Rusty's not very quiet cuda progress

[68R/T]

You should be able to straighten that squiggle in the bumper with a healthy pipe wrench lined with a board on the chromed side, if you can figure out how to hold the bumper steady.

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

Might be able to mount it, the front end is naked, might be enough room to work it, but the chrome is shot.
Gonna mount the rear soon, see how bad that looks, even if I dig the hole deeper & get repops I still have the rear guard to deal with, one is decent, the other as you saw the top was rusted over.
I'll do a search (well I'll try) & see if there's one out there, most guys just tossed them back in the day!

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

OK put the kickdown rod in, loose it stands straight up, when I put the lever to the throttle it pushes it back a bit, now down at the tranny there's a little play in the full open area before it gets to the spring loaded part, like this it's right at the end of the play.
first try with some springs.


Had these left over.
Went to the book & got lucky & found a pic of the kickdown spring.At full throttle the tranny lever is all the way back, nothing fells like its binding?


Looking at it from the front it looks like a little bend up on the new bracket would straighten things out a little, do I dare persuade it over & up a tad?????? Still have to adjust the throttle cable, need a helper mashing the pedal for that!

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

Messed with the wiring a bit, looks good around the alternator, washer pump, temp. sender & choke.The clip doesn't match the 71 manifold retainer.Ground wire doesn't reach where I hooked up all the others, if I peel back some tape it will Or I could put it on the top bolt of the regulator or right in the middle of the ballast resistor?A little later I flipped the wires around so that plastic clip is close to a hole on the fire wall.

A/c wires from under the dash, blue & green, they reach the black wire on the compressor or the blower motor, didn't check the diagram yet, but looks like at least the green is the blower motor, blue is right near that cut off white on that is just hanging there?
The harness is missing one wire (well at least one) but by the time I typed this out I forgot where I saw it!

Looks a little better now.

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

2 more questions..............

The new coil said it uses an external resistor, is that the ballast resistor or is it like the other, it had another resistor spliced in?

& while I was taking a break the wheel weight caught my eye, is that going to be a problem with the trim rings?

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

Lug nuts have arrived!

 

[b-body-bob]

Went to the book & got lucky & found a pic of the kickdown spring.

At full throttle the tranny lever is all the way back, nothing fells like its binding?

Well for sure you don't need to worry about breaking the throttle return spring but I don't think any of those are pulling on the kickdown linkage. It seems like I had one on the Duster setup to hold the kickdown against the throttle lever so there was no slack.

while I was taking a break the wheel weight caught my eye, is that going to be a problem with the trim rings?

It just depends. It could fall between the grabby parts of the trim ring so no problem, but if it's in the same place the grabby part wants to be you'll need to figure out how to change to a stick on weight and relocate it. I don't know if there's a place to stick one on the front side or not. If there is it would be simple to just match the weight and the center position of the weight. Every wheel balancer I've used puts weights on both sides of the wheel like that so I don't think it's just a matter of moving the weight to the backside of the wheel but I've been wrong plenty of times before..

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

The small one right next to the slotted bar, goes from the kickdown rod to the throttle bar.
Should it be somewhere else, that's what it looked like in the pic in the book?

 

[68R/T]

Still have to adjust the throttle cable, need a helper mashing the pedal for that!

No need for a helper. First, make sure to take the throttle off of the high idle position, then adjust to take up about 95% of any slop in the cable, done.

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

Just checked out platers, there's one that does bumpers way down south jersey ( 5 or 6hrs away) & another shop closer in newark (about 1 hour from me) but not sure they do bumpers yet.
if I can straighten the front, then I'll get a qoute on redoing the bumpers, worst case, (if it's 1000 bucks a pop) I can have the guards done & buy repop bumpers!

Or put the ole crap back on & hide my face.

 

[Dr.Jass]

Too bad I don't like that big ole stripe, it would cover 3 or 4 of my paint defects!
I like the hockey stripe!

I'm not a huge fan of the '73-'74 stripe myself. The same goes for the '72-up Challenger Rallye stripes, which I not only dislike but I positively hate the tacked-on fender "scoops" from which they originate.

one of the bends, she's cocked quite a bit?

It might be cocked because it's forced into that position by being a tick too long or the adjuster at the trans lever being on crooked. Loosen the pinch bolt at the trans lever and get everything squared away up top first, including the linkage rod as square as possible, then worry about the pinch bolt--which you'll need to address to adjust the kickdown properly later anyhow.

OK put the kickdown rod in, loose it stands straight up, when I put the lever to the throttle it pushes it back a bit, now down at the tranny there's a little play in the full open area before it gets to the spring loaded part, like this it's right at the end of the play.

It should not move when connected to the throttle. It needs to slide further back through the adjuster down at the transmission lever. Either that or the kickdown slider is the wrong one, which is entirely possible.

first try with some springs.

You have the kickdown return spring installed properly. That's exactly what that little hole is for, and the spring attaches to the throttle stud like you have it.
Throttle return springs go from the throttle stud to the return-spring bracket. They do not go to the throttle arm. Also, I like a heavy throttle return as much as the next guy, but what you've got shown is total overkill. Chrysler only used one spring for throttle return, then another for kickdown return. I like the security of two myself, as do many. The problem with too much spring is that it's constantly pulling not only on the stud, but by extension on the entire throttle shaft itself. Because of that forward pull on the throttle shaft, it wears the carburetor's throttle-shaft bores, which are unlubricated aluminum... i.e., they wear quickly. Preferably, you want springs that are near "at rest" with the car at idle, meaning the coils are closer together. Several vendors (Holley, Edelbrock, Dorman) offer springs that fit one inside the other. It makes for a neater appearance. I also always hook my two springs oppsite to each other. If one snaps or flies off, it won't take the other with it.

I don't think my springs are quite long enough, but they're much lighter than what you've got. I believe I grabbed 'em off the Dorman rack at work, because they were there. Anyhow, this is what's on my Valiant. You can see how the ends are connected opposite to each other (click on it and it'll enlarge):

The clip doesn't match the 71 manifold retainer.

That clip is supposed to slide over a tab on the valve cover, similar to what's visible just below it in your photo. I believe that wire retainer is slightly further back on a correct '74 360 valve cover, which also has a spark-plug wire loom welded to it where you have a vacuum-amplifier mount.

Ground wire doesn't reach where I hooked up all the others, if I peel back some tape it will

What ground wire is that?
The braided strap is supposed to be on that welded bracket on the firewall just below the voltage regulator.

A/c wires from under the dash, blue & green, they reach the black wire on the compressor or the blower motor, didn't check the diagram yet, but looks like at least the green is the blower motor, blue is right near that cut off white on that is just hanging there?

The green wire is blower motor, blue is AC clutch. I have no idea what that white wire is (it looks yellow in the picture) but it's of no use. There are no white wires in the factory engine-bay wiring diagram. Once again, I suggest you get rid of it. It's only causing confusion.

while I was taking a break the wheel weight caught my eye, is that going to be a problem with the trim rings?

No. The trim rings were designed to clear wheel weights, since wheel weights have been around longer.


Whatever you do about bumpers, DO NOT buy anything from Bumper Boyz. Their plating work is garbage. I've seen it peeling within 1-2 years many times over, and in one case it was peeling when the guy got the paper off it after buying it at a show. There's a very good reason they won't sell you the ones they have on display at shows: Someone else did the work on those.

I bought no-longer-available Goodmark restamped/replated originals for my car, so I haven't any personal experience with reconditioning used ones. It's a shame Goodmark quit doing them; they're freakin' gorgeous. Anyhow, when my friend Kevin restored his '71 Charger almost 30 years ago, he had a place called North Star Bumper in Fond du Lac, WI restamp and rechrome his bumpers. They did a phenomenal job, and weren't expensive. Those bumpers still look good today. I believe North Star Plating is an offshoot or descendent of North Star Bumper. They appear to be part of LKQ now, which would make sense. They're also in Minnesota, which may be due to LKQ or some kind of environmental concern in WI. They're at least worth a look and maybe getting an estimate.

Kevin--the same guy--had his '68 Charger bumpers rechromed through Stephens Performance in Alabama last month. That set him back a cool $2,500. But, that's better-than-original, concourse-quality work. I'm sure ol' Ted is doubling his money on it for that reason alone.

 

[Dr.Jass]

OK, I looked around a bit and verified that North Star Plating is/was Northstar Bumper. Also, they are part of Keystone/LKQ, which is a nationwide operation.

While I can't verify that this is still the case, at one point you were able to drop your parts at the nearest Keystone/LKQ location and they would ship the parts on their own trucks--and hence dime--to and from the Minnesota facility. On their map, it appears that the nearest location to you would be Palmyra.

Also, this thread over on the H.A.M.B. has a lot of suggestions. Despite the original post being 12+ years old, every link on which I clicked was still an active shop, so there are still a lot of guys doing bumper repair and chroming. Obviously, the closer the better because of shipping, but there were a couple in PA--Erie and Middletown, I believe.

 

[Dr.Jass]

I just thought to add this tidbit:

Despite working for AMD, Kevin decided to have his original '68 bumpers redone because he was not impressed with the fit or finish of the reproduction parts. Yeah, he's a bit of a perfectionist but mentioned the holes were not a perfect match and I believe the front had a bit of a mis-stamp in it. He sold those and dropped the big money on Stephens' "secret squirrel" rechroming (Ted won't tell anyone who does them).

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

Gotta reread this agin tomorrow lots to digest!

One thing for sure, I don't have 2500 for bumpers, if it's a lot more expensive than repops, I will have to settle for repops.

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

Nor sure who made the repop I bought for the rear of 73, if I can find the bill, to see if it was AMD it fit fine & looked decent?

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

What ground wire is that?
The braided strap is supposed to be on that welded bracket on the firewall just below the voltage regulator.

That wire is in the new harness near the resistor wires

could not come up with a good way to connect the grounds to that bracket.

looks like the fire wall is the target, so exact location shouldn't matter.

Both cars had nothing on that bracket, I couldn't even see marks from a bolt or screw either?

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

It should not move when connected to the throttle. It needs to slide further back through the adjuster down at the transmission lever. Either that or the kickdown slider is the wrong one, which is entirely possible.

If I move the adjuster rod back it pulls the pivot point back, no longer straight up & down.
Starting point for throttle would then be back 1/2" or so at the pivot point?
pretty much the same as it moved when I put the slider in.

I have the 73 slider, will test that out?

 

[Dr.Jass]

If I move the adjuster rod back it pulls the pivot point back, no longer straight up & down.

The factory service manual shows the pivot leaning forward at a considerable angle, not sitting straight up. That's how I remember it from my Six Pack engine.

My guess is you have the wrong slider, probably a 2-barrel part, which is either too long (most likely) or has too short a slot. Regardless, with the carb at idle the slider should go onto the carb stud without moving the kickdown linkage, per the FSM



I would certainly try the '73 slider, or any other ones you might have lying around, because that linkage needs to be 100% at rest (the lever at the transmission should be fully forward) when the engine is idling. This is verified in the service manual as well.

 

[Dr.Jass]

Oh, yeah... regarding your coil: "For use with external resistor" means it's designed for systems with a ballast resistor. It's a drop-in, no additional parts or mucking about required. You're good there.

Coils marked with "No external resistor required" or similar wording have a resistance built into the coil. If you use one of those with a ballast resistor, you'll have extremely weak spark.

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

That's good the last thing I want to do is start splicing into my new harness!

So I went back over the kickdown, the 73 slider was the same location.
Checked the connection at the tranny, it looks square, I think the rod was tweaked a lot of the bends do not look crispy & there's more than on my other rod.
With all that said I went through the test again, with it pushed back a little, off high idle, I started giving it throttle, starts moving as soon as the throttle does & at full throttle it's wide open at the tranny, soooooo my thought is this, if it's doing what it's supposed to (which I really won't know till I drive it) why mess around now??????

I printed out your old carb diagram you had posted for me & pulled out the bag of springs!
Removed one of the big ones, moved the other to the closer hole in the bracket, took out the really long light spring & cut it down an inch or so, now both springs have a slight tension. Also moved them right to the throttle cable as per the pic.
that's as close to factory as I can get there.