My 71 Duster work in progress

[Dr.Jass]

This one has several RCAs but they're all outputs - speakers, subwoofers,

That's pretty common. One of my decks has five sets: Front, rear, non-fading (?), subwoofer, and RCA IN (daisy-chain). All I see is a bunch of wires I won't use but for which I have to find a place where they can be tucked out of sight.

 

[b-body-bob]

That's pretty common. One of my decks has five sets: Front, rear, non-fading (?), subwoofer, and RCA IN (daisy-chain). All I see is a bunch of wires I won't use but for which I have to find a place where they can be tucked out of sight.

Yeah that's the weird part here too - the female RCAs aren't built into the unit, they're hanging on a short harness. Apparently there wasn't enough room to mount four of them somewhere. I guess they needed the space to put that remote control circuit in.

 

[b-body-bob]

Sorry for bailing there - I had a run of shit - health, personal, and work. Things seem to be looking up, at least for now.

 

[Dr.Jass]

Hope all's OK in Dusterland. Was wondering where you went, but I just kind of figured "winter blahs, car in storage..." and didn't worry too much about it. I've been dabbling in other hobbies and neglecting everything else. I've gotta get back after the garage; the snow will probably be mostly gone by week's end.

Not that it won't come back. It's false-hope season around here, also known as "spring... just kidding!"

 

[dodgechargerfan]

There’s always snow in April.

Hang in there BBB.

 

[b-body-bob]

I haven't worked on anything this winter. About a month ago I tried to start the Duster with no joy and decided it was time for the chokeless oversized 850 DP to go so I bought a 750 "Brawler" vac secondary carb with electric choke and got it going. Other than that, nada.

 

[Dr.Jass]

About a month ago I tried to start the Duster with no joy and decided it was time for the chokeless oversized 850 DP to go so I bought a 750 "Brawler" vac secondary carb with electric choke and got it going.

Many years of experience with chokeless everything has taught me, "Once you know you have fuel in the bowls, pump it aboot 10 times before even twisting the key." It's actually only 5-7 on the Valiant, but you'll have that with two 50cc accelerator pumps on one carb.

 

[b-body-bob]

Many years of experience with chokeless everything has taught me, "Once you know you have fuel in the bowls, pump it aboot 10 times before even twisting the key." It's actually only 5-7 on the Valiant, but you'll have that with two 50cc accelerator pumps on one carb.

Every time I tried pumping the carb before starting, even in warm weather, the DP would flood the motor. It only has one 50cc pump.

 

[b-body-bob]

Here's something odd.

I've never disconnected the coil wiring. Recently it started acting hard to start (or maybe it always did) and I have an MSD coil on the shelf so I decided to swap the coil out. It's got a big old Accel on it right now. You can see it here in this old photo, taken when we first brought it home. Note that one side has two wires, the other has one.



There's a tach in the car so I assumed the two wire side would be the negative side, the other positive. But when I disconnected the wires, they're actually hooked up opposite. To be sure, I checked continuity between the single wire (connected to+) and the supply side of the ballast resister. That confirmed it - it's hooked up backward.

From what I read, it will work like that (no shit) but you won't get good spark out of it. What if a coil was hooked up backwards

Could all the starting and performance hassles I've been fighting be that simple? Maybe. I'll find out in an hour or two when I get back to it.

 

[b-body-bob]

It seemed to start and run a little better but still seems like I've got a timing problem. I'm working on the ice maker, so priorities.

 

[69.5CUDA]

lol its probably timed to hell due to the coil being backwards and "compensated for"

 

[b-body-bob]

After changing the wires around, the timing was still at 15* where I left it I jacked it up to about 23* because I don't have anyone to help revving it up so I can see the max advance. It starts better and responds to the throttle a little better but it's still not right.

I can kill the engine with the idle adjustment and it's not stinking up the garage, so I think it's running on the idle circuit like it should, but the idle screws doesn't seem to have much effect beyond about 1/2 turn out and it's got no vac to speak of and it sure isn't the cam causing that.

It would probably be prudent to start replacing gaskets from the intake up, but that could turn into a hassle because I'm not sure I can get the manifold off and back on with both valve covers in place, and to pull those I need to pull the heater core because I'm pretty sure the blower motor is in the way on the driver's side.

I had to order a new ice maker, I bench tested it out of the fridge, and it failed two tests. One checks the circuit that cycles the the water valve but that could have been because it wasn't all hooked together. It read out open. The other one is for the motor, and it was an open circuit too. That should all be self contained so I'm confident but not sure that the ice maker is the problem and not the water valve.

 

[69.5CUDA]

you could always do the carb clean while running spray around the intake and see if it changes any

 

[74DartSport]

Or propane.

 

[b-body-bob]

I tried spraying ether but it was blowing all over the place. Sometimes it would seem like it had an effect of slowing the idle down for a beat or two. I expected it to idle faster if it had a leak. I think it could have been because the ether was sort of in the air and being pulled into the carb.

The reason for the turbulence is likely because It's got a flex fan with blades above the bottom of the top tank and no shroud. I really need to do something about that too but so far it's cooling OK.

I'm starting to resign myself to draining the rad so I can remove the blower motor and either block it off or buy a shorter one. Not being able to pull the valve cover is a PITA of it's own that should be fixed.

 

[69.5CUDA]

is there a shorter blower motor?, im only aware of 2 on an a body the ac and the non ac, and they wont interchange

as for the spray test turbulanace..a lil carboard with a U cut into it to slip around the waterpump snout fixes that

 

[b-body-bob]

is there a shorter blower motor?, im only aware of 2 on an a body the ac and the non ac, and they wont interchange

as for the spray test turbulanace..a lil carboard with a U cut into it to slip around the waterpump snout fixes that

Yeah I found on FABO's BB forum (IIRC) that there's a shorter one from another car that will fit. It might even be for a truck, I don't remember.

Good tip on the cardboard. If I end up draining the rad I can pull it and try to figure out if a factory fan fits the rad better. Right now it looks like the front of the engine is higher than factory, so I'm skeptical but have a couple of fans I can try out. The thing is kind of scary with the fan like it is, and being a flex fan doesn't increase confidence either.

 

[69.5CUDA]

Yeah I found on FABO's BB forum (IIRC) that there's a shorter one from another car that will fit. It might even be for a truck, I don't remember.

Good tip on the cardboard. If I end up draining the rad I can pull it and try to figure out if a factory fan fits the rad better. Right now it looks like the front of the engine is higher than factory, so I'm skeptical but have a couple of fans I can try out. The thing is kind of scary with the fan like it is, and being a flex fan doesn't increase confidence either.

there are atleast 3 mopar fan spacers of different lengths, and then there are several ford ones that fit, so spacing an OE clutch or fixed fan shouldnt be any issue no matter the angle of the engine, and then there are also a few different sizes of fan as well so its just a matter of combination

honestly tho..given where elctric fans have gone..id either buy a new one or grab a used one from a wrecker and just "delete" that spinning mass with nothing but 4 3/4 inch long bolts to bolt the pulley to the water pump

when you find the details on said other blower motor PLEASE post links as im very curious...i mean the OE motor is pretty tiny it is just kinda long....of course it requires pulling the whole heater box if memory serves ....that ring on it is just a "seal" and has nothing to do with access

 

[b-body-bob]

Yes you do have to pull the box to remove the fan motor.

This is a mod to give more room
Heater Fan Motor Mod for Added Engine Bay Clearance

This has a couple of different options. The amazon link doesn't work but the part number AH451 is in there.
440 Mopar valve covers in 69 Dart

This thread is linked in the one above
Another blower motor mod for BB.

I don't need the heater core but the blower would be nice because it's going to be hot in the car and every little bit of circulation helps.

It looks like I might be able to get the intake off and on with just the driver side valve cover removed. There's no interference on that side.

I installed the ice maker and it still doesn't work. Either the water line is frozen up, which isn't likely, or the water valve is bad. If it was me I'd just buy a couple of ice trays and forget about it. Actually I would've done that when it first failed.

 

[b-body-bob]

honestly tho..given where elctric fans have gone..id either buy a new one or grab a used one from a wrecker and just "delete" that spinning mass with nothing but 4 3/4 inch long bolts to bolt the pulley to the water pump

I took some measurements and can't find a high-CFM electric fan that will fit. There's only about 3" between the pulley and radiator. I didn't measure in the front but it looks even tighter plus the trans cooler is hanging out there too.

I could change the rad to something wider and thinner, but boom there goes another $300 shot to hell.

It's no fun even dealing with taking that dumb flex fan off - the fan cuts you then you bounce into the radiator and scrape yourself. I gave up, but my hands will be raw before I get that thing off.

I found two 7-blade fans here, one huge and one less so. It's hard to say where they came from, but hopefully one or the other will work with the right clutch.