Road Runner Nest

Thanks!

This car is not only stressing me out but now every conversation I have with my father about my car gets hostile. It is very difficult to learn anything about mopars from a chevy guy.

my dad-"Adjust the rockers"

me-" "

I know a lot and I'm not new at this,but I feel like I am being misled constantly and have been for quite some time.
\

First, scratch the idea with making a mark on the rocker shafts, just orientate the notches as you should and you're good to go. I will post to the rest later. Suffice to say some parents can't stand the kids surpassing them in knowledge. I KNOW your pain. Hang in there bud!

haha

I have already put the rocker shaft on correctly. Funny thing is I saw no difference in oil.

Dude ! consider your self lucky to still have a dad!

Welcome to the world of hot rodding and yes that is what it is.We have all been through it! One thing leads to another and another.Learn as you go.Nothing wrong will that oil or oil pressure,but oil pumps are cheap so replace it and rule that out.Get a good oil filter(fram has problems with the anti drain back valve).

Bunch of guys here to answer questions.....

BRIAN

Haha yeah I ranted its out of my system.

I talked to my dad today.Everything is good.

Does anyone know of an online diagram,or better yet what the fuel gauge wire looks like for 74s. My gauge doesn't work.I have gas,the needle doesn't move at all when I go to start.

if the rest of your gauges work, you can test the fuel gauge by grounding the wire at the tank connection.

Go under the car on the passenger side, behind the rear wheel. Follow the fuel line to the tank. There is a wire that connects to the sending unit, ( blue for 71, should be the same for you. Make a jumper wire and connect it to ground. then hop back in the dr seat and turn the ignition swith to on. If the gauge is working the needle will swing to way over "full".

Sometimes it is easier to disconnect the wire from the fuel sending unit stud and then gently pop the grommet from the trunk floor and pull it into the trunk, then hook up the jumper wire to ground. There isn't much space under the car on thatside with the exhaust. just be easy on the grommet as they tend to harden up over the years.

IF the gauge swings to 3/4 or not at all, then it is the gauge. Drop me a line if it is, I have a few floating around if it's the standard Rallye pack.

If it goes past full, the gauge and wiring are fine , and that leaves one of two possibilites. The Ground Strap or the sending unit in the tank.


The ground strap is a jumper from the sending unit to the body and completes the circuit. It is right by the hose coming out of the tank. It clips onto the gas line coming out of the tank and clip on to the gas line on the car, basically jumping the hose.. These have a tendency to corrode and rust over the years and they need to be cleaned up and re attached with a little grease to keep the corrosion down, any greas e will do and just a light coating.. If it is broken or otherwise unusable there are replacements availible .


If that doesn"t do it It could be the sending unit. The sending unit should read , on a volt ohm meter, anywhere from 10-ohms at full to 90 ohms empty. That can be checked at the dash wiring between the fuel sending wire and body ground, ( Blue on 71, should be the same on 74 i would think).

Good luck and let us know if that works, or what you are seeing.

Thanks road chicken but i already got it working!

I have another topic about wiring,I fixed it while trying to fix another problem.

Road Chicken,That is very good info on the fuel sender testing.It is for all mopars too!
I will print the info .I have a few sending units i want to test.Thanks , Gary

No problem Gary. Just remember the gauges work off of 5 volts not 12! It is critical you supply them with power from the voltage regulator on the back of the instrument panel, ( that little "can" ). I don't mean to soud over simplified, but I don't want anyone damaging those precious movements either.

Road Chicken,Thanks for the caution on the voltage limiter for the gas gauge.I was glad you put the info out there on the sending units.I have sending from other Mopars and will do bench testing on them,again very good info for everyone.Thanks , Gary

And one LAST comment on testing these. If you have the sending unit on the bench and are taking the readings with an ohm meter the Full position should read 9-10 ohms, Empty should be 78-80 ohms. The measurement from full to empty should be linear and smooth. IF the resistance is jumping around alot in the middle but good on the ends, the unit is probably bad.

Ok,Thanks again for the info road chicken. Gary '71 GTX

Why delete it? I say just keep it here so people can see how disrespectful you are.

When I last updated this I was having oil pressure problems,carburetor problems and wiring problems. Since then I installed a new high volume oil pump,which fixed my oil issues. The extreme chattering of the rockers stopped.The wiring I still haven't fixed but I did change carburetors. No longer am I running a gas bucket on the top on my motor. I bought a 650 off a friend and it is amazing the difference it made. Good news is the car now runs and sounds better so much better.

The even bigger news is recently the woman that belonged to the Burlington mopar club that owned the car prior to me actually got a hold of me. This was the "Mopar Betty" that I found out about years ago and told everyone here about when I found out the sundance that I had been looking at online was my actual car. I never thought I would have any contact with her at all. We exchanged a couple messages and I learned a lot. We found out that the guy she sold the car to gave the car to the guy I bought it off of.(he owed him money but didn't have it so the car was given to him) So we are guessing there were only two owners from when she sold it to when I bought it.They didn't do anything to it from what we both gathered of the condition then and now. She said she sold it because it was too much work! I asked if from the pics I showed her if it looked worse,she said it looked about the same. She said the American racing rims that were on it she got for christmas from her kids,she installed new flowmasters in the car,rebuilt the transmission and the windshield she replaced because someone had smashed it.

I'm not sure if anyone here has ever been contacted by a previous owner buts its fascinating to find out all these little questions you had about your car are answered and how that they are talking about a car and its the car you have been dedicating so much time too.

That was very cool to hear from her. Kinda makes the whole thing even more special. Keep at it and maybe one day she can get a ride in her old car again.