning experience, for sure. That being said, it looks to have plenty of room to get the timing cover off, which is good because that's where the water pump lives.

Expect to see absolutely no progress on this any time soon, it was more of a "grab it while it's available because it's not likely to come along again" type of deal.

[Arquemann]

What makes an Acclaim? The dash badge? Trunk says Chrysler (is that an option?), grille is missing a badge(?) and nowhere that I can see says Plymouth. To me it looks just like the Saratoga, atleast the Dodge Spirit had a sporty grille. Yours has a lot of cladding and chrome trim, must be a high trim level.

I've found those late 80's - early 90's Chrysler products curiously awful, or maybe awfully curious.
In Finland these "small" FWD american plastic fantastic nuggets are in an odd light. Barely any imported as they were priced high and they didn't really differ enough from german cars to have that feel of american excess. No one really can consider these as classics and in the modern as normal cars theyre awful. The Radwood things ain't a thing here either.

[kishy]

What makes an Acclaim? The dash badge? Trunk says Chrysler (is that an option?), grille is missing a badge(?) and nowhere that I can see says Plymouth. To me it looks just like the Saratoga, atleast the Dodge Spirit had a sporty grille. Yours has a lot of cladding and chrome trim, must be a high trim level.

I've found those late 80's - early 90's Chrysler products curiously awful, or maybe awfully curious.
In Finland these "small" FWD american plastic fantastic nuggets are in an odd light. Barely any imported as they were priced high and they didn't really differ enough from german cars to have that feel of american excess. No one really can consider these as classics and in the modern as normal cars theyre awful. The Radwood things ain't a thing here either.

Easy: the ownership states it's a Plymouth, which means the part of the VIN which identifies the brand says it's a Plymouth. This car was built as an Acclaim but modified by its original owner, by changing the Acclaim grille out for the LeBaron one, and by de-badging the trunklid to apply a Chrysler badge/text as you'd see on a LeBaron. He worked for Chrysler. My guess would be that he walked into a dealer looking for an employee pricing deal on a car and liked the options vs the price on the Acclaim more than he liked what was available on a LeBaron at the time, and that's how he ended up with this car. Centre console with floor shift, bucket seats, overhead console, and power everything is an uncommon option arrangement on the Acclaim, which backs up the fact it started out as a high level car.

The Saratoga is not a car that existed here. We had the Acclaim, Spirit, and LeBaron, of which I believe a mixture of the Acclaim and LeBaron is what makes a Saratoga. All obviously pretty much the same thing, just varying trim and interior stuff. This colour paired with the Acclaim grille, tail lights, and the fog light bumper (and the lack of the LeBaron vinyl top) makes the best looking combination on this body, in my opinion. A very close second is a white Spirit R/T.

[Arquemann]

Easy: the ownership states it's a Plymouth, which means the part of the VIN which identifies the brand says it's a Plymouth. This car was built as an Acclaim but modified by its original owner, by changing the Acclaim grille out for the LeBaron one, and by de-badging the trunklid to apply a Chrysler badge/text as you'd see on a LeBaron. He worked for Chrysler. My guess would be that he walked into a dealer looking for an employee pricing deal on a car and liked the options vs the price on the Acclaim more than he liked what was available on a LeBaron at the time, and that's how he ended up with this car. Centre console with floor shift, bucket seats, overhead console, and power everything is an uncommon option arrangement on the Acclaim, which backs up the fact it started out as a high level car.

The Saratoga is not a car that existed here. We had the Acclaim, Spirit, and LeBaron, of which I believe a mixture of the Acclaim and LeBaron is what makes a Saratoga. All obviously pretty much the same thing, just varying trim and interior stuff. This colour paired with the Acclaim grille, tail lights, and the fog light bumper (and the lack of the LeBaron vinyl top) makes the best looking combination on this body, in my opinion. A very close second is a white Spirit R/T.

Ah so it was modified. Makes sense. Looking at pics online, the Chryslers have different tail lights and rear bumper among other things. If I had to show my registration to prove that my car was X of 3 different brands, that'd be kinda dumb imo. But in this case it works out as seeing that I'd just see a Chrysler, which would be more "upscale" than a Plymouth, so I guess they achieved their goal.
I remember an inspector complaining to my friend who had an Electra Park Avenue, with a Caprice header panel and taillights. Something about VIN swapping and verifiability. Pointless complaining, but still.

Are you going to keep it as is or make it look like a Plymouth again? Since you wanted a Plymouth and not the others?

[kishy]

Ah so it was modified. Makes sense. Looking at pics online, the Chryslers have different tail lights and rear bumper among other things. If I had to show my registration to prove that my car was X of 3 different brands, that'd be kinda dumb imo. But in this case it works out as seeing that I'd just see a Chrysler, which would be more "upscale" than a Plymouth, so I guess they achieved their goal.
I remember an inspector complaining to my friend who had an Electra Park Avenue, with a Caprice header panel and taillights. Something about VIN swapping and verifiability. Pointless complaining, but still.

Are you going to keep it as is or make it look like a Plymouth again? Since you wanted a Plymouth and not the others?

I am going to find an Acclaim grille for it, for sure. I'll try to de-badge the trunklid but if it doesn't look like it'll come clean, I'll just leave it. The paint behind the A-pillars is original and may be fragile, knowing period Chryslers.

[p71towny]

You and my buddy would get along just fine. They were around growing up but I never paid them much attention. A conquest would be a neat one to get.

[87gtVIC]

Clean car!

Chrome wheels? Stock?

[slack]

Nice find! My Mom's first car she ever bought new was a 1991 Dodge Spirit (same car, dodge branding) so I also grew up with memories of getting toted around in the back of one of these things. Not a bad car. At one point in time I owned a 1994 Dodge Shadow which is a bit different but a lot of the interior stuff is shared between the two.

I do remember hearing that they had issues with the head gaskets going on them? I'm not really sure though. I know my mom's head gasket blew and so did my friend's who owned one that was from around the same year.

[kishy]

You and my buddy would get along just fine. They were around growing up but I never paid them much attention. A conquest would be a neat one to get.

Can't say I'm much of a Mopar guy, in general, but I always appreciate when people are passionate about any car and it's not hard to connect with people when everyone is of that mind.

Conquests are definitely one of the cooler results of the Chrysler-Mitsubishi relationship.

Clean car!

Chrome wheels? Stock?

The chrome wheels do seem to be "real chrome" but I don't like them and they aren't an OE wheel. The car very likely had this setup from new:



Which I think is pretty fantastic, personally, and I'd like to find a set of those wheels if possible. Sort of the equivalent on this car to our Panther HPPs.

My feeling at the present time, without having any real knowledge of how Chrysler did option packages, is that this is likely an LX with every option. If a dealership brochure pops up on eBay I may buy it just for the sake of figuring that out.

Nice find! My Mom's first car she ever bought new was a 1991 Dodge Spirit (same car, dodge branding) so I also grew up with memories of getting toted around in the back of one of these things. Not a bad car. At one point in time I owned a 1994 Dodge Shadow which is a bit different but a lot of the interior stuff is shared between the two.

I do remember hearing that they had issues with the head gaskets going on them? I'm not really sure though. I know my mom's head gasket blew and so did my friend's who owned one that was from around the same year.

All the FWD Mopar stuff is quite similar in various ways, definitely. My auto shop teacher in high school had a Shadow which he drove as well as a Shadow as a shop car (for students to do various repair jobs on, in addition to the repairs we did to the one he also drove lol) and I do recognize some things, like the floor shift lever. As an aside I'm not crazy about it having floor shift and didn't even know the Acclaim could be ordered with it - column shift with a split bucket bench (like most Panthers) is what I would have expected.

I think the head gasket issue is specific to the 4-cylinder cars. The 3.0 seems to have a good reputation in general but I know it can burn oil re: valve seals and guides. Only time will tell at this point if the rebuilt engine (if it really was, but I tend to believe it was) has oil consumption issues.

The bigger reliability issue associated with the V6 cars is the transmission. This car should have the second version of the A604/Ultradrive, called the 41TE, which supposedly fixed a handful of the issues that gave it a bad reputation to begin with. That being said, fluid condition and the use of the exact correct fluid is critical, and electronic controls mean wiring issues could cause misbehaviour. People seem to consider them alright when they're well taken care of, though. All I know at present is that it engages both forward and reverse, it climbed up the tow dolly and back down again, and drove up my driveway just fine. The fluid on the dipstick is bright red and has no particulate in it, and the trans pan has been painted, so the story about it being rebuilt is believable so far.

[Grand1]

Nice find Kish. I had a 92 New Yorker 5th Avenue with every option..passenger area had the most leg room out of any ride I have ever had.

Does it have the A604 Transmission.? If so, that was the weakest link for me. Sure you will figure it out regardless.

Just read the above, you are on it. Oh for me , make sure the input speed senser matchs the output speed sensor in voltage otherwise it slips.

[gadget73]

The original K cars and their later descendants were all very much badge engineered. Mechanically its all about the same, and even a lot of sheet metal and such was shared from the Dodge, Plymouth, and Chrysler versions of each. Honestly not really different than a Crown Vic and a Grand Marq.

[Mainemantom]

Nice find in great condition. I remember them new. Even in the rust free States, they are hard to find in any condition. I like the interior !

[kishy]

Well, what have we here? A lengthy update on my Mopar!

This thread is going to be largely a duplicate of one I started over at Allpar.

Over the past several months, I have lightly poked around with the Acclaim (which I affectionately and erroneously refer to as "the K-car") a couple times. K-car rolls off the tongue nicely, whereas AA-car just doesn't.

In December, I found an Acclaim in a Detroit junkyard with its correct original grille. The grille is in roughly A- condition with minor deficiencies in its finish and a broken mounting tab, but is plenty good enough for me, so I bought it. I am not particularly fond of the LeBaron grille - and on top of that I believe it's an aftermarket one and just has a bit of a cheap feel to it.





In March, I pulled the car out to give it a quick wash, as well as experiment with a couple different LED tail light bulbs. In doing so, I found the stock turn signal flasher doesn't like that (not really a surprise) so I installed a stock Ford flasher (still a thermal flasher) which will tolerate only one incandescent light bulb without incident.





Also found at that time that the left front turn signal socket makes poor contact with its bulb. Contact cleaning seemed to help.



The two brands of bulbs tried are Auxito (an Amazon brand we've discussed in passing here at GMN before) and Sylvania Zevo. As I've explained in probably my 91 MGM thread, the Sylvania bulbs are my usual preferred choice because despite a lower overall brightness than the Auxito ones, the delta (amount of change in brightness) between tail and stop is much more apparent with the Sylvanias, and my other cars have larger housings with multiple bulbs. The Acclaim only takes one lonely bulb per side, so I favoured the greater overall brightness of the Auxito in this case. I may change my mind about this after testing in various lighting conditions, because the change in brightness does seem a little lacking.

I also put Auxito white LEDs in the reverse lights, which work well, and an Aliexpress mystery brand LED in the hood/engine compartment lamp. The trunk lamp is more complicated because it is, for some reason, a dual-filament bulb with a 2-wire socket so that will come another time.


Useless photo, ultimately, but it exists so here it is.

Odd to do to a car that can't yet be driven? Yeah probably, but I wanted to poke around with it, so I did.

At some point, I helped a friend haul 1931lbs of lead-acid batteries to a recycler (using a 4-cylinder Ranger), and because the Acclaim battery was puffed out on all 4 sides and would not accept a charge, I included it in that batch. The car is now without a battery, but the one from the Ranger (which is the wrong size for that vehicle) fits enough to start the Acclaim, so I have some mobility until I buy the right size when it's time for the road.

Today, I pulled the car out for a quick wash, then I tidied up my garage from my last few projects. After the tidying, I pulled the Acclaim in. This does not look like a particularly small car, but it sure does once it's inside. This should be a comfortable car to work on.













Identifying a few exterior defects to be addressed at some point:

• The lower bodyside molding/rock guard/impact guard(?) along the left rear door is peeling. The adhesive has let go. This should be pretty straightforward to stick back on.
• There is missing paint on the front bumper cover.
• The right side headlamp is full of rain water. A friend in the Detroit area who just got rid of an AA LeBaron has extra headlamps and has offered them to me, so that's cool.
• Not a new discovery but one to note: these fog lamps seem to be aftermarket, and I don't think I care much for them. A nice pair of the OEM ones is going on my list to look for (along with the LX wheels)

Once I had the car inside, I took a look at the contents of the console and glovebox, which I'd never had occasion to open - the seller had the ownership out when I got there to buy it.

I was greeted with a nice little collection of things - the owner's manual, the warranty booklets, the maintenance schedule book (unfortunately only the first service is noted in it), the Infinity demo tape, a coupe maintenance records - but also the original sale bill for the car! That was neat to see. On 1991 May 6, this 1991 Acclaim was purchased for an out-the-door total of $19,055.80, which appears to have included a Chrysler employee discount. The bill shows the name of the father of who I bought it from, and the same address I picked it up from.







As for the maintenance records, they aren't too interesting, but I figured I'd include them for your consideration:

1992 Oct 28 at 105,350km, at Windsor Spring & Alignment in Windsor
-tire rotation
-4-wheel alignment including installation of 2 shims on left rear
Total $103.38

1994 Mar 11, mileage not indicated, at Windsor Spring & Alignment in Windsor
-new front struts and upper strut bearings
-tire rotation
-4-wheel alignment
Total $529.77

1994 July 26 at 218,817km, at Racicot Chrysler in Amherstburg, the original selling dealer
-customer complaint of coolant leak believed to be from water pump
-new water pump
-new timing belt
-new coolant
-6 hours labour for the above
Total including a 10% discount on parts and labour $509.19

1995 Jan 18, mileage not indicated, at Windsor Spring & Alignment in Windsor
-new front wheel bearings (both sides)
-customer complaint of "tires wobble" addressed by tire rotation
Total $384.08

2002 Sept 11 at 412,938km, at Windsor Spring & Alignment in Windsor
-new front struts and upper strut bearings
-new right front outer tie rod end
-new "outer sway bar rubbers", presumably where they attach to the control arms
-front wheel alignment
Total $596.81


I believe the owner did all of the standard maintenance stuff himself, which is why there isn't a pile of receipts for oil changes, but the fact that these larger-ticket items are here suggests the timing belt and water pump currently in the car are probably the same ones installed in 1994 about 260k km ago. No investigation required: I will proceed with replacing the parts.

For organization's sake, I'll break the rest of my progress for the day into a new reply.

[kishy]

Update #2 for today:

After around 3 hours of pulling things apart, I have the timing belt exposed, timing marks aligned, ready for belt removal on another day. This is really, really easy to work on. The comparative punishment I've gone through on the Panthers...wow. Granted, about half of that is the physical exertion of leaning over 3 feet of car to get to the part you're trying to touch. Timing chain job in a Town Car is brutal on the knees and lower back.

Anyway, some photos.











note the crooked and cross-threaded steering pump bolt left behind by the last person to be in here.



note the accessory belt is not riding on the steering pump pulley correctly



















The previous owner, a decade ago (or more, perhaps) bought a handful of new parts which came to me in the trunk. After looking over all these parts, I have no concerns running them. Those are a water pump, timing belt and tensioner, air filter, plugs plug wires, and transmission filter.

Working on a list of stuff to buy. Considering a front crank seal - after all, I'm here anyway. Thermostat, hoses. The fuel lines (the rubber sections with the quick connects) look like they're in the beginning stages of failure. I'll poke around on RockAuto and see what sort of a shopping cart I can piece together.

[gadget73]

Timing belt doesn't look awful but I do see some cracking. Someone seems to have been here before, pretty sure those paint marks are not factory.