Grendel lives...resurrection of a 1970 Charger 500

[Coelacanth]

Engine bay update. I had to buy two of these K & N 60-1280 3" air cleaner assemblies; had to return the first one because it included a filter that was a half-inch too big and there was no way it would fit the sandwich. Must've been a manufacturer packing mistake because the second one was perfect. There are still a few of these available at Canadian Tire stores for a very reasonable price of $129.98 CAD. You can barely get just the filter for $100-ish.

 

[Coelacanth]

Another item of business after replacing the gunked-up, leaking gas tank with a new one is to also replace the old single fuel line with a new set of fuel and return lines. I noticed while popping out the old clips that the clip hole for one mount point was rusted out and there were other areas of minor surface rust along the frame and body pinch welds. I didn't want to simply snap in the new clips without doing something to improve the surface rust situation to better protect it in the future, but as Grendel isn't a rotisserie resto, the goal is just to better protect from future rust in the weaker areas under the car.

The one clip mount hole that was rusted out was cleaned and prepped for some epoxy putty, then roughed up with sandpaper to prep for DOM16. I will drill a new mount hole an inch or so ahead of the now patched-over old hole.

I wire-brushed all areas that had surface rust, degreased thoroughly and brushed on DOM16. It's not show quality but better than leaving it as it was.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that squeezing in the rear section of the fuel lines where they needed to be, ahead of the fuel tank, was a real challenge. I found that removing the tailpipe from the last exhaust hanger allowed me to pull down the tailpipe an inch or two, which was helpful in getting the end sections of the fuel lines positioned properly.

 

[Coelacanth]

I wasn't happy with how my ignition wires were routed, especially the two on each side at the back of the motor. It's something that annoyed me for years. Although I did already neatly arrange my wires from the front for the most part, seeing those passenger side wires hanging off the shock bolt and dangling down loosely, and the driver side wires dangling randomly around the steering shaft, it was time to re-think the routing to make it work better.

I picked up a Moroso wire loom kit and, re-thinking my various existing wire separators, I finally got the wires routed in a much better way where they're all positioned away from the engine components and exhaust manifolds and don't have so much loose slack where the rear-most 4 wires route down to their plugs.

The two rear wires on the passenger side look like they're resting along the manifold, but they're actually a good inch or two above it. The 4-wire separator at the front of the valve cover also keeps them away from the valve cover so they won't rattle.

I just wish I could afford to pull the engine and paint the block and engine bay...someday that'll get done.

 

[Coelacanth]

One of my tasks this summer was to get rid of the LH thread studs on the driver side and replace them with RH studs. I bought the correct ones for the drums and front disks, and they looked identical comparing them (other than the thread direction). However, even with an impact gun, I couldn't get them to seat all the way. Any tips? I did some reading and others have experienced the same hassles. I'm probably going to bring the axle to a machine shop to see if they can press them in properly. I even bought a stud removal disk and tried with a breaker bar but after getting only one stud mostly done, the disk would just spin and wouldn't pull the other studs in any further.

While I was at it, I cleaned up the brakes.

Second thing: When I pulled the axle, I noticed there was a film of rubbery silicone in between that flat inner flange and the axle housing. Is that normal? In the pic below, the silicone was around the surface where the 2 visible bolts are. Is there supposed to be some kind of gasket material there?

 

[ckessel]

I've always used a press for the studs for out and in. There should be a foam gasket in that area of question but I have used silicone in the past. Are you using Green bearings or tapered roller for the axles?

 

[Coelacanth]

I've always used a press for the studs for out and in. There should be a foam gasket in that area of question but I have used silicone in the past. Are you using Green bearings or tapered roller for the axles?

Thanks for the tip, that's what I was thinking too to get those studs pressed in to seat properly. Tapered roller bearings are in there now, I'm inclined to leave them in, I'll just re-grease them. Is there any particular kind of silicone recommended for this?

 

[ckessel]

Grey for gear oil. Even though the bearing gets greased and you have an inner seal in the housing tube. If you haven't already, look up the procedure for setting the bearing adjustments. Either here somewhere of in the FSM.

 

[Coelacanth]

Grey for gear oil. Even though the bearing gets greased and you have an inner seal in the housing tube. If you haven't already, look up the procedure for setting the bearing adjustments. Either here somewhere of in the FSM.

Is that necessary if I'm only removing the driver side axle? I thought the adjustment was done on the passenger side. I only removed the driver side axle to get the wheel studs to seat properly.

 

[ckessel]

Probably not necessary, but...not a bad idea just to make sure all is groovy.

 

[Coelacanth]

With some help, I got the front bumper and grille installed. Grendel is beginning to have a face again!

 

[Coelacanth]

From what I've read, most people install the entire grille and pop-up headlights fully assembled in the bumper before installing the bumper on the car. But not me, because I brainfarted and thought I could install the headlight covers afterward. Well, even after removing the headlights and buckets to make room, there was still no way the headlight covers would fit in there.

However, I managed to find a way to get them installed without pulling the damn bumper off again. There will be some choice swear words but it's doable. It also showed me how clever the Dodge engineers were when they designed this car.

NOTE: This was done with headlights & buckets removed. The front valance also hasn't been installed yet. Here's the trick:

1. First, you must unscrew the inner pivot shaft from the headlight cover as there's no way it'll fit with the shaft installed.

2. With the pivot shaft removed, you can now get the cover into position. The tricky part is getting the funky screw with the wider flat surface through the outer bushing on the fender side of the headlight bracket and install the nut on the outer end. With the valance removed, I was able to reach in with 2 ratcheting wrenches to tighten that nut on so that the outer side of the headlight cover is in place.

3. With the outer end of the cover in position, you can now push the disassembled pivot shaft through the grille frame hole before reinstalling the pivot shaft. How are you going to get the screw to reinstall it through the vertical steel part of the grille frame, you ask? That's where the engineers' ingenuity was evident. See that hole in the grille frame next to the pivot shaft? I raised the headlight cover about 3/4 of the way and put something in there to keep it in place, and threaded the screw to reinstall the pivot shaft through that hole. Cool.

4. With the pivot shaft reinstalled, everything is in position. Install the e-clip on the pivot shaft and tighten the nut on the outer end of the headlight cover, on the fender side.

Done!

 

[Coelacanth]

I was wondering about reinstalling the headlight motor and concerned if I installed it without the rotation being centered, I'd turn on the lights and the motor would want to rotate the wrong direction and damage the motor. But reading the FSM, it's actually pretty easy.

With the motor removed, rotate the adjustment knob until 2 marks on the motor where the shaft rotates, are lined up. Run the square rod through the hole in the motor and install the motor onto the bracket. Slip on the V-shaped retaining clips on each end of the rod. Then, raise each headlight cover about halfway and slip each end of the rod into the headlight cover pivot shaft slot. Slip the retaining clips into position on the pivot shafts. Easy-peasy, easier than I expected.

You'll notice I didn't reuse the original height adjustment screws; even threaded all the way in, the headlight covers wouldn't line up enough, so I used some longer stainless hex-head screws. Now they line up perfectly.

And now Grendel has her blacked-out goth grille completed.

 

[ckessel]

That sure looks cool!

 

[Coelacanth]

I took care of a minor detail in the engine bay...I was dreading disconnecting the bulkhead connectors on the firewall, not knowing how bad they'd look as I don't think I ever unplugged them since I bought the car in 1986. I assume they were disconnected at least once a few decades ago when the engine was rebuilt, but you hear nothing but horror stories about these bulkheads.

Before unplugging the connectors, I sprayed a bit of WD-40 on a paintbrush and cleaned the area up.

I was more than a little surprised to see nothing funky going on, no scorchies or melties. That's a win!

The connector spades all looked good, too. I shot everything with contact cleaner, applied dielectric grease and reconnected them. A minor detail but seems like one less thing to worry about.

 

[Coelacanth]

I had to pull the LF rotor to replace the LH-thread studs with normal RH studs. I will also replace the tired front shocks with a pair of Sachs/TRW #030816 shocks.

The lower control arm bump stops look good, but the UCA bump stop, at least on the driver side, is totally mashed and both sides will be replaced. The steering parts look fine but the sway bar bushings need replacing.

Disk brake backing plates need to be sandblasted and refinished. Rotors and pads still look good and have plenty of meat, they'll just get a good cleaning. Bearings will be re-packed.

 

[Coelacanth]

It looks like I will be replacing the upper control arm bump stops, they're pretty much mashed flat. The sway bar bushings and end links also need to be replaced. I also ordered the Moog K7103 offset control arm bushings to get more caster.

One of the caliper guide pins had a rounded head so I have some new ones ready to install. Of the 4 brake pads, 3 were good, but one was ground down beyond the rivets and wearing unevenly, that wasn't a good discovery. The inside surface of the passenger side rotor was scored so I'll bring both rotors in to be resurfaced. I'll have to check if the passenger side caliper is sticking.

While I wait for parts to ship and for rotors to be turned, I can't do much else with the front end so I did some planning for how to install some Scat ProCar Sportsman Racing seats I picked up locally for $200. I will need to fabricate a simple adapter plate that has outer holes spaced to fit the original seat brackets, and inner holes spaced to fit the ProCar seats. The idea is to have 2 adapter plates of heavy steel for each seat, one to fit the left track and one for the right. Scat makes an adapter kit for Chargers but looking at what I was working with, they're overkill, others have said they raise the seat a bit too much, and they're of course expensive. One thing I noticed about the ProCar seats is they're much lighter than the Charger seats...and should be more comfy too. They also fold forward, which is important as getting into the back seats of our cars isn't easy if the seats don't fold forward.

The Charger seat bracket mounting holes are 12" apart, front-to-back, on the left & right side of each seat; the ProCar seat mounting holes are 10.75" apart. The Charger bracket holes are 14.75" wide, left-to-right; the ProCar seat mounting holes are 13.5" wide. With a little math and careful measuring, it should be easy to drill four 3/8" holes in each adapter plate (2 per seat), bolt the ProCar seat to the inner holes, then bolt the Charger brackets to the outer holes. Since I'll be using the original Charger brackets, there's no need to change anything to bolt the modded assembly to the floor. Each plate will be 14" long and 3 to 4" wide.

I'll check with my neighbor for some metal, he's a welder. I hope I can test this fitment before it gets winter cold here.

 

[ckessel]

Kudo's on the DIY seat mounts. I got the universal ones for my 65, nothing made by them for that and made mount frames that are welded to the SFC's. Nice substantial mount thats not relying on the sheetmetal floor. Don't have seats yet, thats down the road, but I did sit my butt in many at their display while at SEMA so I know which ones to get.
On the rotors being turned. When you turn them, you make them thinner which makes it easier for them to overheat and cause chatter. Compare the cost of getting turned to buying a new pair.

 

[Coelacanth]

On the rotors being turned. When you turn them, you make them thinner which makes it easier for them to overheat and cause chatter. Compare the cost of getting turned to buying a new pair.

Point taken. I was disappointed to see any scoring at all because the 3 other pads all had plenty of meat left, and the rotors otherwise also had good surfaces and thickness, other than the passenger side inner. I had to do some searching around just to find a shop that still has a machine to turn rotors & drums...it's something we did all the time in service shops back in the day; nowadays, everyone wants you to buy new rotors. Clearly there's a profit margin playing a part. ;)

 

[ckessel]

If you're not one that drives pedal to the metal on both pedals, you'll probably be ok. Another thing to look at is are there hills around your hood. When coasting, do you use the brake all the way down or downshift and let the engine hold it back on speed? Me, since I grew up with driving a manual, I still downshift for coasting downhill. Doesn't matter if it's a stick or slush box. When I worked at the dealers, it was not uncommon to have soccer moms come in with worn out brakes after only 10k miles. You would watch them drive and its mash the gas till just before the stop/turn, then mash the brake, then nail the gas again. Killed the pads and rotors. A couple of times the tech tried to surface the rotor but the warping happened sooner due to lack of material to absorb the friction heat.

 

[Coelacanth]

I'm definitely not a brakerider. My car's an auto and not too many hilly regions where I live, and my highway driving would be rather infrequent, though that makes for slow wear-and-tear on the brakes. The city where I live is a suburb of a much bigger city so there won't be much stoplight-to-stoplight driving. For one of four pads to be worn down to the rivets, there must be an issue with the caliper...could be something as simple as slide pins needing lubrication, or something more. I'll look into that.