From the salvage yard to the street, the Dirty Dart rises to face the potholes and texting drivers of modern society. Is that a happy thing?
I’ve probably driven the Dart 200 or 250 miles since my last update, which is not bad considering I own five other vehicles. I have replaced the original plywood load floor (yep, plywood) with a much classier piece of 1/2 inch particle board. 10 bucks at Menard’s and I can now carry items in the back–woo hoo!
This sucker is a bit of a leaker, however. I replaced the pinion seal, which dried that leak up. Approximately five miles from the time I started the engine, the water pump developed a significant leak from the weep hole, so I swapped in a 20 dollar remanufactured pump. This is a good thing about old cars, and the slant six in particular: the water pump, from start to finish, took 1.5 hours to replace, and I was not rushing.
My transmission guy replaced the A-903 (Never heard of it? Neither has anybody else!) three-speed’s unavailable gaskets with RTV, which sealed up those prodigious leaks, but it’s still leaking from the shift shaft seals. I’ll leave those two until I feel like tilting the transmission over to replace them. The engine is dripping oil from a bunch of places–I think it has a bit of a rear main leak, and I’m not touching that one for now…that’s why I have drip pans in the garage. The other day, I replaced the spark plug tube seals to eliminate them as a possibility.
My saintly mother took a two-day period to “deickify” the interior, and she wants to go over it again. New carpeting and door weatherstripping are next on the list, and I still need to adjust the windshield wiper parking location. I had to install aftermarket temp and oil pressure gauges, because I have a feeling my dashboard’s printed circuit has seen better days. The temperature gauge was working (but reading high), but now it reads low, low, low all the time (it does have voltage at the bulkhead connector, and the IVR is working). I still haven’t demystified the fuel gauge, but the problem does not lie with the sender.
When I bought the Dirty Dart, I joined a website called “For A-Bodies Only,” and a member from southern Michigan gave me a front bumper and some other odds and ends for free! He didn’t want any money, only to clean out his garage a bit, and told me he would have scrapped it if I didn’t want it. Sold! I picked it all up after I went to the Motor Muster car show in Dearborn. Compared to the ugly, bent, rusty bumper it came with, this is a huge improvement.
If anybody has a “Bevis Dodge Inc. Little Rock, Ark.” badge you’d like to sell me, let me know! Most people I’ve talked to urge me to leave the Dart’s exterior as-is, with peeling paint and patina galore. That jives with my feelings on the subject as I drive the car around. I always ask, “will I enjoy this car more if I do “fill in blank” to it?”. In the Dart’s case, I don’t think I will if I paint it. It’s kind of cool as-is, in a dorky way, of course.
So, there’s the Dirty Dart for now. Little stuff keeps breaking as I drive, and it tried to kill me the other day when the fast idle cam screw came loose and jammed the throttle halfway down, but I keep trying to work the bugs out. The other day, I decided to put the Dart at my off-site storage spot and work on the other cars. Absence makes the heart grown fonder, at least for a few weeks.
I keep loving this Dart. However, it proves that even the simplest, most durable cars will have their issues after nearly 50 years.
As for running cold, the slant six is a cold-blooded beastie, all right. I suspect that you may have either a bum thermostat, or a manifold heat riser valve that is stuck open, or both. Better the heat riser stick open than closed, though. Some liquid wrench and a hammer to tap it loose (followed by lots of lubrication/working of the valve) will fix that.
I had no idea that Chrysler was still using wooden load floors on these. Good grief. And if your 60s era Mopar does not have a few electrical gremlins, then you know it’s a counterfeit. 🙂
The heat riser’s free, and the engine itself isn’t running cold, just the gauge. Just one day, it quit reading…it still moves, however, so it’s still getting juice. I have an auxiliary temp gauge mounted in the radiator top tank (apparently, Aspen radiators used this port for something), and it’s running around 165-170 at the top tank, so probably 180 at the thermostat (comfirmed with my infrared thermometer). It’s actually a little cooler than I’d like…cool running engines tend to snot up the oil, at least in my experience.
I’m in for a good time with the electrical system…I can already tell. 🙂
no rust, no problem, what to expect from a car like this in Michigan
Congrats on getting the Dart mobile, so you can continue to debug it. 🙂 Lookin’ good! I’m jealous that you have such willing helpers.
Replacement carpet for my Chryslers comes in two sections, just like the original. I presume yours will be the same. I replaced the carpet in one of my cars. I found that the front piece was too short, so it doesn’t go as high up the firewall as the original. I also ordered the matching carpeted floormats. These were a generic shape which is rather small, and don’t cover enough of the footwells of my cars. You may want to inquire about dimensions when shopping around for replacement carpet.
My hardtop tried to kill me in a similar way when the drivers side motor mount let go. With the slightest throttle application, the engine torqued up and pulled on the throttle cable even more.
So, you guys are saying that Christine suffered from a genetic condition? 🙂
Christine never tried to kill her owner, just everybody else. I forgave my car, but I replaced the motor mount with an aftermarket style that is blowout-proof. 🙂
http://mitymounts.com/howtheywork.htm
I had the same thing too in my ’70 Sport Fury! It started as a ‘grating’ sound when I accelerated. Only later when I opened the hood and manually pulled the throttle did the 383 raise up and almost yank off my arm. The grating sound? The fan eating its plastic shroud. Five bucks for a new mount, and some duck tape for the shroud and I was back in business. That’s the beauty of old Mopars- everything that breaks is easier to fix than you’d think- unless you get a flat on the wrong side and shear off the studs trying to get the clockwise wheel nuts off with a scaffolding pole. A mistake one makes exactly once.
Also, If you think the gauge wiring is bad, bypass the ammeter ASAP. This takes the current from the alternator directly into the dashboard and is responsible for Many Mopar Meltdowns.
I actually just got the carpet in the mail…It’s an ACC carpet for a Valiant sedan (the Dart wagon is on the Valiant wheelbase…heck, it’s pretty much a Valiant with a Dart front end). I haven’t even pulled it out of the box yet, so we’ll see how it fits!
I will be interested to know. I can’t remember for sure, but I think mine was an ACC carpet. I will be shopping for a carpet for my hardtop when I’m ready to start putting the interior back together.
“…the Dart wagon is on the Valiant wheelbase…heck, it’s pretty much a Valiant with a Dart front end….
Yup. You can even see the plugged cutouts for the Valiant tail lights!
From the back, the car seems to be smiling – it is happy to be given a new lease on life.
Rock on.
Glad to see you getting so much enjoyment out of something someone almost threw away.
Agreed. It’s a cool little car and the fact that you took it on is a great new chapter in its “story”.
As for your electrical woes; look for a voltage limiter as the cause for the guage problems. It may be built into one of the guages or as most smaller Mopars it was attached to the back of the cluster somewhere and looks like a small circuit breaker or flasher unit. Solid state aftermarket ones are the way to go and will restore all of your gauge function.
You may want to check the old brass gas sender float to see if it has a hole in it.
Good luck and keep the ol’ Dart going and on the road.
I checked the voltage limiter at the coolant sender wiring, and it was pulsating between 0 and 5 volts, so I assumed it was working. I believe the voltage regulator is built into the gas gauge on this car, which throws a wrench in the works for sure.
The Dart is looking great.
A theory: Cars are built to mimic a 35 year old – mature, everything works, nothing sags. After that, cars start to age on an annual basis the same as a person and reflect their use. So, with the Dart being 50 years old, it’s the same as an 85 year old person – and it’s fairly typical for leaks to happen or smells to emerge at that age. As caretakers for these highly geriatric machines, our job is to make sure the leaks and smells aren’t indicative of other, more major issues. We cannot stop time, but we can sure make it a darn sight more comfortable for them.
You are absolutely correct…
If you own an old car long enough, and you drive them, you soon realize that strange sounds, smells, and leaks are part of the territory! My Mustang’s the only one that doesn’t leak, and that’s only because it’s the only one of the five that has had every single driveline component rebuilt.
My driveway does, unfortunately, look like a cheetah.
Your theory gave me a good laugh – except I’m not liking the sagging that is starting as I turn 50. My wife would probably argue that occasional leaky smells are already part of my aura!
The voltage limiter reduced the raw 12 volts from the battery to a pulsating DC voltage averaging somewhere around 6 volts or so (very approximate). If it shorts out your instruments see a full 12 volts and will soon burn out (they are bimetal thermal gauges; the fuel tank sensor and the other sensors (excluding the ammeter) act like variable resistors, varying the current through the bimetal gauge needles, which “bend” according to the varying temperature).
My 1968 Valiant read low on all gauges except the ammeter and the problem turned out to be both a weak voltage limiter and a poor ground.
I actually went and got the Dart from storage today, and I ordered a voltage limiter from Rock Auto. I’ll have to tear into the gauge cluster and see what else I can find. It probably burned out the gas gauge. It’s too bad finding Dart parts is so hard!
Bevis Dodge was THE Dodge dealer in Little Rock in the 1960s. They were noted for their hard-sell commercials during the Saturday afternoon movie matinee on KTHV, the CBS affiliate. “If you buy a new car today, we will give you $100 cash for your vacation.” That dealership became Little Rock Dodge later, by the mid-70s anyway. Little Rock Dodge closed in the last few years. I live in LR and don’t know when the last time I noticed a Bevis dealer badge, but lots of mopars rolled out of there in the dealership’s prime.
Oh man, Ron, if you ever see a badge like the outline of the one on the Dart, post something!
A cool old car. I’m glad you are keeping it alive. Your sympathetic (is that the word?) restoration works well by me. I like seeing old cars polished and cleaned like they are well loved, but not necessarily “restored.”
This obviously isn’t available to you anymore, but I also searched for a dealer tag once. I bought an ’87 Grand Marquis in ’91 that had originally come from Diers Ford Mercury in Fremont, Nebraska. They had a couple of leaping deers on their tag (still do) that are kind of cool. Anyway, the dealer I bought it from removed the Diers tag that had been screwed on, and covered the holes with their delicate decal letters. Not good.
I called Diers and they were very quick to send me a replacement tag at no charge – arrived in the mail in about two days.
A for (A body) effort. Cool result.
And a Gold star to Mom!
Despite the other beauties in your garage, I have a real soft spot for this Dart. I like its semi-beater feel, not too trashed to be embarrassing and not too cherry to be a trailer queen. And what a great colour. Long may she roam.
It could leak like a sieve and I’d only love it more.
I believe the correct word is “jibes”, not “jives.” Sorry, an old editor and I can’t help myself.
🙂
I totally agree, but we have to keep up with the kids, you know.
My way is #4 in the urban dictionary. 🙂
Nice mix of colors in your photos, love the alley shot of the Dart.
Nice car , I applaud you for saving it ~ I would too .
A Body MoPars ROCK ! .
-Nate
From memory and its likely wrong Valiants of this era had a 12 volt electrical system but 9 volt ignition and theres a drop down resistor that gives trouble and instrument failure, there was some trick to bypassing it for a full 12 volts of starting juice but it burnt out the temp and fuel gauges so you replaced them from a later model, Nice car and good to see it up and driving.