1967 Plymouth Barracuda

Archive for August, 2016

The car had a few things that needed some attention to drive it more often.

1. There was a banging noise coming from passenger rear.
   • After a little look and test while it was off the ground, the front leaf spring connector bolts were not 100% tight.  They were tight, but still loose enough to cause play.  Cranked that baby down and solved this problem.
2. Fuel Gauge not working.
   • Some quick diagnosis showed that my ground strap was not fully connected.  Pulled it off, sandblasted it and sanded the lines for a good contact.  Did not fix the issue.  Pulled the sender wire and grounded it and the fuel gauge went from E to beyond F..so the gauge is working as well as the wire.  Looks like I’ll need to replace my brand new sending unit as it seems to be bad.  Stay tuned.
3. Terrible noise coming from Right Front.
   • This one was a dandy.  Pulled the right front tire and the brake caliper fell to the ground.  The 2 monster bolts (1/2 x 20 x 1 3/4 Grade 8) were gone.  Somehow managed to work themselves out.  I know that they were tightened to 120 ft lbs….but I did not use any kind of lock-tite.  I went to a local hardware store and picked up some new bolts and put everything back together.  Everything is working fine and as expected, however this is something that I will check each time I drive it… for a little while at least until I’m convinced they’ll remain on the car.
4. Overheating.  Whenever the car was taken out, it overheated.  Even if I was able to manage a decent speed with good air flow, it still overheated.
   • I do not have a shroud, so that will be added at some point in the future.
   • I was able to purchase a used electric fan at the same estate sale I got the rear spoiler from.  No idea what the fan came off of or if it would even work, but it was marked $5 and everything was 50% off that day, so for $2.50, it was worth a shot.
   • It’s a 16 inch fan and it worked.  It fits offset from center favoring the drivers side and is just about as ‘tall’ as the height of the fins.
   • Mounted it in front of the radiator in a ‘push’ fashion.  Connected a 4 post, 30 amp relay to do the dirty work.  It’s wired to engage when ignition is on, so it runs anytime the car is running.  I prefer that scenario.
   • Took the car for a ride and the temperature gauge didn’t go much above middle… which is good.  A shroud should help even more.

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