Chrysler, Vintage and Modern
san_jose_guy
money was invented for handing to women, but buying dances is a chump's game
Wednesday, July 28, 2021 11:50 PM
Friend has got an old Dodge full sized van, late 80's, that he he wants to fix up. I offered to help diagnose an engine problem. It runs so rich that its almost like it is dripping gas out the tail pipe.
Coil springs front, I guess torsion bars, the most distinctive feature of the brand, were only for passenger cars.
Has the 318 cid work horse engine.
But no more left hand threaded lug nuts on the left side.
Friend thinks the Brain failed, electronics box.
Probably it is carbureted and it will have an electronic pick up for the distributor, but timing is still determined mechanically.
It will have an O2 sensor, and this or wiring may have failed.
Likely it will have a duty cycle valve on the carburetor, and this may have failed and this kind of stuff can be real expensive. Or this Brain which must control that could have failed.
Super rich mixture will spoil the motor oil, and it can even wash down cylinder wall and ruin engines quickly.
Worst is often a stuck automatic choke. And such choke will usually have a 12v heater to make it open quickly.
Needs to do front wheel bearings. Seen mid 70's Chrysler Corp passenger cars with sealed bearings, but on this they are still open.
If you ask me, you get it totally cleaned out in solvents, I mean clean like the knives and forks you eat with. Then you put it back together, and with the wheels and the break calipers off, you set it. You use multiple iterations to make sure every thing is seated. Make it stop rotating by tightening the castle nut, then back it up and rotate it again, until you are sure it is right. Set it as carefully as you would set a bicycle hug.
Then use a new cotter pin of the correct diameter and length.
Grease caps can be hard to get off and on without special tools. I have painted locktite black around the seam, like a glue, to make sure it is hermetic.
85mph top speed on the speedometer. This might have been what the gov't wanted back then.
If we grow enough corn and make it into ethanol, then we can restore some of these neat old cars, with their comparatively crude power plant and drive train technologies, and be able to drive them around some.
No hood ornament, but the 5 sided logo is in the center of the steering wheel.
SJG
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