67 GTS 4-Speed: Daily Summer Driver

[carfreak6970]

So I have been slowly chipping away at this. I was able to get the bellhousing alignment done, new piolet bearing installed, clutch and pressure plate installed. I ended up needing another input shaft and bearing retainer since mine were very pitting. Disassembly of the transmission went fine, assembly was a pain. Always had an issue with mating the main shaft up with the input shaft while keeping the 3-4 collar and syncro from falling apart. But I got it together with new seals!

installed the trans onto the engine and reversed the process of getting it into the car

cleaned up the engine bay a bit while the engine was out and it is looking pretty good in there!

now it is just putting the parts I took off back in it. Only things I am waiting on is the trans fluid but I have everything else to getting it back to road worthy! have an unsupervised long weekend ahead so I hope to get a lot of that stuff done.

 

[carfreak6970]

Over the past couple weeks I have been slowly plugging away at this. The only things that need done is adjusting the clutch, alignment, and bleeding the steering system. The biggest issue now is bleeding the steering system. I installed a borgeson steering box to get more header clearance but they have that box set up to run with a saginaw pump. Issue with that is the pressure line is on the back of that pump which on this car would hit the motor mount, so I am using a federal pump. So the power steering line that comes off that pump has a 1/2" female flare on it, and the adaptor that I got for the box has a 7/16" flare... Did mopar only use 7/16 flare for the connection at the steering gear? They they also use 1/2 flare? I have not been able to find an adaptor for those two flares. has anyone else run into his issue?

 

[carfreak6970]

So I found an answer to my question. Come 69(?) the input flare for the steering gear did increase in size. The adaptor I had was correct for the year car, but not the year hose I was running. I talked to the company and they were able to send me the correct size flare adaptor.

I got the system bled, shifter adjustment checked again, and checked the clutch operation one more time. and everything appears to be working!! I would say it has been pretty dang successful! Pretty please with myself. Got it on the road Thursday night and took it to work the following day in rush hour traffic for our Fall car show! Only mopar there, but still a decent turn out.

The car drives great, cant believe it took me this long from my initial drive on the street to the car finally behaving and being a joy to drive. Plan is to continue to drive it until the weather gets too cold or snow comes. Then over winter get the wiper motor restored so I finally have wipers, take the heater box out and attach a mount that has been missing so I can finally have heat I can turn on (or most importantly turn off) without having to reach under the dash to do so. Then hopefully in the beginning of spring find someone that would be able to install the head liner. Also replace some burnt out bulbs

 

[carfreak6970]

So the driving season has ended and I finally got the car cleaned up and ready for winter storage. Before I put it under cover I tried buffing the car again:

This is a really good picture of it. It doesnt look this good in person. But I will try and hit it again sometime in the spring. But for now I am pretty happy!

I also noticed a charging issue. I noticed this a couple weeks ago in that the head lights weren’t as bright as they once were. So I did some tests today. At idle the battery voltage is sitting at 13.01 or so. But the voltage drops when I put the head lights on, as it should (12.5 volts). But when I rev the engine up to 2000 the voltage is only at 12.6. With the head lights off it it’s back at that 13.05 number.

I recently got the alternator rebuilt. Would this load issue be a function of the voltage regulator going bad? Or the alternator?


Also in my driving I have noticed it has been pretty hard to get the car into second gear. According to AI it could be the clutch not releasing fully (which I think it is, I have a diaphragm style pressure plate and no grinding when I put it into reverse), or the shifter rods arent adjusted properly. Now, I believe I have a hurst competition shifter but do not have the alignment holes cut into the reverse lever, so I am not to sure if I am aligning that arm properly (it is a little tricky to get it into reverse as well). Does that sound about right? or is there something else I should look at? Also, I notice the FSM mentions something along the lines of cover alignment? done by trying to get the internal shift cams slightly touching with the internal reverse linkage, does that have anything to do with what I am dealing with?