Those look nice John!

_________________
Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

Thanks, I think it will turn out nice.

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

Dang, very pretty! Can't wait to see the car in person.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines

Thanks Lou, and yea, me to on getting the car out!

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

The grill parts are painted, polished and installed.
Like I did on the 83 D150 I like to add a small amount of customization to my vehicles.

I still have all of the OE 68 Barracuda grill and head lamp surround parts, and in doing this conversion none of the OE grill or lamp surround mounting points were modified, so the OE grill and surrounds could be reinstalled easily. That was one of the goals of this project, to be able to take it back to OE if desired. It would not be insurmountable to restore the 67 Dodge Cornet grill back to useable condition in a B body.

Have one more big item to get done, The ring and pinion in the 8.75 is an original Mopar unit. Probably has lot of miles on it and it is just noisy, has a whine.
I have a new 3:55 gear set, minor install kit and a gasket set on order from Dr Diff.
That is next weeks project.

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

working on the 8.75
observed a leak at the driver side rear wheel, also wanted to resolve the gear noise, so why not?
Lets get it fixed.

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

The differential is out and the new parts have arrived

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

Sweet!

_________________
Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

The disassembly is complete,
will put it back together with the new ring and pinion tomorrow.
I plan to re use the bearing sets.

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

The differential is assembled, plan is to put it back in tomorrow.

I used a few pieces of scrap iron to build a frame to mount the differential housing to my engine rollover. That worked out well.
Later in the process when setting up the back lash I attached a strip of steel to the housing to hold the magnetic dial indicator base.
Worked great to be able to slide the base right in on a tooth with out any fixture adjustments.

Some particulars on the final set up:

The final large bearing shim thickness ended up at .0970, with the OE gear set it was .0950
The pinion bearing shim thickness ended up at .0395, with the OE gear set it was .0510

Torque to turn only the pinion 10 to 11 inch lb
Torque to turn the complete assembly 25 inch lb
Backlash in four places spaced around the ring gear
.0075
.0075
.0008
.0100

Installed new ring gear bolts
For the pinion nut, the FSM specifies 240 FT lbs, Dr Diff says that is wrong and the correct value is 170 Ft lbs.
Installed a new nut and washer and I went with 185 FT lbs and a drop of Red Loctite

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

Sure is nice when a plan comes together. I eyeballed the tilt and clocking of the axel housing mounted in the 68 Barracuda and made a platform to hold the assembled 742 differential on my floor jack to match that tilt and angle. Strapped the housing to the platform and rolled it under the car, lifted the differential with the jack, rolled the jack back and BOOM, it was in, it may have taken me more time to type this than to get the differential back in. That was nice.

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

Sweet!

_________________
Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

Drove the 68 Barracuda out of the garage yesterday. I had a list of projects that I wanted to get done when I drove it in the garage early last November. The car was running and drivable, the projects were aimed at making the car more of what it can be.

One of the project items that still is not right, when I put the roller rockers on, I also added a B3 valve train geometry kit. The B3 kit raised the rocker arm shaft around .230 which caused the roller rockers to contact the valve cover. I had made modifications to the VC to address the clearance issue, but they were not enough. The rockers were hammering pretty hard against the VC on the initial start. I added a second VC gasket. That stopped the pounding, but the rockers are still close as with my hand on the VC with the engine running I can feel a light tapping.
I believe that I will take the existing VC that I have already modified and section it and weld in a 1/2 in band to raise the top.

The good news is the motor fired up from its 6 month slumber without an issue. I drove the car around the neighborhood and it seems fine.

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

They make taller VC's and Valve cover spacers for common engines for that problem. Not so much on the slant... as you know. So you will be building your own.

I bet I could draw one up for the AutoCAD, then have send cut send make a 1/2" Spacer outta Aluminum.

Greg

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http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

Aussie speed is supposed to have a VC spacer.
I asked about it when looking at their cast cover.
Haven't heard back.
I guess I should go shake that tree again.

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Hyper_pak