The Ultimate Experience
| The problem |
What I am doing to correct it |
Breaks when hot are just an illusion.
I happen to have Drum Brakes all round.
Almost crashed 3 times to date, specially when driving about with my mopar buddies down in the south of Germany
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I asked my buddies down in Xlingen (the Mopar Club Deutschland, obvious "schraubers" as seen here) for a solution, and they told me to check the Wilwood disc brakes. I found them on the net, called them, and got a price $575 for the full kit. I did have to also get 2 Stainless Steel mesh flex brake lines, which I got from Orme Brothers in L.A., that cost $75. And last but not least, a Proportioning Valve set me back $43.
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I happen to be in Autobahn country, where sitting at 80Mph at 4000RPM+ is kind of a backwards joke. Or something to cry about actually.
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After some investigation, I found that I have a very original type 3 Speed auto, connected to an 8.75" Banjo
rear axle through a "'489" differential case with a 3.55 final ratio (we actually counted the turns of the ring, while turning the yoke exactly 1 turn, just to make sure).
At this point, I consulted the dodge-charger.com board, of which I am a grateful member. One of the dudes told me to check Randy's Ring&Pinion, and call them. After calling them, they told me that I would not be able to find the 2.76 combination for the '489 case NEW. But that a used, reconditioned full '489 case with the full set inside, and I asked for SureGrip, they said, no problemo. About $1000 for the thing. With that, I asked that they ship me also 2 outer axle bearings , which they did (Timkens).
As you can see here and here, the new 3rd member is installed. To my surprise, the axles fit perfectly ultra well, Thanks Randy ! !. But I lost one of the nuts to tighten it. I will have to find one that fits, which here in germany will not be easy, dunno.
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When taking off hard, there is a hefty CLACK noise coming from right under the seat apparently.
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After taking out the tranny, I saw that the rubber tranny mount was completely shot, ripped in 2 actually. I ordered it from a company here called KTS , and they sent me the wrong part, as seen here. So I called the crazies from Datteln (moparshop.de) and got the right parts hopefully, and I also ordered 2 lower engine mounts, after consulting also the dodge-charger.com board for help, one of which as you see is already shot..
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Berlin is actually like a permanent construction zone. It's very interesting, but makes the ride in my Charger suffer. For example, when passing at say 40Mph over some small bumps, I can feel the whole suspension "shudder".
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I decided to change the shocks, and put something anyway a bit stiffer, so that I can go drive around on nice sweeping roads and have better handling. I ordered myself from KTS a set of Edelbrocks for each corner. I am also changing the Bushings on the front sway bar. And I am probably going to get a rear sway bar from the JC Whitney catalog, like I got told to do by my local mopar buddies.
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Losing OIL. Tons of it, from what looks like the rear crankshaft seal.
In fact so much, that when driving around with my buddies, noone wanted to drive behind me, due to the invisible but effective contrail HAHHAHA.
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After opening the oil pan, we saw that the crankshaft is actually all RUSTED (although the block looks good)! And the rear oil seal crankshaft surface is also rusted up. This is just too bad !!! I promise that until I rebuild the engine fully in the near future, I won't be doing any 100% activities.
One thing we saw however, was that the actual rubbing surface where the swal LIP goes, was not rusted, which was looking good. We checked the upper seal from below (without taking out the crankshaft) and it looked like the LIP is pointing in the right direction (forwards), but the lower seal LIP was actually pointed backwards. IDIOTS (the dudes who rebuilt it before). Also, another thing we noticed, is that the actual seal HOLDER, when installing the seal in it, is actually at the same level (height) as the seal itself, so we decided to polish the curved section until the seal was actually "above" it. And we reinstalled it of course we got new cork seals for the oil pan.
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WHEELS !
I know I have the original wheel set, and some nice new tires (225/70 14) which are ok to cruise around, but I said to myself, "I wanna drive this car". So I decided to get something more radical.
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After some internet surfing, I found Carl Beyer's RB7 Charger, and I thought to myself, this is the most beautiful Charger incarnation I have ever seen. I emailed him, and asked him what those wheels were , and what tire sizes he had used. He told me, American Racing Torq Thrust II's 15" diameter, 8" wide in the rear, and 6" wide up front, with Dunlop GT Qualifiers 255/60 15 and 215/65 15. I decided to to the same, but since I am not a "chrome" guy, I decided to get the CL205 wheels instead (they just arrived, hurray), which are the same, but without chrome plated spokes.
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The right front headlight vacuum actuator takes like 1 minute to open or close the shutter. So, I am currently hunting for a new actuator.
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I changed the vacuum lines, from left to right, and it was
the same. I also checked the actual mechanism, and bent the "holder bracket" a bit backwards, but still the same. The little pump appears to have no power. Will post request on board.
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Tic-Toc-Tacho is not working.
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After posting on board, I got the solution. It is an electronic Tacho, and it just needs to be conected to the radio fuse active side +, and the - of the coil. Will hunt down the cable, I believe I have seen the coil lead floating around the engine compartment (will follow from grommet too).
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One day, suddenly I was running on 7 cylinders, and then, next week on 6. I got really worried.
There was no oil coming out the back , nothing under the engine, nothing suspicious.
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After checking the ignition coil, the distributor cap, the linkages on the carburator, I could not find it. I then figured out it was mainly cylinder #7 that was misfiring, by disconnecting one by one, the ignition spark plug cables from the top of the distributor. So I went to the nearest carpart store, and borrowed a compression test tool. I then compared 3 cylinders, and they all had about the same, but #7 was just a little lower, but nothing too heavy.
I posted this issue on the board, and the Colombo family actually gave me the right answer right away: "CHECK YOUR VACUUM LINES". AHA !, so I started snooping around, and sure enough, I found this little nipple right on the brake booster, with cracked rubber. So, I found a plastic cap for one of those X-acto cutters, and with a little glue, fit "like a glove" HAHAHA. No more misfiring.
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I believe that I am missing a "boot" on the ass-end of the transmission.
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We don't remember taking it out, so, it must have been missing from day 1. I am asking the dodge-charger.com board now.
Well, it seems nothing actually goes there, the small rubber seal we can see on the shaft is enough.
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OK then, here I am about 8 months later. With a running much better looking charger, which actually drives mucho better now. I will describe the latest:
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After a while of fuxing around with the tranny and the differential, we got all installed nicely, by the way, the new differential fit perfectly well, and is now in operation.
We think we fixed the rear crankshaft seal oil leak, at least in the last 2 days of driving about it did not leak a bit.
One thing that screwed with us a little is a small transmission fluid line, which had a stripped screw on the fitting that goes onto the tranny, and was leaking badly. We ended up carving a new thread there, and inserting a sleeve, which came from a MERCEDES *HAHAHHA*. It now seems to be ok.
As you can see, the new American Racing CL205 wheels fit right onto the new front disc brakes , also seen in a rear view and rear view with wheels on, and the final mounted view
We had an initial problem with the disc brakes kit, which came with the wrong pads (clearer view) and the wrong calipers (from a Ford) !!!.
Well, thats what happens when you live 1 million miles away from the real world.
Anyway, all said and done, we got the real thing now, and all is installed.
One thing that happened when we put all back together, is that the old brake booster was suddenly "hissing", so I decided to get a whole new thing, and included a 1972 Satellite brake booster and new master cylinder for disc brakes, which I got told is a must anyway.
Now, I am facing a small problem, which I am trying to figure out. This is the fact that as I drive, the brake pedal gets harder and harder, and the brakes slowly get more and more "stuck". I just learned at the dodge-charger.com board that there is a high possibility that the pushrod inside the brake booster is adjusted too close to the master cylinder, and it does not let the piston go back all the way. This is impeding the fluid return flow hole within the master cylinder from being opened. Ergo the piston keeps building more and more pressure.
As I got told in the board, I will loosen the master cylinder nuts about 1/8 of an inch and will see if the brakes now unlock. If they do, then it is a simple matter of adjusting the pushrod back a bit.
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Numbers (as I find them):
| Part | Numbers | Explanation |
VIN #
(gearbox matches) |
XS29L9B210244
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X = Dodge Charger
S = Special, R/T
29 = 2 Door Sports Hardtop
L = 440 375HP 1-4BBL 8 CYL
9 = 1969
B = Dodge Main, Hamtramck, MI, USA
210244 = 110244th Vehicle
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| Engine Block |
7.30.68
2536 430 - 7
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440 / 66-72 / RB
(raised B block)
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the current incarnation:
this site permanently under construction, just like my car hehehe.
meanwhile , check out some pix: All kinds of pix , from Oldtimer show to Trip to Xlingen (south of germany), Mopar Club
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