1974 Plymouth Valiant Scamp - Restoration is a strong word

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DigitalRelay

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I bought my first Mopar last week, this 1974 Plymouth Valiant Scamp. It's been sitting well over a decade. My plan is to get it running and driving and slowly fix and clean things, but a full on restoration isn't in my plans. Hopefully, this is still the right place to post.

Actually buying loading, unloading and getting the car into my garage was a full day affair with a couple of those hours in the Phoenix summer heat. I borrowed a truck, rented a trailer and drove from the far northwest valley of Phoenix to just outside of Tucson. After looking the car over, we agreed on a price and spent the next hour pushing and pulling the car onto the rented trailer with a hand winch. Not so fun. A 2.5 hour drive back home was followed by putting my 21 year old daughter in the driver seat and pushing the car back off the trailer onto the ramps. "Hopefully the brakes work, but if they don't, you'll probably only roll 40 or 50 feet. Ready?" Thankfully, the brakes did work and we slowly backed it off and then with the help of some very interested neighbor kids, we pushed it into the garage.
 
The first thing I did was to put all the loose parts in the trunk, see what was all there, and then get out the shop vac. After that, I got a bucket of soapy water and wiped down the interior, which made everything a little nicer to work on.

My first task was to see if the motor would turn by hand. I knew the car didn't run and hadn't run in years, but when I asked the seller if the engine was free, he said he couldn't turn it by hand, but the story of the owner before him was that they did a rebuild and then the car sat for over a decade and was likely just stuck from sitting. The fact that we couldn't confirm if the engine was seized or not helped me when it came to agreeing on a price. Now that I had it home, it was time to find out.

I pulled the spark plugs, sprayed a little WD40 in each hole, then pulled the starter and got to the flywheel with a long screwdriver. I went very sloooowly, and sure enough, it moved. I also took a look down the cylinders with a borescope and when I could see that the cylinders looked pretty decent, I put a little ATF in each cylinder and slowly turned the engine by hand a few rotations. I also noticed when I had the horoscope in there, that each piston was stamped "30", further indicating that the rebuild story was legit. It also looked like the starter, alternator and radiator were relatively new, or at least barely used.

I then bought a battery and after checking that I had a spark, and that the firing order and plug wires looked correct, I tried to start it. I poured a little 50:1 2-cycle mix down the carb and it fired off, but wouldn't run. I could see the gas coming from the tank looked suspect and didn't smell great, so disconnected the lines from the tank and tried setting up a little gravity feed rig. I was able to get it fired a few more times, but couldn't get it to run. The carb looked fairly clean, but decided to tear it apart and throw a rebuild kit at it. Once back on the car, it was the same deal - it would fire, but wouldn't run. I also had some backfiring, so I checked the firing order and distributor rotor several times with similar results. I pulled the valve cover, brought the number 1 cylinder to TDC, and confirmed marks on the harmonic balancer. Still wouldn't run. At this point, I noticed some of the valve lash seemed way to large, and I wanted to ditch my gravity fuel system and just get some clean fuel in the tank.

My hand siphon pump was taking forever, so I dropped the gas tank. And I'm super glad I did because I could see it was leaking at the lock ring, the filler neck grommet was garbage, but more importantly, although the tank looked like brand new sheetmetal from the outside, it was an absolute rust bucket inside. A new tank, sending unit, and seals are on the way.
 
Great project. I like your approach of not going down the restoration rabbit hole. A nice safe driver, I'll take any day. :thumbsup:

Keep the progress and pics coming.

BTW.......Senders can be re-built (the new senders will need a meter match device for accuracy but even then?....) if not too bad, and save the original lock ring......The re-pop rings are notoriously bad (too thin).
 
I would go back to gravity fuel. Pull the carb apart if it has been fed from the tank and make sure it is clean. "rig" a safe gravity can, or rig a small can into the fuel pump inlet. I would pump some through the pump, into a can to flush it clean

If you do have spark, you can check timing "on the starter" --best to pull plugs to ease the starter load If timing is on spec to the emissions sticker I would bump it advance at least 5*

Sounds like you are pretty checked out, ATF in the cylinders, etc. Run a compression check?

For spark, bear in mind that if you jumper the starter solenoid, that gives you a weaker spark, because the coil will be operating through the ballast, which is bypassed when twisting the key to start
 
CFD244 said:
Great project. I like your approach of not going down the restoration rabbit hole. A nice safe driver, I'll take any day. :thumbsup:

Keep the progress and pics coming.

BTW.......Senders can be re-built (the new senders will need a meter match device for accuracy but even then?....) if not too bad, and save the original lock ring......The re-pop rings are notoriously bad (too thin).
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Thank you! Yes, I'll save all the existing parts for now. It's quite possible the existing lock ring isn't original, but I'll see in a few days. The sender is absolutely caked in rust. I thought about letting it soak in evaporust, but decided replacing all of it seemed wiser.

I forgot to mention in the original post, although this is my first Mopar, I'm in my mid-50s and have owned and worked on a '67 Mustang, '72 Monte Carlo, and '69 GTO in my younger days. In the early 2000's I had a '69 Buick Skylark convertible. For the last 10 years, I've been driving and wrenching on a 2002 BMW 325i.
 
67Dart273 said:
I would go back to gravity fuel. Pull the carb apart if it has been fed from the tank and make sure it is clean. "rig" a safe gravity can, or rig a small can into the fuel pump inlet. I would pump some through the pump, into a can to flush it clean

If you do have spark, you can check timing "on the starter" --best to pull plugs to ease the starter load If timing is on spec to the emissions sticker I would bump it advance at least 5*

Sounds like you are pretty checked out, ATF in the cylinders, etc. Run a compression check?

For spark, bear in mind that if you jumper the starter solenoid, that gives you a weaker spark, because the coil will be operating through the ballast, which is bypassed when twisting the key to start
Click to expand...
I like the idea of rigging a small can into the fuel pump inlet and flushing first. I rebuilt the carb yesterday and none of the old fuel has come close to it since.

I'm going to go very slow on checking timing and valves. The car already has a DIY GM HEI, so I'm pretty sure the ballast resistor is long gone.
 
We've got some awesome folks here. Experts in every field that don't mind sharing their expertise.......There's no such thing as a dumb question......Unless of course you ask about painting the engine bay black LOL :)
 
Great project and keep the updates coming! I'm in the same boat as you, not a restoration, but a runner! Just curious, when you say it's not staying running, what do you mean?
 
DigitalRelay said:
I like the idea of rigging a small can into the fuel pump inlet and flushing first. I rebuilt the carb yesterday and none of the old fuel has come close to it since.

I'm going to go very slow on checking timing and valves. The car already has a DIY GM HEI, so I'm pretty sure the ballast resistor is long gone.
Click to expand...
One thing you want to do is make sure the polarity of the dist. pickup is correct. This affects what has become known as "rotor phasing." You an look that up. This diagram, a member made from my henscratch, shows the should be correct hook-up Notice the color of the dist wires RE: the pins on the HEI

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Also, you want to bypass the seat belt interlock reset box, so the thing does not trip and leave you stranded. There are two yellowish wires in the connector, jumper those together. These are the start circuit from the ignition switch and on the way to the start relay The reset box is on the driver side fender apron up near the firewall

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JDCLE said:
Great project and keep the updates coming! I'm in the same boat as you, not a restoration, but a runner! Just curious, when you say it's not staying running, what do you mean?
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It will fire briefly, 2-3 seconds tops, then dies, or backfires and then dies. I really think it's the timing. Hoping it's just me making sure I'm at TDC and have the distributor/rotor in the right position. I'm hoping once that's sorted, valves roughly adjusted and a working temp fuel system with fresh gas it should fire and idle. Fingers crossed.
 
67Dart273 said:
One thing you want to do is make sure the polarity of the dist. pickup is correct. This affects what has become known as "rotor phasing." You an look that up. This diagram, a member made from my henscratch, shows the should be correct hook-up Notice the color of the dist wires RE: the pins on the HEI

View attachment 1716279895
Click to expand...
This is great, thank you! I'll definitely confirm before I try to fire it off again.
 
Also dig around over at MyMopar.com. They have some interesting downloads, like the little service videos and bulletins
 
if it runs for 2-3 seconds is it stopping when you release the key from start to run position? if so the ignition switch or the bulkhead connector could be at fault. run a temporary live to feed the ignition direct from the battery and you'll know straight away.
neil.
 
You guys are awesome!

First, I made a jumper wire and bypassed the seatbelt interlock reset box. Next, I checked the distributor wiring against the wiring diagram posted above and realized the two wires going to the distributor needed to be swapped. Finally, I setup a temporary fuel tank on the floor and fed a hose to the inlet of the fuel pump, flushed out the old and made sure it was pumping fresh gas. I turned the key for half a second and the engine sprang to life and idled for about 15 seconds without me touching the gas pedal or the carb. I was kind of shocked, actually.

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I was late grabbing my phone to get much video of that first start, but I grabbed my kid and captured the second start.

Next, I need to get some coolant, and check the timing. There a few more small things I'll do while waiting on the new gas tank, which should arrive in a few days. I'm also noticing that wiring is kind of a mess everywhere I look. I'll have to tackle that little by little.
 
While waiting for the new gas tank and seals to arrive, I addressed some of that sketchy wiring. The previous owner bypassed the ammeter behind the dash, but I decided to splice the wiring inside the engine bay and avoid going into the cabin at all. I added some barrel connectors where some of the bulkhead connectors were broken or fried. I don't love the barrel connectors, but for now they'll do.

I also pulled the bench seat to see the broken springs I'm dealing with. I'm going to try re-engineering with some zig zag springs and zip ties and see if I can make it so I'm not sliding into the door. Another option I'm looking at is buying another bench seat to scavenge springs from. At the $200 plus quoted price, I'm gonna give the Amazon springs and zip ties a shot first.


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Big win today. I got the new gas tank, and fuel sending unit installed after much cleaning of the filler neck and re-engineering some sketchy tank strap mounts from a previous owner. After replacing the spare wheel well, someone bugger welded some angle iron and drilled some holes in the wrong locations. My fix is better, but not perfect. Anyway, after replacing the tank vent hose, and the fuel outlet hose, I adjusted valves and put the valve cover back on. I tried to fire it off and nothing. I tried turning on the headlights. Nothing. I checked for voltage at the ignition module. Nothing. Then I thought back to a post above where I said I bypassed the ammeter by splicing the wiring inside the engine bay. After looking at the wiring diagram, it was obvious that wouldn't work since no power was going inside the car anymore. I added a 12 gauge wire and spliced back into the bulkhead connector, and all was good again.

I put a few gallons of fresh gas in the tank, dribbled a little bit down the carb and started it up. It fired immediately and idled smoothly for 5 minutes. I checked the trans fluid, which looked and smelled fresh, but was a little low, so I topped it off. I then shut the car down, cleared the loose items from on top of the car, filled the very old, crappy tires with air and checked to see if the trans would actually go into gear, and it did! Soooo...



The lack of power steering was funny. I expected it though with no pulley and no belt. I couldn't tell for sure on the short drive around the block whether the trans was shifting or not. I also heard some scraping, which sounded like it was coming from the right rear brake. When I got back and parked, I heard a hissing sound and could see moisture on the radiator. Oh well.

All in all, I was really excited to be driving this car only 8 days after bringing it home on a trailer where all the evidence points to it not running or driving in well over a decade.

Radiator and brakes are next. I'm also going to attempt to bring the driver side of the bench seat back to acceptable with some Amazon zig zag springs.
 
I forgot to mention, I pulled the old carpet out yesterday. I realized as I was working on things, it was just disintegrating and become more of a mess.

Today, I pulled the leaking radiator and I'll drop it off at the repair shop today.

Next, I removed the vertical bumper guards.

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I think it looks much better this way.

Then I moved onto troubleshooting wiring. Fuse six under the dash was burned out when I bought the car. I followed a wiring diagram and visually inspected where I could on that circuit. The trunk light looked suspect and seemed to keep the fuse from blowing when I kept it removed, but a few seconds later, I heard the ignition buzzer start making noise followed by the fuse blowing out again. I think I'll be digging into the steering wheel and ignition switch next.
 
Nice work so far! It looks like you have some good bones to work with.
 
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