So I'm liking the new digs here. I'll post a few pictures of the car to avoid the "worthless" banner. For those that are having trouble sleeping, you can get drug-free help to snooze reading the original build thread here:
http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=95985.msg946074#msg946074
The first pic is how the car looked in 1990.
A shot of the cracked dash pad that was going to be the "only" thing I fixed on the car.
Well, maybe I'll get it painted too, but of course the old paint had to be removed.
:lurking: :inlove: Love Plum Crazy Challengers! :lurking:
And while the body's apart, it only makes sense to add the frame stiffeners under the front quarter panels.
And then there's the new paint....
340 engine rebuilt, including boring 0.030 over.
The paint looooooks super! :1place:
Well, while the dash was out, might as well rebuild the heater box. This is what came out of it.
I agree with Cody. Gotta love Plum Crazy! :twothumbsup:
Quote from: Cuda Cody on September 27, 2017, 06:41:05 PM
The paint looooooks super! :1place:
Thanks much Cody. I've had it under cover in my garage for so long, I'd almost forgotten how it looks.
All time best color :twothumbsup:
I like your car and love your attitude. I can tell you are a funny guy. I love sarcasm.
FC7 is awesome , Thanks for the pix !
Beautiful car! Has the car been completed, or are you still in the "putting it back together" stage?
Quote from: Rev-It-Up on September 28, 2017, 06:51:39 AM
Beautiful car! Has the car been completed, or are you still in the "putting it back together" stage?
I can safely claim being in the "done taking it apart" stage, mostly because there's nothing left to dismantle. I expect to be retiring soon so hopefully that will allow for time to finally finish the car.
Congratulations on your retirement! Sounds like you will be keeping busy. Putting the car back together is the fun part. :wrenching:
Looks awesome. I agree that FC7 is one of those colors that really grabs my attention.
FC7 is amazing when it is mixed right & is not too light or silver
Congrats on retiring
Great thread. Yes those little fixes get out of control in a hurry. I had a 66 Hemi Coronet that the paint was a bit tired on. I never painted it because I knew it would have spiraled out of control in a hurry and I'd have to restore the complete car.
Decided to finally follow through on a recommendation Brads70 made a year or two ago about which alternator to buy since I needed more juice to support an electric fuel pump. This was purchased from Quality Power.
Big shiny lumps of metal make me smile!
That looks awesome! I am following this thread for inspiration.
Big shiny lumps of metal That do what they are designed to do make me smile , Those Alternators kick ass :bigthumb:
Well that was more exciting than I wanted to be. I have been making a concerted effort to move things around such that my wife can actually park in our garage (she's been waiting to do this for most of the last 28 years). I managed to stack and slide stuff around to make room for her car, but the partially assembled K-member/engine/tranny/disc rotor compilation that I had sitting on piano carts was way too close to her car when she parked. Something bad was gonna happen. Well, let's see - there's plenty of room under the Challenger where all that stuff is supposed to be anyways, so why not store it there for the winter? Since my car is sitting on jack stands, it was a matter of lifting the front end up high enough to clear the high point on the engine (the valve covers). So, channeling my Wile E. Coyote engineering (yes, I watched a lot of cartoons as a kid, but that's another story) I made a stack of 4 x 4's so that I could use my floor jack to lift up from the US Cartool radiator brace (I should point out I have this large industrial surplus work table sitting directly in front of the car, so there was no room to use the engine lift to raise it without dismantling said bench). So now I've got the nose airborne, but the wood stack under the floor jack was filling some of the space where the K-member and such need to go. "No problem" I say to myself (foolishly) - I can hold the nose up with jack stands using even more wood under them. While everything seemed nice and stable (subframe connectors are wonderful), at one point the driver side front of the car started to slowly dip down. HOLY S%%T! I moved like a geriatric version of The Flash, then did my imitation of the Incredible Hulk (it wasn't really that heavy) to lift the nose of the car back up while using my foot to reposition the floor jack that had moved. Fast forward to the end: the engine was safely tucked under the car. The only evidence of the near-miss was that I completely soaked my shirt with nervous sweat. And then there was that lingering regret over the weekend I "relaxed" (my dad would've call it "goofing off") instead of getting the engine compartment repainted, so I get to go through this "lift and pull" a couple more times.
In the spring, that work bench is going to have to be moved so I can use the engine lift. Any maybe I shouldn't work alone so much.
Epilogue: when I came home from work today, all the extra floor space I had created by moving the engine was filled with "lawn objects" that apparently needed to come indoors for the winter. Ugh.
Oh yeah: I fight the same battle. My plan is to sell off wifey's car as she isn't working and doesn't need it anyway.
Just read your Nov 6th post. Thanks for the great description and laugh. :twothumbsup: After the day I had, I needed that. I thought I was the only one who did things like that.
I don't know about the rest of you, but routinely reading posts here helps keep me moving on my car project. Sometimes it's because of the absolutely awesome work I see other members complete. Other time it's because some unrelated tidbits from different posts that conspire to get me off my butt. Today's case in point: Pink AAR asked a question about seats, which got me to pull the seat frames from under a work bench. Swamp Donkey mentioned having a personal deadline for completing his car. And then there's that countdown clock to Carlisle that Cody has running on the forum header page.
So... I put down the TV remote and stripped the cover and foam off the back seat of the car. Since I'm retiring soon (mid-January!!!), I'm setting a personal goal of getting the car finished before Carlisle. Despite the ugly weather outdoors, it felt good to get going again.
Nothing really exciting about removing the old seat covers from the back. I found using a small (14") set of bolt cutters work really well for cutting off the hog rings. Other approaches tend to involve more twisting motion with my hands which seem to complain a little bit more in the morning as I've gotten older. The underside of the back seat had turned into a mouse hotel at one point, so there was a fair bit of surface rust on the frame. I'll use my Harbor Freight sand blaster to clean that up. Just some odd trivia that I noticed during the tear down:
There are ~12" pieces of listing wire that were used to a section of the springs together where the bend - the wire is covered in black paint so it must've been installed before the seat frame was originally painted.
There was a fragment of a paper tag tucked between the seat cover and the foam. I'm guessing this was a part ID tag.
One more week of work before I'm retired. It's been a great ride. After that, it'll be "Challenger time" (or as my wife says, "get that damn thing done" time). :banana:
Quote from: Dakota on January 19, 2018, 03:21:04 PM
One more week of work before I'm retired. It's been a great ride. After that, it'll be "Challenger time" (or as my wife says, "get that damn thing done" time). :banana:
Good for you on that, time to do what ya want !
Quote from: Dakota on January 19, 2018, 03:21:04 PM
One more week of work before I'm retired. It's been a great ride. After that, it'll be "Challenger time" (or as my wife says, "get that damn thing done" time). :banana:
Good for you!!! :congrats: :twothumbsup:
Quote from: Dakota on January 19, 2018, 03:21:04 PM
One more week of work before I'm retired. It's been a great ride. After that, it'll be "Challenger time" (or as my wife says, "get that damn thing done" time). :banana:
:woohoo:
Congrats on your upcoming retirement!
Will be watching this thread for regular progress. Lol
:cheers:
Finally finally finally go back to work on the Challenger today. Since I retired at the end of January, a couple of home projects have taken priority. Fortunately, they're done now. There's really nothing pic worthy from today, as most of the time was spent "unpacking" the Challenger. This involved raising up the front end using a floor jack and different length pieces of wood on the lower radiator support (previously reinforced with a US Cartool brace), then raising the front jack stands an inch or two at a time. This gave me enough clearance to pull the engine and tranny out from under the car where it was stored over the winter, along with the pieces of the engine lift and rear end. My wife has kindly agreed to surrender her garage parking spot so that I was able to slowly nudge the Challenger away from a wall (the jack stands are on top of wheel dollies) and into the middle of the garage. I am VERY relieved that the car raising and movement happened without any Hercules moves being required on my part.
More to come going forward.
Ha, ha: Torn down cars take up a lot of room.
I just read this thread. I'll be following it to the end. You'll have to bring it to Moparfest in August. I have a spare room and indoor storage for your car.
Quote from: blown motor on May 21, 2018, 06:38:34 AM
I just read this thread. I'll be following it to the end. You'll have to bring it to Moparfest in August. I have a spare room and indoor storage for your car.
Beware! Murry's on a video kick these days and will want to get your car in one of them! :D
Rear axle rebuild is finished except for the brake lines. New bearings, races and seals all around. The ring and pinion were also changed to an open 3.91 (was 3.23) since the 4 speed going back in is an OD version I bought from Jamie Passion. I have a spare 3rd member that I'll rebuild later (provided the current one decides that I did ok on the rebuild) that will give me some options to play with the final gear ratio. The spare may have a Sure Grip in it if the $ are available. The rear axles have "Green" bearings (from Doctor Diff) based on the thinking at the time that that I was going to upgrade to discs on the rear. This upgrade is way down the priority list now as I'm trying to focus on getting the car on road.
Good to see this A66 build. I'll follow along
Hey - I think she winked at me!
You did well. I always wizz them with a small wheel. The back, drivers end of the hump should pretty much fall into one spot.
The dash bezel around the rear window defogger switch showed signs of heat damage. All of the wires on this harness have been replaced (it is not available through M&H). The 2nd picture shows the heater and a/c harness (engine side). There are lots of splices, color changes and differing wire gauges - this one is heading for the trash can. The third picture shows an undersized splice wire that was easily broke loose after a little wiggling. It's hard to see in the picture, but the termination point (heater fuse - top row, 2nd from left) for this wire is badly corroded. Again, all signs that replacement harnesses are the way to go.
Last item for now is a picture of a cheap little plastic "vise" that I picked up out of a "$0.99 Special" bin at a local hardware store (also available on Amazon for $9 under the brand name "Eclipse"). This turned out to be pretty handy for holding wires while solder was being added to the connections. I'm pretty sure this tool has no other meaningful purpose in life.
Another great looking crimp! Altho that tool is not "cheap" it does get the job done and get it done right. Well done my friend well done :ohyeah:
Great pictoral. A good crimper is worth it for sure.
Great info, I've had some soldered terminals break recently and have been rethinking crimp connectors may be just fine since OEM has used them with pretty good success and they seam to last just fine. That is an excellent crimp you made, looks OEM quality! Thank you.
I've been sweating the engine compartment painting for way too long. My fear was that I would screw up the rest of the paint job in some new and inventive way. The engine compartment is now done! :veryexcited:
I used one of the Harbor Freight HVLP guns that came in a 2 gun set for $49. There are a couple of small spots that will require some touch up, but overall I'm happy with the results. The red line shows the break between the new paint (left) and old paint (right).
Also started working on and around the trunk interior. The seal around the trunk needed to come off, but there was some glue residue left behind. My wife has had past success using a product called "Goo Gone" for safely dissolving glue (lacquer thinner would work too, but it was too risky that it would drip onto the other paint). I ended up removing most of the old seal with a gasket scraper. Goo Gone and a Scotch Brite pad is doing the rest. I'll be repainting the lip around the truck as well as the interior.
Looking good!!! :clapping: :popcorn:
Engine compartment looks pretty good along with the color match
Looks great mate!
:twothumbsup:
Spent some time over the last couple of days getting ready to paint the inside of the trunk. One item that I wanted to address before painting is to repair/replace a section of undercoating that had broken off behind the jack storage location. It was about 4"x5" originally (sorry, no "before"!pic). I ended up getting some undercoating from Resto Rick and a spray gun from Harbor Freight. I'm very happy with there results as the new undercoating texture is well-matched to the old stuff (at least to my eyes). Cleaning the undercoating gun is no small task as it took the better part of 45 minutes to get it right.
I've used the Goo Gone in the past and while it used to work well for me I think they changed the formula to something more "environmentally safe" and the new stuff didn't work at all. At least for me. Hope you have better luck. Since I replaced my rear quarters I also resprayed the insides with undercoating. However, I just used rattle cans and applied it very heavy to mimic the factory and I think it came out fine. Yours looks great. I don't think anybody will be able to tell that it was "Patched." Good work. :clapping:
This felt really good. FINALLY starting to hang part on the car instead of taking them off. Rear axle and springs are in! :banana:
Nice, it's always great bolting stuff on.
That's coming along real nice. Pretty interesting way to do the installation also.
Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
It's a good feeling to finally get the engine and trans installed after all the body/paint work, etc! I'm just glad I have a lift in my shop. It was much easier to just drop the car down over the Engine, trans and K member. Good job! Keep it up. It won't be long until you fire that engine up. :twothumbsup:
150 ft lbs is correct
Glad it went smooth installing the engine :twothumbsup:
Didn't get squat done on the car for the month of November, but I had a good reason as my wife and I took a month-long trip south to see friends and our kids (retirement is awesome, by the way). Got back in town just in time for the snow, but no worries... it's always good to be home.
I'm back to working on the dash and getting the new wiring harnesses sorted. There was defintely a "butt pucker" moment when I got the wire cutters out to chop off the ring connectors for the main power wires on a brand new M&H harness that would normally go to the amp meter if I still had one. I'm doing the "amp meter bypass" described on the MAD Electronics website. One connection crimped, soldered and insulated.... a couple hundred more to go.
Part of the work has also involved replacing as much of the wire runs for dash lights and such that aren't readily avaialble as replacement harnesses. I'm sure you all have lots of stories of some of the odd things that you find once you start looking at this stuff. I came across a fuse holder that was patched into the feed to the turn signal flasher. I'm not sure I want to know what that was trying to fix.
I have failed miserably (again) meeting my self-imposed goal of getting the garage contents cleared out/rearranged so that my wife could park in the garage during the winter. Maybe by January???? (no year specified). Proof positive that I married better than she did.
Keep the posts coming! This is a great build thread. I'm working on a few things myself and like you, I find other people's builds very inspiring.
Your married better than comment is classic
I'm still making some progress. Nothing that's "photo worthy," but progress nonetheless. Up until last week, the winter had been pretty mild one so working out in the garage wasn't too uncomfortable. Put most of the front suspension in along with the rear shocks. The power steering pump is back on the engine. Still working on dash wiring and recovering seats. I was pressing in new u-joints for the drive shaft and ended up burning a fair bit of time on the front one. The Spicer 5-789X that was supposed to fit didn't (too large) so I ended up getting one from AutoZone that fit fine. There have been a number of items that were cleaned and painted several years ago, but got scuffed up after being shuffled around the garage or basement, so there's been some time tied up in addressing those annoying little things too.
Even though I'm "retired" I don't seem to be home much, but I try to make sure I make progress on the Challenger by hanging at least one part on it every day. Sometimes it's nothing more than piece of weather stripping or a water pump fitting, but over the last couple of weeks I can see my pile of parts getting slightly smaller.
My wife has largely suffered in silence for still having to park in the driveway during the winter. While I was working in the basement, she came home after grocery shopping and had to make multiple trips outside (while it's 15 degrees F and windy) to shuttle the bags inside. When I came upstairs, this chilly walking prompted a comment along the lines of "all this garage space, and the only car in it isn't working." I guess I should have waited a little longer to ask what was for dinner.
I've done a few full resto jobs and by far, the most rewarding thing for me is watching the piles and boxes of parts get smaller and smaller.
I spent my 7th wedding anniversary in the garage rebuilding my 440 for my 67 GTX. Wife was not a happy camper but she is still with me and in Sept it will be 30 years. They get over it--sometimes--LOL
JS27
Front shocks are in. Torsion bars are in. Deck lid and hood are back in (neither aligned yet). More importantly, the combination of getting the deck lid and hood moved, along with moving the Challenger towards a wall, created enough space for my wife can park her car in the garage - first time since Spring of 2018 and just in time for a blizzard.
Quote from: Dakota on January 29, 2019, 11:53:40 AM
Front shocks are in. Torsion bars are in. Deck lid and hood are back in (neither aligned yet). More importantly, the combination of getting the deck lid and hood moved, along with moving the Challenger towards a wall, created enough space for my wife can park her car in the garage - first time since Spring of 2018 and just in time for a blizzard.
Maybe you could help me with my garage...I long for the days of having two cars in my two car garage. Lol
Regarding FC7 (Plum Crazy).
I'm convinced this is the absolute best color for either of the E bodies. I had my 74 Challenger painted that color with white interior and i almost never can go to even the gas station, without someone commenting on the beautiful color...what is that Purple? Its Plum Crazy i tell them...and i always get a beautiful !! This spring going to put on some stripes, but, havent decided which... or even what color! I'm thinking white of course, but, a metallic silver would also look nice.
Really looking great! :banana:
Quote from: chargerdon on January 29, 2019, 03:19:46 PM
Regarding FC7 (Plum Crazy).
I'm convinced this is the absolute best color for either of the E bodies. I had my 74 Challenger painted that color with white interior and i almost never can go to even the gas station, without someone commenting on the beautiful color...what is that Purple? Its Plum Crazy i tell them...and i always get a beautiful !! This spring going to put on some stripes, but, havent decided which... or even what color! I'm thinking white of course, but, a metallic silver would also look nice.
I always consider Plum Crazy to be a Challenger color. 21% of 70 Challenger R/Ts were Plum Crazy.
To me FY1 Lemon Twist is a 'cuda color.
But that's just me.
yes, it is a Challenger color, because FC7 for barracuda was called In Violet !
Plum Crazy-In Violet-is a awesome color on A-B-and E bodies. As far as I can remember back in the 70's Chrysler had a problem with FC7 paint. It tended to just break down and flake off. I remember seeing several cars one or 2 years old and the paint on the roof and fenders and hood just flaking off. My friends sister bought a brand new 71 Duster 340 in FC7 and she had paint problems with it and another friend had a 70 T/A who also had flaking paint. So many cars had to get repainted so early in life. Probably why we don't see very many Original paint cars in good shape because of this. NOT saying that they are not out there just not many. Do any of you other old timers remember this happening ? Was it a paint or prep problem ?
JS27
Quote from: js27 on January 30, 2019, 11:38:38 AM
Plum Crazy-In Violet-is a awesome color on A-B-and E bodies. As far as I can remember back in the 70's Chrysler had a problem with FC7 paint. It tended to just break down and flake off. I remember seeing several cars one or 2 years old and the paint on the roof and fenders and hood just flaking off. My friends sister bought a brand new 71 Duster 340 in FC7 and she had paint problems with it and another friend had a 70 T/A who also had flaking paint. So many cars had to get repainted so early in life. Probably why we don't see very many Original paint cars in good shape because of this. NOT saying that they are not out there just not many. Do any of you other old timers remember this happening ? Was it a paint or prep problem ?
JS27
I remember it oxidizing real bad. My only FC7 supposedly did not leave the dealership in FC7. Supposedly the dealership had a hard time selling it. The first owner demanded that they paint the car blue and install air conditioning (it's a V code) - so they installed a York compressor and on under dash AC unit. Painted the car blue.
Yup: It oxidized and it also fell off leaving the grey primer underneath. Where I lived those cars looked beat or had a repaint within a year or two if they lived outside.
Sometimes, we live our lives to provide an example for others about what not to do. Such is the case with me trying to save a little money when it came to a late choice to switch to a throttle body injection system (FiTech) for my engine. I had already purchased a stock replacement tank with plans to run a carb with the mechanical fuel pump. Once the switch to EFI was started, I went with a Tanks Inc fuel pump that's inside the tank. Rather than buy another tank already set up for the pump ($250ish), I purchased a "Weld in Fuel Pump Recess" ($45 - see the 2 vendor pics below) and modified my stock tank. Though my welding skills are limited, I got the recess in. Other than the recess install time (let's call it "more welding and grinding practice"), the install seemed to go OK. Where the balance tipped about this not having been a good idea was when I ended up spending a couple of hours this afternoon cleaning the inside of the tank to remove the metal debris from the recess installation. The cleaning involved pouring some WD-40 in the tank and then using a couple of different magnets and a bunch of paper towels to remove all of the metal grit (see last pic). I'm happy to report that I didn't have to call 911 to help free my arm from inside the the tank.... let's just say there were a few close calls.
The tank is clean now, but if I were going to do this again, I'd buy the 2nd new tank. Or maybe not change my mind about using a carb until "later" so that I could get the car on the road sooner.
If I keep learning from these mistakes, I'm going to be a freakin' genius when I'm "done" with this car.
Despite all this, it was a good day - I was back in the garage.
Maybe you could have sold the stock tank ,
Unfortunatley education always costs money 1 way or another .
AT least you have it done now :twothumbsup:
:headbang:
The stock fuel sending unit ended up in the same space as Tank Inc. internal pump. I didn't correctly anticipate this conflict when I put the recess in for mounting the pump on a stock fuel tank.
I'm punting on this tank. I just ordered the EFI tank from Tank Inc along with the required aftermarket fuel level sending unit.
This car project certainly has been humbling.
Quote from: Dakota on May 24, 2019, 02:25:25 PM
:headbang:
The stock fuel sending unit ended up in the same space as Tank Inc. internal pump. I didn't correctly anticipate this conflict when I put the recess in for mounting the pump on a stock fuel tank.
I'm punting on this tank. I just ordered the EFI tank from Tank Inc along with the required aftermarket fuel level sending unit.
This car project certainly has been humbling.
They will do that
Di you get the tank installed yet ?
Quote from: Dakota on May 24, 2019, 02:25:25 PM
:headbang:
The stock fuel sending unit ended up in the same space as Tank Inc. internal pump. I didn't correctly anticipate this conflict when I put the recess in for mounting the pump on a stock fuel tank.
I'm punting on this tank. I just ordered the EFI tank from Tank Inc along with the required aftermarket fuel level sending unit.
This car project certainly has been humbling.
Might be a bit late but the trap door option they offer is a nice feature too IMO.
http://www.tanksinc.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=product/product_id=543/category_id=167/mode=prod/prd543.htm
What kind of screws are those :looney: :haha:
Quote from: anlauto on July 02, 2019, 02:28:37 PM
What kind of screws are those :looney: :haha:
German.....
Quote from: Dakota on July 02, 2019, 05:10:25 PM
Quote from: Chryco Psycho on July 02, 2019, 12:27:10 PM
Di you get the tank installed yet ?
I like the trap door @Brads70 (https://forum.e-bodies.org/mlist/brads70_12), but I just couldn't bring myself to cut the trunk floor after recently painting it.
I get it. My trunk floor and drop off need replacing I have the parts here to do it but just no time. I figured I'd instal it in the old floor and if I didn't like it I'd omit it in the new one.
Slow but steady progress continues.
I ended up going with a Powermaster 95 amp alternator. The Quality Power alternator previously purchased was too wide and ended up hitting the passenger side valve cover. It's possible to make the QP alternator fit but mounting it on the front of the alternator support bracket instead of the back, but then I'd end up with only 1 belt to run the a/c unit instead of the 2 that are standard. There's already a "future home" for the QP alternator planned.
Based on the published details, the QP alternator is 0.6" wider than the Powermaster version. The 2nd pic below shows the valve cover clearance with the Powermaster alternator. It's not much, but it'll work. The clearance is slightly better by a hair with stock valve covers.
A layer of Dynamat Extreme has been installed. I bought this stuff back in 2010 for a different car. I was pleasantly surprised that it seemed to work despite it's age.
I had a laminate roller for pressing down the Dynamat. There was a suggestion on a YouTube video I watched about using a hard ball to press the Dynamat into corners and curves. I ended up using the hard red plastic ball shown in the picture. One of my dogs picked this up in the street while my wife and I were walking her. I think it originally came from a McDonaldland play area. What the heck, it worked. I ended up using about 41 square feet of the Dynamat to cover the floor from the firewall and up to and including the area under the back seat. There were only 4 small cuts on my hands afterwards so it wasn't terrible.
It's mostly covered now, but that's POR-15 on the floor pan and Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator on the firewall. I ran out of POR-15 so I ended up switching since I had some of the Eastwood stuff on a shelf.
Chip Foose apparently used to be the spokesmodel for Dynamat which apparently included getting his picture on the boxes. I think he's aged a bit since the picture was taken, but then again so have I.
A couple of other items added:
The first pic shows a "Sector Support Kit" (SSK) which attaches to the underside of the Pitman arm. This assembly fits over the where the nut would usually go. It's supposed to take some of the flex out of the Pitman arm by locking it in with the K-member.
There's a link on FirmFeel's website to a 2011 Mopar Action article with a write up the installation of a prototype version of the SSK. The article is helpful except the pictures show the threaded sleeve being installed with the hex head facing down. It's supposed to be installed with the hex head facing up (hex head closest to the steering box). I was not able to find a 1-5/16" socket deep enough to tighten this with a ratchet, so I ended up using a large crescent wrench instead.
The directions that come with the SSK show the correct orientation for the hex sleeve.
The other picture shows a FirmFeel roller bearing kit installed on the idler arm. This was relatively straightforward work. The shims that came with the kit made it pretty easy to get things snug. As they note on the instructions, this add-on can only be done on a Moog idler arm.
Hopefully all these little tweaks will provide the advertised improvements to handling. I'm not sure that I'll be driving aggressively enough to know, but I kinda like knowing it's there.
I have looked at those kits from Firm Feel , was the install easy to do ?
Quote from: 73440 on July 09, 2019, 11:37:08 PM
I have looked at those kits from Firm Feel , was the install easy to do ?
They were both relatively straightforward in terms of prep and installation.
For the Sector Support Kit, I initially got myself confused following the Mopar Action article too closely because I couldn't figure out how the kit was supposed to go in with the hex sleeve facing down. Once I realized what I was doing wrong, the remaining challenge was getting the bolts in position for the final mounting. With the engine in place and working on my back, there wasn't a lot of maneuvering room. This would've been a lot easier to do before putting the K-member in the car if the steering box is already mounted.
For the idler arm roller bearing, a carbide bit on a die grinder is a must for removing the original internals of the Moog arm. I'm certainly not gentle enough with an angle grinder to use one for the metal removal. A vise worked fine for pressing in the new internal pieces.
Thanks, may add that to the list
Looking good! Is there not supposed to be a bushing between the ears on the alternator? :notsure:
Quote from: Brads70 on July 10, 2019, 03:04:28 PM
Looking good! Is there not supposed to be a bushing between the ears on the alternator? :notsure:
Yes - still need to measure, cut and install it.
Making steady progress.
Fuel lines are roughed in. This shows the Russell 6AN fittings used around the FiTech throttle body. I don't remember which member posted this approach previously, but it fits great under the air cleaner. I need to drop the fuel tank one more time to add the electrical connections. I'll add some more pictures of the line connections at that end later.
The FiTech needs an engine temperature measurement input. It comes with a 3/8" NPT temperature sensor. There wasn't a readily available opening to use other than remove one of the block drain plugs, but that would involve lengthening the wiring harness. I tried a Meziere water neck extension housing, but there was some interference from the air conditioning compressor (stock RV-2). The solution involved drilling and tapping the extension housing shown. I bought this a number of years ago, so I don't recall the vendor at the moment.
I didn't want to take the leap that Cuda Cody has suggested about pulling the thermostat entirely, so I drilled a small hole in it so that some coolant sneak through to allow the FiTech sensor to get an accurate temperature.
Mounted the a/c condenser. This was a bit of a pain, most of it self-inflicted. I didn't have the small bracket for the lower corner on the passenger side in hand when I put the condenser on the first time. Mounting this little bugger (at least on my car) involves 4 small screws and nuts (2 on each end of the bracket). There is no way to put the screws in on the core support end of the small bracket if the condenser is already mounted, so I got the opportunity to completely remove the condenser (and the windshield washer bottle, which covers the fasteners for the condenser) and do it all over again. :pullinghair:
I still have to replace the o-rings around the condenser for something compatible with 134a refrigerant.
ThANKS! NO DOUBT ABOUT IT, THAT TOOL MAKES THE BEST CRIMPS OF ANY THAT I'VE EVER HAD. :bradsthumb:
Quote from: BIGSHCLUNK on August 02, 2019, 06:59:12 AM
ThANKS! NO DOUBT ABOUT IT, THAT TOOL MAKES THE BEST CRIMPS OF ANY THAT I'VE EVER HAD. :bradsthumb:
Is that the yellow tool with five jaw inserts for like $100? I'm always open to getting new tools if they make life easier!
Amazon has it for $75. This version has 3 sets of jaws: one set cuts and crimps spark plug wires, one crimps solderless terminals, and one crimps terminals like what I showed in the picture above as well as spade connectors.
There's definitely a technique to using the tool so the crimps consistently turn out OK. There are some details included on this thread that I posted back in July 2018 (it's on page 3 as it's displayed on my computer).
https://www.amazon.com/ACCEL-ACC-170036-Wire-Crimp/dp/B001GBIEIM/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=accel+300+crimper&qid=1564757890&s=gateway&sr=8-3
Nice. Might have to get a set. The ones I use now are weak.
By the way, you're going to love that Powermaster alternator. Have ne on my Vette and it was a game changer. Battery is still like new three years later and headlights and heater fan never dip down at idle.
Fuel tank is finally in. I ended up gouging the fill line to tank grommet during the first attempt to get the line inserted just using petroleum jelly, so a new grommet had to be ordered. On the second attempt, I heated up the grommet with hot water and used the Vaseline again - this time it worked. At the time, the tank was hanging by the passenger side strap with some blocks under the driver side of the tank so as give a better angle for the filler pipe (I saw this suggestion from another member here, but don't recall who - thanks whoever you are).
Freshened up the black paint on the gas cap and put it back on the car. It's definitely eye candy.
Quote from: Dakota on August 21, 2019, 06:18:54 AM
Freshened up the black paint on the gas cap and put it back on the car. It's definitely eye candy.
I agree. That's the one thing I wish they would have also included on the 'Cudas instead of hiding it behind the license plate which also makes it a pain to fill the tank.
Had a full day in the garage today. :)
Worked on installing the parking brake cable (stainless steel version from Inline Tube). I was really happy the slots I made in the driver side subframe connector over 2 years ago seemed to be in the right spot to allow cable movement without hitting anything. It was tough to get good pictures for a couple of reasons, so what you see is the best I could get.
Also started working on adding a hydraulic clutch (American Powertrain Hydramax). The instructions indicate it's ok to put 2 of the 4 bolts for the clutch master cylinder through the firewall hole normally used for the clutch rod. I didn't think this engaged enough of the firewall (the silver lines mark the edge of the mounting bracket). I made a small plate out of 16 gauge steel (roughly 3" by 4") to reinforce things a bit. I also have an additional brace from SST which connects to the front of the master cylinder to provide additional reinforcement. I'll post a picture of this brace once it's in.
I still have a little tweaking to do to the reinforcement plate before things are locked down so it's not tipped relative to the mounting bracket.
While I was cutting metal, I went ahead and made a small plate to cover the well where the choke mechanism would be if I still had a carb. I still need to paint it orange, but overall I'm happy with it. B
Couldn't get much time in the garage today, so ended up working in the seat tracks in the basement. It's probably been 3-4 years since I took them apart, so it took a minute to remember how to put them back together. After several failed reassembly attempts, it finally came back to me: assemble the tracks (after greasing) without the bearings, then shift the upper track slightly to create room for the bearing slider and roller. Repeat the process on the other end of the track.
Working on electrical stuff. I don't like the look of an MSD box hanging out in the engine compartment and I'm not really confident on where I'll have space in the passenger compartment dash isn't in yet), so I'm mounting mine behind the passenger side high beam headlight. To do this, I had to make a mounting plate because the footprint of the corner mounting points on the MSD is otherwise too big for the flat part of the space. Most of the leads from the MSD will need to be lengthened a bit but that won't be a big deal.
Also adding relays for the headlight (high and low), in-tank fuel pump, and a/c compressor clutch. I found an enclosed box online that holds up to 5 replays, so I have a spare for future use. I mounted it behind the driver side high beam light. It's mounted at an angle due to the available space, but a side benefit of this arrangement is that I can easily see and reach all of the relays once I pop the top of the box off. It's tough to see in the pictures but that was kind of the point.
I'll be using the area under the battery for terminals posts to feed the relays and the dashboard area. I've started, but not finished, the ammeter bypass.
Last item for now is putting in new pigtails on the front side marker lights. The sockets on both sides were badly rusted to the point where the bulb wouldn't stay lit consistently even after a couple of attempts at cleaning them. The new wires, ordered through Roseville, arrived with a solid ring where they go into the light housing. I used a small grinder wheel on a Dremel to cut a series of slits in the ring, then used a drift pin and a some mostly gentle hammer taps to fold them over inside the housing. The sockets for these lights have a dedicated ground wire (shared with the horns), so the folding over provides a physical connection but not necessarily an electrical one.
Good Job :cooldance:
This past week was the first time I've worked on the Challenger since the beginning of November. Between then and now, my wife and I spent the better part of a month on the road visiting our kids and other family before getting into the usual holiday crunch.
Even though it's been a mild winter so far, what little I've done has been "indoor" work. I finally got the new seat foam and vinyl covers from Lengendary on my seat frames with a lot of help from my wife. I was truly afraid of something bad happening if my hands slipped while stretching the vinyl before she got the hog rings in. Fortunately, no accidents occurred!
I am not a small person, and I have to say it was quite a workout to get the covers on. I used a heat gun to warm the covers up since the sun is mostly MIA this time of year, but it was still a bit of a wrestling match. We ended up sending the rear seat upper section to a local upholstery shop as we couldn't get the muslin over the cotton layers to pull smoothly around the small hump for the transmission tunnel. A few comments on the process:
The Legendary YouTube videos, especially for the '70 front bucket seat, were very useful. I watched it a bunch of times and had it cued up on my phone for reminders as we put the seats together. The closest video for the '70 Challenger rear seat was one for a '69 Charger rear bench. Unfortunately, the Charger has a straight bottom (no hump) on the uppper rear section so it's not an identical application.
I mostly used the 3M "77" spray adhesive for assembling the foam pieces and applying muslin. It worked fine. The muslin strips could be applied almost immediately onto the front seat foam and stayed put once applied. I ended up also using some of the Gorilla Spray Adhesive towards the end which didn't work as well. It didn't spray on as heavy as the "77", you have to wait at least a minute to assemble parts, and there were a couple of places I had to redo after everything was dried.
There is no "driver side" or "passenger side" to the Legendary front seat foam or the seat bottoms, but they do end up being shaped differently after assembly based on the seat frame.
There is a difference between the sides for the front upper seat covers as there is a precut square hole for the seat latch. I'd love to tell you I noticed this beforehand but frankly I was lucky.
The Legendary video for the rear seat upper on the Charger includes guidance to apply "3 to 5" layers of cotton over the burlap before pulling the muslin over it. I talked with Ron from Legendary about the Challenger. His guidance was that only 3 layers were needed. After we gave up on covering this section, the shop we took it too indicated they were going to use seat foam and 1 layer of cotton instead of multiple layers of cotton for the filling with no muslin used.
I used a small pair of bolt cutters to remove the old hog rings and some of the new ones that didn't go in right. All of the old rings and some of the new ones I had were fairly hard metal, so pieces tended to go airborne when they were cut. Make sure you have some level of eye protection on if you go this route.
I thought 500 hog rings would be enough to do the front and back. It wasn't. Especially early on, I had to remove a bunch that didn't go in right. They're fairly cheap. Buy extra.
I'll post some pictures and the cost of the shop work once I get everything back.
Finished up the radio install. Ended up trimming the bottom of the radio trim piece to fit. I just couldn't bring myself to cut the dash trim. The updated stock radios are just too pricey for me.
Also added a brace to the backside of the radio as it was too loose just being supported by the face.
If the existing hole in the dash frame I used with the brace is intended for something else, please tell me now.
Not sure if you used the same hole but the dash should have had a brace to begin with. At least I think. I know the Rallye dashes do. Can't say for sure on a non rallye dash, but I would assume they are the same. Here's pic of the hole and the brace connected to it.
That bracket IS to support the radio, you got it were it belongs. :twothumbsup:
Dakota, thanks for the excellent description of the seat cover install. Mine were done years ago and whoever did them got the seat bottoms crooked. While they are in still like new condition, I've been contemplating taking the seats apart and trying to straighten the bottom cover. I'm also curious if new foam was installed when the covers were initially installed. My instinct or should I say the seat of my pants says no. :crying: :dunno:
Quote from: JS29 on January 18, 2020, 02:10:50 PM
That bracket IS to support the radio, you got it were it belongs. :twothumbsup:
:woohoo: Thanks! I was mentally preparing for that being a hole needed for one of the vent pieces which of course I wouldn't discover until after the dash was installed.
The dash is hanging in the car instead of an engine stand in my basement where it's been for 2+ years. :veryexcited:
I still have to hook up the speedometer cable and rearrange some wires and such before doing the infamous 4 bolts by the defroster vents, but I'm considering this a big milestone anyways.
Those 4 dash bolts are the suck - I don't know what poor bastard got stuck with that job but it must have been awful.
Had to have some work done on my foot so I will be a "hardly able" on crutches for a bit.
Before my little "procedure" occurred, I was able to pick up the rear upper seat section which we had done at a local upholstery shop. He used foam instead of the cotton batting Legendary supplied. I'm really happy with how it turned out, as is my quality control inspector (she's just disappointed there's no food involved). I'm usually pretty stubborn about doing things myself but this was $75 well spent in my book. My wife and I were able to manage the recovering of all of the other pieces on our own, but that one was a struggle to get the cover to look right over the cotton.
While I've had doctor-ordered time in a chair, I finally (hopefully) finished what's been a 6+ year wandering journey on making a decision on what wheels and tires to put on the car. To all of you who posted pictures and size info on your wheel and tire choices in the sticky thread, all of you who were kind enough to respond my many PMs and emails requesting details, and those who helped put together the spreadsheet that's been here and on c-c.com, thank you thank you thank you. All of that really helped me move forward with confidence. The highlights are these: Boyd Junkyard Dog wheels and Nitto 555 tires.
I will post pictures and the details once I get them on the car (and I start breathing regularly again once I see everything fits). For now, this emoji dance will have to do....
:banana:
:perfect10:
I did a quick test-fit of the new wheels and tires. I'm happy. Lots of work to do on height adjustments. The back axle has jack stands under it. The front wheel is hanging free. And yes these are for the other side of the car based on the tire rotation arrow.
I've got exactly 1/2" of exposed stud. As best I can see online, that's adequate for 1/2" diameter studs. If I'm off base here, please correct me.
For the most part, I've been very happy with the quality of the work done when I had my car painted which included re-installing all of the exterior trim. This is an exception. I wanted to replace the rubber gasket on the side view mirror. After about 1/2 turn on the front screw, the screw fell out. It turns out if was only held in by a wad of Bondo.
The proper sized hole for a nutsert was already there, so I bought a installation hardware kit on eBay. The threads in the hole for the rear screw were also buggered up a bit so I drilled it out with a step bit. I used an impact driver with the appropriate sized hex bit mounted in a socket to put the squeeze on the nutsert (this was alternative to buying the nutsert installation tool at Harbor Freight). It's all back together again.
I'm trying to be happy I found it this way instead of the mirror popping loose and scratching up the paint.
Good job, that's hard on the nerves with a finish painted car.
Another little fix involved repairing the button used to release the driver side seat latch. Both of the rivets that hold the button on the side cover had broken at some time in the past. A pair of holes about 3/16" deep were drilled, and then a Dremel was used to shorten a pair of 8-32 screws. The holes were filled with epoxy and then everything was reassembled and clamped overnight. Should be good to go from here. The passenger side is shown below for comparison.
:bravo: On both repairs. :perfect10:
Awesome work. Thanks for sharing this. I have both of these repairs in front of me in the very near future.
As mentioned in a separate post, I had trouble pulling out the timing gear shaft on my rebuilt 340 ahead of priming the oil system. The short version of a long story is that I ended up dropping the oil pan and oil pump so that I could nudge the shaft out from below. I eventually found a strong magnet that worked to pull the gear from the top too. I have primed the oil system a couple of times before without any issues removing the gear shaft.
I wanted to make sure that I could get the initial timing set before putting the pan back on. The gear shaft wouldn't drop all the way down with the oil pump installed even with rotating the engine manually. With the pump off again and a little downward pressure from the distributor applied by my wife, after a couple of tries we were able to get the distributor all the way in with the rotor in the right spot to be 16* BTC on #1. With the distributor clamp in place to keep the gear shaft and distributor from raising up, it was a simple matter of partially engaging the gear shaft on the oil pump and then rotating the pump into position to be bolted back in place.
Yeah, this was a completely bass ackwards way of doing things but at least it's done.
As for priming the oil system, I'm not going to do it again before starting the engine. With the windage tray off I got a good look inside the engine. I could see that the break-in oil had been spread around pretty well from the past priming efforts. For a little added insurance, I sprayed some Comp Cams Valve Train Assembly Spray onto all of the cam lobes. The spray stream is very tight so it was surprisingly easy to hit where I was aiming.
He's da man when it comes to all things mechanical :twothumbsup:
You can see the wear pattern on the lobes so I would bring up the rpm & get some oil moving around but the cam has already been run in so no need to do a 20 min break in run :twothumbsup:
Glad to help as well :wrenching:
The issue of working in a garage in Buffalo is usually in the winter because of the cold. This past week it was the heat - 97 degrees today! But work I did and work I must if I'm ever going to get this thing finished.
Spent some time on the exhaust. Ideally the tips would be up just a little higher but this is the best I can do with the brackets I have on hand. I'm pretty happy with it.
Also made a bracket to hang a carbon cannister to which the tank and fuel neck vents will be tied into. This is an AC Delco cannister with a connection point for the vent tubing and another one for the purge line. I've got a vacuum control valve that I'll be adding shortly that'll use a small ported vaccum (normalluy for distributor advance) to open and pass the fumes from the cannister into the same vacuum line that the PCV will using off the FiTech throttle body.
The cannister is held on the bracket with a pair of large hose clamps. I glued a small amount of padding between the bracket and the cannister to provide space for the bolt heads (managed to miss that in my "planning" stage). The bracket is mounted on the engine side of the body panel that's behind the headlights. As shown in an earlier post on this thread, my MSD box is on the other side of the panel. The two hoses for the canister are routed between the K-member and the splash shield. I still need to make a small bracket to hold the hoses against the wheel well. This bracket will probably hang off the end of the bolt by my thumb in the 3rd picture (the bolt is for the heater water valve). All of this stuff is pretty tight but I didn't want to make any extra holes if I can avoid it.
While working with the taillight harness, I ran my hand on the underside of the seam where the rear quarter joins around the trunk lid. Hmmn. Kind of rough. It was disappointing to see some rust in this area that wasn't addressed when the car was sand blasted. I'll get some Rust Encapsulator on it to slow it down.
This was the first time in the 8 years I've owned the car that I ever looked in this area, so a word of advice for those of you about the get your car sand blasted: look here too!
Experience teaches you things if you pay attn !!
Glad to help , I hope the break in goes smoothly !! :twothumbsup:
I've heard of guys bumping the PS control valve changing an engine and having the pump overheat while the PS box goes to full lock while breaking in the camshaft.
:veryexcited: She's running! Started on the first try. Oil and temp and charging system and the even the fuel gauge seemed to work OK. There is still lots to do still but this was an awesome day. I think my wife was as excited as I was, but in her case it probably had more to do with the likelihood that there will be fewer parts stacked up around the house now that I know the motor works. :banana:
I'm grateful for all the help I've received from folks on this forum to finally reach this milestone. The last time the motor ran was in 2013.
Awesome :cooldance:
lad my advice was a benefit :bigthumb:
Gotta laugh. My wife was talking with a friend of hers on the phone while in the room directly above our garage. The friend: "What's that rumbling sound I hear? Is there a thunderstorm near you?" Wife: "No, that's just the Challenger starting up."
I've not completed a project car before but I believe most of what follows is typical of what happens when you bring an old car back to life.
Set timing on the engine so it's at 34* total as Chryco Psycho had recommended to me which includes having the distributor advance locked at 18*. Shut the engine off and the restarted it - she fired right up after cranking for about 1/2 second. Awesome! While adjusting the timing, I got a harsh reminder about keeping my hands away from the plug wires while leaning against the car in shorts as I got a pretty good shock. There's also a small leak of radiator fluid at the thermostat housing that will need to be dealt with soon.
I've been working my way through the different components and systems on the car to make sure everything is working before putting the interior back in. A couple of issues were centered on the firewall electrical connections. There was a small piece of foam that was interfering with getting the harness connections to fully seat. Once it was removed, most everything started working.
I'll have to do some troubleshooting on the power supply to the stereo. The stereo will work if directly wired to the fuse panel, but not from the dash harness connection.
With the exception of the tach added to my non-Rallye dash, all of the lights (including the dash dimmer), flashers and gauges appear to be working correctly.
Connected the vacuum line for the rebuilt heater & A/C box to the intake manifold and cycled through the push buttons while the engine was running. It looks like all of the vent doors and such are working correctly.
Cycled the wiper motor (linkage not connected yet). It ran and then parked when shut off - a good sign.
I'm going to leave the A/C system for next year.
Overall, working steadily on the car for the last couple of days has been pretty enjoyable.
That sounds like it is coming along well.
:cheers: Congratulations on your "Start-Up" I sure hope to join first start in 2020 group.
My my wife and I just returned from Texas (our oldest son got married!). Since we live in NY, hat means we get to self quarantine for 2 weeks. So far, I've spent most of it working on the Challenger, so it's not been terrible, but this is one of those stories where someone could justifiably question my sanity.
I have been fighting a leak at my thermostat housing. Couldn't get torque on one side because the threads stripped (it's the original manifold), so I took it apart to put in a helicoil. Put it back together and then the other side stripped. Back apart, another helicoil. Did I mention I have to drain the radiator every time? So I put it back together again, but it leaked AGAIN because the gasket was torn around a bolt hole. Turns out the aftermarket housing I'm using has holes a little narrower than the stock gasket. Since we're quarantined, I can't run to AutoZone for yet another gasket, so I cut one out of some material I had on the shelf. Actually turned out pretty well. Put it in, all proud of myself, then saw the thermostat sitting on my workbench. Fortunately, the gasket sealant I was using hadn't set yet so I could pull it apart without tearing the gasket.
I'm hopefully done chasing this leak. Frustrating, yes... but there are a lot worse ways to spend my day.
The FiTech throttle body has a small lever near its base which hits the mounting flange on my stock intake manifold. To fix this, a spacer was added which lead to issues with the throttle cable linkage. Rather than buy the Lokar throttle bracket and throttle cable that fix this, the old bracket was cut up and reworked so the stock cable mount could still be used.
At some point in the future, I may move the cable clamp vertical piece towards the rear about 1/4" or thereabouts so I'm not clamping to the end of the cable, but this works nicely.
Carpet and back seat are in thanks to a big assist from my wife. Yeah, the image below is like a picture of a panther at midnight, but I'm happy with it.
Based on what I saw on YouTube, I used an old Weller soldering iron to melt the bolt holes through the carpet. It worked really well, especially since the barrel is nearly the same diameter as the hole openings.
Single blade razors worked best for trimming the carpet compared to a utility knife, except the single blades get dull pretty quickly.
I used 3M 77 Adhesive to glue down the carpet in several spots, mostly on the back piece. As I saw with my seat foams, the 3M is far superior to Gorilla spray adhesive in terms of holding strength.
The rear seat bottom didn't initially fit right. It turned out that one of the wire loops on the bottom of the frame was bent. All better now.
Found the source of the leak around the thermostat housing. There was a crack in the housing. I'm guessing that this was caused by me waiting too long to apply final torque after using a lot of Permatex on the joint. :headbang:
I originally chose to use this housing because it fit under the stock a/c compressor and provided a spot to drill and tap for installing a coolant temperature sensor for the FiTech unit. This style lacks any ridge on the end to help keep the radiator hose in place. Before buying another one, I read a review on Summit from someone that got 2nd degree burns when their hose blew off while tuning their engine. Not good. Now going back to a stock housing.
The wire for the coolant temp sensor provided by FiTech isn't long enough to reach one of the drain plug locations on the block, but Summit sells a pigtail that will serve as an extension. It looks like I can get a 1/4" NPT coolant temp sensor from a local auto store to fit the drain hole (the sensor that comes with the FiTech is 3/8" NPT). I'll post part details once they're installed and verified to be working.
Good catch on the leak. I suppose you could glue the rad hose onto a new one like that but I still wouldn't trust it, that neck is pretty short as well.
I appreciate the memorial..... but I'm not 100% dead yet.... :Thud:
:haha: :haha: :haha:
good idea... :yes:
Thast's looking fairly complete.
Quote from: BIGSHCLUNK on September 19, 2020, 07:05:23 PM
I appreciate the memorial..... but I'm not 100% dead yet.... :Thud:
:haha: :haha: :haha:
good idea... :yes:
Sorry Bigs - didn't mean to put you under the ground. Let's go with "Bigs Honorary Noggin Pad"
Today was a big day as I took the Challenger on the road for the first time in 7+ years. :banana: I only circled the neighborhood a couple of times but if felt so good to finally drive it. I was the only one home at the time so there are no videos, but it wasn't much to look at anyways. I did get a couple of thumbs up from a few delivery truck drivers and some long stares from a couple of the kids in the neighborhood. I don't think they see plum crazy very often.
There was no power in my power steering initially. The pump was full when I started the motor but I hadn't turned the rebuilt steering box from lock-to-lock before which apparently sucked the pump nearly dry. It's amazing how much better it works when there's enough fluid in it.
The brakes are very soft. I'll try bleeding them again (and maybe repeating the master cylinder bleed too) tomorrow.
The neutral safety switch on the clutch only worked some of the time, so I ended up putting in a jumper on the starter relay for the moment. I'll have to dig into this further and may need a rebuild.
The front end alignment and state inspection are set for next Monday, after which I can hopefully drive it further and faster.
I think there will be smaller diameter steering wheel and maybe a tilt column in my future at some point. I fit OK once I'm in but it takes a little doing to get me situated.
No such thing as "done", right?
Nothing like that feeling eh ? Awesome :drinkingbud:
Looks great. It'll take a bit of time to tweak everything.
Congrats on getting her back on the road! :burnout:
So great to hear/see! Congrats enjoy! :banana:
Well it's been an interesting couple of days with some ups and downs.
As noted in another thread, I was having trouble with my power steering pump, which triggered the purchase of a replacement pump from Rock Auto. After installing the pump on Thursday, I wanted to do a quick circle of the neighborhood to make sure everything was working right. About a half mile from my house, I ran out of gas. So is there a club or something I get to join now that I don't trust my fuel gauge? Anyways, there was a quick walk/jog back to the house so that I could rescue myself with my lawnmower gas. I guess it was good that this happened close to home instead of out on the highway. The good news is that replacement pump fixed the foam problem.
On the drive back home, the little screw that holds the turn signal lever in place worked itself out the point where I couldn't use the turn signals. I did not like looking like a BMW driver. A trip the local auto parts store for a steering wheel puller and the application of some Loctite took care of that little problem.
On Friday morning, the grand plan was to drive the Challenger to the local hot rod shop for the front end alignment and state inspection. Since I wasn't sure how long they were going to have the car (and this was going to be the longest trip I'd taken so far), my wife was going to follow me there. Given that the sun was up, she needed a caffeine fix so we had to stop for coffee. While I was waiting for her, I parked far away from all the other cars. A gentleman was staring in my direction for a good minute or two, then walked across the lot to where I was parked, made some nice compliments about the car and then asked if he could take a picture of it. That was a first for me. I'll admit that it was a pretty cool experience.
During the drive to the shop, I had a chance to listen a bit more to the various noises in the car. It became pretty obvious that something's not quite right in the rear end, as there's a fair bit of noise under power and coast. I rebuilt the differential several years ago (my first one - probably not the best choice) but this was the first time it's actually been used. The shop is going to take a look at the 3rd member to see what's going on.
I have a 3:91 ring gear and an A-833 OD 4 speed. First impression is that this set up is a lot of fun for quickly tooling around the city streets. That said, there is a lot of highway driving available when traveling around Buffalo, so I may look at a gear change depending on what the shop finds. I bought a spare 489 case from another member here a couple of years ago as a bit of an insurance policy for my rebuild work - that may come into play too.
Like Runcharger said, it's going to take a bit to sort things out.
Great job!
It's been an eventful couple of weeks as far as my Challenger is concerned. There are lots of the "oh crap" kind of things described below, but in the end I'm happy with where I am.
My car ended up spending about 1.5 weeks at the local hotrod shop. They fixed an exhaust leak (the shaft for the butterfly on the heat riser) that my wife could hear but I couldn't, did the front end alignment, tweaked the brakes, fixed my tach, and did the state safety inspection.
The big ticket item was the 3rd member. It was knocking really bad when I drove it to the shop (my longest drive to that point). I had rebuilt it several years ago. All indications are that I didn't do it very well. The theory from the shop tech was that one of the bearings for the ring gear didn't go in straight and gave me a false indication when I thought everything was tight. Once under load, the bearing apparently moved and then everything got too loose. Since the whole thing was going to need to rebuilt, I changed from the 3.91 ring gear to 3.55. For the kind of driving I do around here, it's a better set up with my A833 OD. So I ended up spending the money on professional help that I was trying to avoid by doing it on my own.
When I hooked up the FiTech hand-held box to monitor the engine conditions, the coolant temperature peaked at 165 degrees. I think I bought and installed a thermostat rated for 160 degrees back before I decided to switch to FiTech. Unfortunately, that peak temp is below the minimum threshold of 170 degrees for the FiTech to start self-learning, so I'll need to switch the thermostat. Yeah.
I'm tall, and have quickly got tired of squeezing my thighs under the steering wheel when I got in the car. I found a 14" Flaming River Tuff wheel on eBay for a decent price, so the stock wheel has been swapped out. The good news is that the eBay purchase also came with the adapter if (when?) I put in a tilt column.
Back in 2014, I had the power steering gear upgraded to a Firm Feel Stage 3. Now that I'm finally using it, I have been making a series of small adjustments on the lash setting to get rid of some looseness in the steering. Matt from Firm Feel has been super responsive when I've called (3 times now?) for a little coaching through the adjustments. Almost done with that.
The last bit of joy was when I completely filled my gas tank for the first time today. I stopped about 1/2 mile from the gas station to grab some lunch, and then noticed gas dripping out of the tank onto the pavement. I'm not sure exactly where the leak is coming from yet. Fortunately, my wife was able to bring me a hand pump and a gas can to remove a bit of the gas which stopped the leak.
We've had an unusually warm stretch of weather this week so I'm driving around as much as I can before I put it to bed for the winter. It's been a blast.
There are maybe a few more items to post on this thread before I close it out. It'll be kind of nice to post on the "what you have done lately?" thread going forward.
Repo gas tank sending unit lock ring and gasket I'm betting.
Just checking in to see if you have a finished car. I really enjoyed going through your thread.
Thanks for asking. I put it in the road in late 2020. It's up on jacks stands at the moment so I can work through my never-ending punch list of tweaks, checks and upgrades. The only major upgrade planned at the moment is getting the factory a/c system working. I try to limit myself to a 1-2 weeks of work in the garage as the weather finally gets warmer, then nothing else but driving (unless something breaks) until it's gets cold outside.
I've posted this elsewhere, but here's a pic of the car last fall before it was tucked away for the winter.
Always great to see another car get brought back to life and out on the road. It's a ton of work but a labor of love. Very nice. Congrats.
I got mine on the road two years ago and still have a few little things to do. Still don't have wipers on the car. Hehe. But rain-x works very well.
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