1966 Dart GT Slant 6

Been another long while since I've posted. I was able to get my Ranchero to move out of the driveway. Had a bunch of issues with the brakes not being adjusted right and the trans. modulator going out so it wouldn't shift right, but we were able to back it out and push it into place. Once the guy came and bought my old engine I did some cleaning and then moved the Dart into the driveway. It made it a whole half hour before being propped up on jack stands.

First order of business was the engine mounts. Those things were nasty and pretty much non functional. I read a lot about the replacement and everything said to do the passenger side first. That took all of 30 minutes to do, along with putting a new shock in that side too. The driver's side took 4 hours including the shock there too. Once that was done I replaced the trans. mount. Getting the trans. mount bracket to swing out was an ordeal with how the bolts interfere with the transmission linkage for the floor shifter. Took a lot of adjusting how I had the trans. supported and prying on the linkage to get the last bolt out. When I replaced the bolts I reversed how they are in the mount so that I don't have to worry about that again.

With that done I drained the trans. fluid to change it and put a new gasket/filter set on. I never knew trans. fluid could smell so bad. Really not sure when the last time that stuff was changed. Maybe never. Trans. fluid pan was way bigger than I expected too. Wound up with more than a bit of fluid on the concrete.

Next up was a brake rebuild. I had a feeling that one of the wheel cylinders was bad due to the slow leakage of brake fluid somewhere in the system. I had no clue what I was about to run into though. As soon as I pulled the first drum I knew it was going to be bad. The shoes were worn and had deep cracks all the way down them. The drums themselves were worn out too. These seemed to be the original 1966 drums as they still had the weird spring wrapped around them. So down to the parts store to get a new set of drums and shoes. I saw that the rear wheel cylinders were bad too so I bought a couple of new ones. Didn't know that Mopars of this era did the reverse threading of the driver's side rear lugs so I snapped one of those off. Front hubs were seized to the drum and in trying to remove one I damaged the threads of the lugs so I ordered a new set of rear lugs (standard thread) and front lugs. I spent a day trying to get the front ones dislodged before finally grinding them out. Haven't attempted the rears yet.

Of course when I got to the front wheels I found that those cylinders were bad too. Parts store couldn't find them in their system so I had to order them online. At the same time I decided to try and replace the very leaky Power Steering pump. Problem is that most parts stores list that they can get rebuilt ones, but a few days after the order goes in they find that they can't get it. I ended up having to rebuild it. Not too big of a deal, just time consuming and frustrating without the right tools. Back to the brakes......

Since I had some time waiting for the new cylinders I decided to go ahead and rebuild the master cylinder. That was way easier than I expected. Got the new wheel cylinders, shoes, and drums on and went to bleed the brakes. Everything was going ok until I got to the driver's front. No matter what I couldn't get anything to come out of the bleeder. I checked the cylinder and bleeder for blockages but they were both clear. After some fumbling around I pulled the soft line to the cylinder to find it was completely blocked. I tried cleaning it out but that didn't seem to do anything. Back to the parts store.

So here we are. The brake system is almost completely new aside from the hard lines. I did a good inspection on those to make sure that they were ok, and they are. Of course once I got all of this done I wanted to take it around the block to check the adjustments, but the battery was dead so it spent the night on the charger. I'll get to test it out tonight as long as something else doesn't go wrong.

Other small things that I did while the car was up in the air are: Replaced rear shocks, replaced gas tank to filler seal (not sure why one would replace a tank and not replace that seal), and redid the electronic ignition wiring.

Things still to do are: Check speedometer cable to see if that is the reason why the speedometer isn't working (hoping that is the problem and not the speedo itself), replace turn signal switch/cam in column, replace dash bulbs, fix a seized AC/Heater/Vent button/switch in dash, get the AC charged/repaired, and replace the exhaust system.

I need to get back to work on my Ranchero so the Dart is going back onto the street while I finish up the Ranchero work. Can't wait to buy a new place where I can have both cars in the driveway at the same time.