: Hi All,
: In January I bought a 63 Dart /6 with 119,000
: miles on the odo.
:
: The engine has always "shuddered"
: under medium to heavy acceleration. I
: thought it was because it was old and needed
: a rebuild. Most of the shuddering went away
: after I put on a rebuilt carb and did a
: valve adjustment and tuneup.
:
: But it still wasn't perfect.
:
: From a dead stop if I floored it, I would feel
: a heavy knocking sound seeming to come from
: the middle-rear floor of the car.
:
: A few weeks ago, I had new rear springs put in
: the car and they raised the back end up
: higher than it was before.
:
: The shuddering completely went away. (But the
: "heavy floor knocking" under hard
: acceleration remained).
:
: Then on a long drive, the shuddering came back
: worse than ever. And only on acceleration
: from slow speeds like before.
:
: I'm convinced that it's the motor mounts,
: because I experimented by putting my foot on
: the brake and giving the engine gas and the
: accelerator pedal "stuck" in the
: "on" position (i.e. the engine was
: turning against the rod linkage).
:
: I checked the rear u-joint (needed some grease)
: and the front pot-joint (seemed OK).
:
: Is this a logical conclusion? I'm wondering why
: the shuddering problem would seem to go away
: for a while after the rear of the car was
: raised? (I'm using MP pro-stock springs).
:
: I'm guessing that the passenger side motor
: mount and tranny mount are bad (they are
: covered with 38 years of oil from the engine
: and probably disintegrated). On
: acceleration, the engine rotates against the
: throttle rod with causes even more
: shuddering by varying the throttle input.
:
: Does this sound about right? Could the new
: springs have caused a problem as well?

:
: All this points to a bad front u-joint. (Ball
: & Trunion) These will make the vibration
: you discribed and the vibration will change
: with the car's ride height.
:
: Use the search function with key word: Ball
: Trunion (search All) There is a good thread
: on this topic titled "Mystery
: Vibration"
: DD

: Thanks Doug!
: I was hoping it wasn't the infamous B&T.
: Do you know of anyone that rebuilds these???

:
: Most driveline shops can do the rebuild but
: they are $$$ to do. (hard to find that outer
: housing)
: Most of these shops try to get you to change to
: the newer "cross type" u-joint
: set-up for which they can provide a
: conversion. (still $$$)
: I have some used housings sitting around and
: sometimes you can "get lucky" just
: by swapping-on a different used housing and
: re-lubing the rollers, something most any
: shop with a press can do.
: DD

: Most driveline shops can do the rebuild but
: they are $$$ to do. (hard to find that outer
: housing)
: Most of these shops try to get you to change to
: the newer "cross type" u-joint
: set-up for which they can provide a
: conversion. (still $$$)
: I have some used housings sitting around and
: sometimes you can "get lucky" just
: by swapping-on a different used housing and
: re-lubing the rollers, something most any
: shop with a press can do.
: DD

: Doc,
: what I have had an impossible time with is
: finding the rubber boot that keeps the dirt
: out of the b&t joint. Any idea where to find
: one?

: I'm going to take the car into the shop on
: Wednesday and let them look at it - from
: what you said, sounds like it's the B&T. I'm
: located here in the Bay Area. Would it be
: possible to maybe roll down to your location
: and buy a decent housing from you this
: weekend??? Then I'll get them to press in
: the rollers.
:
: You can email me at
: <A HREF="mailto:kthomason@pillsburywinthrop.com">kthomason@pillsburywinthrop.com</A> .
:
: k