Well, it's been a couple weeks since I got the car back and I've driven (babied) it about 100 miles or so and so far no problems. Everything seems to be going smoothly.

I'm finishing another quarter of school in about 2 weeks so after that I'll be able to work on the car some as I won't start again until the New Year. I'm also taking the last week of the year off so there's some more time there.

I still have a drone problem that I need to tackle, just so the car is more bearable on the freeway and longer trips. I'm going to try repositioning or denting my headers as the headers still interfere with my PS box. If not, I'm going to probably have to put some small resonators at the tailpipe as there's no other room.

I also want to see how large of a tire I can fit out back now that I have my springs relocated in. So, I'm going to try throwing the front wheels (18x9, +32 mm, 255/40/18) on the back (18x9, +22 mm, 255/40/18) and see if I can go to a wider tire if I order a new set of back wheels. I'd rather not order a whole new set of wheels. I'm pretty sure a 265/35/18 should fit no problem (although it will be short), but I'd like a 275/35/18.

As for that, I went on a lovely ride today with the gf around the lake. Once I got home, my gf decided she wanted a photo session with the car. I think this is one of the first times that someone has taken a picture with me and the car as I'm usually the one behind the camera lens.

Well, I just found out that if I wanted to get a pair of the fronts to try on the rear, I missed my shot. My wheels are being discontinued.

Rams or Chargers?

Definitely a Rams guy. I never was much of a Chargers guy.

Lookin good

Swapped the front (18x9, 255/40/18, +32mm) and rear (18x9, 255/40/18, +17mm - after +5mm spacer) wheels off the Dart this past weekend. I measured under my car and with new wheels I have room for wider tires... Yay! I don't know when I'll be able to afford them... Boo!

I was also looking under my car, but once I get my motor mounts fixed I think I could install resonators before my mufflers if I needed too.

I made spacers yesterday that slid underneath my driver's side motor mount and installed the spacers and went for a 25 mile cruise today. Overall, I think the biggest improvement is that it seems like there are less vibrations in the car and because of that it seems like the overall volume inside the cab has gone down and that there's a little less drone; however, the drone is still there. It was also hard to judge as it took awhile for the engine to warm up (it was about 50F today). Most of the ride I was under 180F water temp but I did notice that the hotter the engine got, the more the car droned. I think the next step will be resonators before the mufflers.

1st Picture: Pre-spacers (left-most tube).
2nd Picture: Post-spacers.

I have a wrench in my toolbox that looks just like that one, I welded mine about 25 years ago.

Alright, so I went to an exhaust shop Friday and had them install some Helmholtz resonators. I had to do the math for them, but I came out to needing about a 25" long resonator. The muffler shop I went to was great. Really cool mom and pop place. Overall, the car is a little quieter, sounds a little different, and part of the drone has gone away, but not completely. Aside from exhaust tips, I think I am going to stop messing with the exhaust. Let's face it, I'm throwing 500+ hp through a tiny tube. I'll just cruise at 60 mph instead of 70 mph. I'll save gas anyway.

So, update on the Dart. I have good news and bad news and it's a long story.

So, a couple weeks ago, I found out my manual choke cable was causing my car to run extra rich for the past year, so I yanked it out and the car has been running well. The past two drives, it did pretty good and gave me little to no trouble.

Lately, I've had this amazing plan that I was going to convert the Dart to EFI. I was going to install a Holley Sniper, put in all new lines, install a Tanks Inc tank with Stealth Aeromotive in-tank fuel pump. Good news, I bought everything! I even bought some new, Afco 142 lbs/in leaf springs to raise up the rear a bit to deal with the heavy Dart.

The bad news... When I was leaving work today, I started the car and started to hear some crunching under the engine bay. I took a look and it looks like the water pump pulley is wobbling a little bit back and forth. Shut off the car, wobble it a little with my hands, but it's tight. Great... the bearing might be going out... but the belt is still tight?

Drove home, everything was perfect, water temps were perfect. As I pull up my street, which is on a hill, and I am literally one house away, the car fumbles dies. I tried starting it up again, and it fired, but died immediately. I thought the car may be low on gas and the hill was pushing the fuel away from the pickup so I rolled the car down the hill, walked to my house to get my extra gas canister, and filled the tank with 2 gallons. Started it up, and died immediately. So, I roll it further down, I turn on the ignition and check my fuel pressure gauge and I'm getting 7psi. So, it seems like the fuel system is working. I left the car there for an hour, ran some chores, came back and tried starting it up a couple of times and the same thing happened, except this time, it sounded like all of the teeth on my starter decided to go missing with some extra crunchyness because now when I was cranking it, there were no crunchies the RPMS were stuck at 0.

So, I had to get the car towed to my house 3 houses up the hill. I'm going to fix the car starting next week. It's not going to a shop. I'm going to spend an hour or so a night a couple nights a week to tackle it. I just don't know where to start. Should I try making it run again before going efi? Or just start converting stuff over and hoping it was a fuel issue? Decisions... Decisions...

So, I checked for a ballast resistor as two people recommended it, and this car doesn't have one as I have a Ready-to-Run distributor. I then removed the starter and the teeth look good so I'm assuming the internals are fried.

Today, I removed all the spark plugs (all of them were very black - rich), bought some sockets at Harbor Freight, and rotated the crank. It rotated so the engine didn't seize. The thinking was if the water pump seized, then the engine wouldn't get coolant.

So, what could have shut this car down? Maybe it is fuel related?

I also lost another 1/2" wrench for not disconnecting the negative battery cable.

Needs fuel, compression and spark to run, figure out what is missing.

I would get it running again and isolate any and all mechanical issues before trying to go EFI, you'll just add insult to injury if you don't.

Starter is coming in the mail and will be here by the end of the week. From there, I'll figure out why the car won't start. I also have new spark plugs coming in too.

Heck with picture of you with the car, where's the pictures of her.

Good news and bad news. Good news, took the old starter to Autozone and it tested out good. Bad news, I don't know what's wrong. I reinstalled everything and tried starting the car up again. With a couple of pumps of the gas pedal, it will start and shut down when the ignition is turned. Without any pumps of the gas pedal, it sounds like the starter and flywheel just free wheel. When I keep my foot on the gas and turn the key, it will start up, but I have to keep my foot 1/2-3/4 throttle in order to keep it running and it does not sound happy. Idk what's wrong, but now it's starting like a fuel problem. I have new spark plugs, since all of the old ones were black, but I'm not sure if I want to install them just yet to check to ensure it is fuel. Video attached of me trying to start the car a couple of times.

I just checked the choke and it was closed. I realized that there wasn't a rod in place to keep it from shutting. I tried starting it up (without an air cleaner) and I still had the exact same problem. The only time I got it to fire up, a fire ball came out of the carburetor.

I replaced the spark plugs. When I cranked it the first time, it still made the starter free-wheeling noise. On second crank, it started right up and didn't have any problems idling.

I'd still put a starter in it with sounds like that, there are no obvious signs of something grinding on it?

I'd also be checking for a decent sized vacuum leak.

I bet your starter switch is bad. Try and see how the starter operates by jumping the relay.

I really wasn't able to do much with it, but on Tuesday I was able to start it after multiple starter attempts. Once I started it, I just let the car sit and warm up to operating temperature. It didn't have any problems warming up. I also used part of an old wire hanger to make something to keep the choke open. Although the car had been sitting for a while, I didn't get black soot coming out of the exhaust when I started the car up. So, it seems like I'm heading in the right direction.

I have a video of it running. I'm still unsure of the water pump pulley. It may be my eyes are fooling me or the play is normal. But I hear something clanking around. I walked around the car and it seemed most dominant under the car by the driver's side door. Again, I took a video, but the video doesn't capture all the sounds. I can post it later tonight. I hope something isn't left over in the bellhousing and it's just me being paranoid. Anyway, the starter and spark plugs are going to have to come out and I'm going to have to inspect, the starter and flywheel and see if any teeth are missing or if something is chilling in the bellhousing.

Here's the video I promised: