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To make a long story short, I used to have a 1975 Dodge Dart as my first car. I only had that car a few months before it broke down, got towed, and I never got it back. So fast foward about 15 years, and starting in early 2021 I began looking for another one. This is how, on a Wednesday in April, I found myself driving about 250 miles to check out a 1973 Dodge Dart Swinger, "Swinger" being the name for the 2-door hardtop variant. I took it for a test drive, talked the seller down to $4000, and he delivered it to my house that Saturday.  So now let's get into everything that's wrong with it! The paint is not too badly faded, pretty shiny everywhere except for the hood (which I failed to get a good picture of). There's some dings, dents, and scrapes all over the car.    The grille is also cracked just inside the passenger side headlight. The chrome on the bumpers and trim is all nice except for the right rear bumper extension.   The vinyl top is mostly perfect... except for some very noticeable spots in the rear.    Now for the worst part: the wheelwells.      Let's just pretend we didn't see that and move on. Trunk looks alright, even under the spare tire, except for this spot on the left. That's a hole.     Looking inside, we see an automatic transmission and 63K on the clock. I'm gonna assume that's 163K. Oh, and did I mention the speedo's stuck on 20? We'll have to fix that, I guess. Seats and doors are in pretty nice shape at least.     The dash pad is bad, though. The back seat is also starting to separate on top, and there's one annoying little spot behind the driver missing.     Let's look under the dash!  Oh boy. And what is this? I suspect it's for the aftermarket defroster in the back window. I'll have to investigate further.    Time for a brief history lesson: The Dart started as a "small full-size" in 1960:  Then shrank into this little guy by 1966:  (OK, this one is actually a '65. But it's also currently for sale in Connecticut, if anyone's interested) Then in 1967 they restyled the body from the early-'60s Virgil Exner design to a nice boxy car with straight lines, resulting in the fourth-generation Dart that I love. These cars were available with anything from a 170 (2.8l) Slant 6 allegedly making 101bHP to some special-order 440 (7.2l) V8s in '68 and '69 that were rated at 375bHP. Anyways, here's my engine if you've stuck with me this far. A 225 (3.7l) Slant 6 with a single-barrel carb. According to Valiant.org, this bad boy was rated for 105 net HP at 4000 RPM.   I might as well point out, while we're in here, that the wiper fluid reservoir is smashed. Or just disintegrated?  The Previous Owner also says that the power steering pump leaks, but for now the steering is smooth and  vOh! And I almost forgot! There's a hole opening up in the floorboards, under the driver's feet.  OK, that's about it for now. It's actually kinda cathartic to talk poo poo about the car you just committed your future time and money to. Anyways, I guess I should point out that it's not all bad: the car runs, drives, stops, and shifts smoothly. So the only plan for the Dart is to keep it cruising, and drive it as much as possible in the nice weather. My main concern is fixing all of the rust and finding somewhere I can get it inspected. Inspired by George from Soup Classic Motoring, I may just go buy a welder tomorrow and start practicing. How else are you gonna learn, right? Current Known Issues: Really bad dash pad Radio doesn't work Brettbot fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Aug 26, 2023 |
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May 26, 2021 03:41
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McTinkerson posted:This is going to be excellent! Wow, I was not aware of this! I was thinking maybe black, but my wife said she likes the all-green... at least until she saw the Mod Tops, now she's changed her vote. George RR Fartin posted:I'd get another in a heartbeat, but that piece of poo poo I bought for $600 in 1999 is apparently a several thousand dollar car around here, so I don't know if I'll get another chance. Yeah, that's why I snapped this one up, despite some issues. Especially in New England, everything is either a stripped, rusted-out hunk (that the seller still wants $5000 for) or a fully-restored show piece for $20-100K. A simple cruiser that's "almost there" for under 5 sounded good to me. As for floor pans, I saw a smart trick on Blown Budget Garage that I might use: with a metal rod and a board with a channel routed out of it, you can hammer ridges into plain sheet metal to give it some rigidity.
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May 27, 2021 01:36
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LobsterboyX posted:OP - you have a cool ride! I love the grandma spec too! Means a lot coming from you, I love your thread! When I was in highschool I was all about the rockabilly/greaser scene, so everything you post is right up my alley. It wasn't a great week for the Dart. I went and got my 20-day plates, full of excitement. The car was registered and inspected in its' home state, so I had high hopes that I would be legal soon. I took the car to a local garage, only about 3 miles from my house. I always see a lime green '71 Challenger parked outside, so I figured that was a good omen. The guy was nice enough to give it a once-over without officially inspecting it. He told me three things were necessary before it would pass inspection: One, patch the holes in the quarter panels. Sure, I was going to do that anyways. Two, he said I'm going to need a new tailpipe. He has no inside line on this stuff, so the best he could do was order from somewhere online, same as I could. And finally, he said the front brakes (which the Previous Owner had proudly told me he changed right before selling the car) were "just jammed in there" and the pads were dragging everywhere I drove. Since the whole point of this car is to learn as I go, I told him I wanted to look at the brakes myself. So I did and (other than one chewed-up lugnut the PO left me) I have nothing to add. My only guess is maybe it's a problem with the piston not retracting all the way? Once I got the caliper off it was hell trying to get it back on the rotor because there was barely enough space between the pads. Oh, and I guess he was right about the tailpipe, because the bolt on the hanger near the bumper just sheared off in the driveway. At this point I was starting to feel overwhelmed, if not defeated. I really let myself believe that I was going to roll in, get a sticker, and spend the rest of the summer cruising. I could just pay the garage to fix the brakes, but then I wouldn't be learning anything, would I? I think I have to resign myself to the idea that this is a long-term project, and I'm not going to be dodging and darting as soon as I thought. There's a custom exhaust place here in town, maybe they can not only fix the tailpipe but upgrade it, too, since the old pipe seems to be 1 7/8" and everything online is at least 2 1/4". Oh, and since I'm just listing everything that went wrong, the heater hose for the air cleaner fell apart, too. But at least that was a simple replacement. And the PO was right about the power steering pump leaking, so that's confirmed now. But now I've got a new problem! The hood won't close all the way any more. The safety latch will catch, but the regular hood latch won't... unless I remove the hood spring.  So the striker on the hood is supposed to hit the hook pointed out in the top picture. That rotates the latch and holds the hood all the way down. Well suddenly the spring is too strong for the latch, I guess, because it's impossible to make the latch stay closed. Unless, as I said, I remove the spring, then it works fine every time... but then when I pull the hood release, the hood doesn't pop up, and I have to lie on the ground to push the hood from underneath.  In theory I could buy a replacement spring, then cut a little bit off to make it shorter and weaker, I guess. But that seems like masking the problem instead of figuring out what the hell is going on.
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May 29, 2021 05:08
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Boaz MacPhereson posted:I assume front disc brakes based on your description. New calipers are not a big job at all probably pretty cheap for your Dart. If they're acting even a little stupid I wouldn't hesitate to just replace them. Good opportunity to do a fluid change while you're at it. Yeah, at first I was stressing about getting everything fixed up ASAP so I could drive the car for the rest of the summer. But now that I've had an attitude adjustment, I'm not too worried about it. As far as the exhaust goes, it looks ok to me before the muffler and pretty bad afterwards. Then again, I'm no expert. I have no idea what the exhaust place will charge for replacing the whole thing vs. just the rotten part, so it's all up in the air.
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May 29, 2021 18:05
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Well, I'm an idiot. I ordered a new power steering pump last week because the old one was leaking. I even confirmed this by cleaning off the bottom of the pump, filling it up, and then coming back later to see if it was wet again. But then today I thought to actually turn the engine on and see if I could see where it was leaking from. Click it I don't think it's supposed to be that wobbly! Looking closely at the bottom of the pump again, I think I see the fluid coming from the shaft, running down the pump, and dripping off the bottom. So now I've got to wait on a new pulley, which I probably should've just ordered in the first place. 
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Jun 2, 2021 19:01
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LobsterboyX posted:the hood thing - there should be some adjustment on the hood itself - I cant recall how those darts work - get some photos of the stuff on the hood like the actual latch - Oh, that's the old pump and pulley. The new pump just arrived yesterday, I haven't had time to install it yet. I guess it can't hurt to try and straighten the old pulley while I'm waiting on the new one. For the hood, there's two bolts holding the whole latch mechanism in place. You can adjust it up and down, which I tried from lowest to highest, and even leaning to the right to see if gravity could help. Nothing. I cleaned it up as best as I could, sprayed a little white lithium grease inside, worked it around. Still no luck. At the right height, I can hold the hood down with my right hand and flip the latch from underneath with my left hand, but as soon as I let go the hood springs back up. I know it's gotta be something in the latch, but it's really like the spring is suddenly too strong.
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Jun 3, 2021 17:38
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George RR Fartin posted:It's been 20+ years, but generically: are there any other springs in the mechanism that could be failing to counter the main one? This feels like an issue where the latch is meant to lock in once the hood is down, but the latch doesn't rotate to the point where whatever is meant to keep it in place is able to. Yeah, without the hood popper spring installed, it latches every time. But then, like I said, if I pull the hood release inside the car, the hood doesn't lift at all, so I can't get a hand underneath it to release the safety latch. The only other spring in here is the one that returns the hood release lever back to zero after use. For reference:  The latch starts closed. I open it with the lever that rotates when you pull the hood release inside the car. I close it, as if the striker on the hood had closed the latch. Then, when I try to open it without using the spring-loaded release, it can only go halfway. This should, in theory, prevent the latch from releasing once it's closed past a certain point. And this all works perfectly without the hood popper spring installed, implying that the lockup is so weak (or the spring is so strong) that it's overcome by the spring.
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Jun 3, 2021 19:39
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 Oops I took this picture before I finished removing the tape Well, she's home. To make a long story as short as possible: My Father In Law said that he would help me work on the car, but then his son had his second kid right around the same time that I bought it. So the Dart sat all summer and fall as he continually said, "No no, don't take it to a mechanic! We'll get to it!" Only when the snow came did he finally give up and take the car to work to let his Auto Tech kids work on it. Last week the car finally came back. So there's been a lot of stuff done: Hood latch replaced, and now it works perfectly. New tires. New exhaust. Power steering pump installed. New engine mounts. New windshield fluid reservoir. Holes in the body and floor (and I think trunk) glassed and bondoed and primed. He got two cans of Dodge F8 green paint mixed up, and I sprayed around the wheel wells and rear quarters from the trim down on both sides. I wish I had taken some extra time to do more prep, because you can definitely see where the kids left it rough, but oh well! The painters tape must have been on there for a LONG time, because it's both crusty and crumbly and yet doesn't want to come off. I've been attacking it (as gently as possible or course) with extra-strength Goo Gone and a razor blade. As far as the brakes, he replaced the calipers on the front discs and the soft lines, we replaced the brake cylinders in the rear drums and flushed and refilled and bled the fluid. And yet... he still thinks the brakes are dragging. Master cylinder looks like the correct one, with the small front chamber and large rear. Any ideas on what to look at next? Any way to tell for sure if they're even really dragging? Brettbot fucked around with this message at 14:58 on Sep 23, 2022 |
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Sep 23, 2022 04:24
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LloydDobler posted:Brake stuff That's why I'm starting to wonder. When I put it in gear, it does move on its own as soon as I let off the brake. I jacked up the rear and the wheels don't feel draggy or grindy. Don't know if I'll get a chance to mess around with test drives this week, but I'm definitely curious now. MrOnBicycle posted:Missed this thread, but 'sup fellow Darter! Sup?  I love the look of those third gen Darts, too, yours is very cool. I almost went for a... '64 I think it was, before I found this one. But I had to buy one that's as complete as possible because I have no idea what I'm doing!
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Sep 26, 2022 22:22
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Took these quick clips for another forum, might as well post them here. Someone asked me to jack up the front and give the wheels a spin to judge if the brakes were really dragging. Click for video.  While I ponder that, it turns out I've got a leak somewhere along the left side of the trunk!  Very cool. If you can't tell from the picture, it was deep enough that the rim of the spare was sitting in water, not even just the tire.  The seal around the lid actually looks very nice, so I think maybe it's getting in where the vinyl top is missing on the driver's side and avoiding the trunk rubber altogether. Maybe running down a channel in the body, maybe there's a hole under there I can't see. I never noticed a wet trunk before before but 1) I almost always had a car cover on it and 2) we had a few days of torrential rains thanks to that hurricane down south, so maybe the car's just never been this wet before...
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Oct 7, 2022 20:37
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Fornax Disaster posted:That could be leaking in from around the back window, I think I see water damage to your package tray and sail panels. See if you can see signs of the water running down from the underside of the package tray. Yup, took a quick look a minute ago and spotted a little hole right where the top of the trunk and the body meet, right in line with the channel running from the package tray/corner of the window. Guess I'm gonna put the cover back on it for now!
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Oct 7, 2022 22:50
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Well, we got a week of weather in the 40s and 50s, so my mind returned to the Dart. I uncovered it for the first time since it snowed and took care of a few minor things. This little bastard used to be F-shaped. One hose from the wiper fluid bottle splits into one for each sprayer. As funny as it was to hit the wipers and spray fluid straight up out of the hood vents like a James Bond gadget, sometimes it's nice to actually be able to clean your windshield! Also there was one stripped screw that was preventing me from pulling out a piece of trim under the door, which was preventing me from putting back the carpet on the driver's side. The carpet had been pulled up when the hole in the floor was repaired. I was sick of it flapping loose, so I got out my dremel and a cutting wheel, turned the screw into a flathead, and pulled that out. Then I tucked the carpet back under the kick panel and the trim. I forgot the take a picture, but it just looks normal now, so v vI also removed some of the rotting defroster hose, it was just held on by a clip and it looks like some fairly standard 2 1/4" hose, so I should be able to replace that pretty easily.  This little guy here is the tiny hole that entirely flooded my spare tire well. As you can kinda see, it's directly in line with the channel that leads rain from the roof to under trunk lid, where it's supposed to flow out along the trunk's rubber seal. Obviously that whole area doesn't look great, but I've got to find a good way to seal it temporarily so I don't have to constantly worry about getting the car wet. When I was putting the cover on the car for the winter, I noticed a bit of transmission fluid on the bottom of the pan. I had recently topped it up, so I wasn't sure if the pan was leaking or I had just spilled some. I kinda forgot about that over the winter, but I had no issues today taking it around the neighborhood, so I think I'm OK.  Also something kinda strange: Last year, every time I backed out of my driveway, I would shift from Reverse to Drive and then the car would stall as soon as I hit the gas. I would then restart it and it would be fine from then on. Maybe I was being more conscientious of giving it an extra bit of throttle today, but it didn't happen once.As far as the speedometer goes, I think the gauge itself is borked. I got a new speedo cable, and put one end into the back of the gauge. By spinning the free end I can make the needle jump, but it never settles back below 10 MPH. And I think you need to pull the entire dash apart to get the instrument cluster out, so I'd like to wait until I find a new dash pad and replace both at the same time. But also I really want to get the speedo fixed ASAP, since that's the only thing that's currently keeping me from driving the Dart whenever I want...
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Feb 16, 2023 23:45
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OK, so I said I know nothing, maybe you guys can help me out. That's the valve in the trunk for the air shocks that the PO installed. It looks like a Schrader valve, and it measures the same 7mm outer diameter as a tire stem. Yet when I put my little roadside tire inflator on it, I get no reading on the PSI dial, and I can't put air in or take it out. What am I missing here? Is it just that it's longer than a tire stem, so I need a different attachment? I've never dealt with air shocks before (or owned a standalone air compressor), so maybe this is obvious to you guys.
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Mar 24, 2023 15:45
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Dagen H posted:Looks like the valve core (the tiny brass part in the center) isn't fully seated. Find a small flat-blade screwdriver (assuming you don't have a valve core tool) and spin it down. That doesn't seem to be it. I can't screw it in or out, with a screwdriver at least.
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Mar 24, 2023 18:48
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Dagen H posted:They're probably fully collapsed, and it may take a good few minutes to get them full enough to start lifting. I would suggest a larger compressor and a helper to listen for leaks (assuming the nylon lines have passed a visual inspection). Oh, maybe I should have been more clear. I don't think they're collapsed. I think I just can't get a reading with this compressor for some reason. It should show the pressure as soon as I put the nozzle on, but it shows zero. Then when I turn it on it immediately jumps to 10PSI and stays there. Maybe there's something wrong with the valve itself, because when I push in the center plunger no air comes out. But if that's true, how did he get air in there in the first place?
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Mar 24, 2023 19:19
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So I decided to poke around under the car today, as I had half an hour while I waited for my wife to get home from work. I checked the valve in the trunk again: same as before, no pressure reading. I jacked up the rear and followed the tube from the trunk to the passenger's side shock and everything looked good. Followed the tube to the T junction; same. Then I noticed: Yup, that's the driver's side air line just hangin' loose.  This will shock you, I'm sure: The install is not so professional, so the junction moves around and the tubes are just barely long enough to reach both sides, so who knows when it came loose. Anyways I reattached it, then reconnected the tire pump and got some air released as I pushed the valve on. So maybe the passenger side was completely empty but the driver's side wasn't? Either way, it still showed zero PSI on the gauge. I turned on the pump and filled it up to 20, since I read several places that that's usually the bare minimum for air shocks. Then I gave it a little extra, just to be sure. We'll see tomorrow maybe if it's still holding the air.
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Apr 1, 2023 05:31
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Small but important improvement: I put a glob of JB Weld into that hole in the trunk lip, then sanded it down. Now I can at least let the car get wet without worrying about the trunk flooding. Which was a good thing, because it rained the day after I did it, and many days since then. Didn't take a picture, though. The pumped-up shocks are holding strong.  Another small thing, I finally remembered to decode the fender tag. Nothing much surprising there: the 225 Slant 6, 3-speed Torqueflite, the green paint with matching upholstery and roof, all came on the car. Apparently the option level was "high", which maybe explains the rear window defroster. Still only an AM radio, though. One thing I noticed, though, is it's tagged as "split bench with armrest", but I've just got a plain split bench. Once I saw that, I realized that the front and back seat upholstery don't exactly match.   So this, combined with the dents in the front end and the slightly off motor mounts, leads me to assume that this thing had an accident in its previous life, and maybe it was worse than I thought? Anyways I just missed its 50th birthday, as it rolled off the line in Hamtramck on April 10, 1973. The other day I took the car a few miles around town. I used the windshield washer as I was leaving the house and it worked fine. When I got to the store, I got out of the car and saw a big blue puddle underneath the left side of the car. It seems the hose had popped off of the washer reservoir when I put it in park, and the reservoir dumped its entire contents onto the ground. So I reattached the hose and refilled the reservoir, and now the the sprayer doesn't work any more. It still makes noise when I push the button, but nothing comes out. v v It's always something with this car.The real point of taking it for a cruise was to check the brakes. Once the car warmed up, there was a noticable lope only at "foot off the brake" speeds, like less than 5 MPH. It was otherwise unnoticable, but rolling through traffic you definitely feel it. It was a cool and cloudy day, and when I got home 3 out of the 4 brakes were barely above ambient temperature. But one, the passenger rear, was so warm that I could feel the heat in the hubcap, let alone touching the drum itself. So it seems we finally found the brake that was giving us all the trouble. Now when my Father In Law had the car in his shop doing the front disks, I thought he replaced the wheel cylinders in the rear, although looking at the pictures now, I think he only did the front. Anyways, I bought a Brake Hardware kit and a Brake Repair kit, with the intention of replacing anything and everything besides the wheel cylinder. It was definitely a bit nerve-wracking, tearing apart a brake without any supervision, but I've watched videos on it over and over again from ChrisFix, Fuzzy Dice Projects, Junkyard Digs, etc. etc.   It wasn't until I got the brake fully disassembled and all the parts laid out side by side that I realized some of the parts didn't match. I double-checked and, sure enough, I got the kit for the left side instead of the right. That's fine, I'll want to do the other side too, but man did I feel like an idiot with the whole thing torn apart. So I went ahead and ordered the right kit from O'Reilly, but in the meantime I had no choice but to re-use some of the old parts. That includes the auto adjuster which was totally stuck, and I had to use needlenose pliers just to get enough leverage to break the ends loose. So I cleaned everything up, wire brushed, sprayed down, lightly lubed, etc. and then reassembled. I had an absolute bastard of a time trying to get the retaining pins/springs on… until I realized half the pins in the kit were shorter that the others. After that it was MUCH easier! I picked up the correct parts kit later in the day.  I don't have any more time this weekend, so the other side will have to wait until next week at least. But while I was down there, I discovered yet another interesting thing about this car. I had assumed that everything is original other than the front disks. And yet:   Everything about this car (It's a Dart, it's a '73, 6-cylinder, 4 manual drums, 14" wheels, etc.) tells me that this should be a small bolt pattern 5 x 4" car. But unless I'm mistaken, this is a "big" 4.5". You measure from the edge of one stud to the center of the opposite? So I guess that teaches me about assumptions. Finally, I forget if I've mentioned this before or not, but I'm looking for some advice. The car starts fine. When I put it in gear, drive OR reverse, nothing unusual happens. But when I give it some gas, the car wants to bog down and die. If I'm reeeally gentle on the throttle (or sometimes if I floor it), 99% of the time that's enough to get past the stumble, and then it runs without another issue until I park it again. I can stop at a stop sign, give it as much or little gas as I need to, and it's no problem. But just pulling out of the driveway, it wants to die. Now I just assume this engine needs a lot of TLC, so it's probably not any one particular thing, but where would you guys start? Does this sound like something obvious? Timing? Carb problem? Something else I don't even know about?
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Apr 28, 2023 23:12
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Thanks for the advice, everybody. Very minor update incoming: I did eventually get the hardware replaced on the other side, so now both drums have everything new except the master cylinder. Took her out for a short drive since it's so nice today. Topped off the tank, and by the time I got home (6.76 miles according to the GPS speedo), the needle had already dropped off like 1/8 from full. Not exactly an economy car. Oh and the windshield washer pump is working again, although the hose popped off again and pissed all the fluid out AGAIN, so I've got to find a way to deal with that. So last time, I had fixed the trunk flooding. I went ahead and left the car uncovered in the rain after that, and next time I got in I discovered that the carpet on the driver's side was wet. I couldn't find any damp spots under the dash, so I have no idea where it was coming from. Maybe this corner of the windshield?  Anyways, I'm looking for a replacement speedometer before I go tearing mine out of the car. Which means I'm dealing with the boomer musclecar guys on another forum, god bless 'em. They're all really friendly, but computer literate they're not. I posted a want-ad for a speedo or the whole gauge cluster. I got one guy just asking me questions. One guy had the wrong speedometer. Two or three people said they had one for sale, but when I PMed the for pictures or prices, I got no reply. Finally somebody replied that they had one and just needed to get it out of the car. He said it'd be a few days since it was raining where he was. A week later I've heard nothing, so I messaged him again and he said he forgot all about it. The next day he messaged me that he got the cluster loose, but he couldn't get it out of the car. I told him that I think you have to remove the steering wheel or drop the column, and he said "That's what I was afraid of." So maybe a few more days... I can't complain about the price, though, he only wants $40 versus buying a cluster on eBay ($125-$150) or buying a new speedometer from restoration places ($325+!).Oh yeah, and I haven't shown you guys the dog dishes yet:  Bought two pairs on eBay for less than the cost of one whole set. Best $60 I've spent on the car. 
Brettbot fucked around with this message at 00:29 on May 13, 2023 |
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May 12, 2023 21:16
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Boaz MacPhereson posted:"That's what I was afraid of." Yeah, I think that's what I read, but I've never done it. And thanks, your Nova's great too! wesleywillis posted:The hose on your windshield washer is probably old and brittle/hard. That's the funny part, it seems plenty soft and pliable. Probably a previous owner replaced a rotten hose, just with one size too large. I'll figure it out. The extent of my efforts to fix it so far was: try to wrap some electrical tape around the nozzle, to make it fit more snugly, but it's got these wings on either side to protect the nozzle so there's not really any space. Then I just gave up and put the hose back on for now. v v
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May 13, 2023 02:16
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 OK, so I suck at keeping threads updated. I took the Dart out around town doing errands the other day and it reminded me that I should post here again. So let's see, what have I done since the last update? Well, I don't remember if I ever said, but I did eventually get both rear drums "rebuilt" with a parts kit and have had no issues with them since. Also, following that tip from joat mon, I decided to replace the coil just to see if that helped, since it already has new plugs and wires.  Turned out to be Mopar-branded, with a date code of "123". That translates easily enough to "last week of March, year ending in 3". Considering that this car rolled off the assembly line on April 10, 1973, I think it's a fair assumption that that's the original coil. I didn't throw it away yet, just replaced it with a new, clean, "cheapest one you got" one.  This doesn't seem to have fixed the weird bogging, but it's pretty simple to avoid by just being easy on the gas the first time I put it in Drive. I might return the old coil some time, but for the time being I'm not having any issues with the cheap one. I also never heard back from the FABO guy about the gauge cluster, so I picked one up on eBay for only $100. It was missing a bunch of bulbs, but it had what I needed (including the alterator gauge, since the needle just straight up fell off of mine one day). At first I was removing all of the trim and every nut and bolt attached to the steering column, but eventually I realized that you only need to remove these ones on the bottom:  That'll let you drop it just enough to get the cluster out. Also, I don't know if this is supposed to happen, but when I dropped the column the brakes stopped holding.  Luckily I had one foot out the door and on the ground, so I felt the car start to slowly roll. I just set the parking brake and got back to work. Anyways, after that you've got the speedometer cable, one hardwired lightbulb, three different multi-wire plugs, and two wires for the battery. And your view the whole time is something like this: But eventually...  So I think the problem with my speedo was this little guy here:  This little watch spring is what resets the needle to zero automatically. It must have gotten over-wound at some point (maybe when the old speedo cable snapped (Oh yeah, I found out that the old cable snapped)) and just wouldn't return to zero. I couldn't see any way to disassemble the thing and try to fix it, so I just replaced the whole speedometer/odometer combo, so now it shows 14K miles instead of 63K. I combined the best parts of both clusters and put it back in. It's not perfect, but it all works now and I know how to remove it if I ever get around to re-doing the wood grain. After that I had to replace the speedo cable. I got under the car and pulled the old one, where I discovered that 1: it was leaking fluid from the cable itself and 2: although the cable looked fine on the gauge end, it was all twisted and mangled at the transmission end. Luckily, I had planned ahead and bought not just a new cable, but the gear and seals/o-rings too. So I went ahead and replaced the gear inside the transmission (even though it looked fine) with all new seals in it... and only then realized that the new cable was wrong. I had bought it online back when I got the car and never compared it to the old one side-by-side, so it turned out to be like 1/4" too small to fit onto the transmission. So one quick trip to O'Reilly later, I put it all back together and now I have a working speedometer!  Then I took the car to get inspected, and that's when I found out that the reverse lights weren't working! At first, of course, I was afraid that I had hosed up some of the wiring when replacing the cluster, but I went ahead and bought a multipack and replaced all of the fuses in the fuse block just to be sure. That fixed it, and while I was there I pulled the fuse for the rear window defroster. I don't plan on driving the car in the winter, but also: the wire from the switch was soldered directly to the fuse.  Maybe I'm being overly cautious, but that seemed a little sketch, so I figured I might as well disconnect it. Anyways, I think that's about it for now. EDIT: Oh yeah, I never mentioned it, but I pulled the big "5 MPH bumpers" from the front a while ago, since it was just 2 bolts each. They're still on the back, though, since I think I have to remove the whole bumper to get those ones off. Next mission is to sew the top of the back seat back together, while it's still all there.
Brettbot fucked around with this message at 04:12 on Aug 26, 2023 |
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Aug 26, 2023 04:05
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We've had some nice weather here lately, so I fired up the Dart for the first time since last fall. Or, to be more exact, I had to jump it with the CR-V since I forgot to disconnect the battery before I put it away for the winter. Anyways, the trunk was damp yet again, so I took a look and found another small hole.  Basically the twin to the one I plugged with a dab of JB Weld last year. If that one was at the 10 o'clock of the trunk lip, this new one is the 2 o'clock. I also spotted this "repair" that I never noticed before, at the bottom left. Looks like expanding foam?  From underneath:  That one seemed to be leaking, too. I guess I really should learn to weld. It seems daunting, but this thing is only going to continue to rust out if I don't. Also, just moving it around the driveway, it really didn't want to shift into Drive. I didn't have the chance to check the levels that day, so in a way I hope it's just low on fluid. It shouldn't be, because I just topped it off after I replaced the speedo cable, but it would be better than something being wrong with the transmission itself. Then again I replaced the o-rings when I did the cable, so it also shouldn't be leaking from there either... I picked up a timing light and a pressure gauge the other day, I wanna follow Junkyard Digs' video on basic timing and tuning. I don't know when or if that's ever been done on this car, and I feel like that's something I should know (and know how to do), so it can't hurt to check it. My biggest concern with the car is 100% reliability, at least for now. That being said, if I'm making a To Do list: I'm considering replacing the air shocks in the rear, don't know if it's worth it but I don't totally trust the previous owner's install and I'd rather just have something solid. Especially since, judging from the stuff he put in, he just went to Amazon and sorted by Lowest Price. I'm also thinking Holley Retrobrights to replace the awful headlights maybe? $200 per light is pretty steep, but no one else makes LED headlights that look like normal sealed beams as far as I know. I've still got to stitch up the top of the back seat, I never got around to that. I should do something about the vinyl top, it's peeling even worse now behind the rear window. I'd love to replace the whole thing some day with a contrasting color. I think brown would look cool. Replacing the carpet would be nice, again in a contrasting color to break up the "all green everything" look.
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Feb 12, 2024 20:50
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IOwnCalculus posted:How hard is that "repair"? It almost looks like it might have been seam sealer globbed on at the factory (or by a body shop ages ago) that's given up. Eh, it's... pretty solid? Closer to hard than squishy. v v
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Feb 13, 2024 01:21
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You guys raise a good point. I should go cheap first (sealed beam or LED or whatever) and see if that makes enough of a difference before I think about shelling out the big bucks. I don't know how old the headlights in the car are, I just know the one time my wife and I accidentally stayed out after dark in the Dart, the drive home was pretty bad. I didn't get too much done this weekend, unfortunately. Of course it was 50 degrees when I was working and like 30 and windy as hell on my days off. I topped up the transmission fluid and took it for a drive, everything was fine. It took 2 quarts, so it's definitely leaking somewhere, but I never noticed any red snow around the car all winter... The battery is still dead, though, so I bought a charger and had it on the battery all day yesterday, which means I didn't get any timing or tuning checks done. I've got to park it on the street tonight because our neighbors are having a tree cut down next to our driveway tomorrow, so we'll see when I get home whether I need to just suck it up and buy a new battery or not.
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Feb 18, 2024 22:33
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IOwnCalculus posted:Toyota sells a kit with two Koito 7" housings, H4 bulbs, and a relay harness, for as cheap as $20 plus shipping depending on the dealer. Boaz MacPhereson posted:I am legitimately stunned at this. Holy poo poo. Wish I would have known about this when I bought that Hella kit for the Nova... $51.99 for the cheapest shipping, though. Edit: Ordered it for pickup about 20 minutes away for only $16+change. Thanks for the tip! Brettbot fucked around with this message at 23:29 on Feb 18, 2024 |
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Feb 18, 2024 22:53
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Ok, so the battery worked fine when I moved the car, good to know that I didn't totally kill it. I noticed something interesting the other day though. First off, I had been working under the assumption that the carb is a Holley 1920, since I believed that was the standard on these Slant Sixes. When I took the aircleaner off, though, it was marked 6R 5147 B, which is apparently a Holley 1945 (and looking at photos, that matches up). The date code is 4 digits (post-1973), and ends in a one, so '81? '91? Some day I'll learn to stop assuming anything about a 50-year old car. Anyways, that's not the interesting part. The car has always run at a very fast idle, never slowing when warmed up. Then you put it in gear and the car practically jumps as the engine slows WAY down. So I took a look at the fast idle screw, which should look like this when cold:  Photo found on the internet The idea, as I understand it, is that as the engine warms, the cam turns, opening the choke little by little. Why the screw "steps" down the cam I don't really know. Just to slow the cam, holding it at each step until the cam has enough force to move to the next step, I would guess. Regardless, mine looked like this:  Fast idle cam all the way up, holding the choke all the way open, and the screw underneath, holding it in place. So with the engine running, I slowly backed off the screw and the engine slowed until it was just barely running faster than when it's in gear. Ok, cool! Then I got in the car and backed out of the driveway, and when I put it in Drive the stalling and choking problem it always had was gone! Great! It was not that simple, though. When I came back to start the car later, when it was cold again, I had no luck. The starter would catch, the engine would burble once or twice, and then it would die. It did this over and over again until I put the fast idle cam back the way it was, then the car started first try. Ok, so help me out here. Am I correct in thinking that this means the carb is running much too rich? The engine won't run correctly without the choke wholly open, meaning it wants a ton of air, right? That should be the leanest mix the engine sees, only once it's warm, but that's what it wants just to start.
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Feb 20, 2024 15:40
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Ok, I picked up the headlight kit, looks nice! Especially for $15. I also did a quick and dirty experiment: With the engine cold, I reset the fast idle cam where it was supposed to be and also turned the idle mixture screw out like half a turn, maybe more. I figured since you're supposed to adjust it in 1/8-turn increments, that should be plenty. It started no problem and idled much more slowly. Maybe a little too slowly, as I couldn't help but give it a blip or two of throttle when it seemed like it might stall. Regardless, I think that proves my theory that someone jammed the choke all the way open on purpose just to make the car run. My fix is not at all the way you're supposed to set your idle speed and mixture, obviously, but I think it puts me much closer to where I'm supposed to be for doing it the right way. Of course, when I took it out for a drive around the block, there was a weird scraping sound coming from the front, synced with the wheels. It's always something with this car! My first thought was maybe the tires were so low that the driver's front was scraping, but after double-checking the tire pressures I think it was actually the speedo cable inside the gauge cluster. Spinning it by hand I couldn't replicate the noise, but it only happened above like 10 MPH. The needle has always been a little jumpy, so combined with the trans fluid leak I gotta wholly own that, as I replaced the cable AND the cluster myself. So it's back to trouble-shooting mode!
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Feb 29, 2024 21:27
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OK, so a combination of work, weather, and laziness kept me from messing with the car through most of March and April. But the other day I disconnected the speedo cable from the actual gauge, and the weird scraping noise went away. So kinda good, kinda bad: It's not something new like the wheels scraping, which is good, but that DOES mean that there's something wrong with the speedometer itself, and I already replaced the cable AND the gauge which were both broken. Also, the cable and the bottom of the oil pan were wet with transmission fluid AGAIN, even though I replaced the o-ring and seal in the transmission when I replaced the cable, so I'm not sure what's going on there. When I took it for a test drive, the alternator belt was squealing like crazy, so I went ahead and replaced that. Now when I come to a stop sign the blinker slows, and it speeds up when I accelerate away. Even when I fix things I break things.  Here's a good thing though: The car started no problem every time and never stalled out while warming up. I had totally forgotten that I was messing with the carb and the idle screws last time I drove it, so that's nice.
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May 3, 2024 16:16
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