On Mon, 27 Dec 2010 11:35:54 -0500, Jeff Thies
wrote:

On 12/27/2010 10:40 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
On 12/27/2010 6:52 AM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
My Dart was the first year they had electronic ignition,
1974.


The retrofit was highly desired, I had it in my 70.

Wouldn't run when it was wet. Needed a starter every
year and a half.

The starters were junk, my buddy who rebuilds them, wouldn't.


The 8 cylinder 318 engine got about 10 1/2
MPG.

Much faster. But not something you wanted to stop with drum brakes like
they had early.

My Mom's car, a plymouth with slant 6, got about 18
MPG. I liked the slant six engine. Also easier to work on,
with the starter on top.

Dead easy to work on (except for the intake/exhaust manifold combo). I'm
thinking now of a friends Chevy where the radiator had to come out to
change the starer. A Lockhead engineer had looked at it and proclaimed
it would need a cutting torch to replace the starter. Not sure whether
that says more for Chevy or Engineers.


You probably had a cracked dual ballast resistor, a common
problem with the early units. A lot of guys carried a spare
ballast resistor in the glove box. :-)

I carried a spare coil too!

Jeff


TDD
My 3 slant sixes, and my brothers' 5 ( 2 brothers) never had wet
starting problems, and I think we replaced 2 starters between them
all.
Dad's slant six trucks (5 or 6) I don't think ever had a starter
replaced. Every one of them went over 100,000 miles, several over
200,000.
Only one engine blew - and that was one my brother bought that had not
been serviced very well - all choked up with sludge.

The '69 or'74 (cannot remember which any more - both were green)went
through ballast resistors pretty regularly - I always had a spare
bolted to the firewall waiting - and the 63 ate spark plugs very
quickly (but it was a 170 incher that put over 200 HP to the pavement)

My Moper Flattie (261 cu inch six) and the baby Hemi (241 Red Ram)
never had damp start problems either.

I used Silver Beauty Magnetic Suppression Wire for ignition wires - on
all of them - not cheap, but NEVER a problem.

My '76 318 was a pig from new - but after I got the carb sorted out it
was a lot better running and a lot easier on gas (4 wheel drive
Ramcharger)

The later slant sixes had driveability problems due to the emission
settings - but I had a fix for that too. Used to do a LOT of fixes on
the Volaries and Aspens and others of that era. (different
accellerator parts and different choke/pull-off calibration - as well
as timing changes)