Rusty's not very quiet cuda progress

[RUSTY Cuda]

Waiting on parts so I decided to lay out the carpet & see what I'm up against, it doesn't look easy & looks like I have a ton of slicing & dicing to do.
It does have some jute on it.

See how it lays down, any tips on getting it into shape? looks like a bit of extra on the sides? It would have been nice if the dimmer grommet was in, it came separate!
Should I be able to see through it?

fast forward & the cover did arrive, I was kinda hoping the seal was in it already, no luck for me.

got a couple of coats of clear on it.

Now when the sling ring gets here I can attempt to put it all back together!

 

[b-body-bob]

ACC carpet? that looks about like what I put in the Duster. I didn't hold it up to the light so I didn't realize it was that thin.

Take your time. Lay it in there and leave it to help with the wrinkles. Work it around some to figure out how it lays best.. Seems like I remember the back goes in first so it lays under the front where they meet. (could be wrong about that)

Once I got it to where I liked how it was fitting, I put the holes in for the seats with a soldering iron, and put bolts in to hold it steady while I trimmed it where needed. I tried to cut as little as possible.

 

[Dr.Jass]

Take your time. Lay it in there and leave it to help with the wrinkles. Work it around some to figure out how it lays best.. Seems like I remember the back goes in first so it lays under the front where they meet.

Yes, the rear goes down first. It helps to lay the carpet out in the sun on a warm day (if possible) to let it flatten. You can also use a hair dryer or space heater set very low to warm it.

Once I got it to where I liked how it was fitting, I put the holes in for the seats with a soldering iron, and put bolts in to hold it steady while I trimmed it where needed. I tried to cut as little as possible.

The soldering-iron trick is similar to what Stretch and I have both done: Heat up a screwdriver with a propane torch and let it melt the bolt hole through the carpet. It keeps the soldering iron working for solder. Heat up the last few inches of the screwdriver, not just the tip--you want it to keep melting as the hole becomes rounder.

It would have been nice if the dimmer grommet was in, it came separate!

The original carpet didn't have a dimmer grommet.

 

[b-body-bob]

It keeps the soldering iron working for solder

I have one just for this kind of stuff. Actually, it is a cheap pen type that needed a new tip because it wasn't heating like it should, but it works fine for melting through carpet. I bought a decent Weller setup for soldering.

Speaking of which, if you do use an iron or screwdriver or whatever, be careful where you lay it down for both the carpet's and your skin's sake.

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

Funny I was going to lay it in the sun, but the grass was wet, it's layed out in the car for now.
Rear is first, the back of the front one has a seam on the rear end.
I forget how I made the holes in the last one, but a nice sharp HOT awl sounds like a winner!
But now it can hang a while, the sling ring also came today , I'll detour back to the front of the motor & try & get some of that back together!

From your pic it looks like the bulge in the middle is against the engine & the lip is out?

 

[b-body-bob]

My engine doesn't have the slinger but IIRC if you put it in backward it will hit the chain so you know it's wrong.

 

[Dr.Jass]

Bulge against the crank gear, lip out. Believe me, you don't want to hear the noises it makes when it's installed backward.

While we're talking about horrible noises emanating from the crank area:
The factory fan-clutch/water-pump pulley bolts are exactly the same bolts as the crank pulley bolts, except longer. Do not mix them up! If memory serves, the bolts for the crank pulley are only ½" long; if you use ¼"-longer bolts they will hit the snout on the timing cover. You won't know anything's wrong until you start the engine and hear a horrendous grinding from the front. It's a terrifying noise on first start, which is the worst time to hear it, especially if you're breaking in a new cam/lifters (if you shut it off, the cam is doomed). This is one of those things I learned the hard way on my 440.

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

I have the crank pully bolts bagged with the pulley, I have to dig up bolts for the fan, I have those LONG ones from the extension, I'm hoping the 4 bolts from my other clutch will do the trick, you know you never have 4 of the same needed bolts in the spare bolt bag!

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

I gotta grind off that china marking on my cover, that's depressing!

 

[b-body-bob]

I gotta grind off that china marking on my cover, that's depressing!

Meh, you can't see it once it's all together, but having said that. I also remember when we used to make things here.

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

Don't want to get political here but we better start again!

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

I did the hard part first, I slid the sling ring on, at least that went well!
Getting the new seal in was a bit of a battle, it kept popping out on one side, actually bent it a little, straightened as much as possible & added a coat of permatex copper, I hope that was enough to seal it? got my tools ready
emergency backup
skipped the oven deal but got it pretty toasty with the heat gun
homemade tool worked fine.stuck on the water pump, now I have to hunt down the rest of the bolts I believe they are with the brackets that hold the other stiff on?

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

Can't put the pully on till I figure this out.
They say torque to 90 ' lbs., I snugged it down pretty good & stuck the torque wrench on, it spun the motor, so I got my old one out, it spins the motor at around 40' lbs.
Mark stopped over & we looked at his tools almost had one, the holes to go in the bolt holes were 1/4 inch off.
So I put on the locktight & hit it with an electric impact gun, I have no idea what the torque # is.
Any tricks to this?

Oh yea I did try putting the tranny in drive, did nothing.

 

[68R/T]

The reasons why I've learned to save the oil pan install 'til after the timing cover & harmonic balancer. An old trick you may consider is to stuff some clothes line type rope through a spark plug hole. Don't forget to reverse the engine to remove it.

 

[Dr.Jass]

I've just always used two grade 8 bolts in consecutive pulley holes, fully threaded but not enough to hit the timing cover. I then use a large-ish box end wrench looped around one bolt with its handle braced against the other. Obviously, you want to keep the wrench as flat as possible to the balancer to avoid bending the bolts.

An old trick you may consider is to stuff some clothes line type rope through a spark plug hole. Don't forget to reverse the engine to remove it.

This works as well. Just make sure whichever cylinder you use is on the compression stroke. Compressed rope will bend a valve!

 

[b-body-bob]

This works as well. Just make sure whichever cylinder you use is on the compression stroke. Compressed rope will bend a valve!

Take the rockers off on the side you stuff with rope. Gotta love those non-adjustable factory parts.

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

I think I'd try the bolt idea, I'm sure I'd screw something up sticking foreign materials into the engine!
The tool was so close I'll shoot a pic tomorrow.

What kind of torque do you get out of an impact gun?

 

[Dr.Jass]

What kind of torque do you get out of an impact gun?

My ancient DeWalt electric (corded) is 240lb/ft. I got it used in 2002. Many newer cordless electrics go much higher; I assume the same is true of 110V units like mine.

My #1 use for that impact is setting pinion torque on 489 cases, which is "225lb/ft, then whatever extra gets you 20lb/in turning torque on new bearings". I run the DeWalt until it hammers a couple of times and stop, then start again with a "one-thousand three" count. It's a perfect 20lb/in every time. It's the main reason I keep it around since I have an air impact with more than triple that force.

 

[b-body-bob]

What kind of torque do you get out of an impact gun?

It depends on if you make it go Brrrrr, or BRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think that bolt can back out on it's own unless it's not tight at all. Motor's turning clockwise, bolt tightens clockwise. The wheels on the left side of the car turns CCW, so they put left-hand thread studs/nuts on those.

Got a helper? Stick a screwdriver in the flywheel teeth and against motor block or transmission to hold it in place. Or get a cheap flywheel holding tool.

 

[Dr.Jass]

It depends on if you make it go Brrrrr, or BRRRRRRRRRRRR.

So many things in life are dependent on circumstance.

I may be misremembering, but I'm fairly certain I was able to get 90lb/ft on the W2 engine just by having the plugs installed and sneaking up on it on a compression stroke, then giving the torque wrench a quick tug. I know I have done that, but I can't recall for certain if it was that engine.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think that bolt can back out on it's own unless it's not tight at all. Motor's turning clockwise, bolt tightens clockwise. The wheels on the left side of the car turns CCW, so they put left-hand thread studs/nuts on those.

I think that had more to do with reverse force, i.e. braking, on the wheel than anything else. Under decelerative force (braking) it would tend to tighten the nuts. The reason I say that is because by nature, a RH bolt's inertia would tend to loosen it under accelerative force in a CW direction, but I've yet to see a crank bolt on any Chrysler product that was LH thread. They stopped with the LH lugs in MY 1971, long after the early Hemi, B/RB, Poly, Slant Six and LA engine designs were finalized. Compression braking isn't nearly the opposition force of frictional braking.

It's also possible that there's just so much thread engagement--huge bolt, considerable depth of thread--that it was considered impossible that it would loosen.

It's also worth noting that at some point during their respective histories, many car companies used LH threads on the left side of their cars. Chrysler just stuck with it far longer. It's entirely possible the 1969 W23 aluminum wheel debacle finally taught them that "theoretically" and "realistically" don't always align. Those wheels were recalled because the lugnuts wouldn't stay tight leading to cracks and ultimately failures. Clearly thread direction didn't make a lick of difference.