1968 Plymouth Valiant First Gen HEMI
Over the weekend we got finally got the transmission located in the transmission tunnel. We had run into an issue with a boss located on the OD housing that wouldn’t allow the transmission to be centered where it needed to be. After talking to my friend at the transmission shop that I had borrowed the case from I found out that on the 46 RHs, the boss really didn’t really serve a purpose, it was cast into the case but was really just a blind hole that was plugged at the end. On the 46Res, the hole is threaded for and an electrical connector threads into the boss. I didn’t need to trim much, just the corner off of it.
That gave us just enough to do the trick and get the transmission to fit on the aftermarket crossmember.
The transmission is pretty much dictating the location of the motor. Back any further and we start running into transmission tunnel interference issues. Forward and we’ll run into fan/radiator issues.
Early on in the project I ordered a set of Schumacher small block to /6 K member A body conversion mounts. I knew these were a Bolt-on to the 1st Gen Hemi and I figured and I figured it would give me a head start on building the mounts rather than starting from scratch.
When we set the motor down it’s about an inch too far forward to allow the motor mounts to fit into the holes in the frame mount (we cut the bottom studs off mounts for test fitting……no big deal the mounts are available and cheap). Anyway set down on the mounts the engine centers into the body where it belongs and if it wasn’t for the wide heads would be in a good location. As it is looks like the motor will have to be raised a bit, both for head and exhaust clearance. And that’s where we stopped on Sunday.
Yesterday it was back to finishing up the gauge cluster. I had gotten the headlight and wiper switches in it and overall was pretty happy with the way it turned out.
I have 2 grandsons, the oldest one is out on his own and is a mechanic now, actually turning into a pretty good one. He’s been coming over on Sundays and helping me with those things that my back won’t let me do. I don’t think the younger grandson (13 yo) will ever be a mechanic, his interests lie in different directions (but you never know). He has shown an interest in electronics however. I’ve been working on that a bit with him just the DC stuff right now. He’s progressed where he can do wiring diagrams so yesterday we started on wiring the gauge cluster.
It was a lot of repetitious work but for his first time he did pretty good. We bench tested everything we could (everything but the tach and speedometer which needs a running engine/transducer connected to a driving car for) and everything works as it should. Actually seeing things light up and work was probably the best part for him LOL.
The wiring could stand to be a bit neater but it’s functional.
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