72 Satellite Gen III Hemi Restomod

[Nxcoupe]

I have Dr Diff's true trac II so it's different than a sure grip. No clutches, so I'm not sure that it would help.

It wouldn't. Whine like yours comes from either poorly hardened gears, like motive, or inproper setup. It's been a minute since I taught this, but depending on if it whines in accell, decel or cruise determines where the issue is. If it's just crap gears, well nothing will ever fix that. I did one set of motive's gears. I got them dead nuts. Pattern was spot on, preload was on point, etc. Test drove it and all was quiet. Customer called and said they were perfect. 6 months later, he stops by and says it started a slight whine. I asked around to my friends that also set up gears and turns out there are quite a few companies getting substandard gear sets from overseas. Hope some of this helps.

 

[supergluehero]

It wouldn't. Whine like yours comes from either poorly hardened gears, like motive, or inproper setup. It's been a minute since I taught this, but depending on if it whines in accell, decel or cruise determines where the issue is. If it's just crap gears, well nothing will ever fix that. I did one set of motive's gears. I got them dead nuts. Pattern was spot on, preload was on point, etc. Test drove it and all was quiet. Customer called and said they were perfect. 6 months later, he stops by and says it started a slight whine. I asked around to my friends that also set up gears and turns out there are quite a few companies getting substandard gear sets from overseas. Hope some of this helps.

I'm worried about that. Every time the timing was checked, it was perfect, but still making a lot of noise.

 

[supergluehero]

So if you recall a few posts earlier I was having issues with my fuel vapor tank and my fuel tank puking gas. I ended up taking it off and just routing the lines into the fender with nothing on them. Today I filled the tank up (over 20 gallons) got home and it did the same thing. This time I noticed that one of the vent lines was actually disconnected. I was baffled at how a tank with a vent open to atmosphere could become pressurized. After I depressurized the tank, a few minutes later it was still dripping. I talked with Aeromotive about the issue and the best we could come up with is that I overfilled the tank to the point where the vents couldn't function. I think for now I'm going to crack my gas cap when I get home after filling up. I'd like to put some kind of relief valve on the filler neck, but I'm not sure something like that exists. The good news is my vapor canister can go back in.

 

[Nxcoupe]

So if you recall a few posts earlier I was having issues with my fuel vapor tank and my fuel tank puking gas. I ended up taking it off and just routing the lines into the fender with nothing on them. Today I filled the tank up (over 20 gallons) got home and it did the same thing. This time I noticed that one of the vent lines was actually disconnected. I was baffled at how a tank with a vent open to atmosphere could become pressurized. After I depressurized the tank, a few minutes later it was still dripping. I talked with Aeromotive about the issue and the best we could come up with is that I overfilled the tank to the point where the vents couldn't function. I think for now I'm going to crack my gas cap when I get home after filling up. I'd like to put some kind of relief valve on the filler neck, but I'm not sure something like that exists. The good news is my vapor canister can go back in.
View attachment 1842597

Uhm, why are there no clamps on those hoses attached to a gas tank?

 

[supergluehero]

Uhm, why are there no clamps on those hoses attached to a gas tank?

Fair point, but there weren't any on the old tank and never had an issue. Plus they're just vents, so there shouldn't be any pressure, but obviously that's not the case.

 

[71Beeper]

From the factory, those hoses had this type of clamp on them.

I remember ripping them apart when I took the tank out of my 71 Runner.

 

[supergluehero]

From the factory, those hoses had this type of clamp on them.
View attachment 1843986

I remember ripping them apart when I took the tank out of my 71 Runner.

Ok, yeah those are the style that are on the canister side. I've managed to keep them mostly intact. I'm guessing the PO wasn't as careful with the ones on the tank.

 

[HEMIB]

Ok, yeah those are the style that are on the canister side. I've managed to keep them mostly intact. I'm guessing the PO wasn't as careful with the ones on the tank.

Just had the same problem filed my tank with cold fuel once it expanded in the warm tank it pushed the excess out the breather thought the tank had split took the cap off too be greeted with a woosh of air

 

[supergluehero]

I have noticed that if I try to restart my engine immediately after driving it doesn't want to start. The starter isn't continuously turning the motor. It's almost as if I have a dead battery. The longer I wait the better it is. To me this indicates vapor lock. Would you guys agree? I didn't think I'd have this problem since the regulator is on the firewall with a return line. I suppose the line to the fuel rail could be getting heat soaked. Thoughts?

 

[mpgmike]

Vapor lock will not cause a slow cranking issue. You describe the symptom "as if I have a dead battery". I'm thinking more like a bad starter.

 

[HEMIB]

Or cables are too small along with a hot starter

 

[supergluehero]

Or cables are too small along with a hot starter

It's been a while so I can't recall my cable sizes off hand but I believe I was conservative and went a little larger than necessary. A hot starter sounds plausible. I have a mini starter and TTI headers. I'm sure I'm not the only one with this combination. Perhaps I need to wrap my headers?

 

[HEMIB]

I wrapped a turbo blanket around my 426 R3 with TTI headers when it got hot you would have to wait for it to cool before it would turn also a clockable starter may help create a bit of clearance

 

[supergluehero]

I recently picked up a 3D printer so I made a new seatbelt guide since the Cobalt ones were still too high.

I also designed this cupholder extension for my center console so my boys in the back had a place to put their drinks.

I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do with the space the air vents were. Maybe a sunglass storage nook or a panel to add switches in the future.

 

[supergluehero]

So I've had a few issues pop up. Let's start with the easy stuff.

The shifter arm I made was great, but it didn't clear cups in my cupholder. I bought a cheap knob and put together a new arm. I needed a T-shifter, but I didn't like the Hurst style. The cheapo ones look nice, but they have a M18 fine thread which is almost impossible to find stuff for. I found a 3/8 NPT is actually pretty close. Since it's a taper fit, I may have a hard time clocking it correctly, but haven't gotten that far yet. I 3D printed a fixture for welding up a nipple.

The other issue I have is my fuel tank is leaking when full (even when I remember to leave the cap off). Guess I'm gonna have to drop the tank and reseal the penetrations... again.

The big issue is my driver wheel bearing failed with only 3k miles. Either I used the wrong grease or not enough or both. The passenger side looks fine though. The inner bearing inner race more or less fused to the spindle and the outer race carved up the hub. I have all the replacement parts coming tomorrow, but I can't find the spindle part number that came with the RMS kit. The ones at Wilwood are two piece and the stock ones aren't made for Wilwood brakes. Does anybody know? I haven't heard back from Bill, so I'm not sure what's going on over there.

 

[Nxcoupe]

So I've had a few issues pop up. Let's start with the easy stuff.

The shifter arm I made was great, but it didn't clear cups in my cupholder. I bought a cheap knob and put together a new arm. I needed a T-shifter, but I didn't like the Hurst style. The cheapo ones look nice, but they have a M18 fine thread which is almost impossible to find stuff for. I found a 3/8 NPT is actually pretty close. Since it's a taper fit, I may have a hard time clocking it correctly, but haven't gotten that far yet. I 3D printed a fixture for welding up a nipple.
View attachment 1976801
The other issue I have is my fuel tank is leaking when full (even when I remember to leave the cap off). Guess I'm gonna have to drop the tank and reseal the penetrations... again.

The big issue is my driver wheel bearing failed with only 3k miles. Either I used the wrong grease or not enough or both. The passenger side looks fine though. The inner bearing inner race more or less fused to the spindle and the outer race carved up the hub. I have all the replacement parts coming tomorrow, but I can't find the spindle part number that came with the RMS kit. The ones at Wilwood are two piece and the stock ones aren't made for Wilwood brakes. Does anybody know? I haven't heard back from Bill, so I'm not sure what's going on over there.
View attachment 1976805
View attachment 1976806
View attachment 1976807

Not enough grease. Put gobs of grease in the rotor hub between the 2 races. And pack bearings with lots of grease.

 

[supergluehero]

Been a minute since I updated this thread. I got new wheel bearings installed (along with everything else that got damaged) and haven't had any issues.

I'm still having starting issues when the engine is warm even after heat wrapping the starter. I'm thinking I've heat soaked my cables potentially. Although I haven't ruled out a bad starter.

The gas puking had to stop so I picked up a vapor canister and mounted it behind my license plate. I installed a fitting on my fill neck. So far it works well. I put the fitting at the wrong angle so I have to rotate my fill neck slightly. One of these days I'll get around to fixing it.

Not sure how much I posted about my rear end, but I'm on my third gear set. All three ran quiet for 15-20 miles and then various amounts of noise set in that never went away. Running my symptoms through chat GPT, it thinks I warped my axle tubes when I welded on the 4-link tabs. Anybody else have this happen? I doubt the shop checked the axle alignment when they tried the regear.

My next project is going to try and create a panel to hide this mess. It's going to be a rather involved part, so we'll see how that goes.

I also redid my shifter to clear the cupholders. It's just a cheap Amazon shifter, but it does the trick. Knowing what I know now, I would just get a ball shifter instead.

 

[supergluehero]

I designed a cover panel for the front of the center console. It needs some refinement, but not too bad for a first attempt.

 

[supergluehero]

I need some feedback. Before the resto-mod, my rear end was fine. I didn't notice any noise or issues. After the mods, I bought Dr. Diff Gears and Truetrac and had a local shop install them. Shortly after a gear whine developed (decel). The shop claimed I got bad parts and made me buy new gears and bearings and they did the work again. Again it was fine for the first 20 miles or so and then it started to roar to the point I had to have it towed (accel). The shop said the mesh pattern was still fine and couldn't find anything wrong, but replaced the gears and bearings again. This time they said they weren't going to touch it again. Sure enough after about 20 miles it developed a whine (mixed decel and accel) and that's the way it's been for the last year. It's drivable, but something's not right. I've put about 1500 miles on it. I took it to a new shop because I was tired of the whine and want it right. I also considered the first shop didn't check the axle tube runout since it may have warped when I welded on the tabs for the 4-link conversion. Long story short, the axle tubes are fine, but the gears and bearings show wear that's excessive considering the mileage. Their recommendation at this point is to take the guess work out of it and replace the whole third member with a preassembled new unit. They quoted me $4400. Some of that I'm sure is to cover their diagnostic fee and they're probably charging me too much to fix the leaking drain plug the first shop messed up, but I'm trying to figure out the math. They offer a 24 month / 24k mile warranty (which is nice) but even with all the bells and whistles, an equivalent kit from Moser is $2200. If I'm just pulling the third member and dropping in a whole new unit, there's not much to it. I've done it before. So what does the extra $2200 get me besides the hour or two to install it and the warranty? Am I not considering something? If I'm going to spend the money, I want this to be the last time. I ABSOLUTELY don't want to end up with a whine 20 miles down the road for a 4th time.

 

[5.7 hemi]

Order a complete new center section from dr diff. Cass won’t steer ya wrong.