In high school I had a couple of slant six cars and one had a valve cover that was damaged by seriously over tightening the bolts. The washers cut little semi-circles in the valve cover. I hammered the areas flat and brazed 1/4" washers over the damaged areas. It worked great and required no drilling.

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Joshua

The problem with front rubber oil pan gasket was the metal stand off inserts punching through the pan's sheet metal screwing up the compression of that material. The gasket removed was split from over tightening in two places, being the two lowest bolts at front of pan. It was my fault for not recognizing a problem with the holes during this spring's first attempt to fix this leak. That new gasket did not leak for about 200 miles, than it started slow at first, so I snugged up all pan bolts to 10 in/lbs. That re-torque is what probably destroyed the rubber gasket and punched through the worn holes, shortly after oil was pouring out of front of pan each time engine was shut down.

Now pan is like new at its front rail. The rest of the bolt holes I followed Doug D's book to remove any distortion in pan rail. It should go back together nicely.

In a few minutes I have to change out #6 fuel injector on Mrs wjajr's '07 198,000 mi Nitro, then is reassembly time for the old slant.

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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

The engine is back in the Dart. One of the hood's attachment bolts striped out. It was a problem the came with the car probably caused by cross threading and application of an impact wrench. PO had "fixed" the problem with a self tapping metric bolt. That has worked for the last three hood removals, but not this time.

We ended up re taping whatever captured nut within the hood from 5/16" to 3/8-16. Tap did not cut new thread easily, I suspect the nut Chrysler used was grade 5 or 8. The 3/8" bolt solved the problem. Of course, I did not have 3/8" -16 tap tapered end on hand, just the flat tip type for blind holes that would not start necessitating a trip into town for the right tool. Hood alignment on this car has always been a time burning total PITA.

I'm awaiting delivery of a new throttle pressure cable to replace the one Murphy Esq. snagged and crimped on floor sifter linkage.

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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

Two days ago the new throttle pressure cable arrived late in the day, it got installed the next day. I had forgotten that the kit's cable mounting bracket bolted to transmission was 1/8th inch within contacting the previous owner's replacement floor patch which I had clearanced on '08 with a BFH.

Installing cable turned out to be a royal PITA under the car with two exhaust pipes, cooling lines, and floor shift linkage leaving not enough clearance to slide cable into said bracket. I had to unbolt cross transmission member, drop transmission down an inch or more to have enough room to install cable in its bracket, then snap the cable's end onto the shift lever and snap the ridged plastic extension to end of outer cable sheath. Just no working room even with Trump hands due to all that passes by and attaches to left side of transmission. Once it was installed just two cable length adjustments were needed for correct shift points. Push and click cable length adjustment is a beautiful thing.


Off topic, but filled my day playing red neck garage this week:

On the bright side Mrs wjajr's 198K mile '07 Nitro's check engine light code detected misfire on #6. A coil swap, 6 with 4, then a new injector-(my bad), each step the light came back on within 50 miles of driving. What I should have looked at first was the spark plugs I thought were changed just a year or two ago, or about 15K or less... Plug's gaps were 0.025" over. I guess those plugs had a few more miles and years on them. Time has been flying by this last decade.

The Lebaron's stalling problem at idle seems to have healed it's self after draining its pre carb secondary canister that holds 3 or 4 oz of fuel. I had firstly thought the idle circuit was loaded up with 38 years of crud. I'm not sure what that additional fuel reserve is for on a 92 HP engine. After car sat unused for three or four weeks it started right up, and idled like nothing was amiss. I'll not trust this car to run right for a while, so it is short trips, baby steeps one might say, until it earns my trust back.

It's nice to have all the old junk back up and running.

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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

What do you mean when you say "Trump hands" ? I find myself needing to borrow somebody with hands the size of what an average 5 year old would have to get into some of the places I have to get to on these crappy newer cars.

Several years back the press fixated on Trumps reported small hands implying perhaps he also wore small socks if you get my drift. It was an off hand glib shot at satirical humor. My size M hands with short fingers were not able to reach and seat cable without the aid of large screwdriver a long needle nose pair of pliers, and obligatory cussing for such occasions.

Chapter umteen getting "Sponge Bob Sq Trunk"** back up and running. Last year I installed big bolt pattern B body disk brakes with all the fixens. So I take Bob out on the road for slow rolling sea trials in our neighborhood. Doing so I encountered a few pot holes which I though would test the improved exhaust hanger installed after the cable install thrash. It worked perfectly, but there came loud clank from the left front end, which turned out to be the new Chinese liberated wheel bearing dust cap.

That cap had four little raised dimples that somehow were to keep it securely attached. I added four additional dimples, and re-dimpled the factory dimples in hopes it will stay put. I have my doubts. Is there a source for good fitting dust caps on the planet, in western hemisphere?

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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

This morning I got the rag top Dart's annual state inspection done. Went for a ride, and it's running real nice, shifts correctly, idles down in gear at a stop without double footing it. This chapter is closed.

Now to work on my tan.

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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