1974 Plymouth Valiant Scamp - Restoration is a strong word

[DigitalRelay]

My trip back to the third party MVD was pointless. They said they could not make any changes unless the car had current registration, which isn't possible until I pass the inspection, which they wouldn't do because the VIN on the title doesn't match the car. So, yeah. Fun. I'm going to a state MVD office again today to see if someone with a brain can help me sort out what is obviously a typo.

I got barrel clips in for the emblems...

And I found a small puddle of trans fluid under the car after the most recent drive. I cleaned things up so I could figure out where it was coming from. Then I added a little trans fluid and found a new puddle...

It looks like the shift selector shaft seal is garbage. New seal incoming. Oh, and another seal for the PS input shaft. I thought I had straightened it out good enough, but it's leaking already.

 

[DigitalRelay]

After nearly two hours and several conversations, I think they finally got it.

 

[DigitalRelay]

So, about the trans fluid leaks, I knew the selector shaft seal was bad, but I also discovered leaking at the tail shaft, so I pulled that seal and ordered a new one.

Then I attacked the shift selector seal. When I realized how tight it was under the car, I decided to pull the crossmember and lower the transmission a bit. That's when I remembered that in the box of parts that came with the car was a transmission mount.

I bought the tool that is supposed to make removing the shaft seal easy, but it didn't. I finally decided to cut my loses and drop the pan again, and remove the valve body. I had the seal out 2 minutes later.

Now waiting on more parts and more time to put them in.

 

[DigitalRelay]

Oh look, shiny copper coming off the alternator feed!

I didn't get pics under the car, but I got the trans shift selector seal and the tail shaft seal replaced. So far, so good. I got another new power steering shaft seal in and replaced, that seems to be holding too.

The air cleaner was rattling while the engine was idling, so I decided to gut the moving parts. I'm in Phoenix and I'm missing the heat stove section anyway.

The thermostat housing kept leaking on me. After a couple of gaskets and sealer attempts, I placed the housing on my phone (carefully) and could see a 3mm gap on side, so I bought a replacement, which seems to have sealed much better.

While doing the trans seals, I replaced 4 of the plastic bushings/grommets on the shift linkage. I still need to replace 2 more, but the shifter feels sooooo much better already.

Friday is my AZ MVD inspection. If all goes well, the car will be registered and legal by this weekend.

 

[a68postcar]

Pretty good progress.go man go.

 

[DigitalRelay]

My inspection is tomorrow and I’ve been watching the Phoenix weather forecast creep up daily and they’re now predicting a high of 107°. I’m running a 26” radiator with a shroud so I think I’m good with engine temp, but I have seen the fuel in the carb boil while in my garage. So after some research I thought a heat shield and doubling up on the thick base gasket couldn’t hurt and might keep some of the heat out of the carb. Maybe not, but regardless, it gave me an idea for a fun, free project.

 

[sireland67]

I think that plate would heat up real fast, and make the problem worse.

 

[DigitalRelay]

I think that plate would heat up real fast, and make the problem worse.

I disagree. The plate has no contact with the carb - there’s a gasket on top of it - so conductive heat from the plate isn’t an issue. And even if the plate gets hot, it can still direct hotter air around the carb.

That said, I don’t the think the plate acting as a heat shield will have any significant affect. But it was fun and is pretty interesting under the hood.

I do think that doubling up the base gasket and sandwiching the plate in between will insulate the carb from engine heat better than one gasket though.

Maybe I’m wrong. If I am, it’ll take 4 minutes to undo. Regardless, I’m having fun with it.

 

[mpgmike]

If you had access to a 5-gas analyzer, the NOx would tell you the ultimate answer. If you were experiencing knock, or vapor lock before, decide for yourself if it reduced carb temps.

 

[mygasser]

add some self adhesive underfloor heat shield (like you put to keep exhaust heat at bay) to the underside of the plate. just leave out the bit where it contacts the gasket/manifold.
neil.

 

[DigitalRelay]

This is not the update I was hoping to make... I didn't pass my inspection, but I didn't fail it either. There were two super nice officers who explained right as they started they were skeptical they'd be able to complete the inspection. They said they needed to match "secret numbers from the factory. That could mean putting the car on the lift to inspect above the frame rail with a dental mirror, or removing the blower motor." They sent me inside the office while they started the inspection, but one officer came out 10 minutes later and said I'd need to come back next week. He was very nice and tried to be accommodating and said I could come in whenever they were open, so that was cool. He said it could take up to an hour to do the inspection though. I'd never heard of anything like this before and I can only assume it's because of the dismantled title status, rather than salvage.

Oh, shortly after I popped my hood open, one of the officers said "I like that engine bracket!" referring to my license plate heat shield. Hahaha

The car drove great again, and the leaks I addressed since the last real drive seem to be fixed. Power steering shaft seal, thermostat housing, trans shift selector seal and tail shaft seal looked good, no drips on the ground.

So, I wait until Tuesday. Again.

While I wait, I'm going to redo my kill switch. I originally set it up to interrupt the ignition run circuit feed. I was concerned the wiring on the switch and the switch itself may not handle the current. After I discovered the car was charging at 16 volts, I removed the kill switch and checked again, and it dropped to 14 volts. I'm going to instead use the kill switch to trigger a relay that will open or close the ignition circuit.