Mopar Muscle Association UK

A good read guys, keep it up

6 cyl or 8, it's still about the best looking 67/68/69 that I know of - dont ever change those wheels/tyres

No the Duster was LHD so the oil filter was never a problem, a mate of mine's lad works for Ideal Hose here in Rugby and they make all kinds of automotive pipes up, brake, oil etc, if you want I can get his phone number.

Can you PM me his number, Dean, please? I'll keep it until we figure out the final solution!

Here is where the filter is now (It's not held in by the ma-hu-sive bolts and washers now, though! ) Those hoses at the other end are a bit of a nightmare, though.

Here's the other end (sort of, disappearing into the blackness...)

Half the struggle here was that while we were sourcing the lines (which took ages) we carried on and got the other engine in. Trouble then was to be able to get the bloomin' things on! No space. Anytime you want to work down there (Clivey...) you have to pop that engine mount and jack it up and away to give you (hardly any) space! Lots of shredded knuckles trying to tighten the things!

I'm trying to get his number for you.
Yeah i know what you mean about space down there, why do you think I changed my points and put a Petronix on it as I was cheesed off getting to the points to gap them

RobTwin wrote:dont ever change those wheels/tyres

You never know... Thank's though, Rob, very kind comments!

I'm just getting some photo's together and trying to order them and we'll be back with the thread!

actually....change the tyres when the tread gets below 1.6mm

great pics guys keep em a comin

About time for an update. Not going to bore you with the details, but there have been another 3 engine swaps since that one. With a 400 BB in the pipeline, there will be more about engines later, but I won't bore you with a load of pic's of parts either.

Long story short, due to various restrictions and a bad illness, work on the Barracuda hasn't been happening since September last year, so it was good when we both got a weekend to go and dust the old girl down and start picking off a few of the smaller jobs that need doing.

First things first, rolled her out of the barn, lobbed the battery on the life support machine and hosed her down. This re-highlighted the first problem.... Footwells full of water again...

We already knew that the water was getting in (at the front, anyway... ) through the wiper seals, so we'd already ordered a Shumacher kit to replace them. I know this might be boring for some and not trying to teach anyone to suck eggs, but there've been a few folks on here with this problem, so thought they might want to see what's involved. (Bear in mind we're RHD, so some of the dash dismantling might not be the same.)

First step is a bit anal, but a worthwhile tip. Lay some masking tape along the windscreen, level with the top of the wiper blades before you take them off. Sounds stupid, but when you come to put them back on, you'll be glad you did it! Makes it a piece of pee to drop them back on in exactly the right place. Once that was done, the wiper arms came off after a lot of rocking, greasing, penetrating fluid and levering with all sorts of tools....

Next step, drop the steering column down to get some access. The instrument cluster is a bit of a ball ache to get out, but after taking the seat out, access was a lot easier. (Easier, not easy!)

Once you've unscrewed it from the front, you need to get underneath it to pop out the light switch and wiper switch, then disconnect the circuit board and it drops forward just enough to unscrew the alternator indicator nuts.

Try adopting the "Playboy Pose" to get to the rear of the cluster. Worth a laugh and a photo, anyway! Seriously uncomfortable, though...

We have another problem with the instrument cluster backlights, so took the opportunity to check out the connecting pins whilst we were there. You can see from the photo's that they're not exactly stable! They're in a wibbly-wobbly world of their own... You can see where a couple of them are bent. From what Trev D has said before, it sounds like a good clean up and a blob or few of solder might solve the connection problems and help us see how fast we're going, or how much fuel we have when we are travelling at night!

More on that later, though, when we start refurbing the dash before it goes back in. I'll get photo's along the way.

It was nice to discover some original paint on the metal behind the cluster too. That might well be the colour it ends up in, it looks good.

Access to this side wasn't too bad with the instrument cluster out, but it still took a lot of slowly-slowly-scrapey-knuckles and 1 ratchet at a time turning to get the bugger off. It's all done blind, really, as you can't see what you're doing once you've got your hands and a ratchet in there, but Gareth decided to knock the connecting rod off at great sacrifice to his finger tips, which made life a bit easier... Once the assembly is unbolted it just slides straight out through the inside of the dash. Quick inspection shows exactly why the seals weren't stopping any water...

After cutting the old seal off (no point fannying about trying to pull the thing off there. It might be knackered, but it's still tight on there!) and removing what was left of the old base gasket, the new base gasket just slides on over the top. Although the bolt holes will make sure it stays where it's meant to during re-installation, we decided a small blob or two of gasket sealent was in order to stop it rooting it's way off course on the way back in. (remember you're kind of putting it back in blind, so it was just to make sure it didn't get knocked round and torn.)

The next bit ISN'T so easy though... The water seal has a very small hole through the middle and is high density, so not overly malleable. When you compare the size of the hole to the size of the shaft it goes on (missus....) it's a bit of a mystery as to how the hell you get it on there...

The instructions with the kit say NOT to use any kind of mechanical spreader for this and I can see why. (How many double entendres can you fit in one thread... ) the density of the seal makes it very hard to stretch, but I get the feeling that if you DID stretch it with anything mechanical and hold it there, it'd stay there permanently. So this is where your bar of soap or washing up liquid comes in handy.

A quick coat of washing up liquid round the head of the shaft ( ) makes it a lot easier to force through the hole. (I know, I know... It's like reading viz.... ) A lot of pushing and shoving and weedling and swearing later, it's on there without looking like a well hammered prostitute with a hippo's yawn downstairs!

More later, must work!