Black Beauty a 66 Satellite E-bay find

[Don Frelier]

I was working on the car at my friend's garage were I store it during the winter.
I don't have my full compliment of tools over there and I didn't leave big chunks of time to work on pulling it out over there so it ended up taking 3 sessions before I had it out.
Dave and I met at the South Butler dragway and we moved the transmission from truckbed to truckbed so he could work on it.
While he was working on it I looked into a part kickdown kit and I called him about the one offered by A&A transmission.
Dave said they had really good stuff. He used to race a 4-door 66 coronet and that's when he learned to rebuild transmissions more out of necessity than anything he told me.
Now he does it as a hobby to keep busy.

 

[Don Frelier]

For last couple transmissions I used a piece of plywood with a carriage bolt on the floor jack to replace the normal "cup".
But the bolt was eating into the wood and it was getting floppy on the jack.
So to install it we made this:

 

[Don Frelier]

It went right in and I got four bolts in.
Even installed the starter but when I slid forward and looked at the flex plate it hit me that I had screwed up.
The torque converter to flexplate bolts were 1/2" in from the holes in the flexplate.
Crap. (well that isn't actually what I said)
So I unbolt everything and drop it down. Measure the hole spacing and head home to look into ordering a different flexplate.

Question:
Anyone ever use the 1" mark on their tape measure to get a more accurate reading?
Well I do sometimes and guess what, I forgot to subract an 1" from my measurement.
Old age is cruel at least for me.

So three days later I get a flexplate identical to the one that won't bolt up.
Lucky me.

Order another one, wait three days.
At least this one looks smaller so I bring it over and loctite the bolts on the crank and torque them to spec.
Jack it up and bolt it in.

The pinion seal had started leaking after Carlisle last year as well so I ordered a new seal for that figuring I might as well get that done while the car was up pretty high.
Got the bolt off but the yoke wouldn't budge. Had to bring a puller over and still no luck.
Hit it with the propane torch still wouldn't move so I worked on the passenger header for a bit then hit it again with the torch.
Finally the yoke came off and I chiseled off the seal. (not the easiest job, maybe I didn't go about it the right way)
Of course the seal I ordered didn't fit. Turned out to be my mistake.
The fluid looked good (yellow) and the pinion bearing spun smoothly in there so I just needed the right seal and I was getting closer to driving this thing.

 

[Big bill]

2022: Transmission removal, rebuild and install

This project seemed to take forever.

The front seal leaked almost from day 1. A small amount after the 1st winter, a bigger puddle after the 2nd and a pool of fluid after the 3rd.
Coming back from Carlisle it seemed to slip going into 3rd when it was cold so I was pretty sure it was low on fluid.
Just outside of Williamsport we made a gas stop and I was thinking I'd put a half quart in but I changed my mind just dumped the whole thing in.
Within a couple minutes my son pulled up next to me and motioned to pull over.
He said you're leaking fluid bad.
Oh boy... we've got a long way to get home.
I decided to drive it slow for a while and see what happened.
After about 10 miles I pulled over we checked the fluid and it seemed okay.
We made it the rest of the way home without incident.

I think the next time we drove it there was no second gear. 1st seemed fine and you could manually hold it in 1st then peddle it a bit put it back in drive and find 3rd.
It seemed fine in 3rd no slipping or anything but I knew it would have to come apart for a rebuild.
I drove it sparingly until mid September when the Charger drivetrain project was completed.

I started around mid-May this year to jack it up and start taking removing the transmission.
Earlier this spring I bought a NOS Hurst shotgun torque converter from @Big bill.

My friend Dave who built the transmission in my Charger gladly agreed to rebuild the transmission in the Plymouth.

View attachment 1345145
View attachment 1345146

I put one in my car and love it at the race this past weekend the car shot out like buck Shot ......

 

[Big bill]

I forgot about the flex plate needing to be smaller as well and had order I new one .

 

[AR67GTX]

Yeah, I do the start at the 1” mark on the tape trick all the time. Usually I remember but I’ve had a few fails.

I‘ve never had much luck with those seal removers, especially where the shaft protrudes beyond the seal. I just go ahead take a punch and start driving the outer lip inward and work around the edge. By the time I have about a third of it caved inward, it falls out.

I like your Jack adaptor plate.

 

[Don Frelier]

So I did get it back together last fall but it started to run really crappy.
Sucked gas like no tomorrow. (Like 6-8 mpg)
I had a couple free hours one weekend so I took the filter off and cut it apart.
Full of rust. The tank was a mess when I got the car, I replaced it and backflushed the line and blew it out but it's still the original line.
I think pounding on the yoke loosened up the rust in there.

I took the carb apart as well and cleaned everything out.

After I put it back together it ran great (like it's supposed to...)
Next I pulled out the air cleaner "won" at our auction for @CudaChick1968 donated by my good friend @HawkRod.
Looks pretty nice to me.

So the last couple times I drove it it made me joyful after not running it all year and then having it run crappy after the time and effort of the transmission,converter and pinion seal project.

 

[HawkRod]

Don,

That car is just a super find - I love it! (And, of course, it is made batter by the air cleaner topping the motor!!! )

Getting crap out of the gas tank can be a royal pain in the butt. When I first got my 70 Road Runner on the road (and before restoration) my tank had a fine, almost whitish silt in it. I tried cleaning it out, running two filters, etc. It continued to gunk up my carburetor. Finally it left me stranded. After I towed it back, I ditched the original tank and got a new one - never another problem after that!

Hopefully you can get yours cleaned out. If not, at least they are reproduced!

 

[AR67GTX]

Yuck - I’ve never replaced the filter in my 67. This reminds me I need to do so.

 

[Don Frelier]

Don,

That car is just a super find - I love it! (And, of course, it is made batter by the air cleaner topping the motor!!! )

Getting crap out of the gas tank can be a royal pain in the butt. When I first got my 70 Road Runner on the road (and before restoration) my tank had a fine, almost whitish silt in it. I tried cleaning it out, running two filters, etc. It continued to gunk up my carburetor. Finally it left me stranded. After I towed it back, I ditched the original tank and got a new one - never another problem after that!

Hopefully you can get yours cleaned out. If not, at least they are reproduced!

I put a new tank on it but the line is original.
I have a new line here so that will be installed shortly after the car comes out of hibernation.
I'm really happy with the converter and transmission, it has more snap at lower speeds.

 

[Don Frelier]

So it was over 2 years ago that I decided to order seat covers for the back seat.
The ones on the front were from PUI (via Summit Racing).
Well these took like 19 months to finally get produced and delivered.
Holy slow delivery Batman: WOW, thought they would never ship these: 581 days ago I ordered this

Late winter gets pretty boring these days.
Before I took the car for winter storage I pulled out the back seat so I could work on it over the winter.
Last week I redid the rear with new foam.
The original burlap with fine wires running the length inside was not re-useable.
The cording on the ends was ripping.
So I decided to cut down the old cover and hogring it to the top of the frame as a base.
My brother picked up some extra 1-1/2" foam as he was doing the seats on his 65 Coronet.
The bottom turned out perfectly.

The top had all the original burlap and padding but it was not full enough under the cover so I bought a mattress foam topper and added it beneath the cover.
Not quite as nice as the bottom but it will do.

 

[khryslerkid]

Heck I forgot you were working on this!

Looking good Don

 

[JJordan1173]

This is a great project and I appreciate your narrative. Cannot wait to hear more. Thanks for posting!

 

[Lemon_Belve]

I put a new tank on it but the line is original.
I have a new line here so that will be installed shortly after the car comes out of hibernation.
I'm really happy with the converter and transmission, it has more snap at lower speeds.View attachment 1432675

At which rpm Stall the Converter now on your Car? Which Diameter have the TC. I get the same now for my earlie 727

 

[Don Frelier]

It's an 11 inch I think.
Rated 2,000 - 2,800 rpm