MA MOPAR BIT ME AGAIN or SO MANY MOPARS, SO LITTLE TIME

[1967 'cuda]

All ready to go in. I decided not to use the carb lift plate to pick up the engine/transmission. The leveler didn't work as well with it.













I tried to pre-position the new headers before dropping the motor in.



Well, at least it's back in the engine bay now.

 

[quikbird]

Looks right at home in there. I'm jealous. Mines not ready to go back in yet

 

[1967 'cuda]

This build has been slowly evolving farther towards the strip side of being a street/strip vehicle. I figure that the fiberglass fenders, hood, front valance and header panel knocked a lot of weight off the car. Those Rodlites are really light too. And, then there's the aluminum radiator and the swap from power to manual steering and the disc brake swap should have saved more weight again. This coupled with the 4.10 ratio and the increased power... Well, I'm hoping on seeing a little daylight under those front wheels.

 

[1967 'cuda]

Well. the weather forecast was correct. Too much rain to get anything done in the driveway today.





A friend of mine stopped over with a pair of 8&3/4 axles. He needed to have the stud holes drilled out before we could press in new wheel studs. They were Yukon axles and he couldn't find 3" studs that fit. We ended up using a 43/64 bit. While we were at it, we pressed new bearings on the axles too.

 

[1967 'cuda]

My son had suggested that we use Evans waterless coolant in his Charger build. After researching it, I haven't found any negatives associated with it. - Looking through some of the old threads on FABO I saw that slantsixdan was a big proponent. If you haven't seen this video from Jay Leno about it yet, -give it a view. It may make you a believer. I plan on picking some up this week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=t7PykrgzWPQ

 

[1967 'cuda]

Even though I had a complete exhaust system on the car already, it didn't have any extra room around the rear axle. The difference in axle diameter between the 7&1/4 and the Dana made things even tighter. I decided to simplify things for now. I ordered a pair of Purple Hornies from JEGS.

 

[1967 'cuda]

I decided to go with Lucas Plus Racing Oil 10256-1 for an engine lubricant.



And I ordered a case of B&M Trick Shift for the tranny.

 

[1967 'cuda]

Frustrating day! It took me 2 hours to get the passenger side header in place. I thought it would be smooth sailing after that. I had already gotten the driver's side in place (but not bolted on) when I dropped the motor in. I fought it for several hours because it did not clear my steering box. It seemed so close that I thought I could get it if I just tried seating the engine in the K-frame with a little tilt. After that didn't work I beat the bejeezus out of the tube that was holding me up. The only thing that I had that would reach it was a pickle fork. I hammered on it for a long time before I decided to heat the offending portion with a torch. I really didn't want to mar the ceramic coating but there was no way that side was going to go on without a nasty dent. Well, I ended up poking a hole through the tube. I was so frustrated that I gave up on it for the day. It will bolt up now (and the damaged area is hidden by the steering gear) but I'll have to weld the tube up tomorrow.



You can see a bit of the hole next to the big nut in this picture.



I did pick up 4 gallons of that waterless antifreeze after I stopped fighting the header.

 

[1967 'cuda]

I probably should have stayed on task with the left header, but I decided to tackle the shifter install instead. I had hoped that it would go easier today for me than yesterday had.

I chose to order a shifter that was intended for pickups. With the bench seat I wasn't able to position the shifter as far back as I would have been able to if I was running bucket seats. So I wanted a longer arm that would extend far enough up and back that I wouldn't have to be reaching forward for it.

With as many unemployed people as there are you would think that Hurst would be able to find some decent available tech writers. Installing a floor shifter may not be the equivalent of brain surgery but I'm sure brain surgeons are given better instructions on how to do their job. At first I was grateful that the instructions were in English. - Until I tried to follow them. There were references to numbered brackets without a guide to distinguish which bracket was which number. - And no stampings on the parts either. I wish I had the opportunity to test fit these parts before I installed the drive train.



The day started late because the driveway was wet this morning. I made steady progress until I heard we were expecting nasty thunderstorms with large hail. My garage was still crammed full of various loose parts and tools from 3 different vehicles. I moved the Duster and the Sebring under the trees in case the hail did come. The '69 Chevelle will have to fend for itself out in the open along with the pickups. I did get the Barracuda inside.



In an Ag state like Nebraska we're usually grateful for rain, but it's been awfully wet so far this Spring. It's been years since I've seen this many mosquitoes.

 

[1967 'cuda]

I haven't gone outside since the storm hit. The sirens came on and our power went out shortly after my last post. It just came back on a few minutes ago. I'll have to check for damage in the morning. A friend in town posted pictures of storm damage from around town. We had extremely high wind and a lot of hail.

 

[1967 'cuda]

We've got uprooted trees all over town. Some porches were torn off of houses. There's a lot of power lines still down. It looks like the wind did a lot more damage than the hail. I'm glad I got the vehicles sheltered before it hit. Other than some branches down and a leaning mailbox, I think I came through it OK. I haven't gone out to our farm to check out damage there yet. A lot of other towns got it worse.

 

[jerrysdustydog]

Holy cow. Glad you got em put away.

 

[Basketcase]

yeah some fo the car lots around here are having hail damaged cars on special sale, but nothing that bad.

 

[quikbird]

That is some serious hail! Thank goodness you got stuff put away.
Ps. Had the same problem with my headers. Had to heat and bend one as well. Factory had a dimple in it but not big enough.

 

[1967 'cuda]

Thanks guys. I only keep liability insurance on my vehicles. Every time one of these storms rolls through I start to think I'm an idiot for not having more coverage. We did have trees down at our farm.

On these dang A-body headers the steering linkage runs between the tubes. You have to install the headers with the engine lifted. I should have pulled the motor back out to dent the header but most of the time I'm working alone and my stupid cherry picker jack needs new seals. I imagine the guys running big blocks in A-bodies must have nightmares about installing headers.

 

[1967 'cuda]

My alternator would not clear the new heads in it's old position. It needed to rotate higher away from the head. No problem. I'll just get a longer belt. - Or so I thought. As it turned out, my alternator tension bracket needed to be longer also in order to accommodate the new position.

It may not be the best solution, but for the time being I decided to lengthen the old bracket. Once I get everything else sorted out on the car I can go back and make a new one and use this old one for a pattern.

 

[1967 'cuda]

I decided to mount the shifter using nutserts so I won't have to try squeezing my hand above the transmission housing to install nuts. I think my biggest issue may end up be routing the cable. The location that the instructions say to put the hole through the floor for the cable does not look like it will work. I'm considering trying to come through the firewall and running the cable under the carpeting. The cable is about 5' long and it's difficult to find a way to run it and stay away from exhaust.

 

[1967 'cuda]

More shifter woes. I believe I've gotten the brackets figured out. I think I've figured out a workable route for the cable. But now it looks like I need to modify the shifter handle.

The problem that I've run into is that the shifter handle hits the dash when in park. If I move the shifter base farther back it will prevent me from being able to adjust the bench seat forward when Teresa drives the car (she's short).

The only solutions that I see are to cut and bend the arm back a few inches or to mount the shifter base at an incline. If I do the latter, the plastic base cover will not be able to cover the shifter.

I hate to cut on this new shiny arm but it looks like that will be on the agenda tonight.

 

[1967 'cuda]

I still have to test fit before I weld it back up, but I was shooting for a 2" difference and it's pretty close.



BEFORE & AFTER

 

[1967 'cuda]

The fit seems perfect! If I'd bent it any further back it would have gotten awkward shifting. - Any less and I'd still have dash clearance problems. I was able to keep the cut underneath the plastic housing so there won't be any tell tale signs of the modification after it's all together.