Start of a Dart
Some good news, a long conversation with the sales manager at In Line Tube resulted in correct brake lines heading my way. Part of the problem is they sent me 69 Barracuda lines, not 69 Dart lines. There is a 3" difference in wheelbase so the long line from front to back was a no-go. Also, it appears my rear end is funny (hell it's hysterical - you should hear what it has to say after a feast of my famous bean burritos, but I digress...). Anyway, my odd rear end (I can't type this without snorting) has different spacing for the brass T-fitting but theoretically that situation is solved also with some different rear axle lines, also on the way.
Having no brake lines, I figured my next project was to start on the front end to disassemble, clean, paint and make way for the new front discs and complete rebuild of everything. 73+ front disc setup, QA1 adjustable shocks, new 1.03 t-bars, adjustable strut rods, power to manual brake swap with a new disc/drum master cylinder, power steering to manual steering swap with a Firm Feel 20:1 steering box, and probably some more stuff I'm forgetting. There's a sizable heap-o-parts on the shop floor that will find a new home shortly.
However, reality reared its ugly head and I thought I'd just do a quick service on the 727 so it was ready to go. Haha, a normal half hour job took all day and I'm still not done. It started with the simple task of pulling the pan. Loosen the bolts, drain what you can, drop the pan and done, right? Not so fast bucko, says the pan. The PO for my car was a reasonably good mechanic I think. I've found only a few what-the-hell things where something got monkeyed up instead of done right. Well the pan took over an hour to get off because it was installed with some kind of blue death glue. I literally had to hammer a putty knife in the crack one inch at a time to get it to come free. I broke the putty knife but I did get the pan off.
Then of course comes two hours of scraping this junk off the pan and the bottom of the tranny (yes, I was uncomfortable scraping a tranny's bottom but again I digress). One does what one must. I discover why the pan and gasket were all glopped up. It's been hit a couple of times, with ridges and dents in the sealing surface. Rather than tap everything out flat for a good seal the PO put a gallon of blue glue on it and slapped it together. It was not an effective effort, as it was still leaking all over. I'm going to do a quick straighten job on the pan and see if it seals. If not I will get a new one. I will probably get a new pan anyway, I want a drain plug.
After cleaning up all the pan bolts, I see we have five different kinds. I never saw a tranny pan with anything but identical bolts, so I think these were cobbled together somehow. Anyone have direct knowledge on this tidbit? In the photo, the first two bolts on the left are a thread or two shorter than the seven bolts to the rear. On the right all the bolts are about 1/4" longer than the seven bolts, but the three bolts in the back have an unthreaded nose on them and the two in the front are fully threaded. I think I need new bolts to fix this nonsense.
Anyway, I got the bottom cleaned up and new filter in place.
Now for the bad news, once I drained the pan I see a fair bit of sparkles in the bottom. If I was @DentalDart I'd think my little princess had gotten in there when I wasn't looking and gave it a dose of glitter to make it all pretty. But no, it's just the dog and me anymore so it was metal shavings.
And if that's not enough fun, there was also a full layer of brown sludge in the bottom. It sure showed when I wiped out the pan. Brown = sludge, shiny = wiped off. Not a good look.
So I'll give this a shot to see if it works OK or not. I need to replace the cooler lines too, they are leaking and one has a compression union because it's two pieces not one (?). I will button it up and fill it to see what happens. If it's no good, I have been listening to my 4-speed setup jumping up and down in the corner saying Pick Me! Pick Me! Which opens up another can of worms, this is a bucket/console car and I don't like consoles so it may be coming out for a 4-speed swap. I have everything I need, bellhousing, flywheel, clutch, trans, shifter and rods, driveshaft, hump, and so forth. But I'd prefer to not go down that rabbit hole if I can avoid it. Time will tell, first is to get it street worthy then deal with whatever comes next. As usual, one step forward, two steps back. :(
Some good news, a long conversation with the sales manager at In Line Tube resulted in correct brake lines heading my way. Part of the problem is they sent me 69 Barracuda lines, not 69 Dart lines. There is a 3" difference in wheelbase so the long line from front to back was a no-go. Also, it appears my rear end is funny (hell it's hysterical - you should hear what it has to say after a feast of my famous bean burritos, but I digress...). Anyway, my odd rear end (I can't type this without snorting) has different spacing for the brass T-fitting but theoretically that situation is solved also with some different rear axle lines, also on the way.
Having no brake lines, I figured my next project was to start on the front end to disassemble, clean, paint and make way for the new front discs and complete rebuild of everything. 73+ front disc setup, QA1 adjustable shocks, new 1.03 t-bars, adjustable strut rods, power to manual brake swap with a new disc/drum master cylinder, power steering to manual steering swap with a Firm Feel 20:1 steering box, and probably some more stuff I'm forgetting. There's a sizable heap-o-parts on the shop floor that will find a new home shortly.
However, reality reared its ugly head and I thought I'd just do a quick service on the 727 so it was ready to go. Haha, a normal half hour job took all day and I'm still not done. It started with the simple task of pulling the pan. Loosen the bolts, drain what you can, drop the pan and done, right? Not so fast bucko, says the pan. The PO for my car was a reasonably good mechanic I think. I've found only a few what-the-hell things where something got monkeyed up instead of done right. Well the pan took over an hour to get off because it was installed with some kind of blue death glue. I literally had to hammer a putty knife in the crack one inch at a time to get it to come free. I broke the putty knife but I did get the pan off.
Then of course comes two hours of scraping this junk off the pan and the bottom of the tranny (yes, I was uncomfortable scraping a tranny's bottom but again I digress). One does what one must. I discover why the pan and gasket were all glopped up. It's been hit a couple of times, with ridges and dents in the sealing surface. Rather than tap everything out flat for a good seal the PO put a gallon of blue glue on it and slapped it together. It was not an effective effort, as it was still leaking all over. I'm going to do a quick straighten job on the pan and see if it seals. If not I will get a new one. I will probably get a new pan anyway, I want a drain plug.
After cleaning up all the pan bolts, I see we have five different kinds. I never saw a tranny pan with anything but identical bolts, so I think these were cobbled together somehow. Anyone have direct knowledge on this tidbit? In the photo, the first two bolts on the left are a thread or two shorter than the seven bolts to the rear. On the right all the bolts are about 1/4" longer than the seven bolts, but the three bolts in the back have an unthreaded nose on them and the two in the front are fully threaded. I think I need new bolts to fix this nonsense.
Anyway, I got the bottom cleaned up and new filter in place.
Now for the bad news, once I drained the pan I see a fair bit of sparkles in the bottom. If I was @DentalDart I'd think my little princess had gotten in there when I wasn't looking and gave it a dose of glitter to make it all pretty. But no, it's just the dog and me anymore so it was metal shavings.
And if that's not enough fun, there was also a full layer of brown sludge in the bottom. It sure showed when I wiped out the pan. Brown = sludge, shiny = wiped off. Not a good look.
So I'll give this a shot to see if it works OK or not. I need to replace the cooler lines too, they are leaking and one has a compression union because it's two pieces not one (?). I will button it up and fill it to see what happens. If it's no good, I have been listening to my 4-speed setup jumping up and down in the corner saying Pick Me! Pick Me! Which opens up another can of worms, this is a bucket/console car and I don't like consoles so it may be coming out for a 4-speed swap. I have everything I need, bellhousing, flywheel, clutch, trans, shifter and rods, driveshaft, hump, and so forth. But I'd prefer to not go down that rabbit hole if I can avoid it. Time will tell, first is to get it street worthy then deal with whatever comes next. As usual, one step forward, two steps back. :(
