Industrial slant timing cover leak and other problems.

[shotgunvic64]

So just last week I took my motor out of my 64 Valiant to replace the oil pan gasket because of a rear seal oil leak. Did that, but right before I put it back in I noticed timing cover leak that seemed to be coming from where the harmonic balancer slips in.
I also noticed before and fter that the harmonic balancer had a sorta weird wobble to it. Nothing to get me too paranoid, but paranoid nonetheless. Could this cause more trouble down the road? The leak is more like a large area of moisture rather than a dribble and leak.
I also had trouble with keeping my car running and charging after the oil pan gasket replacement. I had warranties on my alternator and ballast resistor but had to buy a new voltage regulator. I turn the ignition and the valiant started up right away but right after that the new ballast resistor fried up! I might have a short somewhere but I don't know where! I checked under the dash and the wiring harness but everything looks beautiful. My alternator can't keep my car on after I disconnect the battery terminal and my ballast resistor gets way too hot. I just wanna drive my car already!

1964 plymouth valiant 4 door with '66 Clark Cortez industrial slant six hb225
1968 dodge dart 4 door with a 273
Slant Sick Lords

 

[nm9stheham]

1) For the future, never disconnect the battery while the alternator is running. It can damage other electronic components. It might be OK but you shouldn't take that chance.
2) The damper on the front pulley has a rubber ring between the outer pulley/ring and the inner casting. This is all put together at the factory but either the rubber gets old and shrinks or any glue in there gets old. You can take the damper off and tap round the edge of the outer ring carefully (with a brass or plastic hammer) while the inner ring is on a supporting block of wood and get it all straight. I had one doing that and got it straight just so it would not be any future issue. Just take it easy and don't do it on the car or you may damage the crankshaft thrust bearing. Or just get a good one. You need a 3 bolt damper puller to get this off. (Cheap at box auto stores.)
3) The damper pulley has a seal in the timing cover. That cover can be taken off and the seal replaced. The timikng cover gaskets fits in with the oil pan gasket so doing it all at the same time makes a ton of sense. I have done the timing cover on the car with the oil pan in place; it takes some patience, balck RTV, and a couple of pairs of vice grips to get the lower cover-to-pan seal to compress so the cover will slip back onto the dowel pins near the bottom if you do it in-car. One of the upper bolts on the timing cover goes into the water jacket so be sure to find that one and put some sealer on it when you thread that bolt back in.
4) While in the timing cover, and if you engine has lots of hours on it, I would put on a new timing chain; $25-30 for a factory style original one from Cloyes. The engine will run very much better with a fresh timing chain. Pulling the crank sprocket requires another puller; can be borrowed at O'Reilly's. Torque the cam sprocket bolt to 45 fl-lbs and clean the threads on the bolt and in the cam hole so they are squeaky clean and use Blue Locktite in there.

Now for the questions to help with the rest:
- Can you post some pix of the back of the alternator and the new voltage regulator so we know if the parts match your car and each other?
- Do you have PN for the ballast? Did you replace it, and was this running OK before?
- Do you have a voltmeter and are you comfortable using it?
- Is this an older points distrobutor or a later one with the ECU? If you're not sure, then pull the distributor cap and rotor and post a pix looking down into the distributor.

 

[shotgunvic64]

Thanks for the info. As far as PN's go idk them. I just had my parts (vol. reg., bal. resistor, alternator, points, ign wires) under warranty so I replaced them before and after taking the motor out. I'll try to download some pix soon (idk how to use this iPad real good) and my distributor is of points. The car gives a weird misfire or something and it won't stay on. I changed the distributor back to the original one from the industrial motor and at first the car idled like it should but went back to that shaking and hesitation. I'm sure I'd be comfy using a voltmeter but I just can't find it.

 

[nm9stheham]

Well, it will help a ton if you find/borrow a voltmeter. Meanwhile, look all around the VR and alternator of shorts and pinched wires. Another guy (Bud27) in the electrical section burned up 2 VR's and had all sorts of engine electrical havoc on a '65 A body. Things finally settled down when he cleaned up his battery (-) to engine block ground cable and restored his burned out firewall to engine block ground jumper. SO check carefully for both of those being in place and having soldi, clean connections.