512 cid C series on Dakota chassis- build thread

[Radarsonwheels]

5 hours ago, RNR1957NYer said:

What else do you need?  I like beer, too and I've got a garage full of cr.. I mean good parts!

Can you bench press a transmission? Got the good beer in my fridge! 

[RNR1957NYer]

If you're talking' manual labor, I'm automatically out!

 

Sorry - long week.....

[Radarsonwheels]

I went on a road trip sunday to get a spare 1977 727 case and a set of mystery 727 internals with a matching tailshaft, for a case of beer. Turns out they’re heavy duty ‘65-‘70 with a 4 fiber high groove front clutch drum and 4 gear planets. 

 

My buddy had a mystery 727 that was free so I picked it up this evening. It was a gamble that paid off- score! 

 

PK4028412
1977 Chrysler passenger car
400 std. 2 barrel motor non HP
Casting date Weds Dec. 1st 1976

Perfect swap for my internals out of the busted cases- '76-77 are all the same spline counts & planetary gear angles etc. '78 was 1st year lockup converter. Mine was also a '77. 

 

The only dicey thing is that the dipstick was open so it could be a flood victim. I’ll drain it and pull the pan tomorrow but my shop needs a full day of cleaning and organizing before I’m ready for transmission surgery. If it’s rusty & ruined inside I only really need the cases and output shaft which I can order if I have to. 

[59bisquik]

Cool Ramcharger!

[Radarsonwheels]

Thanks Bisquik!

 

It was a daily for a couple years till I decided I needed AC. I rebuilt the 318 last year- fresh swirl port heads, 650 eddie carb, headers, intake, rv cam. All spurred on by intermittent low oil pressure. Turned out some genius replaced a failed plastic tooth silent timing chain with a double roller but didn’t drop the pan. The pickup was full of kibbles & bits. That’s ok though it’s much better now. 

 

I couldn’t stand the suspense and pulled the pan off the new 727 core. The pan was crusty and full of crud but not a ton of friction material and no rust! The internals look great and more red atf fell out than water. (Not much of either). I should be good to check the endplay, clean it up, and stuff it with my good clutch packs & guts. Hopefully the story is the same inside the tailshaft. 

 

Somebody gave it a little love at some point- it had a large brass screen filter installed and one of the valve body bolts was slightly rounded off. All of them were slightly overly tight. 

[Radarsonwheels]

Got my garage tightened up into a 3rd world operating room yesterday and pulled the new trans apart this morning. 

 

My fancy forged steel 1350 series trans yoke is here and I’m waiting on the matching unit for the axle pinion. I’m planning to measure and have a new driveshaft made up once the new trans is installed so I’m aiming to be back on the road in two or three weeks.

 

I didn’t put any sta-bil in the gas tank ? 

 

I ended up just ordering a complete overhaul kit with red clutches and kolene steels along with a 4.2 kickdown lever, billet rear servo, and a high groove front drum to run 5 thinner front clutches instead of the stock 3 in my non HD unit. The overhaul kit is only $150- seems all the money in a built trans is in the labor until you start putting in steel drums and upgraded sprags. 

 

I’m going to re-use my modded valvebody and not much else from the blown trans. I’m looking at blocking my part throttle kickdown function (passing gear not needed with the big motor) and defeating the late model controlled load front servo for faster band release. 

[ggdad1951]

quit giving 3rd world operating rooms a good name!

 

[Plymouthy Adams]

I think you will find that Dacron screen were used on early stock filters, some folks running an external filter would install the brass screen as the filtering was external to the transmission..usually you find this on application involving track cars.  Might explain the lunch residue

[Radarsonwheels]

Ok so I got the case & tail took all the way down, power washed, and dried with compressed air. I think I might end up using the other ‘77 case I picked up in north Jersey. This one the race for the sprag was a little bit loose and the rear fitting for the trans cooler is sheared flush with the case. 

 

I can remove the brass stub with some elbow grease but a bolt in sprag isn’t an upgrade unless I go to the ‘ultimate’ sprag or similar with more rollers and steeper ramps. The other case is in the trunk of my challenger which is dropped off at the inspection station so I’m done for the day. 

 

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have time to strip wash and inspect the NJ case when I have my car back. In the meantime I gotta go to work. Still good progress today!

[Radarsonwheels]

Does after dinner count as tomorrow? The ‘77 case from NJ cleaned up pretty well. All the threads and sealing surfaces in it look good and the sprag race is nice and tight. I did simple green and a wirebrush scrub followed by power washing, compressed air, then hosed the steel sprag parts with wd40.

 

Interestingly somewhere in the 9 months between the two 1977 trans cases casting dates they changed the shape of the starter area some. The good case on the left is a little thinner along the bottom edge of the bell but nice and thick along the engine block mounting surface with extra ribs in the starter area. I’ll take it. 

 

Still gotta pull the old broken trans and rob it for one fiber thrust washer, the valvebody, speedo drive and adapter, and the deep pan. I had bought a new clean large plastic drain pan/bottle to save & reuse 11 quarts of trick shift type F during the last transmission shenanigans but I didn’t think it would get used so much.

[Radarsonwheels]

I dropped off my new forged 1350 slip yoke and solid universal joints at Pete’s welding and driveshaft service in Trenton today. He’s going to make me a new 38.75” long shaft from 3.5” .083” DOM tubing with new steel ends. This should be way overkill, especially for such a short shaft. 

 

I also checked on my transmission parts order and added a couple small parts. I started building up the trans but didn’t get far. I installed the sprag, the rear drum & planetaries, the output shaft with governor & bearing. My parts should ship from Indiana today or tomorrow fingers crossed.

 

While I’m waiting on trans internals but not ready to drop the old trans (planning on weds) I got a few little things done. I replaced my cracked vent window glass, dropped my smashed bent small U-joint driveshaft, and drained the ATF out of the beat trans. It was still nice and clean with only 100 miles on it I’m probably going to re-use it again.

 

The last time I drove it the inside driver’s door handle gave up the ghost (started another thread on that & just added pics) so that was another fun detour from forward progress. 

Edited June 3, 2019 by Radarsonwheels

[Radarsonwheels]

I taped some heavy clear plastic to the door and made a pattern for the door card. I have to figure out if I’m doing them in luon or if I can figure out where to get ABS or what. I like that plastic that looks like corrugated cardboard but I don’t know where to get some.

 

I was going to sew something up but I found this 1.5” diamond pleat vinyl on ebay. Hopefully it fits into the businesslike vintage hotrod kinda theme I’m going for and doesn’t stand out too much. 

[Plymouthy Adams]

check with any advertising company in your area...they use this stuff to create outdoor ads...

[Radarsonwheels]

Went with luon. They only had fiberglass plastic at lowes and it was one stop shopping otherwise. Now I have to make armrests. I got a couple stock clip in nuts coming from ebay. It’ll have to be a combo elbow rest/door pull because you have to pull pretty hard to close the doors all the way.

 

 

[Radarsonwheels]

Anybody know if the rubbers under the handle & crank are like a ‘help section’ item at manny moe & jack or something?

 

Mine aren’t petrified but they’re a little stiff and have overspray from several paintjobs.

[Los_Control]

1 hour ago, Radarsonwheels said:

Went with luon. They only had fiberglass plastic at lowes and it was one stop shopping otherwise. Now I have to make armrests. I got a couple stock clip in nuts coming from ebay. It’ll have to be a combo elbow rest/door pull because you have to pull pretty hard to close the doors all the way.

 

 

Thats a good idea how you vented the doors, keeps the sheet metal from rusting away 

[Plymouthy Adams]

9 minutes ago, Los_Control said:

Thats a good idea how you vented the doors, keeps the sheet metal from rusting away 

are you referring to the lack of a door bottom?  

[Radarsonwheels]

Yeah the outer skin and bottoms are pretty rough. The driver’s side had a ton of bondo over riveted galvanized. For now it lets the rain out just fine and all the rust is cut off. 

 

The door bottoms need smaller drains in them whenever I get around to welding in patch panels and doing body work. Today is not that day though!

 

I drew up some plans for wood topped metal door pulls/armrests. I’m not sure about the wedges. If I end up in the stock location I will need them to angle the bolts up into the clip on nuts. Using that stamped mounting flange is a good idea for strength but if I have to put them on with rivnuts in another spot it will be plenty strong to shut the door and hold my elbow. Gotta sit in there and check the ergonomics.

[ggdad1951]

18 hours ago, Radarsonwheels said:

Anybody know if the rubbers under the handle & crank are like a ‘help section’ item at manny moe & jack or something?

 

Mine aren’t petrified but they’re a little stiff and have overspray from several paintjobs.

 

the escutcheons?  

 

DCM has these from the B1/2 era:

 

https://dcmclassics.com/19-Interior-Parts?id_category=19&n=89

 

[59bisquik]

I just purchased escutcheons from Peter at Dodge City Truck in Canada.

[Radarsonwheels]

Thanks fellas! I wasn’t sure if the escutcheon was the rubber part or the steel part that actually sits over the retaining pin. I really like that beehive deco spring loaded chrome one on there yowza!

 

I got my second door card made up this morning and mocked up/mounted to the passenger door. The diamond pleated vinyl should be here next week. In the meantime I have armrests to make. 

 

I got the shattered trans out today. It was somewhere between a nightmare of tight spots and smooth sailing. Not my first rodeo but I never look forward to bench pressing a transmission. Somebody said motorcycle jack and I tried it- wow great idea! I had to shimmy it back to where the exhaust is wider before the bell would drop down but for working alone it was smooth and safe. 

 

Autopsy tonight. I’m predicting that other than taking a violent side load when the yoke let go and the driveshaft wedged in the safety loop it is ok inside. At this point I’m only swapping the valvebody and maybe some snap rings pressure plates & little stuff. 

[Radarsonwheels]

I just ordered four of those bad Larrys- they’re going to look great with the black vinyl and wood armrests

[Plymouthy Adams]

those shiny dudes I think were originally Ford application...I know I got a set of four at a swap meet, snagged them for 10.00, got them for use down the road on my cars.  They are a bit dressier and when you got custom panels it is of no major concern to add some bling.  Swap meets are fun but you have to know in advance what direction your build is going to make buy stuff an advantage.

Edited June 5, 2019 by Plymouthy Adams

[Radarsonwheels]

Old trans is all took down. Lotta good parts in there. 

[ggdad1951]

14 hours ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

those shiny dudes I think were originally Ford application...I know I got a set of four at a swap meet, snagged them for 10.00, got them for use down the road on my cars.  They are a bit dressier and when you got custom panels it is of no major concern to add some bling.  Swap meets are fun but you have to know in advance what direction your build is going to make buy stuff an advantage.

 

I've pulled plenty of those "shiny dudes" out of B2 trucks over the years.  In my mind 100% Dodge.  Plus I can't see Steve passing off Ferd parts for Dodge.