Question for the old timers on here.

[Todd Wilson]

I have a question for the old timers on here that drove the Mopar Muscle cars back in the day. Since my dad is gone now I cant ask him..........

I am talking about people here old enough to have bought a 69 Charger brand new off the show room or any of the other cars.


My question is how reliable were these cars back in the day. How well did they hold up on the street running a 440 or a 426 Hemi hard every weekend street racing and stuff? I'm talking about thrashing something brand new and then taking it in for warranty work. Did they hold up well or have troubles after they were beat on a lot?!?!   I read a lot on the Dodge truck forums and I hear the Dodge Trucks have transmission problems blah blah blah  and it got me to thinking these trucks are twisting 600+lbs of tork and are usually tuned up a lot from stock.  What really happened back in the day running a Hemi the same way..............




Todd

[hemi*guy]

 

        My car is A 1970 HEMI CHARGER, I've been around this car since 1971 when I was 8 years old. The man who owned it would use it as his daily driver for years, even commuting to work with it. i don't remember him having trouble with it while he used it, it was when he let it sit that the troubles began. Well my  anyway.

[71 SE3834V]

Interesting footnote, while looking around on the net I found some info where some years, back in the late 60's/70's, there were warranties beyond the 1st year. Now I heard it said certain cars weren't covered cause they knew they were going to be raced but I didn't think extended warranties started until the 80"s  but then again I didn't buy any new cars until 1980. My thought on longer warranties is they are selling points. The company is so confident in their product they'll cover it longer. Maybe I'm wrong.

As far as things like the transmissions etc. Crap happens, my opinion is there are potential problems w/every vehicle. The people w/problems will complain most and they have every right too but whens the last time you've seen a forum/webite dedicated to singing the praises about a vehicle.
Here's my own opinion on Dodge transes. I've bought 6 new trucks since 1983 to be used for snowplowing. I run 'em hard but don't abuse them. It's been exactly 50-50, (3) as far as the trans' needing to be rebuilt and 1 my have been my fault. When you add in 1 other brand that I bought new it swings too 3 rebuilt, 4 not. Also bought 5 used trucks of various brands that I had other drivers use. Again it was 2 rebuilt 3 not during the years that I had it and one of those may have been driver abuse.
Well that's my 

[green69rt]

I bought my first 69  offout of the showroom.   Charger RT 440 auto 323 open rear.   Never did much with it for maintenance, mostly oil changes and tires (went thru tires fast!!)  Drove it from Norfolk Va to Idaho falls Idaho more than a couple of times and never had any problems.  As best I can remember I changed or fixed the following:

Oil/filter.
Trans fluid/filter.
tires
starter
u-joints
brakes/wheel cylinders
misc lights
alternator/regulator
Ignition/starter resister.
horn switch
plugs/points/condenser
shocks

Looking over the list, it looks like pretty vanilla stuff.   I had the car till 76 and then sold it off for parts because everything was pretty much eat up from all the years in Idaho, Connecticut, by the ocean and in central Missouri.  It had about 110,000 miles on it.  At that point I was starting to run into electrical wiring issues from corrosion, especially in the engine bay.  Engine still ran great and I never touched the trans except to put a manual valve body kit in.

[ACUDANUT]

I am talking about people here old enough to have bought a 69 Charger brand new off the show room or any of the other cars.

[green69rt]

Forgot to say I was 23 when I got mine.  Did a little street racing but it was a heavy car with a high speed rear so not much luck but it crazy fun to try.  Also the looks were a hit with the ladies.  I thought the drive train was just about indestructable.   My wife would  commute in it during 1973 and one time (after the manual valve body was installed, with the altered shift pattern) when leaving work and doing about 25 mph she just threw it into reverse .  Trans did what it was told and a bunch of smoke and noise came from under the rear of the car (tires burning) and a bunch of white smoke out of the hood.  Ends up that the engine torqued over so far that the power steering fitting on top of the column had been broken off and pumped fluid all over the side of the block and headers.  That was all that happened.   Did it again about a year later (same result.)  She really didn't like that manual shift pattern!!!

[rick@laysons]

Dealership warranty work was entirely dependent on the service manager at whatever dealership you were at. Some dealerships were most definately better than others when it came to the muscle cars......and some dealerships didn't want anything to do with a musclecar period.

As far as reliability...well, they were pretty decent if you didn't beat on them too awful much and kept things well serviced and maintained.

The wiring was the weakest part of these cars.....

[Scaregrabber]

A guy who wasn't a great driver would probably go through a few clutches. Alternators 60,000 miles maybe, perhaps the same for starters, tires lasted 10,000 miles if you didn't burn them up. The automatic cars had a lot fewer troubles than the four speeds just because of the abuse.
Mopars lasted way better than Fords or GM's when it came to musclecars. GM's would spit up clutches, transmissions, U-joints and rearends at an alarming rate with a big block. Ford's engines didn't seem to handle the abuse that a Mopar could either.
Mopars weren't bulletproof but they were the best of the best.

Sheldon

[odcics2]

Chrysler came out with the '5/50' powertrain warranty in the 60s.

I know for a fact that the 727 Torqueflite could handle numerous neutral drops without a problem.   
Try that today..... 

[Cooter]

Chrysler came out with the '5/50' powertrain warranty in the 60s.

I know for a fact that the 727 Torqueflite could handle numerous neutral drops without a problem.    

That's abuse, not running one hard . To my knowledge, many of the old guys I talked to at the dealership service/sales level said musclecars were NOT a hot ticket for sales. They were more trouble than they were worth. Like the 5.0 litler mustangs of '87-'93. Ford KNEW how to "Design" the rear suspension to keep that "S-10" T-5 tranny in those things and people STILL brought 'em in with 2nd and 3rd gears Crushed. I can only emagine what would happen today if someone bought in a stick car with 3rd gear sheered clean off, and enough NOS solenoids to power a small town on the intake.

Warranty was the key when selling musclecars as I heard it, and NO dealer wanted to have to warranty much. So, they sold the big ol land barges to granny and grand pa.

I did ask one of the state troopers here one time that was around back then if he heard of any of those special "Hemi cop cars" everybody seems to think were widely available....He replied, "The Hemi was a hard engine to keep in top tune and maintain. Cost of maintaining a racing engine wasn't very prudent for law enforcement. Plus, the 440 would run down bout anything out on the higway back then anyway and was cheaper too boot".

[RECHRGD]

I bought my first '68 RT new from Pasadena Dodge on Colorado Blvd..  I got the 440 rather that the HEMI because of the cost difference and the 5year drivetrain warranty.  The HEMI only had a one year warranty.  I only kept the car for about 1 1/2 years and put about 35k miles on it.  I did the usual street race here and there with several trips to the old Erwindale raceway.  The brakes were the "heavy duty" 11" drums and were useless at any high speed.  Tried everything from different drums and shoes but nothing ever fixed the problem.  The 440 had a warped valve at about 25k.  I had to go to several different dealerships before finding one that would fix it, because I had headers on it.  When it started developing a weird noise around the right front wheel, I traded it in on a VW......

[Kern Dog]

I am talking about people here old enough to have bought a 69 Charger brand new off the show room or any of the other cars.

Word to the masses:
NOT EVERY CAR SOLD WAS ACTUALLY PURCHASED FROM THE SHOWROOM FLOOR. SOME WERE ACTUALLY SITTING OUTSIDE THE BUILDING, PARKED ON THE DEALERSHIP'S SALES LOT.

[Todd Wilson]

I am talking about people here old enough to have bought a 69 Charger brand new off the show room or any of the other cars.

Word to the masses:
NOT EVERY CAR SOLD WAS ACTUALLY PURCHASED FROM THE SHOWROOM FLOOR. SOME WERE ACTUALLY SITTING OUTSIDE THE BUILDING, PARKED ON THE DEALERSHIP'S SALES LOT.

No shit Sherlock..............its a figure of speech...........


Todd

[Todd Wilson]

I bought my first '68 RT new from Pasadena Dodge on Colorado Blvd..  I got the 440 rather that the HEMI because of the cost difference and the 5year drivetrain warranty.  The HEMI only had a one year warranty.  I only kept the car for about 1 1/2 years and put about 35k miles on it.  I did the usual street race here and there with several trips to the old Erwindale raceway.  The brakes were the "heavy duty" 11" drums and were useless at any high speed.  Tried everything from different drums and shoes but nothing ever fixed the problem.  The 440 had a warped valve at about 25k.  I had to go to several different dealerships before finding one that would fix it, because I had headers on it.  When it started developing a weird noise around the right front wheel, I traded it in on a VW......

Great info!


Todd

[Kern Dog]

I am talking about people here old enough to have bought a 69 Charger brand new off the show room or any of the other cars.

Word to the masses:
NOT EVERY CAR SOLD WAS ACTUALLY PURCHASED FROM THE SHOWROOM FLOOR. SOME WERE ACTUALLY SITTING OUTSIDE THE BUILDING, PARKED ON THE DEALERSHIP'S SALES LOT.

No shit Sherlock..............its a figure of speech...........


Todd

I get it. Its waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay beyond old though. Less than 2% of new cars sold ever sat on the showroom floor, but I always hear somebody talking about the 74  440 Hemi Dart 4 door they bought off the showroom floor.

[Todd Wilson]

I am talking about people here old enough to have bought a 69 Charger brand new off the show room or any of the other cars.

Word to the masses:
NOT EVERY CAR SOLD WAS ACTUALLY PURCHASED FROM THE SHOWROOM FLOOR. SOME WERE ACTUALLY SITTING OUTSIDE THE BUILDING, PARKED ON THE DEALERSHIP'S SALES LOT.

No shit Sherlock..............its a figure of speech...........


Todd

I get it. Its waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay beyond old though.

And I am asking old questions to old timers................


Todd

[odcics2]

Nice thing about being an 'old timer' is that the cars were just cars and we drove the hell out of them, all year long... 

And where I come from, a neutral drop is NOT abuse!       

[RECHRGD]

Yes, it is just a figure of speech.  Actually I didn't get mine off the showroom floor or the lot.  I special ordered it with the options and color of my choice.  But, the real point is that I bought the car new in '68.  Who gives a fart where you picked it up from.....

[Kern Dog]

A friend of mine special ordered his 71 Road Runner. Over the years it has had different wheels, tires, exhaust systems, intake manifolds but still has the original engine and transmission in the car. The motor has been rebuilt as has the trans.  Reliable? he says the car has never left him stranded. The 383 just keeps on running....

[Cooter]

And where I come from, a neutral drop is NOT abuse!    

Certain areas of countries consider cannibalism not to be taboo, but that don't make it right....
I can see the thread title now.....""Guys, why did my 727 come through my floorboard?" As your picking pieces of that thing out of your legs...

Gentlemen, do not do "Neutral drops"..Not a good idea.

[1BAD68]

Back in the 80's when I was in high school, anytime any of us bought a car or truck (always cheap junk around 200-500 bucks) we did neutral drops. It was like showing your friends how good the car was "hey man. lets see how strong the tranny is"
I never saw one blow out of dozens, were we just lucky?

[DixieRestoParts]

I purchased my first '69 R/t in 1982 as a second hand used car. But, years later I tracked down the original owner and spoke to him. I asked him why he chose a 440 instead of a Hemi. He told me that at the time Hemi's were still new and he was afraid if he had a problem he wouldn't be able to find someone to work on it. He also said that he wanted both A/C and a 4-speed, but he couldn't get both so, he opted for the 4-speed. He also chose the F3 Green color because he liked it. He lived in a rural area north of Chattanooga, TN. My dad lives about an hour northeast of Chattanooga, and can't find a good mechanic.  So, I understand why he was concerned with finding someone to work on a Hemi.

I didn't ask the original owner about reliability, but he did daily drive it until the mid 70's and then he traded it. Multiple owners later, I picked it up on a used car lot and daily drove it to High School my Senior year. It was very original, and hadn't been monkeyed with much. It had different wheels and exhaust tips. That's it. All I did during that time was replace an alternator.

[Cooter]

I never saw one blow out of dozens, were we just lucky?

If you've ever seen one scatter, you'd feel that way for sure. People do stupid things all the time and get away with it, doesn't mean the trans was any Stronger or anything, just means you got "lucky"....

[Todd Wilson]

I never saw one blow out of dozens, were we just lucky?

If you've ever seen one scatter, you'd feel that way for sure. People do stupid things all the time and get away with it, doesn't mean the trans was any Stronger or anything, just means you got "lucky"....

A friend of mine back in the day had a 4 door Impala  and we did N drops all the time in it. One night we got the idea if we went backwards as fast as we could stick it in N and floor it and then kick it into L we do do even better burn outs. We did this a few times and got Top Fuel Burn Out results out of it.............3-4 time we heard a pop and a nasty clunk clunk clunk clunk under the car beating the floor...............ripped the pinion right our of the rear end.  One hell of a smokey burn out though!



Todd

[hemi68charger]

Wow, the 1st thread in which I'm not old-enough to reply !!!!  Thanks Todd........... I do remember however my Dad's former '69 Daytona he bought new, I was 5 years old. Does that count? It was great at the Drive-in Movies..