Slow, Driving Rustoration 1972 Dart

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dartnlo said:
I'm thinking I'm going to try to rebuild. I bought the book by Tom Hand and I've been studying it occasionally over the last few months. It looks like something I can do competently. Maybe I'll convert the dining room table to a workbench! :)
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@VOETOM is a good friend and that is a great book. Tom rebuilt my 727 on his basement floor and made it look easy. If you get stuck on something that's not explained in his book (highly unlikely) I'm sure he wouldn't mind a PM from you. Good luck!
 
I found a possible used candidate for $75, only 230 miles away, round trip.

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Another one closer for $100, with gas costs it's a wash between this one and the other one. This one is supposed to be have 75k miles on it out of an 84 D100. Waiting to hear back for stats on the other one.

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If you have console shift you will need to come up with a solution to support the bottom of the shifter rod as the truck trans will not have the provisions for the factory mount.

Cley
 
89on35s said:
If you have console shift you will need to come up with a solution to support the bottom of the shifter rod as the truck trans will not have the provisions for the factory mount.

Cley
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Mine is a column shift. Are 84 904s the same length? As long as I get the TC will it be ok with a lockup version?
 
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It will be fine as long as you use a lock up convertor on a lock up trans. You can wire up the lock up if you want to. No harm in leaving it disconnected but if you are a cruiser its kinda nice. I'm sure they are the same length.

Cley
 
Well... I bought the one that was closer to me. In the dark. Not a 904, it is a PK3515844, so a 727. I'm not wanting to screw with linkage or driveshafts so I guess I may be going to Oklahoma this weekend to buy the other one. It's supposed to be out of a 68 Charger with a 318. Still waiting for him to get me the picture of the PK#. Gonna try not to buy 2 transmissions I can't use.

Anybody need an early 70s 727 supposedly with 75k miles?
 
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Ok, so two weeks later, I bought the 904 from Oklahoma. It looked like it had been sitting outside for awhile. It's the one in this post: Slow, Driving Rustoration 1972 Dart It's a 1970 model and I ordered a Torque Converter and a rebuild kit, actually just using the rubber seals and gaskets.

Tonight with my girlfriend out of town till Sunday, I put a piece of plywood on the dining room table and brought the patient in. First I tipped it tail down to drain any fluid out. It had about 2 cups of trans fluid and a cup of water. They weren't mixed but I was still expecting the worst when I started taking it apart. I've never worked on an automatic transmission before but I had the Tom Hand book and watched a few youtube videos.

I don't want to sound overly confident, but that was so easy. It is so well put together. I had it completely disassembled in about and hour and another hour and a half cleaning and inspecting. I was really worried what I would find inside after seeing that water pour out but I was pleasantly surprised. First of all no crap in the pan at all, and nothing but a very fine bit of surface rust on the "sun shell?".

Everything else inside looks like it was protected by a nice little layer of tranny fluid. The bands look fine and no burn marks. I'm glad I took it apart to look because I had to know if it was a hunk of rust inside but I think I could have definitely just installed it as it was. I'm not going to be asking it to do much. I hope it work out for quite awhile, but if it doesn't, I plan on doing a complete rebuild on the original trans. So if this one breaks down in 1000 miles I'll have one ready to stab back in it.

I'll post pictures in case anyone sees something I missed. I'm hoping to get it cleaned up and put back together tomorrow.

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I seriously considered buying this car when I saw it on craigslist. My first car was a 72 Dart Swinger. After reading your thread I'm convinced it found the right home. Keep up the good work!
 
Well, scratch that. The more I work on this transmission, the more I realize that it was probably not working. The fluid and filter looked brand new and had some new parts in it. But it looks like they put it together with pieces missing.

The accumulator servo had the spring from the front servo, and the front servo only had the internal spring. It was missing two of the 4-tanged washers at least. I'm fairly certain it was missing some additional washers as well. Assembled it easily has at least 1/16" end play.
So I guess I have a parts transmission now. Also I still have a 727 if anybody wants it. So far my attempt at getting by on the cheap has cost me about $250 :lol:
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dartnlo said:
Well, scratch that. The more I work on this transmission, the more I realize that it was probably not working. The fluid and filter looked brand new and had some new parts in it. But it looks like they put it together with pieces missing.

The accumulator servo had the spring from the front servo, and the front servo only had the internal spring. It was missing two of the 4-tanged washers at least. I'm fairly certain it was missing some additional washers as well. Assembled it easily has at least 1/16" end play.
So I guess I have a parts transmission now. Also I still have a 727 if anybody wants it. So far my attempt at getting by on the cheap has cost me about $250 :lol:
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I would be contacting the seller and let them know what that transmission was. APOS.
If they are decent folks you should get some kind of refund.
If the seller is an idiot I would be contacting the office of the company that hosted the sellers add and see if there is any recourse through them, perhaps they have a rating system,,,
Worse case, remind the seller you know where they live,,,,
 
my68barracuda said:
I would be contacting the seller and let them know what that transmission was. APOS.
If they are decent folks you should get some kind of refund.
If the seller is an idiot I would be contacting the office of the company that hosted the sellers add and see if there is any recourse through them, perhaps they have a rating system,,,
Worse case, remind the seller you know where they live,,,,
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It was on facebook marketplace so no real recourse. I should have checked it more thoroughly when I saw that it was sitting outside on a trailer. But I was in a hurry, and it was dark, and I had already driven 2 hours to get it so...

Sadly, I'm looking at another one, this time in Topeka. Maybe I'll do more questions and get some sort of guarantee this time. This guy at least looks like a mopar guy, he has lots of mopar parts for sale. He said it was pulled 5 years ago.

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904 73 duster transmission works real good
Topeka, KS
$100
Mopar 904 automatic transmission with linkage out of 73 duster hundred dollars Come off 318 engine

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If you were closer to wv I could hook you up with a trans.
We could be no further apart.
 
sireland67 said:
If you were closer to wv I could hook you up with a trans.
We could be no further apart.
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Thanks, yes apparently the area I'm in is a Torgueflite desert. Finding one that someone will confirm was working when pulled is very difficult. The one I'm looking at now is promising. He is at least using language that indicates it was a great transmission when pulled. He sent me the pk# and it is from a 74-75 318 #fingerscrossed
 
The one I have was still hooked to an engine, I saw the car it came out of, the previous owner said it pulled the car fine, I believe him, the fluid in it was bright red.
I rebuilt the engine for my drag car but putting a 727 in it.
 
sireland67 said:
The one I have was still hooked to an engine, I saw the car it came out of, the previous owner said it pulled the car fine, I believe him, the fluid in it was bright red.
I rebuilt the engine for my drag car but putting a 727 in it.
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Well at this point I would have been ahead to drive to you to pick it up :steering:
 
So I bought the third transmission. Turned out to be the worst of the three lol, but it did have a good looking toque convertor and some parts that were missing from the one I rebuilt. A few members were able to persuade me that the end play I had was in spec so I went with it. It was a clean looking transmission so I was only slightly apprehensive.

So yesterday I finally pulled the transmission on my broken up piece of concrete by my garage. I bought a $99 transmission Jack from HF it worked very well even on my crappy concrete.
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While I was soaking some of the linkage in degreaser I cleaned up my 340/360 exhaust manifolds. I used header gaskets since they are going on 318 heads. They seem to do the job. I'll know better once the exhaust system gets installed this week.

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I was barely able to get the original trans out from under the car so I jacked it up higher. Honestly the hardest part about installing the transmission was getting it onto the Jack while it was under the car. Or maybe the torque converter bolts. I had noted the position of the TC drain plug so I would line up the built pattern the first time. But two of the bolts were going in hard so I took all of them out again and realized I had them correct the first time. I oiled the bolts and tried again. I figured out that you use gravity to get them individually centered.

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It was getting dark as I got everything buttoned up. I was pleased as heck when I felt it at least engage when I shifted to drive and reverse. I took it out for a test with open manifolds. For now my anxiety has subsided and I'm pleased with the process. My original trans had a broken pan rail tap so the third trans will work as the case for my eventually rebuild and the 727 might come in handy some day for a trade or actual use.

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For now I'm just excited to have her back on the street again after another 2 months parked. I can't wait to see how the new exhaust system sounds!
 
Dropped her off this morning for new dual exhaust! First major job I've had someone else do except the front-end alignment. Excited for warm weather and driving soon!
 
dartnlo said:
Dropped her off this morning for new dual exhaust! First major job I've had someone else do except the front-end alignment. Excited for warm weather and driving soon!
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That is great, By chance I got your CD out last night and listened to it. Very nice, like it a lot.
 
Back from the muffler shop with my new dual exhaust. I had Magnaflow mufflers installed. Sounds like I wanted. The less Swiss cheesy exhaust really shows of my oil burning now :lol:

Here are some videos:






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Got my Chinese ebay radiator in this weekend. Seems fine, definitely less leaky than the original one.

Only had to file a couple of holes a little to bolt in.

I knew the shroud wouldn't fit great, I'll see if it is adequate in the summer, it's working fine in 60 degree weather lol.

It was only $145 shipped and will get me by while I get the original cleaned and repaired.

Another note, the transmission I tore down and resealed seems to be working good, nice shifts, way better than since I've owned it. I need to get back under there and set the speedometer teeth settings. I took it out after the new exhaust and it has a droning sound at what I'm guessing is about 60, but it could be the exhaust note.
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