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66 Charger progress

Vrenlos

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Location
Portland, OR
For those who haven't been following along, I went on a nice long drive last week and picked up a '66 Charger! The car has an interesting bit in its history - at one point in time it was stolen by the mailman in the small town it called home, and said mailman threw on a quick coat of black spray paint in an attempt to disguise it. The plan obviously didn't work, and so the previous owner(s) went about removing his still-fresh spray job - a bit over-zealously in a few places such as along the drivers' side pillar. She's got a little patina, but otherwise the body is in next to perfect shape. The only significant rust I've found is the very bottom of the trunk pan. Everything around the windows and even the rear frame members are completely solid.

2uLNsKp.jpg



Anyhow, I thought I'd make a thread to document my progress. I haven't had a whole lot of time this week, but some parts are on order and I've already ironed out a few niggling items. The PO complained that the carb was rebuilt, but had never run right - but the vacuum choke advance looks completely pitted and rotten, and was definitely sticking. In either case, this seems to be the original carb on the poly 318, and I've got a Holley 500cfm 2bbl laying around unused from another project. Even the adapter plate looks like it'll match up. I disassembled the Holley and the insides were actually not bad at all. Still, I somewhat recently bought myself a heated sonic cleaner, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to put it to good use. I dialed the water up to 60C and added some of the aluminum-safe formulation of simple green (actually purple...) and immediately watched the water go from clear to black and watched the little bubbles of cavitation doing their work. The parts came out *perfect* after 30 minutes, with only a few bits of stuck-on paper gasket to remove with a fingernail.

5yjXtmE.jpg


The carb is ready and waiting to go on, hopefully at some point today.

In the meantime, my battery had died from my fiddling with the headlight rotation switch and leaving it in the on position overnight, so hooking up the battery tender was in order. I'll have to debug the relays/motors, but for now I'm just leaving them locked in the outward/usable position. I placed a new fuse in the tail light circuit (previous was blown, and looked ancient) and the tails as well as interior cabin lights on the console sprung to life. Five of six bulbs on the tails are good, while the sixth one's bright/activated coil is toast. Blinkers also seem functional save for the 6th bulb as mentioned.

Between the new carb and HEI distributor on the way, I'm quite excited to get the car running tip-top. I'm thinking I may check valve clearances while I'm at it and going to set the timing anyhow, and there's a shiny new set of plug wires in the trunk ready to be cut and put in already. The only other real item to dig into is the gauge cluster, which the PO had fully refurbished but doesn't light up. I believe I read somewhere that the tach needs to be working for the EL to be functional, and it's currently not moving with the engine's RPMs.

Have a good Sunday, everyone!
 
Ya.. those headlight issues are a issue.. I have the same problem with mine.. theres a live wire somewhere that drains the battery on mine..
 
No the tach does not have to work for the lights. The Electroluminescent Power Pack does, however. 66-67 Chargers and some 50's Imperials use 250 vac for the dash bulbless lighting. In 66 the Radio and console are part of the electroluminescent lighting. The gauge needles have cat wisker wires to them as well. Super-cool setup when it works.

https://headlightmotorman.webs.com/ - motor rebuilds, better end switches

https://www.rt-eng.com/ - Info on Power Packs.

The four end switches must work for the headlight motors to not stall and burn up, or drain the battery. Not too complicated, just takes time and patience.
 
Pulled the power pack and bench tested it at 275VAC running off of a spare motorcycle battery. Also checked that the orange supply wire shows 12V with the headlights active. On to the gauges!
 
IIRC, unplug all the white wires, attach one at a time, seeing if they light.
 
So, this mailman stole the car and tried to cover with black spray paint ??? Geez.. Brings new meaning to "Going Postal" ! And yes, if you are chasing issues with the EL gauge lighting you need to disconnect all related items and re-connect one at a time to localize the problem. Keep i mind that beyond the gauges, you need to disconnect the white EL wire on the radio and console shift indicator as well. At least you know you have a good power pack.. Any short in anything EL can shut down the power pack !
 
Check out 66-67chager.com for a site for 66 & 67 Charger folks..
 
Only a few minutes to tinker today - I bolted the power pack back in and reconnected it, then pulled the cluster and radio white wires. No audible buzz from the power pack. Tomorrow I'll likely try to get into the console and see if the shifter white wire is the culprit.

On another note, yesterday I bolted up the Holley 4412 yesterday and WOW what a difference! It's going to need a little tuning but it definitely doesn't seem too far off! I hastily rigged up the throttle cable, though am currently waiting on a new one and a Lokar trans kickdown kit before I venture to the DMV. But it sounds phenomenal!
 
I pulled the console wire tonight and bingo! Instant buzz from the power pack and then a little dash!

XIJIarc.jpg

When I've got the more urgent items buttoned down I'll go ahead and figure out the gear shift EL. I also need to figure out some mounting for the radio as it was previously only held up by the knobs... Not great. There's one tab that a nut could grab threaded onto the left dial, but I don't have any nuts off that size around - does anyone know what that is?
 
Those gauges look primo when lit and you have the early version of gauges. There is a tab that comes down to the left radio knob for support from the heater controls above the radio, also should be a bracket that hooks to the back of the radio from behind.
 
Glad you found the culprit. Gauges look great ! Keep in mind that at some point you may want to do the conversion to eliminate the 5 V mechanical voltage regulator inside the fuel gauge and go with the RT engineering solid state limiter to avoid possible problems with the gauges in the future. If you have a factory radio this is the correct rear radio support bracket.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/MOPAR-66-6...445797?hash=item1a5d003aa5:g:zdYAAOSwC19bCE5M
 
Glad you found the culprit. Gauges look great ! Keep in mind that at some point you may want to do the conversion to eliminate the 5 V mechanical voltage regulator inside the fuel gauge and go with the RT engineering solid state limiter to avoid possible problems with the gauges in the future. If you have a factory radio this is the correct rear radio support bracket.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/MOPAR-66-6...445797?hash=item1a5d003aa5:g:zdYAAOSwC19bCE5M

So THAT's what that is.
 
You guys are awesome. I'll peek in behind the radio and see if that support is back there and I just missed it, otherwise I'll grab that one. My tach isn't functional so I'm probably going to look into RTE's unit for that, too.

First things first, though, I'll be rigging up a new throttle cable and trans kickdown cable from Lokar - the old linkage doesn't match up to the Holley carb I put on.
 
Looks great, love the progress. Remember the poly has solid lifters so check the lash when doing your tune-up.
 
My tach isn't functional so I'm probably going to look into RTE's unit for that, too.

Your 66 should have a remote can with electronics in it to run the tach. It would be located near the gauge power pak. You mentioned the previous owner said he had the gauges rebuilt and they sure look like it from the picture. I would check to see if the tach can is present or MIA. If previous owner did not fix the power pak he likely did not fix the Gauge can components.

As for the gauges cluster 5v IVR you can look at the back from under the dash and see if you have a newer style 5v IVR on the back of the gauge on the left side of the cluster for that update.
 
Looks great, love the progress. Remember the poly has solid lifters so check the lash when doing your tune-up.

Definitely in the plan! I'm used to motorcycles where this is much more common...and at least I don't have to deal with shim-style adjustments! I also wouldn't mind checking under the valve covers for how much crud is built up, if any. In any case, I decided on a Proform HEI distributor which should arrive in the next few days - but it got knocked down a major peg when the rebuilt Holley carb I put on made it run so well...
 
Hey everyone...haven't checked in for a few weeks. I tried to get down to the DMV with the Charger this morning and it was running great until it wasn't running at all. I coasted into a parking lot, luckily, where it's sitting now. I dumped in a gallon of gas with no change, and there was a parts store right there so I grabbed a new ballast resistor and that didn't do it either. On occasion the motor would fire briefly then die when trying to start. Any ideas?

I'm probably going to tow it before trying to throw more money at it in the parking lot. Maybe the points shifted (I re-gapped them last week)? Maybe the coil gave out? But I didn't hear any sort of pops/bangs/etc. Just a sudden loss of power.
 
Start with the carb and see if you are getting gas and a plugs to see if you have spark. That is where I would start if you have not tried them yet
 
Check spark first. Pull a plug wire off and hook up a good spark plug. Lay the plug away from anything combustible and crank the engine over to see if there is good spark.
If you have spark dump some gas down the carb and try to start it. It might be possible the fuel pump died.
Just a few things to check.
 
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