1973 Road Runner

[Dieselholic]

It's a long story so I'll give you guys the short version. I bought this car quite a few years ago off of eBay. This is what it looked like.


It was originally a 400/727 car. When I bought the car it had a 440/23 spline A833. It had not run in 20 or more years. It was also missing the gear carrier in the rear end and a few other things. I decided I was going to blow it apart and completely restore it. Then it sat like this for the next 7 years.



So after getting sick of looking at it this fall and not having ever driven the car, I decided that I wanted to throw it back together and enjoy it until I decide to have it restored. So far I have the whole front end back together with new bushings, and ball joints. I have new pieces for the rest of the front suspension waiting to go on, and new rear leaf springs are on the way from Springs N Things. I ended up finding a different 1973 440 that was in better shape and slapping it together with some new heads. So this is where I'm at now.





I have posted this thread on other forums in the past but they were never much good for information. I'm hoping I can find more here!

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I bought the car with the information that the a833 was an 18 spline out of a late 60's charger. It's actually a 23 spline, and I think it is the correct shifter location for the late 60s b body. Will the 70s dual shifter tail housing work on this transmission? Then which shifter location is the correct one for the b body? Everything I found online said that the front shifter location was for the b body and the rear is for the e body. But based on the location of the shifter hole on the new 4 speed hump I bought, it seems like I need to use the rear shifter mount.

 

[super-bee_ski]

Gorgeous car!
Welcome aboard.
Thank you for joining the forum.

Again, wonderfull car you have there!

 

[Dieselholic]

Gorgeous car!
Welcome aboard.
Thank you for joining the forum.

Again, wonderfull car you have there!

Thank you!

 

[idrivemopar]

Welcome to the fun. Looks like a fun car! Glad to see another 73RR. I bought one just that same color back in the 80's but didn't have room for it, so I sold it. Just an FYI, your front grille should be black with silver on the four raised areas going across, but that's an easy fixup.

 

[Dieselholic]

Welcome to the fun. Looks like a fun car! Glad to see another 73RR. I bought one just that same color back in the 80's but didn't have room for it, so I sold it. Just an FYI, your front grille should be black with silver on the four raised areas going across, but that's an easy fixup.

Thanks! I figured that's what the grille is supposed to be. Searching google image brings up Road Runners with all sorts of different color grilles that I wasn't sure. I need to fix this one or find a different grille. Quite a few cracks in it.

 

[Meangene83]

Ok asked that same question about the rear or forward shifter mount locations.

The answer I got from a few people was that the rear mounts where for E and B body cars.
The Bbodies with bucket seats used the rear mount location,
while the Bbodies with bench seats used the forward mount location.

Read through my "383 engine rebuild thread" I think the info is somewhere in there?

hope this helps.

 

[idrivemopar]

Thanks! I figured that's what the grille is supposed to be. Searching google image brings up Road Runners with all sorts of different color grilles that I wasn't sure. I need to fix this one or find a different grille. Quite a few cracks in it.

Its hard to find one that isn't already cracked or missing pieces. Best thing to do, and what I had to do with mine, well actually two that I have, is get some plastic weld and repair the cracks and sand and hit with adhesion promoter then paint it with low gloss. You can do the silver with a paint pen or, paint the silver first and tape it off then spray with black.

 

[Dieselholic]

Ok asked that same question about the rear or forward shifter mount locations.

The answer I got from a few people was that the rear mounts where for E and B body cars.
The Bbodies with bucket seats used the rear mount location,
while the Bbodies with bench seats used the forward mount location.

Read through my "383 engine rebuild thread" I think the info is somewhere in there?

hope this helps.

Thank you very much! The transmission I have has the mount up front. My car has buckets and the transmission tunnel moves the shifter hole way back, and everything I found online said the rear mount was e body only. So thank you! Now I just need to find a dual mount tail housing

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Its hard to find one that isn't already cracked or missing pieces. Best thing to do, and what I had to do with mine, well actually two that I have, is get some plastic weld and repair the cracks and sand and hit with adhesion promoter then paint it with low gloss. You can do the silver with a paint pen or, paint the silver first and tape it off then spray with black.

I'll do that. So the 4 horizontal lines across the grille are silver?

 

[idrivemopar]

Here is a reference picture for your grille



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Here is a close up of the side area.

 

[Dieselholic]

Here is a reference picture for your grille

View attachment 236199

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Here is a close up of the side area.

View attachment 236201

did you restore that one? If so how did you go about it?

 

[idrivemopar]

Yes, I did restore this one, basically as I described above. Best thing to do, and what I had to do with mine, well actually two that I have, is get some plastic weld and repair the cracks and sand and hit with adhesion promoter then paint it with low gloss. You can do the silver with a paint pen or, paint the silver first and tape it off then spray with black. One thing to remember is once its repaired and ready to reinstall, don't over torque the screws holding it in place, this tends to lead to the cracks in them, just make sure they are snug so it doesn't move around.

 

[Dieselholic]

Just waiting for more parts to show up, but here's some more pictures for you guys that like those.



Cleaned up the torsion bars in the parts washer


Can still see the paint marks on the torsion bars




1968 Plymouth Intake that came off of the old 440 that was in the car (Could see the original turquoise when I blasted them.)


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Forgot this one

 

[Dieselholic]

Leaf springs and u bolts showed up today

 

[SaskRunner]

Just waiting for more parts to show up, but here's some more pictures for you guys that like those.







View attachment 237047



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What type of rad do you have? thats a 72 and down water pump.

 

[Dieselholic]

What type of rad do you have? thats a 72 and down water pump.

Ah, good catch! I didn't even notice. Good thing it was only 40 bucks right?

 

[SaskRunner]

If you got that for 40 your doing good.

 

[Dieselholic]

If you got that for 40 your doing good.

I bought it off a friend who wasn't going to use it. It's not a mopar performance housing, some off brand thing. I'll just sand blast and rebuild my old one.

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Well for the first time in 6 years she is back on at least 2 tires. Rear end is mounted temporarily since it needs new everything including a center section. My goal right now is to get the car on 4 wheels so I can move it out of the corner of the shop a little easier. I put the new rear leaf springs in last night with new bushings, bolts, and shackles. Just waiting on torsion bar locks and seals, and the torsion bar mount bushings, then I can get the front down on wheels.

 

[runnin74]

Where'd you get your springs?

 

[rog_allen]

in my 71 ssp I used a trany a833 ,cast bellhousing and 11 inch flywheel out of a 69 RR the bellhouseing uses a different z-bar that the 10 1/2 inc used in 71 and newer b-bodys ...
mine trany only had the forward location shift mount for buddy seat bench seat cars ,, needed to is the bowtie shifter mount used in 71 and newer witch sets the shifter up and back six inches .. it all worked fine .......... then the rear trany mount was off about inch and half , 69 uses a flat trany mount then in middle of 71 changed to a spool mount .. but I found if you put that spool mount on backwards it lines right up ..... everything turned out great !!!
so you can do two difrent things .. find a newer trany with rear shifter mount or .... switch your floor hump to the forward location .. they are pre molded and nothing to dong the switch ... my car was an auto and I had to do the same .. hope this helps

 

[Dieselholic]

Where'd you get your springs?

http://www.springsnthings.com/

They need to know year of car, motor size I believe, and if you are going with the original set up with the isolators. I'm keeping the original set up with the rubber isolators. The springs were $250 for the pair with new front bushings pressed in. They also sell the rear shackles, new bolts, and u bolts.

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in my 71 ssp I used a trany a833 ,cast bellhousing and 11 inch flywheel out of a 69 RR the bellhouseing uses a different z-bar that the 10 1/2 inc used in 71 and newer b-bodys ...
mine trany only had the forward location shift mount for buddy seat bench seat cars ,, needed to is the bowtie shifter mount used in 71 and newer witch sets the shifter up and back six inches .. it all worked fine .......... then the rear trany mount was off about inch and half , 69 uses a flat trany mount then in middle of 71 changed to a spool mount .. but I found if you put that spool mount on backwards it lines right up ..... everything turned out great !!!
so you can do two difrent things .. find a newer trany with rear shifter mount or .... switch your floor hump to the forward location .. they are pre molded and nothing to dong the switch ... my car was an auto and I had to do the same .. hope this helps

Thank you! I'm still trying to decide what to do with the tranny situation. Definitely keeping the a833, but not sure if I want to find a complete newer model.