These cars are enough to drive you crazy sometimes !!!!

[hemi68charger]

Man oh man.......... Something so simple can turn into the biggest pain in the arse..... All I want to do is removed the headpipe-2-manifold bolts to lower the exhaust a little bit. I want to do this so I can put in my modified tranny crossover to lower the GV overdrive unit slightly.. Of course, 3 of the 4 bolts come out without an hitch, but,,,,,,,,,,,,, one is now totally locked up with a burr on the thread or something.. Of course, it's the hardest one to get to for me, driver's rear......  

OK, I'll take a deep breath and take the family out to a Valentine's Day dinner at Pappasito's...

[Dans 68]

Man oh man.......... Something so simple can turn into the biggest pain in the arse..... All I want to do is removed the headpipe-2-manifold bolts to lower the exhaust a little bit. I want to do this so I can put in my modified tranny crossover to lower the GV overdrive unit slightly.. Of course, 3 of the 4 bolts come out without an hitch, but,,,,,,,,,,,,, one is no totally locked up with a burr on the thread or something.. Of course, it's the hardest one to get to for me, driver's rear...... 

OK, I'll take a deep breath and take the family out to a Valentine's Day dinner at Pappasito's...

  Sounds like a plan.  It will still be waiting for you tomorrow.

Dan

[Cooter]

Now, how'd you like to do about one of these a day for a living?  Hadda 1966 Mustang in the shop the other day for State Inspection and of course, it sounded like an old tractor with exhaust leaks. Inline 6 where the intake is the head, the bolts in the exhaust manifold refused to come out...Even with the torch (Red wrench)...Finally, three out of the 7 broke off and had to be drilled.

then, right after that one today, a 351 Windsor in an F250 came in for State inspection with bout the same leak. Sure nuff, bolts broke off at the head trying to get the manifolds off.....Ah, the "joy" of working on cars for a living..Sometimes, you are right, they are enough to make a Preacher cuss...

[hemi68charger]

Now, how'd you like to do about one of these a day for a living? ...

And to think the Chargers are my "get-away-from-it-all-Calgon-moment"..........   

No way could I do this for a living unless I had a super-duper garage outfit...

[68X426]

No way could I do this for a living unless I had a super-duper garage outfit...

I couldn't do it even then!

Your motto is No Pain, No Gain.

[A383Wing]

I do it for a living..the newer cars ain't much better

[bull]

Tell me about it. Today I tapped my brand new dipstick tube into place and once it was seated guess what? The bracket that's supposed to hold it to the motor mount bolt is a half a hole off. How am I supposed to fix that?

[Dans 68]

Bend it? 

Dan

[A383Wing]

Tell me about it. Today I tapped my brand new shiney dipstick tube into place and once it was seated guess what? The bracket that's supposed to hold it to the motor mount bolt is a half a hole off. How am I supposed to fix that?

are you sure the tube is in all the way? Is it above or below the bolt?

[bull]

If it were too far down it would be easier to fix but the flange is fully seated at the bottom and the mounting hole is still too high.

[Dans 68]

Curtis,

If it cannot be easily seen I would just cut off the part of the strap that is overlaying the bolt hole, and then bolt it up. I know you are being very fastidious with the assembly...it looks like the strap was soldered/brazed to the tube. You could disassemble it and re-solder it a bit lower. Or get another tube assembly.

Dan

[A383Wing]

either bend the tube a bit below the bracket so it lines up with the bolt hole...either in or out..I think in would be better....then you can slightly bend the upper part so it sits like it should...I don't think any of my 383 tubes are perfectly straight all the way down from tip to block

just a little slight bend and it should line up

[bull]

Curtis,

If it cannot be easily seen I would just cut off the part of the strap that is overlaying the bolt hole, and then bolt it up. I know you are being very fastidious with the assembly...it looks like the strap was soldered/brazed to the tube. You could disassemble it and re-solder it a bit lower. Or get another tube assembly.

Dan

I had to walk away from it to calm down and think of a plan. The thought of removing it and reattaching it lower did come to mind but I'm not very excited about taking it back out. Sucker went in hard. The dumass who put it in should have measured it instead of assuming they built it right.

[Dans 68]

either bend the tube a bit below the bracket so it lines up with the bolt hole...either in or out..I think in would be better....then you can slightly bend the upper part so it sits like it should...I don't think any of my 383 tubes are perfectly straight all the way down from tip to block

just a little slight bend and it should line up

A slightly better (bendy) solution.  

Dan

[bull]

either bend the tube a bit below the bracket so it lines up with the bolt hole...either in or out..I think in would be better....then you can slightly bend the upper part so it sits like it should...I don't think any of my 383 tubes are perfectly straight all the way down from tip to block

just a little slight bend and it should line up

I'm going to try that first but now that it's anchored in the block it's not going to be as easy to manipulate. My luck it'll snap off at the block and I'll be out $33 and have to extract what's left of the tube.

[tsmithae]

I had this issue upon rebuilding my 383 a couple months back. Turns out the paint was preventing the dipstick from seating properly. Some GENTLE persuasion with a hammer and the appropriate sized wrench helped my case, hope it helps yours!  

[bull]

I had this issue upon rebuilding my 383 a couple months back. Turns out the paint was preventing the dipstick from seating properly. Some GENTLE persuasion with a hammer and the appropriate sized wrench helped my case, hope it helps yours!  

It's down as far as it's going to go. I'll shoot a pic of the base a little later but it's flush. I installed it by sliding a bolt inside the end of the tube and tapping it down with a hammer so as not to bend the tube end. It worked great but it seems the jackwagon who built it had the last laugh.

BTW, sorry to Troy for completely derailing your thread.

[Dans 68]

...BTW, sorry to Troy for completely derailing your thread.

As I recall the topic heading was "These cars are enough to drive you crazy sometimes !!!!"  No derailing here. Move along please. 

Dan

[Cooter]

Simple fix...Simply slot the hole in the bolt bracket until it fits, even if the slot goes all the way through..Hell, it ain't holdin' the engine together, all it's doing is checking oil level.

[A383Wing]

either bend the tube a bit below the bracket so it lines up with the bolt hole...either in or out..I think in would be better....then you can slightly bend the upper part so it sits like it should...I don't think any of my 383 tubes are perfectly straight all the way down from tip to block

just a little slight bend and it should line up

I'm going to try that first but now that it's anchored in the block it's not going to be as easy to manipulate. My luck it'll snap off at the block and I'll be out $33 and have to extract what's left of the tube.

put a screwdriver handle between the tube & the block as close to the bottom as you can get...make sure it's a snug fit......hold it there and gently push the center of the tube between the block and the bolting tab....it will bend very easy and if you keep the screwdriver handle snug, it won't break off

[bull]

That sounds good. I'll give it a shot.

[bull]

Simple fix...Simply slot the hole in the bolt bracket until it fits, even if the slot goes all the way through..Hell, it ain't holdin' the engine together, all it's doing is checking oil level.

It ain't a bale wagon either. If I can help it I like to limit the redneck repairs to the junk I have to jerry rig 10 miles from the nearest barn.

[mikesbbody]

You think that's bad what about when the Dipstick doesn't go in at all? yes, i put the Grinder to it and yes, i think there's part of the old D.P Stuck in the block (that's gonna be fun getting that out!)

[hemi68charger]

You think that's bad what about when the Dipstick doesn't go in at all? yes, i put the Grinder to it and yes, i think there's part of the old D.P Stuck in the block (that's gonna be fun getting that out!)

Try using an easy-out. They make them in various diameters. That way, maybe it'll grab the broken tube portion in the block and pull it out..

[mikesbbody]

Thanks for the Info  I'm looking at changing the oil pan so one way or another, I hope to get it out.

[wayfast1500]

I did exhaust manifolds on a '03 f350 plow truck with a v-10, 7/20 of the studs were corroded off and missing leaving the rest in the head, 6 broke off, and the rest came out with a extractor.  Its a lot worse when its either your daily driver, or your job and you cant put it down for a while.

[bull]

I got my dipstick to work with a tweak here and a bend there.

[Dans 68]

   Nice tweaking.

Dan

[hemi68charger]

Speaking of problem solving.........  I wasn't going to let that dang stripped bolt get me-by-God... I couldn't resist but go out there on Sat. (granted I had the full blown flu and with Kim and the kids gone to a movie to give me some "peace and quite", I couldn't overcome the impulse to try one more time). She didn't catch me.....
I just ground down some of the outer diameter of the box end of a spare 11/16 wrench I had and then it fit over the nut between it and the manifold. It was tight enough to stay in place lodged against the firewall pinchweld. Before it wouldn't fit over the nut and using the open end of the wrench was hopeless since gravity worked against me... Once the wrench was fitted over nut, I took that good ole' breaker bar to the bolt and just kept twisting until that dag'nappin' bolt broke!!!!  Success !!!! Then,,, quickly,,, back to my regularly scheduled programming of Flu R&R before the family got home. If I was caught in the garage, Daddy'd get into trouble... 

[A383Wing]

I got my dipstick to work with a tweak here and a bend there.

you actually listened to me??