Hi Folks. Happy Pi Day.

Thought I would give an update on my 63 Dart convertible, Lil' Thang.

After many attempts to get my leaky transmission fixed I found the final piece with a leaky park cable which had about 5" of insullation burned and worn off all the way down to the metal braids. I used the SlantSixDan suggestion by putting 5/16" fuel injection hose split down the length, Mopar RTV and hose clamps every 1.5" and this did the
trick, no more transmission oil leaks.

Drove her around and noticed another leak but this one engine oil. I tracked it down to a leaky valve cover gasket so I pulled the cover and cleaned the cover and using some silicone seal I got the gasket to sit properly in the cover. I reinstalled the valve cover and no more oil leaks. I tell you I had the car up and down on ramps and jack stands in my house garage so many times over the winter I felt like I was never going to get the eaking stopped.

Feeling that I could drive and not have to top off any oil or transmission fluid I took her to Shoreline Muffler here in Seattle and had my stock exhaust replaced with 2.5" out to a Walker Quite Muffler and drove her home. Job was done in less than a day and was only $275 with my muffler.

She now sounded pretty good and I could hear the clatter of rockers so valve adjustment is up on the list again. Although she was running well she did not seem to have the power I felt capable so I got to futzing with the timing and rotated the distributor as far as I could. I set timing to about 5 degrees BTDC. A test drove her showed she was surely peppier. So today I decided to check the vacuum advance and had none. I pulled the distributor and took it apart and found that the point plate was not rotating.

Amazing what you can find in a distributor 50+ years old. I found someone at some point had replaced the screw that holds the capacitor for the points with a screw about 3/8" long and it was hitting the plate below and siezing the point mounting plate. I replaced that one with a shorter one and I removed the mounting plate to get to the springs and weights and they were rusty and gummed stuck so I cleaned and lubbed and worked them for about 30 minutes and they loosed up. While cleaning the weights I also found the weirdest thing. When I got the car I replaced the cap and rotor and found that the inner button of the cap was literally gone like someone had cut it out with an exacto-knife and there in the weights was that little button. Too weird.

I put the distributor back together and put it in the car and started the car and sh fired right up where before the timing changes she was a little sluggish in starting. Hit the accelerator and she went vroom so I took her for a ride around the neighborhood and wow she has so much pep now what a change.

Next step is HEI conversion but I have to look into the 14 - 15V output that I get when the car is running before I install the HEI setup.

Hideogumperjr
John in Bothell, WA

_________________
Psychics will soon lead dogs to your body!

1963 Dodge Dart 270 convertible

High voltage charging is caused by voltage drop in electrical system. Voltage drop is a result of several high resistance connections and or high resistance wiring which could be its too small gage, or has damaged insulation allowing its conductors corrode un seen. Keep in mind there are three portions of a circuit that have to be checked: hot side feed by battery & alternator, device served such as lighting or switches, and ground path back to battery.

Following a wiring diagram trace out charging circuit on paper, and than find and understand where the same is located under the hood & dash.

First test ground path of charging circuit using a Volt Ohm meter place read lead on battery negative post, and black lead on each of the following: voltage regulator base, electronic spark controller (orange box) if so equipped; alternator case; conductor end at battery post (this detects poor conductivity of battery cable clamp), and engine block. Record any readings above zero votes.

Second test the hot side, red probe on plus post, and all the above devices where wire attaches. Record any voltages above zero.

Third test across ignition switch, bulkhead connectors, path that is black probe on base of device, red probe on + wire feeding it. Record any voltages above zero.

Now add up all recorded voltages found during test, most will be around 0.1 to ).5 volts and add them up. This is the voltage drop in your charging circuit. Ohms Law states resistances series are added together making one large resistance, and in this case cause resulting in lowering voltage in circuit.

What happens is voltage regulator reads a lower voltage in car's electrical system, and regulates alternator to make up the difference to bring voltage up to normal range of 13.8v to 14.5V depending on temperature, and regulator calibration. In other words if you have a 0.5 volt voltage drop, alternator is regulated to add .5 volts which evens out the voltage as far as the voltage regulator thinks and in turn drives harness voltage higher by a half volt. 14.5 v + 0.5 v = 15 volts

The cure for voltage drop is to clean all connections removing as much corrosion from them as possible, and or replacing some of the brass connections. Ground side of circuit should be corrected to zero drop, same with brass connections. Switches may or may not respond to cleaning where resistance is internal. Once one is able to reduce voltage drop to around 0.1 volt, over charging will stop, and fall back to normal range.

A ground strap or heavy gage conductor must connect engine head, to fire wall. If you find that zero drop on ground path can't be made to charging circuit, a secondary ground path of 10 gage wire can be made up connecting voltage regulator's base, orange box's base, and alternator's case that leads back to negative battery post. A second such ground path can be made for headlights & parking lights which will improve their light output by eliminating a portion of voltage drop in those circuits.

_________________
67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

Thanks Wjajr, I have been working through the grounding circuits on the ole gal. I have run a ground from the alternator to the regulator to the negative terminal. I added locking washers to the VR body to ground. I ran a new 10Ga ground from the firewall to the head and tied the two ammeter lines on the bulkhead together removing the dash ammeter. I will be revisiting the VR body to ground today or tomorrow and clean paint under the VR to make sure I have a good solid ground.
Metering all grounds between negative battery terminal and alternator and VR show <.1 ohm, but I need to re-zero my Fluke digital meter to be sure there is no resistance to be sure even though I have run explicit ground lines between components.
I did replace the stock VR with a transistorized unit back a couple of years ago because of pulsating on the charge circuit and ran the grounding circuits then but only now after installing a voltage meter along with water temp and electrical oil pressure do I see the elevated voltages.
BTW lots of good posts on the charging issues so thanks again for the great posts and help!
Will keep posting on progress.
Cheers!

_________________
Psychics will soon lead dogs to your body!

1963 Dodge Dart 270 convertible

and VR show <.1 ohm,

You want to be reading voltage not ohms or resistance. let the meter do the math...

Also I would use a more robust conductor for ground strap between head and fire wall. There are flat bradded uninsulated ground straps about 3/8th wide 6 to 10 inches long in the electrical aisle at an auto parts store that will handle a higher current demand that could arise between engine and fire wall.

_________________
67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

Thanks for that, I used resistance while checking in the garage with the car off so no current and no voltage drop. I took the car for a drive today and the voltage while driving seemed to stay around 14.5-14.6V and appeared very solid at that voltage.

I have been reading the madelectrical information here: http://www.madelectrical.com/electrical ... orks.shtml which states "14.0 to 14.6V is generally acceptable."

Can you verify this for me?

I looked for a heavier ground cable at Oreillys but their selection was rather poor. I will replace the 10Ga. with the heavier flexible stranded strap when I find one. I went with the 10Ga. because the one I removed was coated 10Ga. but it was pretty crapped out.

Thanks again for the input and feedback, a year ago I felt I would never get to the point I am at now with a running powerful feeling slant six, which would have been impossible without the great help and support from all you folks such as you!

Cheers.[/url]

_________________
Psychics will soon lead dogs to your body!

1963 Dodge Dart 270 convertible

I knew you could get that trans licked John! Keep up the good work!