68 GT convertible project
- Thread starter burdar
- Start date
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Finally an update on the Dart. I've been waiting on the wiper motor. It finally arrived a few weeks ago. I thought the factory yellow/gold zinc would look out of place in the engine compartment so I had it done in black zinc. A black sealer was also used instead of the factory red/orange sealer. I like how it looks.
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Once the motor was in, I worked on the distribution block and front brake lines. The master is an aluminum 15/16" bore unit from Dr Diff. The heater box was next. It went right in without a fight.
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The dash went in last night. It's been 9 years since it was in the car.
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Next on the list is engine compartment wiring. Then I need to get the glass in the doors. Hopefully I can get the undercoating sprayed in the wheel wells before winter.
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Once the motor was in, I worked on the distribution block and front brake lines. The master is an aluminum 15/16" bore unit from Dr Diff. The heater box was next. It went right in without a fight.
https://postimg.cc/njwGXT9W]
https://postimg.cc/LgYBLfz8]
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The dash went in last night. It's been 9 years since it was in the car.
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Next on the list is engine compartment wiring. Then I need to get the glass in the doors. Hopefully I can get the undercoating sprayed in the wheel wells before winter.
The rear axle, engine and trans are installed.
I assembled the rear axle in the basement last fall since I thought that was the safest place to store it. Not my best idea looking back since I had to get it back OUT of the basement as a complete unit. I enlisted the help of my wife and we loaded it onto a hand truck and slowly...step by step...hauled it upstairs. I pulled it up the stairs while she made sure it didn't fall off the cart. Once it was at the top of the stairs I collapsed on the couch for a half hour before taking it out to the garage. Once it was in, I was able to get some old 15" wheels to fit over the 11.7" Mustang rear brakes. I added 4 flat washers between the wheel and rotor and it just clears. This is just to be able to move the car around in the garage so it's not stuck on jack stands.
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I spent Saturday cleaning up the engine, trans, k-member and suspension. It has been sitting in the garage for years and had accumulated a lot of caked on dust. I had some friends over on Sunday and we got the engine/trans in. Before it could go in the car though, we pulled the trans and replaced the torque converter. A 3500 stall torque converter was a little higher than what I wanted for the street. Then I filled the engine with oil and primed it unit there was oil up at the rockers. Finally, I put the distributor back in and timed it so it should fire right off when the time comes.
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Before calling it a day, on Sunday, I wanted to check the pinion angle. The pinion looked really high up in the air and I was worried that the perches had been welded in the wrong spot. We jacked up the back of the car while I watched an angle gauge attached to the trans output shaft. Once the gauge read 0, I put the gauge on the pinion yoke. It read 0 as well so that's a pinion angle of 0. It looks like the perches were welded on correctly for an A-body...the flat oval track springs I'm using just threw the angle off a little. I already have some Belltech 2* axle shims and I've read that on a street car you want from -1 to -3* so that should be just right for what I need.
Last night I measured for a driveshaft. I need a shaft 52-1/2" long.(center to center of U-joint) I called up a big driveline shop that I've used in the past. They quoted me $200 plus new solid joints to shorten and balance a driveshaft. That's brand new driveshaft territory! I found a couple shops online that advertise brand new shafts for $270 plus shipping. They wouldn't have a tapered end on the shaft though but I don't know if that's necessary for clearance.
I assembled the rear axle in the basement last fall since I thought that was the safest place to store it. Not my best idea looking back since I had to get it back OUT of the basement as a complete unit. I enlisted the help of my wife and we loaded it onto a hand truck and slowly...step by step...hauled it upstairs. I pulled it up the stairs while she made sure it didn't fall off the cart. Once it was at the top of the stairs I collapsed on the couch for a half hour before taking it out to the garage. Once it was in, I was able to get some old 15" wheels to fit over the 11.7" Mustang rear brakes. I added 4 flat washers between the wheel and rotor and it just clears. This is just to be able to move the car around in the garage so it's not stuck on jack stands.
https://postimg.cc/qg9zRbdy]
I spent Saturday cleaning up the engine, trans, k-member and suspension. It has been sitting in the garage for years and had accumulated a lot of caked on dust. I had some friends over on Sunday and we got the engine/trans in. Before it could go in the car though, we pulled the trans and replaced the torque converter. A 3500 stall torque converter was a little higher than what I wanted for the street. Then I filled the engine with oil and primed it unit there was oil up at the rockers. Finally, I put the distributor back in and timed it so it should fire right off when the time comes.
https://postimg.cc/2br7Pk0j]
https://postimg.cc/3yMBFCpv]
Before calling it a day, on Sunday, I wanted to check the pinion angle. The pinion looked really high up in the air and I was worried that the perches had been welded in the wrong spot. We jacked up the back of the car while I watched an angle gauge attached to the trans output shaft. Once the gauge read 0, I put the gauge on the pinion yoke. It read 0 as well so that's a pinion angle of 0. It looks like the perches were welded on correctly for an A-body...the flat oval track springs I'm using just threw the angle off a little. I already have some Belltech 2* axle shims and I've read that on a street car you want from -1 to -3* so that should be just right for what I need.
Last night I measured for a driveshaft. I need a shaft 52-1/2" long.(center to center of U-joint) I called up a big driveline shop that I've used in the past. They quoted me $200 plus new solid joints to shorten and balance a driveshaft. That's brand new driveshaft territory! I found a couple shops online that advertise brand new shafts for $270 plus shipping. They wouldn't have a tapered end on the shaft though but I don't know if that's necessary for clearance.
The center console and steering column are installed. I first started with the console carpet. I tried gluing it on but didn't have very good luck and ended up peeling it back off. I read on here that some people use Velcro. That worked a lot better. Still, the carpet doesn't look that nice but I'm told that it's just the way it is and that it will look fine once the seats are installed. We will see.
I was worried at first that the console wasn't going to go in with the tach mounted. Every time the console was test fit, the dash wasn't installed. Now that the dash is in, I couldn't just drop it straight down over the shifter any more. In order to get it in I had to remove the ash tray, take the lockout lever off the shifter and have the shifter in a vertical position. Then I had to shove the tach under the dash at an angle and rotate the console over the shifter and into place. It's definitely a tight fit. The steering column went in a little easier. Nothing really complicated about that. The lower bearing upgrade looks like it's going to work nicely and the column basically fell into place.
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Once the console and column were in, I had to hook a battery up just to make sure the lights all worked. There was an issue with the map light and the shift indicator light. After probing some wires with the test light I found the issue. The issue was the same for both lights. The factory wiring has + entering the side(body) of the bulb. The ground wire is the pin on the bottom of the bulb. This works fine for an incandescent bulb but not for an LED. I pulled the wires out of the "T" connector at the map light and revered them. Now the + goes into the bottom pin and the ground is the bulb body. The shift indicator light wasn't as easy of a fix since the bulb socket doesn't have wires that can be easily swapped. I ended up having to cut the two wires going to the bulb and spliced them back together reversed.
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I was worried at first that the console wasn't going to go in with the tach mounted. Every time the console was test fit, the dash wasn't installed. Now that the dash is in, I couldn't just drop it straight down over the shifter any more. In order to get it in I had to remove the ash tray, take the lockout lever off the shifter and have the shifter in a vertical position. Then I had to shove the tach under the dash at an angle and rotate the console over the shifter and into place. It's definitely a tight fit. The steering column went in a little easier. Nothing really complicated about that. The lower bearing upgrade looks like it's going to work nicely and the column basically fell into place.
https://postimg.cc/fJSLYmfm]
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[/url]Once the console and column were in, I had to hook a battery up just to make sure the lights all worked. There was an issue with the map light and the shift indicator light. After probing some wires with the test light I found the issue. The issue was the same for both lights. The factory wiring has + entering the side(body) of the bulb. The ground wire is the pin on the bottom of the bulb. This works fine for an incandescent bulb but not for an LED. I pulled the wires out of the "T" connector at the map light and revered them. Now the + goes into the bottom pin and the ground is the bulb body. The shift indicator light wasn't as easy of a fix since the bulb socket doesn't have wires that can be easily swapped. I ended up having to cut the two wires going to the bulb and spliced them back together reversed.
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I ended up going with a brand new driveshaft from a place I found online. They are out of Wisconsin. I ordered the shaft on a Monday and received it on that Friday. It came painted with a cheap flat black paint which I removed with some paint stripper. Then I polished up the shaft with a polish that leaves a silicone film behind. Hopefully some periodic wipe downs with silicone spray will keep it looking nice. If not I can always paint it but I like the natural look.
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I'm not sure why I keep having E-brake cable issues but I do. On my Challenger it took a combination of stock, Fine Lines and Inline Tube components to get the E-brake hooked up and working. On the Dart, the front cable is way too long. The adjusting nut is bottomed out before the cable is even close to being tight. I ended up making a spacer that hopefully will work. I'll know for sure once the brakes are blead and the rear calipers are adjusted. I don't want to have to search for another cable if I don't have to.
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I'm not sure why I keep having E-brake cable issues but I do. On my Challenger it took a combination of stock, Fine Lines and Inline Tube components to get the E-brake hooked up and working. On the Dart, the front cable is way too long. The adjusting nut is bottomed out before the cable is even close to being tight. I ended up making a spacer that hopefully will work. I'll know for sure once the brakes are blead and the rear calipers are adjusted. I don't want to have to search for another cable if I don't have to.
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