'71 Sport Fury

[TheFearlessFury]

I think there should be a boss on the transmission for that piece. This is from my '66 Fury.

Thank you so much Bart! I was think that that was the only logical way it could fit on. I'm glad to know that I was going in the right direction with it. Unfortunantly last night when I was working on it, I was trying to unscrew that bolt in the picture you posted and the head of the bolt came right off. Now I gotta figure out how to get the bolt out. My dad is coming by with a blow torch, apparently if you heat it up and take a channel lock to it it'll come out. I've been soaking it in PB blaster too (I'll let it dry before hitting it with the torch, as last year I learned PB blaster is quite flammable, The wasp nest I was burning learned that too.)

If any of you have any suggestions as to how to remove a bolt with no head I'm open to suggestions, as always.

I do not have a passenger side mirror. I thought you were also looking fro a rear valance. That I do have!

Yeah I'm looking for the rear valance too, I was thinking I might be able to pound out the old one though. It's kind of gnarled up but not that bad. I found out my front valance is also a bit bent. I'm thinking the previous owner's eyes must have been going on them.

You just don't know how much I want to see your car get some rust protection... not to be stuck up about it... just hate to see her dissolve.

Hah, yeah I know, It's sitting pretty high on my priority list, rest assured it will get done before winter.

 

[oliver]

I agree with cantflip. Rust protection is first and foremost; everything else can be dealt with over time and without too much pain. Just my 2 cents

 

[TheFearlessFury]

By the way Bart, would you happen to have any more pictures of the lower section of the kickdown linkage? I'd like to know if I have the right linkage for sure. How many different Kickdown linkages did they use? Just the solid bar and the segmented linkages?

 

[Bart]

There are a pile of different set-ups from various years and body styles. I think you have to mix and match to get one that works when you start modifying your intake and carb, unless you just go with the 4bbl intake/carb combo from a similar year C body. If you continue with the linkage you are going with, you will probably have to put a small nut and bolt in the slot to limit linkage travel at the stud on the carburetor. My way is probably the cheapest and easiest, but you already purchased the linkage... By the way, I will sell you the rear valance for $25 plus shipping. The front one on my parts car is crushed. I also had to deal with an older driver using his garage walls as a guide to park. It was a joy to fix dents on it.

 

[Bart]

Not to steal your thread, but look at her now:

 

[70_NPORT]

Nice going with your efforts so far; keep at it. I used to ride around in a 71' Sport Fury..had a very healthy 440. Terrorized the foreign iron constantly. Good times..good times.

 

[TheFearlessFury]

Thanks!
Well it's been a while since I updated, and I'm sorry to say not much progress has been made. When we tried to get the transmission shift linkage bolt off to attach the new kickdown linkage the head of the bolt twisted right off. So now I have about a half inch threaded stud sticking out of my transmission that isn't doing me much good.

Numerous attempts to remove the offending stud have proved ineffective.

Anyway later today I'm gonna borrow a welder and weld the shift linkage back up, and then weld a bolt to the end of the stud, with the threads facing outward, and then put the kickdown linkage on that. It looks pretty good on paper, and short of pulling the transmission to drill the bolt out it's my only real option.

Thats all I've got right now, I'll post the results whenever I get the time to actually weld it. I'm working new hours and they are pretty terrible. I'm working 7pm until 3am and all I do is ask homeless people to leave parking ramp stairwells. It's very dull but atleast I'm completely unsupervised and can eat where ever I feel like downtown. It does make going to school in the morning feel like torture though. So it's a bit of a mixed bag.

 

[70_NPORT]

Just a bit of friendly advice: When working with any small pieces in the general area of my carburetor, I always put a towel or something down before starting. I ALMOST dropped a bolt down one the open passages on my 383 heads where the intake manifold mates to the heads. I'm not sure if 318s has that, but if it does...you definitely do not want anything dropping down into any of those passages. Might save you some heartache.

 

[TheFearlessFury]

Well after a lot of messing around with the kickdown linkage and the throttle linkage, and more then a little bit of creative fabrication I got the Fury running today. I didn't try driving it yet but it sounds great.

There's still a handful of things that need to get done before I can drive it. I guess I need to figure out the vacuum situation for the valve covers, anyone know where I can buy a new breather grommet for the passenger side valve cover?

Also I need to switch the engine mount around on the drivers side. I guess it somehow got put on backwards and I never noticed? Is that even possible? Or are there different mounts for each side of the engine and I maybe just got two of the same side?

 

[TheFearlessFury]

got the Fury running a few days ago, It runs pretty well but it still seems to have some kind of knock in the engine. My dad thinks it might be a somewhat faulty lifter.

 

[cantflip]

The directions here are good enough to get you started
Sounds Like Trouble: A Quick Guide to Diagnosing Common Engine Noises

 

[celticwarlock]

Collapsing lifters will cause pushrods to bend, and will also cause noise in the valve train. However, I would not assume this to be the case with your engine until other potential causes are ruled out. Odd sounds from an engine can come from most anywhere, and you should be very deliberate about your diagnosis. Perhaps posting a video with the noise would help us better narrow down the potential cause.

 

[cantflip]

Collapsing lifters will cause pushrods to bend, and will also cause noise in the valve train. However, I would not assume this to be the case with your engine until other potential causes are ruled out. Odd sounds from an engine can come from most anywhere, and you should be very deliberate about your diagnosis. Perhaps posting a video with the noise would help us better narrow down the potential cause.

You may be right, celticwarlock, but $5 tool and a little time diagnosing before ANYTHING gets taken apart will go a long way here. I would recommend anyone with a noise issue start here, just like we would in the shop. I used to use a long screwdriver or prybar, but I got tired of beating myself over the head every time I let it slip into a moving part. Pic courtesy of HF, in case you don't know where to buy one... they are available everywhere. I have tried to diagnose by video before... this is going to work out way better.

TheFearlessFury, let us know what you find. Even if you don't need us, we like to see that stuff is resolved.

 

[TheFearlessFury]

Thanks guys I appreciate the help, you guys are a valuable resource when it comes to wierd stuff going wrong with my car lol.

I've been listening to the car for a few days, running it to the grocery store now and then (my dad said it would be okay because if it was a rod knock it would have grenaded the engine already)

Sure enough the knock got worse and I was able to figure out the problem. The lifters were indeed shot and they bent a few pushrods again. No idea why I didn't replace them before when I was changing out the carb.

Anyway while I'm doing that I'm gonna pull the oil pan too, my oil suddenly got really dirty and I'm gonna try to figure that one out. I heard there was an oil screen in the pan that could be clogged up. I'm also going to pull the transmission pan because it's got a small leak coming from the gasket area and probably needs a new gasket and transmission fluid change.

Also the moment your all waiting for. Next week I'm gonna start sanding and repairing the roof. Any tips for filing the gaps where the vinyl top used to hook in?

 

[TheFearlessFury]

By the way, I'm not working on anything until the winter as far as extensive engine work goes, But I'm looking at maybe swapping in a new Camshaft and set of heads. I'm looking for a set up that expands on the Low-Mid range power that I've sort of started on with the Carb and Intake I got. Any Suggestions?

 

[celticwarlock]

Transmission: Get a molded gasket for the transmission pan. They are infinitely superior to anything else. They cost around $20, but if you install it carefully and your pan is pretty straight, it is a near certainty that it will not leak. They can also be re-used. They are made of rubber/nylon with a steel core. They can be found on E-bay. Cam: In my opinion, don't go crazy with it. If you are on any sort of budget, you don't want to get into things that are too involved. If it were my car, I'd likely stick with a cam that does not call for insanely stiff valve springs and new rocker assemblies. Try to keep things uncomplicated. Bear in mind that once the numbers start creeping up, you will have to make numerous upgrades elsewhere to reap the full benefits. A milder cam would probably work decently enough without headers and other added parts which will begin to empty your wallet pretty quickly (though, admittedly, since you have a small block under the hood, you likely have ample room for headers). Heads: I do not know which ones you have, but some of the factory heads Mopar made are actually serviceable. As far as aftermarket heads go, others can tell you much more than I about the available options.

 

[TheFearlessFury]

Thanks, I'll definitely take your advice on the gasket.
I was planning on getting those 800$ Mopar performance heads. And a hydraulic cam that is pretty mild, but has some power and won't push the rpms too far above 6k.

I'm planning on keeping the headers I have as I was advised before on this forum that the sport fury headers are pretty good.

An update. None of the rods are bent but it looks like maybe half of the lifters are shot. They weren't getting any oil pumped up through them. Not sure what was causing the sound now If it wasn't bent rods. Could it have just been the lifters making that knocking noise?
Also my oil came out very dirty even though I just changed it about 1000 miles ago. And I was also missing about a quart or two. But it wasn't enough to trigger the oil pressure light. I checked the oil and didn't find any pieces of bearing in there so I assume they are OK but I'm pulling the oil pan to get a closer look. Also the oil pan gasket is shot anyway.
The missing oil is kinda strange. I guess some probably leaked out, but I didn't notice any black smoke while my car was running. I used some of that Lucas oil additive and 4 quarts of oil last oil change (as I was advised at the store to do). And only 3 quarts came out. Anyone have any theories? I'll look back at the engine noise diagnosis to try to come up with some ideas.

 

[cantflip]

Thanks, I'll definitely take your advice on the gasket.
I was planning on getting those 800$ Mopar performance heads. And a hydraulic cam that is pretty mild, but has some power and won't push the rpms too far above 6k.

I'm planning on keeping the headers I have as I was advised before on this forum that the sport fury headers are pretty good.

An update. None of the rods are bent but it looks like maybe half of the lifters are shot. They weren't getting any oil pumped up through them. Not sure what was causing the sound now If it wasn't bent rods. Could it have just been the lifters making that knocking noise?
Also my oil came out very dirty even though I just changed it about 1000 miles ago. And I was also missing about a quart or two. But it wasn't enough to trigger the oil pressure light. I checked the oil and didn't find any pieces of bearing in there so I assume they are OK but I'm pulling the oil pan to get a closer look. Also the oil pan gasket is shot anyway.
The missing oil is kinda strange. I guess some probably leaked out, but I didn't notice any black smoke while my car was running. I used some of that Lucas oil additive and 4 quarts of oil last oil change (as I was advised at the store to do). And only 3 quarts came out. Anyone have any theories? I'll look back at the engine noise diagnosis to try to come up with some ideas.

Between leakage and burning... I wouldn't get into a tizzy about the oil yet... If you burned enough of it, wipe your finger inside the tailpipe... you will know it was burning some oil if it left a trace there (gooey not powdery black stuff). Noise diagnosis is pretty much out the the window once the engine is opened... but a review of information never hurts. Also the oil light is only going to come on when pressure falls too low... you would be out of oil(almost) by that point. Do your best to check the cam lobes and lifters for wear, do not mix up the lifters or you will find a lot of new noises. If the parts look good, you can soak the lifters and/or pump them a bit to get the air out (use some atf if you think they are sludged) and you will get to start over once back together. Might get lucky in the process and solve the problem or unlucky and find it at the cam... in the future, you now know why the diagnosis is done as thoroughly as possible before disabling the engine. Call it educational and continue on.

If you can see any lobe/lifter damage... you're going to be starting the engine work sooner than planned.

 

[celticwarlock]

The dirty oil is likely due to the engine cleaning itself out a bit. When you buy a car that was driven rarely, there is often a lot of varnish in the motor. When you begin to run it more often, the fresh oil you put in will begin to dissolve some of that varnish (modern oils often have a certain amount of detergent in them) and that will cause it to get dirty pretty quickly. Spongy or weak lifters will cause lots of noise and might cause the motor to consume more oil than it would otherwise. They are certainly in need of attention. In my opinion, it would be best to replace them.

 

[TheFearlessFury]

Thanks Cantflip, I'll take your advice and check the exhuast as soon as I get home. I pulled the oil pan off (which was quite a bit more difficult than I thought it would be) and it looks like the crank, the bearings, and the pistons are okay. That's just a first impression though. The cam still looks okay but I'll checking that more closely tomorrow.

The oil pump and oil screen were really dirty as expected so I picked up a new one of each because they weren't too badly priced. The oil screen was pretty much beyond horrendous and was gunked up so bad it's a wonder it was working at all. I think the oil was the problem but luckily it looks like there was no permanent damage and there were no metal shavings anywhere in the oil.

I'm waiting on a couple of new parts to come in the mail and then it should be okay to put back together. I wanna get it going before my brother and his kids head back to Georgia so I can take them for a ride.

​

While I'm working on my car I like to listen to the audiobook version of Christine to get myself into the groove of things