1971 Dart Swinger

[78C10BigTen]

I closed my eyes and had a vision....

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Have to say, never liked these darts but that certainly helps the looks!

 

[78C10BigTen]

Very nice find. Congratulations.

You've probably already watched his channel, but Uncle Tony's Garage on YouTube does quite a lot with the slant. I really enjoy those builds.

Uncle tony has alotta good info!

 

[legopnuematic]

Hope everyone is enjoying their thanksgiving today, have made quite a bit of progress on the dart since I last posted about it.

At this point I have the fuel system complete, brake system complete and bled, It drove out of the garage and was able to make it around the block with it.

I have found a total of 3 Broadcast sheets in the car, one taped around the column, one under the front seat, and one under the rear seat, all match each other and to the car.

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Here is the window sticker for it.

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Got some big bolt pattern rallye wheels for it, blasted the faces and did a shade tree paint job. Some grey primer.

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[legopnuematic]

Then flat black.

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Then some metallic silver.

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At menards got some stuff called D-germ, works pretty good on interior stuff to get the grime and stuff off.

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[legopnuematic]

Designed and made up a gauge panel for it, will house a tach, oil pressure, wideband, and vacuum gauge, along with provisions for 3 toggles and pilot lights. Done on the Bridgeport at work

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Threw a couple gauges and switches in for mock up

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Got the tires mounted and balanced

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Even with a terrible alignment, made it out of the garage.

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[legopnuematic]

This is how bad it was with the wheel in the center, so got it close by eye

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Will need a new Idler arm, it has a solid 1/2 inch of up and down movement, no biggie though.

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I'm liking the look of the rallye wheels, need to get some centers and trim rings for them.

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One of the many dirt piles to come out from under the car.

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[idahovette]

Just did and alignment for a friend with a 70 Swinger, NOT a mopar fan but it is still kinda cool. Anything this old still on the road and looking this decent, I like. His is a 360, torqueflight car in flat black. He's got the silver ralleys like yours. Nice little ride @legopnuematic

 

[legopnuematic]

Pulling the rear carpet up found a fourth broadcast sheet.

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Got new bulbs for the dome light and the map light, got them installed and played with the map light switch and got it working again.

Started on the floor patching, just a homemade patch from 18 gauge.

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need to plug weld it and a quick grind but the first floor patch is complete.

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[legopnuematic]

Started on Floor patch #2.

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The biggest thing this car is/was being attacked by is rust jacking, for those fortunate enough to not face rust on a daily basis, its when the rust is trapped between two spaces and literally jacks, expanding and pushing away from itself. Which makes for two really thin panels with a solid chunk of rust nugget in between.

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[RetroC10Sport]

We had a near identical one for a while, called it the Fart Slinger.

 

[legopnuematic]

Waking this thread back up.

So the Dart shortly after I got it back on the road started not always going into third gear, I'd drop it into manual 2nd, then back to drive, and at some point it would go into third. I pulled and did a dingleball rebuild on the engine back in 2021, after I got it back together it would do it on occasion, at some point it quit and just worked fine until last year when I romped on it pretty good, the next day it had a very delayed reverse engagement and also harsh, and back to not wanting to go into third.

I began reading up on the 904s and the thing that reverse and third share is the use of the front clutch. I figured the seals had given up, as it worked fine in every other regard and when it worked, it worked fine. I thought maybe a general service could fix it on the chance it. I had began acquiring some parts in preparation for a service.

Yesterday picked up my buddy and drove up to the shop, after some fun with his dodge, the 2005 Ram 2500 I did the free spin install on, got it on the lift and pulled the pan off.

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A little debris in the pan, but within reason. I know this is the original transmission, and I know it has never been rebuilt, I am not sure if it had ever been serviced before or not. The 1971 shop manual says for non fleet/hd applications that the fluid is lifetime. I don't think they intended that lifetime to be 55 years...

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[legopnuematic]

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I had bought a new pan and I might be redarted, I bought a pan for a 727 not a 904

It was late so closed up the shop for the night and took my buddie's truck back home. I ordered a pan for a 1995 Jeep as they used a 42RH that is a derivative of the 904 and the pan shape is the same.

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Anyways, today I get up to the shop and continue on it:

It is rather nice that MaMopar provided a drain plug on the torque converter

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Used part of a plastic water bottle to help direct the fluid and not fill the bell housing up

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Employed my new axle adapters for the bridge jack to tilt the car forward to help drain the converter

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[legopnuematic]

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The 7.25" rear end is cute isn't it?

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Dropped the valve body.

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Got new shift shaft seal and tv shaft seal.

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[legopnuematic]

Used a seal driver and slide hammer to install the new seal (this was foolish, keep reading)

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So I get the new seal installed, and think, oh yeah, I need to aircheck the case. Everything checked out good except the front clutch. Would not hold pressure and could even hear it engage. Not surprised, So I decided to get lunch and pull the trans and rebuild it.

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Pulled the driveshaft.

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Amazingly all four of the cross member bolts came out without fuss.

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Undo the bellhousing bolts, cut the cooler lines (rusted into the fittings), make sure nothing is still attached that shouldn't be, got the trans jack set up (this is the reason I bought the jack anyways)

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[legopnuematic]

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I'll probably end up removing the new seal... Paid off this time to order two of them.

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