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Our 69 Coronet. Getting legal for Kiwi roads

Justin B

Justin B

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Location
Wellington, New Zealand
We picked this 69 Coronet 440 up from a Mopar swap/buy/sell page on Facebook.
We have always wanted a 69 super bee, but have settled for a bee tribute.
It's a cool car, with a great look to it, but needed work.

IMG20211225154729.jpg
 
The 440 pulled strong, but clutch shuddered. Leaky rear main, sump, valley pan ends and rocker covers.
A833 popped out of 2ndball the time
Motor and box removed. 4 speed taken to a local mopar manual box specialist

IMG20220305154447.jpg
 
4speed had been rebuilt, altho very worn shift forks, and worn 2nd gear collar gear set. Also steel thrust washers were gnarled up into a lot of metal shavings. Very good original 2nd gearset and shift forks sourced and used.
Clutch had a cracked pressure plate, so a custom 12inch unit has been made by a local clutch specialist. Steel flywheel sourced with arp bolts

IMG20220408120915.jpg
 
The 440 looks to have been rebuilt, but upon checking, the crank had .27 in of end to end float. The rear thrust face of centre main had almost worn away. The motor had full groove Clevite bearings, but only a standard oil pump, we think the motor may have had low pressure at hot idle. Crank still looked good
I installed a new set of mains, half groove this time. I just hope it runs for a couple more years

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Replaced rear main seal, straightened sump pan rail, and rocker cover rails, new valley pan (there was no sealant along front and back edges)
Painted in POR15 hemi oroange

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Converted to power steering, and fully rebuilt front suspension. Mopar performance .96 T bars, replace a arms, as top ball joint threads were non existant. QA1 single adjustable shocks front and rear
Drop engine back in

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Custom 15*10 rear wheels made locally
Cooper cobra 295/50/15 fitted.

This is where I'm up to, hopefully get it driving this weekend, and then get it checked over by the powers that bee to make sure it's roadworthy

IMG20220406075844.jpg IMG20220405161220.jpg
 
Dam you have been busy did you win the lottery :lol: looks good and have fun ps love the puppy
 
Ha ha, nah, no lottery win here.
I had a few pinball machines I restored and collected over a few years, I sold 6, all but one (2013 Stern Metallica)
Also sold my custom Harley Street bob
 
Nice project. When you said it had .27 end play on the crank, was the metric? If in inches, I would say that crank is toast. Or was it supposed to be .027? Up to you but on my manual trans stuff, including my daily driver Ram w/Cummins, the clutch switch is disabled so I don't have to engage it to start. Just gotta make sure its in neutral. Having a high pp load on the clutch puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the thrust main when its cold, not running with no oil pressure to feed/protect that area.
 
.27 inch.
Once new mains in, It was .04
The crank could well be toast, as I am very amateur with these things, and i am half expecting the engine to fail at some point.
I'm hoping it gives me a year or two, so I can save up to build a new motor, as my budget is completely blown at this point
 
Ouch. With that much even after the mains are in the future rebuild is no question. .004 would be groovy even up to .010 I think. Oh well, good excuse for improvements. Might be a good idea to bypass that switch so you extend the life of the bearings some. Did you put a new pilot bushing in while it was exposed?
 
Nah, I didn't replace the pilot bushing, just cleaned and greased the one that was in there.
Improvement is definitely in this engines future, as it looks stock, with just cast pistons, a purple cam and aftermarket timing set. My crew cab Fury runs a low deck 470 stroker, so I will want the coro to be able to at least keep up with fury.
 
Those bushings are a pain to get out. There are pullers made but there is not enough material to grab for the tool to work. I always had to use a hacksaw blade to make some cuts then bust it out with a drift punch when I had the 4spd in my Duster. Sometimes you run into the further complication where some cranks took a thinner still bushing. Might have been a/t cranks being used on m/t applications. NAPA used to have those. I believe you can retro fit the bearing unit that was used on the 5.2/5.9 Magnum V8's to the end of the crank using the torque converter register. Its like a big bushing spacer with a caged needle bearing in the center.
 
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