1964 Dart Owner - In Over My Head
The factory service manual is a good start, but being new to old cars, you will want to get the other two books in
this thread as quickly as you can; they're worth their weight in gold.
See
here for leads on parts sources.
1. Tail lights not working properly (Seeing as the turn signals work and it's new bulbs. I'm betting it's a fuse or wiring issue on the front half of the car.)
No tail lights and no brake lights, but yes rear turn signals, probably means a couple of problems at the same time. Could be a faulty headlamp switch (which controls the feed to the wires that go to the dim filaments in the rear bulbs) and a faulty brake light switch (which is the first switch that controls the feed to the wires that go to the bright filaments in the rear bulbs), or a faulty headlamp switch and a faulty turn signal switch (the brake light feed goes
through the turn signal switch, which sends either steady power from the brake light switch or pulsed power from the turn signal flasher to the bright filaments of the rear bulbs -- this is how you get your combination brake/turn lights in the back). Your no-tails problem could also be a blown fuse caused by a short circuit in the wires to the dim filaments, sometimes as simple as that wire chafing on the socket body at the lamp itself. Time to do some diagnosing.
2. Fuel leak at the filler gasket. (Looks like this is an cheap fix if everything cooperates.)
Which filler gasket are we talking about here? The one from the filler pipe into the top of the tank, on the floor of the trunk?
3. Rear tire rub when cornering and loaded down with adults in back seat
Rear tires on your car are considerably larger than the biggest ones envisioned for use on this car when it was designed. If the previous owner was bound and determined to use those wheels and tires, the right way to do it would have been to have the rear axle narrowed—an expensive proposition, which is probably why it wasn't done. You may well wind up going to narrower wheels/tires to address this.
4. Gauges not working: The cause of these is various and will take a while to get corrected.
Which gauges aren't working? Fuel and engine temperature gauges are controlled by a voltage regulator built into one of the gauges. This is not the same as the voltage regulator in the engine compartment that controls the vehicle's line voltage; the instrument cluster voltage regulator (ICVR) provides 5 volts to run the fuel and temp gauges. Best way forward if your ICVR has failed is to proceed per
this page (using the electronic regulator the linked company offers). Note that the ICVR can fail in two ways: open (no power) or closed (full vehicle line voltage). If it fails open, installing a working ICVR will probably bring the gauges back. If it fails closed, the gauges will peg and then burn out (they're getting about 13 volts and they run on 5...), so replacement or rebuild of the gauges will be necessary.
Other potential causes of nonworking fuel and temp gauges include faulty fuel and temp gauge senders (fuel sender at tank, temp sender at engine), or faulty wiring between sender and gauge.
If your third gauge, the ammeter, is not working, that's a different matter; if the car's electrics work at all (even if some of them don't), but the ammeter doesn't register, it's either because the ammeter itself is faulty or someone has bypassed it.
5. Door locks don't work. (Just gotta find a junkyard or site that sells the parts.)
New door locks for the pre-'66 cars are difficult and costly. You can upgrade to the easy-and-cheap-to-buy '66-up locks without much difficulty; see threads
here and
here. New pair of '66-up locks is
here. Gary Goers has the lock-to-door gaskets; he's listed at the parts-sources link given above. If you want the ignition and doors to take the same key as they did from the factory, you'll want to take the ignition lock to a good locksmith once you've got the new door locks, and have the locksmith rekey the one to match the other two.
6. Small leak in windshield rubber. (Some epoxy might stop that now.)
These cars are sort of infamous for water leaks up front. Sometimes they come from the windshield gasket itself—don't use epoxy or you'll hate yourself in the future when it comes time to replace the glass and/or gasket. If you've determined it really, truly is the windshield gasket that's leaking, and the gasket and glass are in basically good shape, take the car to a good auto glass shop and have them strategically apply urethane or butyl windshield sealant compound under the gasket.
But a very common leak that acts just like a windshield gasket leak is water coming in past the windshield wiper shafts. There's a kit available with all the seals and bits needed to fix this. It's not expensive and it's not terribly difficult to install. I have one of these, new in package, on my shelf and I'm not going to use it (sold my '64); I'll send you a PM.
7. Get some exhaust fumes in cabin.
There are lots of holes in the firewall of these cars. Most of them have stuff running through them, but not well sealed. Get a package of strip caulk from the hardware store and go on a mission to find and plug holes. It helps to have bright light on one side of the firewall and deep darkness on the other. Also take a careful look at the hood-to-cowl seal; make sure it's present and intact and in good shape. You can get a new one from Gary Goers (info above).
Also, make sure the engine's PCV (crankcase ventilation) system is correctly configured. If the hood scoop and "340" callout are to be believed, this car has had an engine swap. There should be a breather cap on one of the valve covers, and on the other cover there should be a PCV valve with a hose running to the carburetor. If there isn't, if instead there's another breather cap, that's going to have you huffing crankcase fumes pretty much nonstop, even with good hood/cowl and firewall seals. If it's actual exhaust, then yes, manifold gaskets are where to start. It is very much worth your while to get the good Remflex gaskets.
I accidentally brushed up against the side of the car and scraped my pocket knife down the side of the car. I wound up with a gash in the paint that went all the way to the metal!
Sooner or later all of us wish we had a time machine that would take us ten seconds into the past like this.
Have a look at
this thread for ideas what to do once you've got the car's immediate needs squared away.
