MuuMuu101's 68 Dart, A Learning Process...

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racerhog said:
The Transmission House Citrus and Front..... :thumbsup:
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They're good people and super close to me. Last year when my throwout bearing was going out they took a look at it. The only problem is that if it's not internal to the trans, they won't try to fix it.
 
So, I didn't end up making Fall Fling. Things are still crazy at the moment. Less than 100 days until my wedding and me and my fiance are in escrow on a very nice townhouse. So, my time is short to say the least.

Anyway, today I decided to start the Dart as it has been almost a month and a half since I did so last. Once I started it up, my engineering brain started thinking about this "noise problem." I just can't wrap my head around it being a transmission problem. So, I took it for a drive and put about 14 miles on the car. For about 25% of it, I drove it hard. I took it to redline on multiple occasions. It shifts very smoothly. I'm at about 64 miles since getting the car running and still have no problems aside from noise in neutral. All the parts have less than 1000 miles on it and I know the mechanic who installed the clutch made sure the bellhousing was aligned with the correct dowel pins.

I just did a quick google search and it seems like centerforce clutches can just rattle:

Noisy Tremec T56 Anyone have this problem?

Centerforce Clutch Rattle? - JK-Forum.com - The top destination for Jeep JK Wrangler news, rumors, and discussion

Some people on other forums are recommending that it may be a bad motor mount. My motor mounts are wonky because the guys who installed my engine installed it a little too far forward. Idk... Part of me feels like I shouldn't worry the other half says I should. Regardless, I'm going to have a mechanic look at it in the middle of December (only time I could get off).

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Been sort of following this thread, but not regularly. Anyway, do you have a T56 in your car? Because T56s rattle. I have a 96 Z28 with a T56. It has rattled since it was new, like really loud. Can you record it and post it here? I'll take a listen and compare it to mine.
 
Years ago I had a Shelby glhs that I put a centerforce clutch in and it made some noise that drove me crazy and yes it was in neutral other than that it was fine.
 
lilcuda said:
Been sort of following this thread, but not regularly. Anyway, do you have a T56 in your car? Because T56s rattle. I have a 96 Z28 with a T56. It has rattled since it was new, like really loud. Can you record it and post it here? I'll take a listen and compare it to mine.
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So I had some time and went back a couple of pages and saw your video of the trans noise. Sounds like gear rattle to me. Yours might be a little noisier than a T56 in a stock Z28, but that is probably because the idle is rougher. I wouldn't sweat it. Drive it and see what happens.
 
So I now also have a T56 Magnum, Centerforce Dual Friction (which was also on my 4-speed) and a hydraulic throwout bearing. I find that also if my car is idling (approx 950 rpm idle speed) with the engine warm that mine also rattles. Its totally silent when I drive down the road, clutch released or not, and also it goes away if I push the clutch down. I believe also that this is a transmission rattle of the countershaft gears and the mainshaft gears moving back and fourth on each other - which is not cushioned enough by ATF in order to be silent. I have maybe 85 miles on it so far and it's done this the entire time.

I'm not particularly worried. My 2004 Chevy Colorado has an Aisin AR5 transmission which makes similar noises in the same situation but is a bit quieter - and has over 118k really hard miles on it. When I changed the fluid, it was amazingly clean - but it runs 80W-90 GL4.

I plan on dropping the Dexron III in the T56 Magnum after 500 miles (so that will be sometime in 2019 due to the weather in Michigan) but I don't expect to find an issue.
 
I'm starting to feel better about this. Now, I'm kind of bummed that I didn't drive it more the past couple of months.
 
I agree with several posters above.....if it was terminal it likely would have failed (tied up) by now.......drive it hard, you cannot fix anything until it breaks.

Good luck.
 
Yup, T-56's rattle. Factory in Vipers. Have worked on many of them and driven a lot more. Drive the **** outta it!!!!!!!!!!!! :)
 
MuuMuu101 said:
I'm starting to feel better about this. Now, I'm kind of bummed that I didn't drive it more the past couple of months.
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Yeah, I wouldn't be too timid about driving it. I was kinda worried about weird noises in the Red Brick when I owned it. I wish I had driven it more. It's 2 years since I sold it and it is running great, last I heard. It had small issues, but nothing too dramatic. These cars make noise. Just gotta get used to it.
 
Well, life is still pretty crazy but stuff is moving forward with regards to the wedding. A little over a week ago, my fiance and I closed escrow on our own little townhouse in North Orange County. It's a very nice place and pretty much move in ready but I want to make more modifications to the garage to have my own workspace. We're going to install LED lights, a wall-mounted folding workbench, maybe some shelving, and possibly epoxying the garage floor.

On other news, I took the Dart out to a car show on Saturday. SEMA headquarters was having a Cars & Coffee so I took my Dart there. While I was there I took my camera to shoot pictures. I want to get into automotive photography again, but get much better at it than I was before. I want to start capturing the details of cars more. So, this was a fun and perfect opportunity.

After I took pictures at the Cars & Coffee, I took the Dart to my new townhouse to make sure it fits in the garage. It does! Unfortunately, I forgot my keys to the house, so I went back home. Overall, I drove about 40 miles that day. I really didn't have any issues except it was taking a while for the car to crank, but I am going to say that's a bad battery as I really haven't driven the car very much (or at all) the past couple months and maybe start the car once every 1.5 months.

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racerhog said:
Congratulation on the New Home !!!!!!!
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Thank you Racerhog. For someone who is so close and is always supporting and help me on my build I don't know why we have never met in real life. Lol. We have to do that some time.
 
MuuMuu101 said:
Sure thing. Maybe sometime when I'm not busy. Which seems to be never. Lol.



Thank you Alex!
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Congratulations home owner! The rattle isn’t the one in the stick at high rpm is it? TKO 5 has done that for years in mine. Have not had the first drive with the new Silver Sport yet. Hoping that has been fixed.
 
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Dennis H said:
Congratulations home owner! The rattle isn’t the one in the stick at high rpm is it? TKO 5 has done that for years in mine. Have not had the first drive with the hew Silver Sport yet. Hoping that has been fixed.
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Hey Dennis! Thanks! No, the rattle is only when the car is in neutral and not moving. The car shifts fine for the most part.
 
Well, took half a step forward and about 5 steps back. I put the battery on the car on a battery tender to make sure I have a charge as the car has been sitting a lot this past year. Luckily, the battery was good and still had 75-100% juice left. I reinstalled the battery into the car and started the car up. It took a couple times to start it, but eventually I was able to get it going. I had the car idling for about 10 minutes and I noticed my engine started to get very noisy (lots of metallic sounds). Well, when I went to the front, water/coolant was squirting off the top of the water pump. Hopefully, I didn't damage/overheat the engine. When I checked my water temperature gauge, after I shut the car down, it read 160F.

I'm pretty bugged as I was just going to load a bunch of my tools in it and drive it to my new house this Friday so it can sit in its permanent home. Now, I can't do that, but glad this didn't happen when I was driving. All of the hoses are 2-3 years old. I think it may be this rubber plug on the water pump spout. It's cracked to hell. Anyone know of a good replacement? Hopefully not rubber.

After my wedding and honeymoon, in a week in a half, I was planning on slowly changing leaf springs and replace the rear trans seal as that's been leaking. If everything seemed good, I would slowly convert the car to EFI aiming for a driveable car by Spring Fling. That was already a pretty aggressive goal for me. I'm really hoping the engine didn't get damaged.

This car seriously hates me. Honestly, I'm pretty disheartened. Idk what I'm going to do with the car. It seems to cause me more grief than pleasure. I'll just have to pray and think about it.

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After 10 mins, it was only 160*? At that temp, it wasn't even warmed up yet. Does it have a thermostat?

The bigger question is what was leaking and what was making the metalic sound? What part of the engine did the sound come from?
 
mopowers said:
After 10 mins, it was only 160*? At that temp, it wasn't even warmed up yet. Does it have a thermostat?

The bigger question is what was leaking and what was making the metalic sound? What part of the engine did the sound come from?
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Good questions... I wish I had answers to all of it.

Who knows if the water temp was actually touching water at that point as the water had squirted out by then. Typically, in 10 minutes it would get up to 185F. I honestly don't know if it has a thermostat. I'd have to check.

Water/coolant was coolant was leaking from the top of the water pump where the intake hose and would be heater hose would connect. My guess is the plug on the outlet of the heater hose was cracked and caused it to burst.

I don't know what was making the metallic noise. Water pump bearing? Rocker Arm assembly? Your guess is as good as mine. I just panicked to shut the car off.

Sorry, I'm just very frustrated/overwhelmed at the moment.
 
If it got dry enough for the water pump to start rattling, there'd be a TON of water on the ground and it would have been a hell of a lot hotter than 160*.

I'd pull the top hose to make sure it has a thermostat, fix the leaky plug, fill it up with water and fire it up.
 
mopowers said:
If it got dry enough for the water pump to start rattling, there'd be a TON of water on the ground and it would have been a hell of a lot hotter than 160*.

I'd pull the top hose to make sure it has a thermostat, fix the leaky plug, fill it up with water and fire it up.
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The water temperature sending unit reads water temperature, not air temperature. That outlet flowing wide open would empty all the coolant in the system in very little time. 160 is probably what it was reading when the plug failed and the water left.

Regardless, with that kind of pressure loss there’s no telling what the localized temperatures got to in the engine.

The plug seems like a bad idea. Why not just install the heater hose nipple into the intake manifold and run a loop of heater hose over to it? That way you’re not dead ending that outlet and putting all the pressure on the plug. The heater hose should last as long as the radiator hoses, same stuff.
 
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