Looks Like I Picked The Wrong Week To Quit Sniffing Glue / '64 Valiant Troubles

1964 Plymouth Valiant Signet convertible 225, push button, no a/c, manual brakes and steering. Everything looks original except for the alternator, shocks and the stuff that I have switched.

My other "dependable car" has been in the shop for 3 days with an evap problem that I need fixed to get it smoged.

[ame="http://youtu.be/VmW-ScmGRMA"]302 Found[/ame]

Yesterday I drove my car Chuck Valiant to work and one of the mechanics noticed that the front passenger tire was angled weird. I propped it up at lunch time, pull the tire and saw that the upper balljoint had popped out upward, the threads looked sheared. I live 6 miles from work so I convinced someone to follow me home as I drove my car 20mph on mostly 45mph roads. That was fun.


Today while waiting for the new balljoint to arrive at the parts store, I did my first compression test ever and I'm pretty sure I did it wrong (I didn't have the throttle wide open, I was using a remote starter.)

The engine was warm and pulling the plugs was burning my hands. I started the test on the sixth cylinder 'cause that seemed the easiest place to start. I was hoping that I would get a hang of it by the time I got to the number one plug. 6, 5, & 4 all read a solid 130 and I was stoked. 3 read 127, not bad. Then I got to 2, it read 113, it made me think I was reading everything wrong so I tested 6 again and it came in a solid 130 again. Went to number 1 and it still took me a while to get the compression tube to screw in and it read 90... bummed.

I completely forgot to put some oil down the spark plug tubes to do a retest on 1 and 2, I was in a hurry to get the compression tester that I had borrowed from a friend back to his shop. Got a ride to the parts store to pick up my balljoint and drooped off the compression tester.

Got home pulled the old balljoint and saw that the threads on the upper control arm were smashed and sheared. I have two junkyards near me that have old mopar parts so I'm sure I can get a new/old upper control arm. Just bummed I have to go through this.

Question: I eventually want to convert to disk brakes in a couple of years. Can I use 1973 upper control arms on my 1964 9" drum brake setup? The way they look on the internet I'll so no.

I was about to buy the complete polygraphite front end from PST next month and I was ready to move it up to this weekend before I did the compression test.

Hopefully tomorrow I can pick up my "dependable car" from the shop, go to the junkyard get my arm and then get my own compression tester from the parts store to redo my test. the only bright spot tonight is they started selling Modelo for $11 a 12pack so I got that going for me. Man I picked a wrong week...