A bit of history. Grandpa bought this car in 1971 in a dealership in Mexico City that no longer exists. It came with the 225 motor, the holley 1920 single barrel carburetor. Original color was olive green. Haven't checked the invoice but I think he got it with other "options"

Grandpa died in 1978 and the car came to be my grandma's. The car got painted yellow with black top and two black "racer" strips on the hood. Eventually she left Mexico City to live fulltime in Los Angles caring for my great grandparents.

Once Dad took over the car several changes were/had to be made.
First he decided to paint the car in what used to be called "Cappo di Monte white" which is basically white with a slight pink undertone that becomes obvious when the car sits in the sun. Over time it has degenerated to a more prounced pink color due to the color going out of production and not being available when repaints have been done.
Second, I cannot remember exactly what happened, but in winter 1984 on a trip from Mexico City to Los Angeles the engine block broke. We did not notice until we got to LA. My great grandfather, a Senior mechanic for UPS, noticed something the morning after we arrived and he was the one who made the diagnosis. Having no other option, at the end of the holidays we travelled back to Mexico City. The engine held and once home Dad got a new block. The rest of the parts stayed.
Third, mom had a rough time handling the standard steering so Dad had it changed to power steering. This meant a new damper with two grooves had to be installed. Dad also had a 7-blade fan put in as the stock one seemed to get too close to the power steering pulley.
Fourth, Dad was having issues with the original carb so he went ahead and changed the intake to accept a carter 2bbl. A two-filter system was installed to take care of the badly soiled gasoline that used to be so common in Mexico. As a teenager I eventually adapted the "old" choke set up to handle the new carb.
Fifth, a series of changes were made to the electrical system. Stock regulator was changed to a solid state one. The headlights were updated to H4 so a power increase module was put in. Starter motor was requiring frequent repairs that were diagnosed to be originating from the wiring so it got updated and another power module/breaker was installed.

I've taken over the car since this summer 2014. First change has been taking care of the fuel line as suggested by SlantSixDan HERE
Next will be ignition as in HReRE

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'71 Dodge Dart, old Chrysler Corp.
My slant 6 will never, ever, be unrepairable

Since Dad thought of putting in two fuel filters, the pump, line and carb have been cleaner and less prone to giving grief. Mexico's main problem with gas is all the aging gas station tanks having lots of dirt/oxide.
Fast and dirty job with the fuel line mod. The 90° fittings were hand made from the old fuel line for a bit less than 5 bucks. As more things are done I'll clean up the hose routes and such.

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'71 Dodge Dart, old Chrysler Corp.
My slant 6 will never, ever, be unrepairable

Muy bien!

Sounds like a nice family treasure. More pictures please!

When the headlights were updated to H4 bulbs, a power module was installed. It's Japanese made...dunno if they're still around.

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'71 Dodge Dart, old Chrysler Corp.
My slant 6 will never, ever, be unrepairable

Please post some pictures of the exterior of the car. The Darts in México had a slightly different body style. I used to see a lot of them in México City, but they have sort of disappeared. I have the U.S. version of the '71 dart. I would love to have the Mexican version. Good luck with the car.

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'71 Dart Swinger

The reflective material inside the stoplights and reverse had seen better days so I decided to make an experiment tonight. I cut a couple of pieces of ReynoldsWrap thick aluminum foil and carefully gave it the light's cup form. Using stick adhesive (pritt) I've adhered one each to the stoplights.
Voilà I've got much improved lights. Picture doesn't do it justice but it works! I think I'll do the same with the front square amber lights.

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'71 Dodge Dart, old Chrysler Corp.
My slant 6 will never, ever, be unrepairable

Indeed Darts were ubiquitous as many of them were taxis and family cars. Unfortunately, misguided pollution programs in Mexico City have relegated anything older than 1994 to garages, 5-day weeks or junkyards.
And I say misguided because science has shown that the current programs only work as a stopgap measure since given enough time they actually increase pollution as they encourage the purchase of more cars. Since the program's inception the number of vehicles has increased by 12-25%. Other ideas must be considered for the future.
Also, it's ironic that my '71 Dodge Dart, 225" motor, points ignition, give me more MPG than my 1998 Dodge Grand Caravan 3.3L

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'71 Dodge Dart, old Chrysler Corp.
My slant 6 will never, ever, be unrepairable

That is reasonable as the Caravan is close to a 1000 pounds heaver and has a lot more frontal area to push through the air than the Dart.

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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 is what Cappo di Monte White looks in the morning...a nice subdued pink. Still have the original hubcaps and rim rings. Although one is missing part of the plastic insert.

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'71 Dodge Dart, old Chrysler Corp.
My slant 6 will never, ever, be unrepairable

We just had a couple of days on non-stop rain in the area. Terrible news for my Dart since I haven't gotten around to take out the seals of the rear glass to redo them.

Anyway, just got handed more pressing matters though. Three weeks ago I was checking the fuel tank and made a cursory inspection. Nothing seemed amiss. But coming back to these rainy days I started hearing squeaking and, in some left turns, thumping in the rear. I was suprised to find one leaf spring shackle completely missing. Off to have both replaced since I don't have power tools or a way to lift the tail. Turns out the right was also starting to give way and good fortune that the springs had't had a chance to cause mayhem down there. Instant better ride...now...if it would just stop raining long enough

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'71 Dodge Dart, old Chrysler Corp.
My slant 6 will never, ever, be unrepairable

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'71 Dodge Dart, old Chrysler Corp.
My slant 6 will never, ever, be unrepairable

Great stories and great car, Danyael. Glad you are enjoying your Dart.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Wiper motor gave up the ghost about a month or so ago. First the large cog that connects the motor to the moving arm died. The teeth were worn out and unbeknownst to me the motor had "overworked" the last time I was able to use the wipers.
The original was made from bakelite and a very good friend of mine turned one of Nylasteel. Paid not more than 5 bucks for it. Perfect fit!

<img src="http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah173/danyael_angel/Dart/DSC_0134_zps41e1b42d.jpg" border="0" width="450" height="300" photo DSC_0127_zps637e52c5.jpg"/>

But then the motor wouldn't budge. Went over to Kim's website at passion for mopars to get some test sheets. Lo and behold my Wiper motor looks nothing like the ones she has on the site. In any case she concluded that it might be GM. But getting together with other Dart owners where I live it seems to be the standard motor over here.

After some standard testing and some following Kim's sheets I found two things: brush holders were shorting with the motor's body cap and the thinner gauge winding of the body was not so great. Had the winding redone. Fortunately it just needed rewinding and insulation applied. Changed out the brushes, which were worn and insulated the cap with adhesive-backed film. Had to redo some of the connecting wires, new connectors for them, and new grommets for the install. Voila working wipers! Still need to redo the finish and connector insulation but it's a work in progress.

<img src="http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah173/danyael_angel/Dart/DSC_0139_zps12eba1a2.jpg" border="0" width="281" height="187" photo DSC_0127_zps637e52c5.jpg"/><img src="http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah173/danyael_angel/Dart/DSC_0144_zps56bf7dbd.jpg" border="0" width="281" height="187" photo DSC_0127_zps637e52c5.jpg"/>

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'71 Dodge Dart, old Chrysler Corp.
My slant 6 will never, ever, be unrepairable

I cannot believe it's been six months since last post...many things have happened with the car...
First off, I got HEI installed to swap out the mopar ignition. Dusted off a pentium1 cpu heatsink with fan to install the GM module. Bought a LX-301 from a parts store for about 9 bucks. The heatsink might have been a bit overboard for the relatively mild climate here at home but some days in summer it can get hot and we recently made a trip to Puerto Vallarta and the module "only" got warm. Got myself the harness for the coil, some wire and got to it.

I made a nice diagram on paper of what I had (mopar) and what I wanted (HEI) side by side so as to have both installed in case I had done something wrong or the setup blew. I'll try to post the diagram once I get an image hosting going again.

Diagram https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8PFv0 ... xNYXM/view

Had to extend the cable of the harness but just soldered a bit more wire and ready to go. Left the black "tach" cable in case I decide to install one. Made all the connections with spade connectors so they are interchangeable with the Mopar setup. The motor with just minor hiccups, timing was a bit off, possibly due to installing the NGK ZFR5N plugs a per Ted's suggestion gapped at .040.
Of course the ballast resistor had to go, but being somewhat nostalgic, grabbed and old one, cleaned it out and soldered some wire to bridge the connectors. Looks like the ballast is still there.

Ballast https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8PFv0 ... RPZVk/view

Two things have happened since I installed this in May. The old rotor was ok but changed it in about 3 weeks due to the higher voltage (central post of the cap started "eating" the metal). Completely forgot about upgrading the cables to my peril since I fried #1, #3 and coil to cap at the start of our trip to Vallarta. Lesson immediately learned!

Here's the full setup. I've since cleaned it a bit by storing the canister coil and other things at home. Just bought another GM module just in case (with the cpu sink I doubt it will cook itself anytime soon but you never know) and it lives in trunk spare parts box.

Pictures
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8PFv0 ... k1YTA/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8PFv0 ... FVN1U/view

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'71 Dodge Dart, old Chrysler Corp.
My slant 6 will never, ever, be unrepairable

Looks like your making great progress!

I like how you accomplished your HEI installation!

CJ

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing