70 Challenger going Plum Crazy

[RUNCHARGER]

Thast's looking fairly complete.

[Dakota]

I appreciate the memorial..... but I'm not 100% dead yet.... 


    


good idea... 

Sorry Bigs - didn't mean to put you under the ground.   Let's go with "Bigs Honorary Noggin Pad"

[Dakota]

Today was a big day as I took the Challenger on the road for the first time in 7+ years.     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?

[anlauto]

Nothing like that feeling eh ? Awesome

[RUNCHARGER]

Looks great. It'll take a bit of time to tweak everything.

[DeathProofCuda]

Congrats on getting her back on the road!   

[Brads70]

So great to hear/see! Congrats enjoy! 

[Dakota]

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.

[Morty426]

Great job!

[Dakota]

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.
 

[RUNCHARGER]

Repo gas tank sending unit lock ring and gasket I'm betting.

[Dakota]

Repo gas tank sending unit lock ring and gasket I'm betting.

I would not have bet against you @RUNCHARGER, but it turns out the leak is coming from a tear in the rubber grommet where the fill line enters the gas tank.  More specifically, the tear is in the seam where the grommet diameter is reduced from the exterior "ring" down to something that will fit in the hole in the tank.  It starts leaking when the tank is a bit over 3/4 full and the car is not in motion.  I remember having quite the wrestling match getting the fill line through the grommet, so I'm guessing I damaged it then.

I'm going to add this repair to my punchlist of "maybe winter but more likely early spring" work. 

[jbaha]

Repo gas tank sending unit lock ring and gasket I'm betting.

I would not have bet against you @RUNCHARGER, but it turns out the leak is coming from a tear in the rubber grommet where the fill line enters the gas tank.  More specifically, the tear is in the seam where the grommet diameter is reduced from the exterior "ring" down to something that will fit in the hole in the tank.  It starts leaking when the tank is a bit over 3/4 full and the car is not in motion.  I remember having quite the wrestling match getting the fill line through the grommet, so I'm guessing I damaged it then.

I'm going to add this repair to my punchlist of "maybe winter but more likely early spring" work.

Nice thread !!!

For the leak, I have the same problem when its nearly full, and its the fuel sender unit! Good luck

[Jsand73440]

Just checking in to see if you have a finished car. I really enjoyed going through your thread.

[Dakota]

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.