Working on a friends charger 383

[69wannabe]

Got a friend at work with a 68/69 charger with a 383. I rebuilt the 383 a few years back and they put the engine in and got it running but the last year or so it hasn't ran good and has been cutting out and etc... I had done what I could as far as advising over the phone what to try or check but he still wasn't having any luck getting it to run right. Finally he talked me into checking it out since I was busy with other projects and really didn't want to take anything else on but it is an old mopar so I gave in and told him to bring it on down. It ran ok but I just decided to go in an revamp the entire ignition system to my preference so I had already gave him a nice set of MSD street fire plug wires made up for a big block mopar engine that were like new. I installed them around a set of hooker headers that I don't really like but with some heatshields on the boots I think they will be ok, the old wires were burnt up around the plug boots since the header tubes are so close to the spark plugs.

Pulled the mopar distributor and set the mechanical advance to 18 degrees and then installed it back in and put in a set of spark plugs that I had that looked good just to get it up and running and see how it was going to do since it had two different kinds of spark plugs in it. Replaced the no name orange box with a mopar orange box and replaced the coil with an MSD blaster 2 coil and matching resistor. Ran a couple of new ground wires to help ground the engine to the body and one ground to the orange box to make sure it was getting a good ground.

Had to do some minor wiring repair and after some cleaning up there I got it up and running. Set the initial timing to 20 degrees BTDC so that give me 38 total advance with the mechanical advance at 18. This engine is right at 9 to 1 on compression so 38 degrees works fine with no pinging. It ran out good after some tweaking on the 625 street demon carb. Got it out on the road and done a few hard pulls with it and it actually ran really good. I noticed the off idle acceleration was a little skittish and it was misfiring a lil bit at low rpm's but as soon as the rpm's came up it smoothed out and ran great.

Next day I stopped and got a set of NGK XR 5's and after swapping in the new spark plugs took it for a quick ride around the block and my low rpm misfire was gone and it was running good now at all speeds. Got the ignition system in good shape now and the fuel system seems to be in good shape with it running at 7 psi on the pressure gauge and after turning it up good a few times it didn't seem to be starving for fuel.

Once I got it up and running good I pulled the driver side header loose and took the bad gasket out and and put a new header gasket in to get rid of a really bad header leak at the head. Now the exhaust is all going out the back and the engine sounds good and quiet up front. It all seems to be coming around nicely with some TLC and a few good parts here and there.

I have some more cleaning up to do under the hood with a better looking fuel line and routing of wires and hoses here and there. Got some minor wiring to check on under the dash and I am going to do the bouchillon performance kick down cable kit since the linkage isn't working properly and the throttle valve lever is just tied back at the moment.

That kit looks to be of better quality and easy to install compared to the lokar kit. Once I get this all working that should be a good stopping point and he can take it home until the weather warms back up and we get our evenings back. It has alot of little things that it is needing but it runs and drives good now and the rest of the stuff is really just nit picking here and there.

Taking good advise on ignition systems from Ron (firefighter) I have got another mopar up and running good. I would love to do a firecore dizzy and wire set on this one but it's not mine to spend on so I am making it work with some pretty good quality parts and his recommended coil kit and NGK spark plugs.

[c00nhunterjoe]

  

[69wannabe]

My buddy was close by one evening so he dropped by since i beat him home from work that day basically. He wanted to see for himself if the car was running good so I let it run a lil bit and warm up and we went for a spin. We drove it to the store for some gas and back which isn't very far from my house and he was very pleased with the way it was running now. I tried to get him to stop and pull it down in low and hold it down and get some rpm's out of it but he was a little skittish I think. It hasn't ran that good in so long I don't think he remembered that it could actually do a good 5500 rpm pull. He should have let me drive and I would have showed him that it wasn't cutting out anymore  He was happy anyway and I have the kickdown cable kit ordered and it should be here this week so i'm going to take care of that issue and a couple more things and send it back home til the holidays are over at least. Hopefully it will stay running good this time......

[ACUDANUT]

Ok, I don't get this thread 

[firefighter3931]

Good to hear you got that one sorted out Chad 

I've allways had great results using the XR5's with factory heads and 8.5-10:1 compression. 


Ron

[69wannabe]

Good to hear you got that one sorted out Chad 

I've allways had great results using the XR5's with factory heads and 8.5-10:1 compression. 


Ron

The old thing is coming around pretty good, the carb that is on it is a demon/ thermo-quad look alike 625 cfm which should be fine on there but without the calibration kit it really has no adjustments besides the secondary flap tension and the idle mixture screws. Honestly it runs really good with it tho, I did tighten up the seconday flap tension about 1/2 turn to keep it from bogging when the secondaries were coming in.

I got the bouchillion performance kickdown cable kit in today. Got the carb linkage all sorted out and I also ordered the cable bracket too so I could make it all work good together and the bracket looked simple to make work and actually was pretty simple to set up with the carb linkage adapter. Hopefully hooking up the cable to the transmission will go pretty good and I will have a good working throttle valve for a change on this one.

My co worker is a pretty good mechanic but I think he rushes things a little bit. Patience is key when working on these old mopar's or any old car really.....

[69wannabe]

Got the carb back on the engine today and got the boushillon kick down cable kit on it today and the bracket all mounted and adjusted and working nicely. That is an awesome kit so far, it installs very quickly and is pretty much bolt it on and go on the transmission. The adjustments can be made up at the bracket and by loosening only one bolt and nut and shifting the cable mounting bracket and the normal throttle cable is adjustable just like the factory bracket.

The cable pull's the throttle lever back instead of pushing it like the factory linkage did, I am used to this since this is the way all the jeep grand cherokee's I have are set up from the factory with the 4.0 engine and the 42re  transmission which is molded very similar to a 727. I thought the cable was the same but the one in the kit is a bit shorter which may or may not make any difference. I had planned on trying to make the the jeep cable work and make up some brackets and this and that but after looking at it I just decided to save myself alot of fabricating and order the kit that works and I installed it in about 2 hours and it was done.

More progress at least.....

[c00nhunterjoe]

 

[Kern Dog]

Ok, I don't get this thread 

I think the Op is just chatting, not asking for advice. Sorta like the buddy that just likes to "run things by you" rather than ask for help.
That is cool.

[69wannabe]

Ok, I don't get this thread 

I think the Op is just chatting, not asking for advice. Sorta like the buddy that just likes to "run things by you" rather than ask for help.
That is cool.

I wasn't sure to post this here or in the charger discussion but some of the thing's I was doing to the car were rather technical and what I would call good to know so I posted here.

[69wannabe]

Got the cable kit installed and pulled the steering wheel and got the collar tightened up that the turn signal switch sets in and got the ammeter bypassed and a maxi fuse installed in behind the instrument panel. Got it back together and got the new tach installed on the column and wired up and took it for a test drive. It upshifts really good and it's running smooth but it doesn't kick down when you put the pedal to the floor. First I thought that maybe I was going to fast but I slowed down some and still no kick down. I double checked the cable adjustment and it's adjusted per the directions, when the carb is at wide open throttle the pressure lever on the transmission should be all the way back which it is.

The transmission shifts good and when you stop it gears itself down and starts back in first and goes through the gears good, must be a problem in the transmission keeping it from kicking down into passing gear. Not a big deal to me but if the owner wants it to work right he gonna have to take it to a transmission guy or something since I don't do transmission work. Never been a big fan of a 727 I hate to say, always seems to not shift right or shift too early or something. I told my buddy to just pull it back if he wants it to go and shift it manually. Wouldn't be a big deal to me.

It drives out great and when I turned around and headed back up the straightaway I pulled it back into first and stabbed the pedal and shifted it into second at about 5 grand and that's when the BAM,BAM,BAM came from underneath and I knew the driveshaft had came out at that point. Got it stopped and not even a minute later a guy in a big dodge truck pulled up and offered to drag me back to the house and that was nothing but luck for me since I didn't even have my phone on me to call for help besides walking back which wasn't far but it was far enough.

He dragged me back up to the house and I got under and found the yoke had three bolts broken off in it, I dug in my box of crap looking for the two old chunks I had to see if I had a good yoke there and luckily I did. Swapped out the yokes, ran to town for a new U joint and got back home and installed the new U joint and put some good U joint straps on it I had as extras since the other two were basically gone as I put the driveshaft back in.

Up and running once again so I went right back to the same spot and turned it up once again and this time it held up good so I wonder about the install of the U joint that was in it to begin with but we have been being rough with it so I really don't know why it failed at this point in time but it did.  Going to let him have it back at this point since it's running good and has made some good progress and the weather is fixin to make a turn to the cold so my tinkering will come to a halt when it's too cold to work with stuff outside. 

[c00nhunterjoe]

Broken driveshaft under full load in 2nd gear means time to pull trans out and inspect the sprag if the owner likes his ankles. And at that time might as well investigate the kickdown problem.

[BSB67]

Sounds like the driveshaft was not installed properly to begin with.

Like C00 says, the tranny should be pulled and gone through after a failure like that.  The potential consequence is too great not to IMO.

[69wannabe]

I agree it needs to be looked at but that will be up to him, I got it running good and alot of loose ends fixed up on it and honestly could spend lots and lots of time getting gauges working and it needs some rear leaf springs and some wiring for the dash and turn signal switch. All and all it's a good car to work with and like most old car's you never really run out of things to do on them.

It's 1000 times better than it was when it got dropped off here and if he wants to spend some more on it when spring time roll's around and the days get long again then I will get him to drop it back by and go from there with it. It needs a better converter in it anyway and that will be a good time to get the transmission looked at.

I do believe the drive shaft wasn't installed right at the rear yoke but there wasn't nothing left after I got it stopped. It's in there good now for sure and I kinda wish I had checked it before but that wasn't his main complaint so it wasn't my main concern either. Gotta love old car's right!!!! 

[c00nhunterjoe]

Tell him to google "727 sprag failure" and look at the images. That should make up his mind whether or not to pull it out. The drum is a 2:1 rpm increase when the sprag has failed and stock drums i have seen fail at 10,000 rpm, so when the engine hits 5k..... well.... just google it.

[BSB67]

I agree it needs to be looked at but that will be up to him,

Based on this comment, either you don't understand, or he is not much of a friend.

[69wannabe]

I agree it needs to be looked at but that will be up to him,

Based on this comment, either you don't understand, or he is not much of a friend.

What I mean is that it will be up to him to fix the transmission, I don't do transmission work and all the work I have done on the car has been pretty much for free. I did let him know what happened and that the transmission should be checked out and he said he plans on doing a better converter once the weather starts warming back up and that he will get his regular transmission guy to look into it then. I did let him know that when the days get longer and the weather starts getting better that I would do more work on it but since the weather has turned very cold here and winter has seemed to set it I have had to get it to a good stopping point since I don't have a shop to work out of and all the work I do is outside.