Resurrected Junk

[2 Darts]

Thanks for the compliments. Bummer about the layoff and all. Yeah, I like to tinker. The "Devil's in the Details" is true. I think the tinkering massages out the details.

It wasn't until someone in the local club said I had a story to tell in with my budget restoration for a daily driver that I considered starting a thread on it. Sure, it could be done better by someone with more skills or time. I did some things on this car I have never done before (re-skin and upholstery).

The final tally on the cost is $1,851.65 for the car as it sits today. Not bad for a driver. There are a few things that need tinkering to fit/work better. The only thing that doesn't work on the car is the high beam indicator light. I'm figuring that understanding the third world engineering that went into the DRL switch may cure this problem.

 

[ValerianMagnum]

wow good job man ! i have myslef a 65 dart ( canadian valiant) and its a 4 door too , sometimes they are better than we think ! be proud you have a nice car that you resurected !

 

[2 Darts]

On the trip where I was running 80-85, the driver's front vent whistled and the driver's door glass rattled against the frame. The door glass rattle was temporarily fixed by inserting a couple of business cards in the front door glass guide track. (Rear track was eliminated as a potential source because it had been replaced after coming back from painting.) What material was left in the track was as hard as a rock. Nothing I did seemed to eliminate the vent whistle.

Because I could not reach the track with the vent in the door, I knew the whole thing would have to come out. First thing to do was to remove the fuzzies from the bottom of the window opening. The door glass has to be taken out of it's holder to create more room, so the door has to come apart. Then the front track and vent assembly can be removed by removing the screw accessible through the bottom of the door. Tilt the assembly back to clear the door frame, wiggle, and jiggle and it's out.

I removed the clip where the vent window pivot pin is secured to the frame, and then removed the top vent pivot. Normally, the whole vent window and lower frame with pin can be removed. However, a PO had gone about it differently and had separated the glass from the lower frame with some damage to the glass. Here was my whistling vent.

At this point I was on unfamiliar turf. There was a left front vent assembly on ebay that no body had bid on. One of the disadvantages of finding stuff late in the bid process is that you can't get an answer back from the seller if you have questions. I swooped in and got it figuring it would be a cheap lesson if it did not work out.

The vent assembly was from a hard top. The glass and gasket were in much better condtion than mine. The vent frame and consequently the gasket have a different shape. However, the glass is exactly the same. It has the same shape and curvature. The sedan frame comes to a point at the top, where the hardtop is radiused. The hardtop gasket is around 3/4 inch too short to use in this application.

After re-installing the replacement into my vent frame, I removed the rock hard window track gasket out of the metal track. The track has a symentrical depth of ½ inch and the width is ½ inch. I got the front track gasket material from JC Whitney, where I had also gotten the rear gasket (which is a different size and profile).

The window now fits like the designers intended. It does not rattle when I shut the door. It also requires more effort to raise and lower due to having new track gaskets fore and aft.

I made photos of everything to show the problem and the differences between the sedan and hardtop assemblies. If

 

[2 Darts]

A lot of literature says to make sure you have the electrics up to snuff before blaming the carburetor for poor running. (Gas fires excepted.) The car used to go through a "Who, me?" routine when prodded with the accelerator. It would die on sharp right turns and stumble on lefts.

Electrics be damned, I knew I had a carb problem and proceded with an investigation. What I found was a collection of air leaks, third world engineering at its worst, and a no-shot accelerator pump. I'm 3 for 4 on successful carb rebuilds, so I opted to have a little insurance and someone to go after if things weren't satisfactory.

I got a Holley reman (work done by Holley in Memphis) from AutoZone on line for $165 plus a $35 core charge. It had the same jets as the one I pulled out and the correct kickdown linkage adapter. The only adjustment was a minor turn on the idle mixture screw. If you decide to go this way, you'll need to get the air cleaner gasket and stud assembly from the outbound carb to go on the new one. Total open tool box time to replace was 25 minutes.

The car drives a lot better now. I'm expecting that fuel mileage will drop a little because I get instant affirmative response from the accelerator. Before it was as likely to die as to pickup and run, especially when cold. Now about those electrics ....?

 

[frogpirate]

Nice job 72Demon! I hope my '73 turns out that nice.

Hmm, Maaco huh? Hell, you can spend $500 on paint products alone.

 

[2 Darts]

Thanks Frogpirate. Yeah, MAACO. When I looked at stuff sitting in the shop and getting the low down on which service was rendered, I figured the key to a good paint job was surface preparation. Was also looking to see how good/bad their painters were with a gun. (No real problems with runs and orange peel.) This I did on my own, and missed a few spots, too. I didn't use any body filler, but did use lead to fill the seams.
Where I sanded down to bare metal, I used a light coat of a non-self-etching primer. What I do know about paint is that it can be particular to what it is sprayed over. The primer I used was easily removed yet prevented rust while I continued in other areas.

 

[2 Darts]

One of the problems I knew I would be facing soon would be a replacement of the exhaust system. It looked like it had been stuck together with whatever had been sitting around at the time. The exhaust had been hanging low suspended by coathanger wire. When I put proper clamps and hangers on it, the muffler outlet shifted around.
While carbon monoxide is supposedly odorless and colorless, I was getting headaches while driving but would clear up after staying out of the car for a while. It seemed more than coincidental, so I started driving with the windows down and the vents open. That got me through heating season, but A/C season is up coming.
I look at exhaust improvements as "free" horsepower because opening up the exhaust does not increase fuel consumption such as improvements in intake and valve timing do. After looking at the options and comparing them with my intended use of the car, I decided to install a PowerPipe and increase the diameter of the exhaust to 2¼ inches. My local muffler shop bent an exhaust pipe for me and did the install of everything I brought in. I have a generic offset inlet/outlet "turbo" muffler and a new LH V-8 tail pipe that is all 2¼ inches. The tone is a little deeper under acceleration and actually more quiet under steady state cruise. Sorry no sound clip and no instrumented test. Seat of the Pants observation shows a small improvement in throttle response. The only test I can perform is Top Speed Observed. We'll see about it this weekend.

 

[2 Darts]

When you see the PowerPipe in the previous post, it's easy to see what it does not have. What I hadn't figured on was what ALL that meant.

No intake manifold heat. Anyone installing a PowerPipe or a header will have the same issues with a stock intake. There is a version of the Dutra Duals what retains the manifold heat feature.

1. There is now a hole in the bottom of the intake under the carb that is the port for the EGR.
2. Going past the hot pocket in the top of the exhaust manifold there are two lugs that the throttle and kickdown linkage bracket is mounted to.

Solutions:

1. I used the smallest oil galley plug I could find to drive into the hole in the intake to cover the EGR hole. Even so, it was a little large requiring the hole to be enlarged for the plug to fit.
2. 2 pieces of 3/8" ID steel pipe cut 5/8" long were installed to take up the space formerly taken by the exhaust manifold lugs. Another approach would be to bolt the linkage bracket to the bottom of the intake and adjust the linkage lengths.

No choke pocket. Haven't seen any non-Mopar manifold that retains this feature. Here at the Edge of the World, a functional choke is helpful for the first few miles when the temperature dips below 40° F. The choke is held in by one screw that also holds down the throttle return spring bracket.

Solution:

Using a 1 7/8" (stock exhaust) pipe clamp and a lever fabricated from sheet metal, I provided a screw hole over a PowerPipe tube to attach the choke spring and assist. The lever was also notched providing a solid attachment for the throttle return spring. The choke rod needs to be shortened about a half inch as does the throttle if you want to maintain the same pedal pressure. I shortend the choke rod by putting a kink in it. I left throttle spring alone which decreased the effort on the go pedal a little.

It was also necessary to bend the sheet metal on the choke a little to allow it to settle in its new home in relation to the intake manifold. The sheet metal on the choke also needed a little cut to allow it to fit over the lever near where the attaching screw is located.

Here's the pix to help with the visualization thing. I guess I should have taken some photos of the completed assembly. If there are questions, I'm glad to take and post.

 

[Burntorange70]

Car looks good. Nice work.

 

[2 Darts]

Carburetor: The choke works, but it does not release quick enough. It starts easily when cold and runs fine for a little while, then it gets rough for a few minutes until the choke disengages fully.
It is taking a while to sort the carburetor out. I'm getting better city mileage, worse highway mileage. Top speed is up from an indicated 92 to a very solid indicated 110. Think I need to check jets to make sure they are right.

Sound equipment: The Dual radio is a POS. It does not allow front to rear balance and only has a bass boost for tone adjustment. The worst part is the pre-amp that has noticeable distortion at less then ½ power. I don't really want to cut the dash for a DIN chassis radio, but if I want good sound, and reasonable access to the device I don't see anyway around it.

The power amp (1000 watts peak, 82 watts RMS/channel @ 8 ohm x 4) really draws a lot of power. It works great up until the pre-amp on the radio craps out. It seems like I can't use it unless I'm on the highway. Otherwise, it flattens out the battery with the 46 amp alternator. Looks like I'll be selling the amp.

 

[2 Darts]

The Dart has been great as daily driver. That's not to say that it's perfect, but the issues that remain are not major deals, there's just a bunch of them. I spent two weekends, and two cans of contact cleaner working through the bulkhead connectors. Interior lights are better and the Ammeter seems to report better news. (Wait til I get the water temp gauge going to read some real engine temperature.

Tragedy struck on the third Saturday in July. No, it wasn't an accident, it was a catastrophic failure of the rear wheel seals and bearing on the driver's side of the rear axle. Smoke poured out of the wheel well. By the time I got to a point where I could diagnose the problem, the wheel bearing sounded like a Cuisinart working its way though a bunch of yak bones. Oh yeah, it was on fire.

Initial diagnosis was axle seals and wheel bearing. The 7¼ axle is easy to fix on this score, but the work is not for the faint hearted. What makes it tough is that the only way to remove the retainer collar is to cut it with a chisel. Slip and you've nicked the axle. In this case. It was 2x. The collar chisel removal is expected because it's in the repair manual that way. The second part was that the bearing had also become fused to the axle.

The bearing on the 7¼ axle is a ball bearing design, not the roller bearing like the front wheel. On this one, bearings were popping out as spheres, hemispheres, and semi-hemispheres. The inner race on this bearing is very stout. I would have done Dr. DeBakey proud by chiseling my way through both the retainer collar and the bearing without so much as a scratch on the axle shaft.

Because the brake shoes has been coated in GO90, I did a brake job on both rear wheels. While I was under the car, I replaced the shocks and put real shackles on the rear to replace the f*#k-em up/jack-em up units installed by a PO. I also installed a new rear brake hose to replace the seriously frayed unit I had inherited. I was feeling pretty good until I started getting a softer brake pedal and an empty forward well on the master cylinder. Figuring that the fire had boiled some of the whoa juice out of the system, I bled the brakes again. The next day out, same results.

While I was under the car, I checked the differential fluid. First, it was over full. Second, it had a bunch of water in it. It had a nice cafe au lait color to it. Even so it was still thick, which makes it easy to avoid getting a mouth full when starting the siphon hose. I got the siphon started at 9:00 PM and it finished around 9:00 AM the next morning. I refilled it with 2 pints of fresh GO 80/90.

Bummer. This time, I had a little brake fluid in the drum to let me know the problem was inside the wheel. The rebuild kit for the wheel cylinder was a little over $5. Then I would need a small cylinder hone to clean up the existing cylinder and the patience of Job to clean it up prior to re-assembly. Or, a complete rebuilt cylinder was $9.00. I have no incentive to preserve anything original in the car, so I went for the assembly. The most noticeable difference is that the bleeder screw sticks out farther than it did on my Brake-Fire unit.

Assessment: The rear end runs quieter due to the new bearing and gear lube. The new shackles and shocks make for a much improved ride. Time well spent, just didn't like the tyranny that made me do it now!

After 3 jobs in 1½ weeks, I am a whiz at brake bleeding. With the El Cheapo one man brake bleeder kit available at either AZ or O'Reilly's, it's a snap. If anyone wants to know, a single system bleed with a wheel cylinder replacement can be done with a small can of brake fluid. I went through over a quart of brake fluid with the changed brake hose and wheel cylinder.

I'll see if I can assemble the wheel bearing debris and make some photos over the weekend.

Since decent weather has returned to the Edge of the World, I get under the car, get greasy, and make a few improvements.
Plans are:

1. Overhaul, new overhauled carburetor. There's at least one gasket bad (leaks) and who knows what else is giving me 426 fuel economy with a 225 engine. It was good at first, but I started getting crappy results right after the warranty expired. Now I got the time, the parts, and a bad attitude towards Holley rebuilds.

2. R&R power steeing pump. I'd like to go to bigger tires and a smaller steering wheel, but need to get this guy fixed. FWIW, you can use the faster ratio power steering box without the pump. However, below 20 mph, it takes a fair amount of effort to move the 185/70-14s that are on the car. At normal city driving speeds, it is easy to drive. At highway speeds it can be driven with one finger.

3. Get some tunes going. I had tried a post type cassette player and an external amp. It didn't work too good, other than it looks like it belongs in the deluxe interior dash. The problem is that I'll have to cut the dash to use a DIN chassis unit. If I were going for a 100 pt restore, I'd hide it in the glove box. However, I want something I can use, which means I need to be able to read and reach it while I drive.:love7:

 

[2 Darts]

One of the problems I noted when I got the car was that the hot water control valve had been by-passed. The valve was fused into the closed position. When I remove the link between the vacuum dashpot and the valve body, it still worked. Even with the HVAC doors working properly, I was still getting some heat in the passenger compartment. I began a quest to replace the valve.

I was unable to find a new valve that matched the original valve. The original valve worked like the throttle in a carburetor. I tried one I removed from an old M-body New Yorker. It didn't work out too well.

AutoZone carries a replacement valve that is not like the original. It is a gate valve rather than a butterfly. That's not particularly an asset or a liability in itself. The liability was that the valve was not labelled for input and output. I've found that some valves are sensitive to the direction of flow. After a little testing, I figured out which way the valve would be most effective. Using the mount cut off of the old valve, I was able to get a fairly clean looking install. Best yet, it works!

 

[2 Darts]

Good weather has been holding.

Regarding R & R of carburetor. Found it was jetted with a 62 and not the 52 in the specs I have. I had never taken a Holley 1 bbl apart before and managed to screw it up. It began spitting fuel out the overflow tube. The heck with it, I was going to a 4 bbl any way. So this project is now underway.

Power steering issue turned out to be a hose that had come apart at the pump. There was enough material to hold it together so it wasn't a complete split. Had to pull the pump out to get it off.

Tunes are still to come.

With the nicer weather, I was able to drive with the windows down. Uh oh. I heard a familiar noise. It wasn't as loud or offensive, but I knew it would spell trouble. It was the other axle bearing. I wanted to go BBP and disks anyway, the heck with it.

Thanks to 74Sport I was able to get a 7¼ BBP rear with the same gear ratio as the SBP unit. In the process of removing the old rear end, I broke three of the U-bolts. You can still get 'em from Mopar. They are really proud of the nuts, however.

I had wondered why you can't convert a SBP housing to BBP. The center section casting that the axle tubes are fitted to is the same width and depth on both BBP and SBP units, at least when fitted with the 2.76:1 gear ratio. For one, the axle tubes are different lengths. The BBP was ½ inch longer on each side, though the hub-to-hub distance was the same. The other is that the SBP came on /6 cars had 9" brakes (no surprise). The backing plates had 4 bolts holding each to the flange (hmmm). The BBP has 10" brakes (again, no surprise), and 5 bolts holding the backing plate to the housing flange (whoa).

On to the 4 bbl. Hope to complete before T'giving.

 

[TylerW]

This is a very interesting thread...keep up the good work!

 

[CudaChick1968]

Steve, I don't know how I missed this til now but gotta say you've done a really sweet job bringing that Dart back from the rust-o-matic it was destined for!

By the way, I enjoyed our talk on Friday. You're every bit as fun on the phone as you are in emails, and I'll do my best to make ya proud of those old M/Ts you sent me to work on. I'll keep you updated on progress as it occurs. Thanks again for the business!

 

[2 Darts]

Well, the good weather didn't hold, but I made some progress on the 4 bbl. First step was to get a good book on Holley 4 bbls so I didn't screw things up. As expected, the carb wasn't jetted right for the /6. A set of re-usable gaskets, the jets, and some manifold studs had to be procured. The 4160 uses a plate to set up the secondaries, where the 4150 will use regular jets. (No wonder Holley has financial problems. I'll never understand bean counters and I used to be one.)

Any rate, the carb is now jetted properly on the primary side. I want to find a #7 or #34 metering plate (Holley part number 134-7 and 134-34 respectively) to complete the secondary side.

Looking forward to the installation, I did a trial fit on the manifold. I'll need to fabricate mounting brackets unless someone knows of a better way to mount the throttle and kickdown cables. Photos below are of trial fit. I do this both to tease myself and find motivation to keep plugging.

 

[2 Darts]

Struck out on finding a plate for changing the secondary metering. Holley no longer stocks them. (Wonder how they support the 4160s being sold by speed shops of all sorts?) I went over to slantsix.org for help, too. On their recommendations, I went with a jet conversion plate. It allows regular jets to be used on a Holley 4160.

Since the conversion plate sticks farther out than the metering plate, the float has to be modified to clear the jets. It also needs to keep the same mass and density so it properly regulates fuel flow into the bowl. The kit I got on Ebay was a NIB AED conversion. It includes everything needed but the jets. The Mopar Six Cylinder book recommends 49s on the primary and 52s on the secondary for a Holley 390 on the Offenhauser 4bbl manifold for street use. This is where I'm starting with the obvious exception of the intake.

The metering plate is held on by six "clutch" screws. These have an hourglass shape cut in the head. There is an Apex driver bit for these. If you're careful, a small flat tip screwdriver can be used. Other than that, no special tools are required for the conversion.

Everyone seems to like pictures, so I'm attaching a photo of the significant parts changed and one of the installed conversion plate. The black color of the float makes it hard to see the difference. Now I need to fabricate a throttle/kickdown cable mount for the combination.

 

[BillGrissom]

Re the 1 bbl carb problems, I had a 1969 Slant-6 Dart for 18 years with a Holley 1920 carb. For 17.5 yrs, it idled rough and stalled regularly. This was thru an engine rebuild, several valve jobs, and a new intake manifold. Also, thru maybe 2 rebuilt carbs and multiple fooling by myself with jets and tuning and looks by professional shops. Also, w/ original points and a Crane Cams XR700 optical ignition. Along the way, I did find that the choke pull-off diaphragm is easily damaged by carb cleaner and a new one no longer required that I readjust the choke from summer to winter. For some reason, rebuilt carbs required that you reuse the old pull-off.

After it still idled like crap after a total engine replacement, and my hot rod coworker couldn't figure it out, I decided to spring for my 3rd rebuilt Holley 1920. Amazingly, the engine ran a smooth as silk and was perfectly steady when reved. It had been the carbs all along. It was great to zip around without a stumbling engine. I would still be driving it, but it was stolen 2 months later in front of my house and never recovered (except the license plate on a stolen Jetta). Interestingly, the final carb that worked had a small hole drilled from the outside into the throat. I thought maybe a CNC machine had gone crazy, but maybe that was a design fix a rebuild shop discovered. I stuffed some cotton in it to at least filter the outside air.

This was all before the web, so info was scarce. I wonder if others were driven crazy by their Holley 1920's.

 

[2 Darts]

People here and on slantsix.org have griped about re-built carbs from mass marketers like AutoZone and O'Reilly's. Besides finding out that the jet was wrong, I found out that the float had been installed without using a circlip on the hinge pin.

I discovered this when I was working on the 4 bbl last night. The float on it was secured with a clip. I didn't remember seeing a clip on the 1 bbl. Open up the float bowl on the 1920 this afternoon and voila a groove in the float hinge pin without a circlip. Missing this tiny little clip, the float would float off the end of pin preventing the float arm from shutting off the supply of fuel to the bowl. Thus, I was pushing fuel out of the bowl vent.

Now it's fixed. I can drive the car once again while I work out the details on the 4 bbl linkage mount. The bummer of the 1920 Holley business is that I bought a $20 overhaul kit from which I used only the fuel bowl gasket and a circlip. No one locally sells just those two parts. Ya gotta buya kit.

:glasses9:
I recall a teacher telling me back when I was doing wheelies on my Schwinn that you either swear by or swear at Chrysler products. The man was a prophet, because I have done both. (And will probably continue to do so.)

 

[2 Darts]

Not long after I got the '73 home, I noticed that the rear sat low. I checked the front end to make sure it wasn't set high. No such luck. My car had a droopy butt. I used photo tricks to minimize the condition when shooting the car. Examing the rear springs revealed the onset of a reverse curve in the back part of the spring on each rear corner.

The rear springs on the A-body are 55" long and are asymetrically attached to the axle with the longer part to the rear of the axle. The spring locates the axle and suspends the body. The leaf spring as installed by Mopar is a simple, primitive, yet effective device for its intended use.

Like others here at FABO, I looked around for alternatives for solving my car's condition. Some suggestions were to install a helper spring or air shocks. Either would cure the condition. However, on the basis of firsthand experience, I ruled them out. Both raise the rear spring rate making the car ride stiffer and promote increased understeer. With a /6 and 904, there isn't power to burn for kicking the tail out.

I shopped around for a set of springs that would give me a close to stock ride height and spring rate. Following the recommendation from either FABO or /6.org, I settled on a set from McVeigh springs. In the photo you can see a tired old spring next to a new one. Note the difference in the arc of the spring.

Although the tires that came with the car were manufactured in the 46th week of 06, I had a right rear disintegrate on Christmas Eve. With only a donut for the BBP spare, I spent Christmas at home alone. It did give me time to plan my next move. Rather than purchase another 185/70-14 for the 4½" wide BBP wheels, I broke out a pair of the Magnum 500s and put 205/60-15s on them (sneek peek photo) on December 26th.

I joined the family the day after Christmas. On the way down, blew out another of the the 06 Goodyears on the SBP front. (first tire photo) Hauled out the SBP spare I carried. It was an oldie, using a 3 digit date code. It was made on the 24th week of a 0 year. The choices were 1990 or 1980 or 1970. I knew nothing of its history other than it came with the rim I had picked up at a swap meet. We decided it was probably a 1980 model.

On the way back to the Edge of the World, BLAMMO!!! While the Goodyear had gone down fairly tamely, the thirty year-old Brand X exploded with all the fan fare of the right front blowing out on a Cup car. (second tire photo) Tread went flailing around and chunks of rubber flew off the car. It was a handful to bring to a stop. Divine Providence found me a used tire at 11:00 PM in Belton, TX and two sober guys to mount it for me.

The next day, I inspected the damage. Rubber marks on the paint. Wire from the tread belt was wrapped around the fender brace. Fender mounted turnsignal unplugged from main wiring harness. The upper control bushings had disintegrated from the trauma. Two of the wheel well trim screws had been beaten/vibrated away by the the flailing tire.

 

[Fishthatkills]

What city in Texas? Nice read! Keep up the good work!


John B.

 

[2 Darts]

Finished the LBP/disk brake conversion last week. Then it was off to the shop for alignment. Following the recommendations of AutoXCuda, I had them crank as much positive caster as the front end would give them.

Besides the disk brakes, I also put in new bushings, ball joints, idler arm, and a factory anti-sway bar. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it.

Oh yeah, I also got the Magnum 500s with 205/60-15 mounted. This replaced 185/70-14s that had been coming apart.

I took the car on a trip this past weekend. WOW!!! Man, does this thing drive different. IMO, a lot of positive caster requires power steering. But, I got lots sharper initial turn-in and great weighting of the steering wheel on the road. The disk brakes have a softer pedal than 4 drums, but they pull down smooth and sure.

Below are before and after pictures. Note that with the new rear springs, the rear sits about two inches higher than it did with the soggy leafts. Not only does the rear sit higher, but the front bumper sits lower because part of the lift pivots on the front wheels. I really like the look.

 

[2 Darts]

I was going through some old photos last night and found some of the "as purchased" ones I took. It has been two years in the making. But here I am. I think I've got the exterior where I want it. This morning I went out and tried to recreate the poses for a before and after comparison. This is why I like doing this stuff.

 

[CudaChick1968]

Wow, I love Before and After pictures. :-D GREAT JOB STEVE!!!!

 

[2 Darts]

... so I'm moving inside. Since I don't have an air conditioned garage mahal, the advent of summer at The Edge of the World means that outdoor work occurs at the crack of dawn or well after dark.

One of the things I haven't liked about my Dart has been the murky black interior. Oh yes, it has the deluxe interior with its faux walnut trim which does little to help things. After doing photo studies of some Bentley, Lexus, and Benz sedan interiors, I believe it is possible to improve the situation a bit without spending a big chunk of scarce $s. I've decided to go with a black and tan color scheme.

Here's the first run at the dash. What do you think? Am I on the right track.