The Crusty Cuda: Whole lotta Shakin' (N96) Goin' on!

[njsteve]

The trick is to put a couple dabs of RTV on the chrome before you sandwich the grips to the handle.

I remember that buzz/rattle from the old days! And when the top bezel would get loose, it would add a nice ensemble tone to the jiggly sound of the loose plastic grips.

Ahhhhh, the memories are rushing back now.

[njsteve]

More finagling around today. I stripped all the upholstery off the rear bench seat cushions. Now there's a few hundred broken hog rings flung all over the basement. That was some nasty foam, burlap and stuffing there. And lots of mouse poops. I was surrounded by all three of cats at one point or another during the afternoon while they supervised my work. I guess they smell the mice residue.

I ordered the full rear bench installation kit from Legendary. Thay had it in stock and it is supposed to ship out monday. Sure is expesnive but it does have all the needed material: raw cotten, burlap, muslin, foam, etc., in one kit. They were having a 20% off sale today, too.

I tried to get the fuel gauge to work. The gauge itself works. When I pulled the blue lead wire off the sending unit and grounded it, the gauge immediately moved toward full. So it looks like a bad sending unit. I ordered another one from Rockauto and it should be here next week. Of course I had filled the tank completely already so I will have to siphon it all back out again and then loosen one muffler to get to the side mounted sending unit.

[njsteve]

She actually moved under her own power today! I wanted to get her out of the garage so I could sweep the place out. She hasn't moved from that spot since arrival in August. I grabbed a milk crate from the garage and started her up and away we went...20 feet or so out into the driveway. I just let her idle while I cleaned and swept the floor. I started around noon.

I then pulled her straight back in and started on doing the front end alignment. I had already set the torsion bar ride height a couple weeks ago and constantly rechecked it after adding the battery and filling the gas tank, and hopping in and out of the car to do the carpets and dash. So it was pretty well jounced by this weekend. Measured at the fender edge, in line with the center cap of the wheel, the height was 25-3/4" tall at LF, RF, and RR. LR was 26" tall.

It took most of the afternoon since I was using a race car alignment gauge with built-in levels. And you have to zero the bubble level for the floor's angle in case it isn't level (most floors are not), for each side before to attaching it to the car.

It took quite a bit of practice but once I got the hang of it it is rather easy (on anything but a Mopar with upper control arm cams). GM style suspension with shims would be much easier.

A bias ply tire, manual steering equipped Mopar uses different specs than one with power steering. From the 1970 service manual they recommend 1/2 degree positive camber left and 1/4 degree positive camber right, and then for caster: zero to 1/2 degree negative. Remember this is for bias tire, not radials. It was really a wrestling match with those cams. You have to loosen the retaining bolt just enough to let it rotate but if you loosen it too much, the cam overrides the retaining tabs and you're a goner. I overloosened one side and partially bent the tabs that guide the pass side rear cam into an arc. I had to pull the entire upper control arm back out and hammer the tab back into place. I then reset the entire passenger side again. The whole cam adjustment recipe is like operating a WWII tank. You have a wrench on both cams. If you move both cams the same direction, you adjust the camber. If you move one cam away and one toward you, you adjust caster. You do the camber first...and then hope you dont mess it up by doing the caster. With these weird manual steering specs, it was really touchy since it was at the absolute limit of the cam travel to try to get the negative caster without throwing off the camber. And then to top it all off you have to torque the retaining nuts...without moving the same cams out of place.

I was able to finish around dinner time.

Tomorrow I will set the toe and make sure the steering wheel is still straight.

[John Brown]

Used to do drag car alignments at home using such tools. Slip plates were made of 1/4 steel on the floor with an aluminum plate on top, and grease between the two to allow the suspension to remain in a relaxed state. Worked out quite well.

[olredalert]

----Wow, Steve! You are getting close. Such a good looking Mopar.....Bill S

[njsteve]

Here's the alignment contraption in action. You do camber first. You have to zero the level on the garage floor rght next to the wheel so it zero's out to the floor's angle. There was probably a 1 or 2 degree angle to the floor toward the left side of the garage. So I had to readjust it when I went to the other side of the car.

The reading on the ground is zero (I put the edge of the bubble just below the zero line so It's easier to see). And once it is clamped to the wheel it reads the true reading of 1/4 degree positive for the passenger side.

[njsteve]

Caster is measured by attaching the contraption to the wheel and then turning the wheel outwards 15 degrees. By design, the end of the bubble level has a 15 cut to the fore and aft of the end of the level. So you just turn the wheel til it approximates that mark. Then you zero the right side of the bubble gauge. Once you zero it, you then turn the wheel inward to the other 15 degree mark and see what it reads.

Here it reads about 1/2 degree negative caster. (It was kind of hard to get the photo angle right so it looks like 1/4 in the photo).

[njsteve]

Finally I did the toe today. I tried two measurement versions to see if they match up. (They did). I used the old Manco Wheel Alignment tool. You set it behind the front wheels and zero the gauge. You them move it to the front of the front wheels and read what it says. Though the initial reading was about 16 on the scale, which reads in 1/32nds, When I tried my other method, it showed a difference of 1-1/2 inches between the rear measurement and the front.

My second method is to take a metal straight edge, hold it tight agains the tire and trace a chalk line along the straight edge. You do that to both wheels. Then simply measure the distance under the car from one line to the other. Subtract them from each other and you get the amount of toe-in or toe-out. I had 71-1/2" behind the wheel and 70" in front.

So I adjusted the tie rods to move the passenger side wheel out (which was noticeable turned in) and wound up with a measurement difference of 1/16" which is the spec. After I adjusted the wheels, I made new chalk marks and verified the Manco gauge results.

[njsteve]

I then bolted the old driver's seat in place and took her out for her maiden voyage! I was able to see the odometer roll from 76,999 to 77,000 miles! I drove a couple miles and the alignment worked out nicely. No pulling or drifting. With the tall, bias ply tires, the car is really easy to steer with the slightly negative caster, even at low speeds.

I then backed her into the garage. I still have to adjust the tie rods to get the steering wheel centered. The center spoke is currently in the 4:30 position and needs to be moved to 6:00. It was getting dark so I will save that for another day.

[cook_dw]

We need video confirmation! Great progress.