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I am feeling defeted on my 73 RR

BlooDSMeaR

Well-Known Member
Local time
4:33 AM
Joined
Aug 28, 2017
Messages
132
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42
Location
Medford Oregon
Since I have bought my 73 roadrunner a year and a half ago, I have spent thousands of dollars, and tons of time trying to get it on the road.
My first engine build wiped a cam lobe, so I had to have the engine rebuilt again. I went ahead and spent the big bucks to upgrade to a full roller set up. Well on the dyno, the roller lifter on cyl 8 collapsed and twisted ruining the cam. So Had to have it replaced again. At least the engine shop didn't charge me for labor for this one....
My cars original transmission, made it about 20' in reverse before it quit. I bought a TCI trans and installed it, and I got maybe 30 miles on it, before it quit. I sent the trans back in to TCI, fortunately, they covered it under warranty, I just had to pay freight.
Now the trans I just got back from TCI and installed last weekend is still slamming very hard into 3rd, locking the rear wheels momentarily. The same issue I was having before on the first TCI trans, and it got worse rapidly.
On my test drive after installing the new trans, some how the traction bar on the drivers side twisted, and scraped a 1/4" wide and same depth into the brand new tire. ( i found this out when I lifted the car to double check the trans install).
AND the kudigraw the wiring under the dash started to smoke on that test drive.....
I am just over $20k into this fking thing, the paint and body are still not done, and the interior is still untouched... I cant even drive it still....
 
Dang....well, when I bent a traction bar, I think I know how that happened...:rolleyes:….let's just say I wasn't driving to church on a Sunday.

Well, something doesn't seem right with those TCI's. I mean, if the exact same thing happened TWICE, then either TCI has a bad bunch of some component or it's installer's error somehow and I can't see how you'd screw something up installing it that would cause the wheels to lock up going 2nd to 3rd gear??? Does this transmission have a trans brake by any chance?

With the dyno & the TCI transmissions, it "sounds" like you're building a track car and track cars break a lot. Hang in there brother.
 
Sounds like you need to come up to the ranch for a beer! Mopar misery loves company.

If you need help with the wiring stuff hit me up, I'm local.

What machine shop do you use? I'd hate to have all of that trouble on the dyno. My last dyno session almost made the operator insane lol. The nitrous hits made him leave the room. : D

Also, I have access to a chassis dyno in Medford if that would help troubleshoot things further.

PS don't feel aloneI have 20k into the engine/trans/D60 of a car that hasn't moved in two years. It's hard to spend that much to do more work~
 
Dang....well, when I bent a traction bar, I think I know how that happened...:rolleyes:….let's just say I wasn't driving to church on a Sunday.

Well, something doesn't seem right with those TCI's. I mean, if the exact same thing happened TWICE, then either TCI has a bad bunch of some component or it's installer's error somehow and I can't see how you'd screw something up installing it that would cause the wheels to lock up going 2nd to 3rd gear??? Does this transmission have a trans brake by any chance?

With the dyno & the TCI transmissions, it "sounds" like you're building a track car and track cars break a lot. Hang in there brother.

I am sure that the traction bar got knocked out of alignment, by hitting the rail on the auto wash. The car was massively dirty, so while on my test drive I went though the auto wash. I felt a clank as I went into the lane, I didn't think much of it, that is until I saw the grove in the rear tire.

I have called TCI and the warranty guy is supposed to call me back this afternoon. I'm not paying freight again!!!

This car is being built for my Dad. He is in his 70's and has been into drag racing his whole life. He just has never been able to have a car of his own. He suffered a heart attack, and put him into retirement. While I'm not rich or affluent in any way, I wanted to do this for my Dad. Originally I was going to use my father in laws wrecked Roadrunner to build this one. ( He did a frame off about 10 years ago, and has not put more than 10k miles on it since then) His car was in a bad rear-eneder that messed up a lot on the front-end, bending the cowl, frame rails and twisting the kframe rendering it a parts car. My FIL changed his mind about selling it to me, just after I bought this RR I'm working on now. He didn't want to see his RR used as a parts car, and he "will fix it some day". So I went ahead and built a stout 360/408 stroker. and bought a TCI trans and things have gone down hill since then. I am so over this thing....And the credit card payments...
 
Also, if you need crash parts for the RR i have frame rails, aprons etc.

FWIW, I'm not a fan of TCI. Sounds like the band overlap is dicked up. Or maybe the clutch pack clearance is too tight? DVW could help you on this one.
 
Trying to put myself in your shoes, I'd say I was at the point of no return and I'll never get that money back, so evaluate and try once more.

Good luck
mechanic-smiley-emoticon.gif
 
I feel your pain. Been there done that, But still hard at doing it again,,and again.
Its a shame with the TCI tranny, I've always wondered about just buying out of the catalog to save time, but no one wants to do things twice. I mean no dis-respect,but 20K is just the starting point now-a-days. The hurting part is waiting to do interior,paint, whatever, as each day passes the cost just keep going up.
HANG IN THERE !
 
Get your money back and buy from these guys.
http://www.aandatrans.com
Well I could buy another trans, but I'll have to eat the cost on the TCI trans, you don't think they would give me my money back do you??? I still haven't heard back from TCI. I am at the point of telling them I want my money back... But I know I'll be told to eat rocks, and have pay freight to send it back to TCI again.
 
Sounds like you need to come up to the ranch for a beer! Mopar misery loves company.

If you need help with the wiring stuff hit me up, I'm local.

What machine shop do you use? I'd hate to have all of that trouble on the dyno. My last dyno session almost made the operator insane lol. The nitrous hits made him leave the room. : D

Also, I have access to a chassis dyno in Medford if that would help troubleshoot things further.

PS don't feel alone I have 20k into the engine/trans/D60 of a car that hasn't moved in two years. It's hard to spend that much to do more work~

A beer would probably help some!!!
I am sure the smoking wires under the dash were from the alternator running at max output, as I am running a full MSD ignition and an electric fan on a stock alt. The amp gauge was pegged hard over to the right.
I do not really want to disclose what machine shop I used, as there is bad blood from what all has transpired with the engine builds, and shoddy work. I was raised to not say any thing unless it was nice.
As for a chassis dyno, I would love to have my car tuned again. I know I am running way way to rich on my carb. When the guy at the shop dyno tuned my carb, he didn't get all the old gasket material off of the bottom of it, it had a huge vacuum leak that he re-jetted my carb for. When I pulled the carb off the motor to install it into my car, I found the the gasket material and was not happy!!!
I am getting reeaaallllyyyy frustrated...
At the rate of how much I have spent and looking forward to a whole lot more.. I could have bought a new challenger and be done with this mess.
 
And here I thought that I had bad luck when fixing up these old jalopies, but you are kicking my a$$.
 
I will be honest I doubt they did anything but "check" the motor when it wiped a cam lobe 1st time. Many years ago I had a solid cam wipe 3 lobes. Motor was tore apart and everything looked great. It's very fine metal than drops to the pan. The filter caught it all, just put a new oil pump on it to be safe... Hang in there as it sounds like you have some bad luck with some vendors parts.
 
not to beat you up, but it sounds like you need to seriously learn how to do this **** for yourself instead of getting ripped off by people you pay that are obviously incompetent. just another reason I do all my own work
 
Try finding a mechanic that works on and knows mopars. You probably have a chevy mechanic
 
Finding a good transmission operation is very difficult. If you find a local competent shop your blessed. Remebr their oare eaily 10,000 unique steps in building a car. If 2 or 3 items fail consider your self lucky.

My question about roller cam failure deserves more questions.
1. What type of roller strap system was used? Joining the pair?
2. Does the roller used work in a steel lifter bore?
3. How much height on roller stick above bore.
4. Does roller lube band stay within the lifter bore?
5. What is the arrangement for bearing oiling?? Location of oil hole? You might have claim again cam maker..
 
Its a good idea to run a wire directly from the main lug on the alteralternator straight to the battery to avoid pulling all of that juice through the dash harness and firewall plugs. Dont ask me how I know that. On the machine shop - I understand! Ihave fired all but three in the tri county area and trust assembly work to two of them. Both are ex racers so that helps them understand why its important to do it right and once. Hang in there you will get it handled. If the TCI doesnt work out its time to do it yourself, 727s are not rocket science.
 
Oh yeah, we tried the SRT8 thing in 2010. Its sitting in the garage with a dead battery covered in dust. Nobody ever drove it, 40k mi on the clock. New cars are boring.
 
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