1964 Valiant "Get Runnin & Drivin"

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Fwiw, and I'm not sure it applies here as there are already 2 solutions noted, my understanding is a return line keeps fuel in the line and carb cool enough to avoid hot start issues.
Sometimes just opening the hood helps if that's an option, although it would be weird to do everytime you get a sammich.

I've also been inspired to fix my door panels, not sure what I'll use for 'new' cardboard, and put vinyle over the kickpanels on another car.

Anyone have a fix for small tears/cuts in the door panel vinyle?
 
I've driven her several times since the heat shield install. I have to say I am very impressed. The problem (small as it was) is completely gone. She pops right off now. I just never thought something that simple would make such a big difference, but it sure did.
 
^^^ I also noticed the differene when I rerouted the slants fuel line from the oem line to the over the valve cover deal!!!
Its always good to add a new trick to the list!!!
The CoolCarb deal is plenty cheap, but makes wonder how a guy could make a do it your self model !???? Probably cost more than their price but I always have these thoughts!!!! LOL

Like training horses over the decades, every horse is different and can teach you something new, and having the chance to ride with a different trainer, can offer new knowledge.
 
I pulled her in for a routine looksee since I did the engine work a couple weeks or so ago. Got her up in the air and she's still dry as a bone underneath. No leaks anywhere. I searched around the site when I had her down gleaning ideas and found no really "new" ideas about sealing the bottom, so I just did what I normally do and it turned out really good. I am kinda eyeballin my aluminum Super Six manifold. I think maybe after I get the 2.5" exhaust run, I may put a two barrel on her. We'll see what happens.
 
barbee6043 said:
^^^ I also noticed the differene when I rerouted the slants fuel line from the oem line to the over the valve cover deal!!!
Its always good to add a new trick to the list!!!
The CoolCarb deal is plenty cheap, but makes wonder how a guy could make a do it your self model !???? Probably cost more than their price but I always have these thoughts!!!! LOL

Like training horses over the decades, every horse is different and can teach you something new, and having the chance to ride with a different trainer, can offer new knowledge.
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I love that fuel line mod! It works great......I just cannot bring myself to put a fuel line over the valve cover. They look so cool. lol
 
Vixen had a little setback today. We went down the road to Matt's to pick up some mis-delivered mail. We both have the same street number on completely different streets, yet end up with each other's mail sometimes. Go figure. On the way back, We were going about 60 or so I guess and BAM the oil light came on. BRIGHT. So I slowed down a little as it was less than a mile back to the house at that point. Made it home fine. The 170 was still runnin quiet as could be. So I cut it off, opened the hood and removed the oil filter. Got my remote started button out and spun the engine over. It's not what I'd call a geyser of oil, but it's pumping oil out of the filter boss. So I put the filter back on and removed the valve cover. Before all this though, I did trace the oil pressure switch wire to assure it hadn't grounded and it's good. So I busted it off and oil almost immediately started coming out of the rockers, so it's pumping oil. I have a new pressure switch on order that'll be here in the mornin and I'm gonna put that on it. I had actually suspected the pressure switch that's on it, even though it's a new one, because every now and then it would go dim on startup and then finally go out. All of this was after I replaced the rod and main bearings and oil pump. I know slants do good to get oil to the top in dribbles, but this is what I would call some strong drooling......definitely more than dribbles, so it's gettin oil to the top. I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow. And yeah, I have a gauge and could put it on there and still may, but I strongly enough suspect the pressure switch so I'm gonna try that first.
 
At least you could rest fairly easy knowing you can run a slant for a few thousand miles with no oil pressure and still be OK.
 
Aight den. We're right back where we were. I put the new pressure switch in and Kitty spun it over on the starter a few times and the light went right out on the starter. This was a brand new Standard Ignition PS16 pressure switch. So like I always say, new doesn't always mean good.
 
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RustyRatRod said:
Aight den. We're right back where we were. I put the new pressure switch in and Kitty spun it over on the starter a few times and the light went right out on the starter. This was a brand new Standard Ignition PS16 pressure switch. So like I always say, new doesn't always mean good.
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Yup. Had one last a couple months in blue a while back, the one that came with the gauges. Scaeerd the crap outa me. Good news!
 
moparmandan said:
Yup. Had one last a couple months in blue a while back, the one that came with the gauges. Scaeerd the crap outa me. Good news!
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Believe it or not, I had a pressure sensor (the one that screws into the tail of a slant six oil pump) fail on the slant six motor in the D150.. traveling down the highway it failed and leaked out enough oil to trip the light on,, that sensor had been on the vehicle for a bout 40,000 miles. Coasted up on to the next exit,, at a near by intersection I happened upon a guy that stopped to see why I had stopped and he happened to have a new 5 quart jug of motor oil,, there was a near by old school service station that the guy with the oil gave me a lift to and they had a plug that fit the thread size of the fitting. Cost me maybe an hour or so, but to this day I cannot believe how everything aligned and I had help when needed. Sometimes life is hard to figure. Things go wrong and just as quick, things go right.
 
my68barracuda said:
Believe it or not, I had a pressure sensor (the one that screws into the tail of a slant six oil pump) fail on the slant six motor in the D150.. traveling down the highway it failed and leaked out enough oil to trip the light on,, that sensor had been on the vehicle for a bout 40,000 miles. Coasted up on to the next exit,, at a near by intersection I happened upon a guy that stopped to see why I had stopped and he happened to have a new 5 quart jug of motor oil,, there was a near by old school service station that the guy with the oil gave me a lift to and they had a plug that fit the thread size of the fitting. Cost me maybe an hour or so, but to this day I cannot believe how everything aligned and I had help when needed. Sometimes life is hard to figure. Things go wrong and just as quick, things go right.
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Yeah I've had a few instances like that myself. It's like somethin went wrong......but it kinda didn't. lol
 
I found some cool license plate letters at Hobby Lobby. They were 50% off. So I made Vixen a vanity plate. The letters are out of whack on the tin, but on the plate straight....so it kinda makes it look like she's a bad girl. LOL

Sarah was a good girl not minding to be a prop.

VIXEN PLATE.jpg
 
Got Vixen's plate installed. She told me she likes it.

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Gladys was cryin about how Vixen always gets the cool new stuff, so I had to make her one too.

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Aight den, I got Vixen's new dash vents in today. I'm cheap, by necessity.....as you all know, so I got some defrost hose from our local O'Reilly. 2" in diameter and 36" long. I just cut it in half and it was plenty long enough for each piece. The kicker was, it was only 17 bucks. I say "only" because the "correct" defrost hose is like 50 bucks and the vents another 50. Screw that noise. Although the vents are tough to find used, so I did spring for those new, I got the hose from O'Reilly. Yes, the original hose is two different sizes on each end. It fit right inside the tube in the vents, so I used electrical tape and just taped the heck out of the hoses to the vents. On the bottom side, the hose wasn't "quite" big enough to fit over the stubs coming out of the heater box, so I cut a straight cut in the first five rings on the end of each hose and opened them up just enough to slide right over the defrost stubs. Worked really good and saved over 30 bucks compared to the stupid "correct" over priced hoses. So now I have some nice lookin vents and my defroster works again.

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VIXEN VENTS1.jpg
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Stephen Hotz said:
Would heating the small ends with a heat gun give you the stretch needed?
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Nope. The coils are steel. No stretchin those. lol That's why I clipped the first five coils. I clipped the coils, but was careful not to cut the material, so the ends slide right over the defroster stubs.
 
I love the vixen plate. I made a plate for the Charger out of my wife's old Manitoba plates.

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We've been drivin her everywhere. I have no doubt we could have made the 3.5 hour trip to Havana, Florida in Vixen to see Kitty's brother for Thanksgiving. I decided against it, because about 100 miles of that trip is interstate. Again. she would have done it with flying colors, but I would have been more comfortable staying around 55, so we took the Escape. It needed its legs stretch anyway, as It's not getting driven much anymore at all locally. lol

So, Saturday afternoon I whooped her into the shop and replaced the sway bar frame bushings and end links. The bushings I got with the bar were a little less than the quality I wanted so I got some universal ones from Energy Suspension. They are nice and have built in grease fittings so I can keep the bushings greased. The end links I got originally were somewhat too short and caused the ends of the sway bar to interfere with the lower control arms. We cain't have all that, so I got some end links a little longer. I'll get some pictures up tomorrow. This is the Addco front bar that mounts sorta chinsey......but I fixed all that. I'll get some good pictures tomorrow. Their bars are really affordable, but the way they mount leaves that top bolt totally unsupported. That bottom 90 degree angle bracket ends up being the only thing that attaches the bar to the K frame IF you install it per their instructions. I did not. LOL I'll have pictures up tomorrow.

Also, while I was at it, I turned her around and backed her in the shop, jacked her up and removed the 1" lowering blocks I had put in. The new springs have settled a little and I lost a little of the rake it had, so I yanked the blocks out. Now it she has her attitude back. lol
 
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As promised, here are the pictures of the upgraded sway bar frame bushings. Much more substantial then the Addco hardware. I think that's how they are able to offer the prices they do. They cut corners on the hardware. Also, notice I positioned the lower brackets in such a way that I was able to bolt the top end of the bracket directly to the K frame, instead of it just hanging out in no man's land with basically the two bottom bolts through the K frame holding it on.

I know the haters will chime in about how low it hangs......and I agree, but I have a fix for that too, so stay tuned. I'm just not gonna do it "yet" as I kinda ran outta steam today. So, relocating it higher is for another day. I'll add pictures when I do it. When I am done, the bar will be ABOVE that center piece that bolts the lower valance to the K frame. But for now, it's really not bad. It has the shortest tires on it now it will ever have so, when I upgrade to 14s, it will sit even higher. So if I wanted to leave the bar where it is, it wouldn't be an issue. I did paint everything semi gloss black so it doesn't stick out as badly, but I am going to relocate, nonetheless. I'll post pictures when I do.

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Took Vixen to Macon today to meet a childhood friend for lunch. His mother passed and he was up from Florida for the service. That's about 30 miles from here. She even got some interstate time. Kept her about 60. Everything whizzin by of course. lol She made it just fine with no events.

I did put her new silicone spark plug tube seals in and that fixed the oil leak.
 
According to the Wallace calculator, 3085 RPM @ 60. Not quite as much as I thought.
 
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