The intake situation was still being worked on so I bought a Pertronix distributor. I don't like seeing ignition modules on the firewall on cars that didn't originally come with them. The Pertronix seemed like a nice compact solution.
I did some reading about Mopars and erratic timing. I found out that there is a common problem with the intermediate shaft "bouncing". Since the intermediate shaft has angle cut gear teeth, every time it bounces, it twists and changes the timing. If there is any space between the end of the distributor shaft and the bottom of the inside slot on the intermediate shaft, the gear has room to bounce. The fix seems to be a simple collar around the distributor shaft. When the intermediate shaft wants to lift, it can't because the collar is there. I also read about reducing the up and down play in the distributor shaft and making sure that the drive lug on the distributor fits snug into the slot in the intermediate shaft.
The first thing I did was address the up and down movement of the distributor shaft. The play seemed excessive to what I was reading online. I took the collar off the bottom and added another shim. The play is greatly reduced. There is still a small amount of movement for thermal expansion.
The next thing I did was to look at the intermediate shaft. The distributor drive lug was VERY loose in the intermediate shaft. There was some visible wear on the sides of the intermediate shaft slot so I bought a new one. The distributor fit better but there was still too much movement between the two. I ended up peening the end of the dist drive lug with a punch. I did this on all four corners. This expanded the drive lug and made it fit snug into the slot in the intermediate shaft. The only thing left to do was install the shaft collar.
After the distributor work was done, the intake was ready to be installed. Once the intake was on, I started test fitting the TTI headers. I ran into a couple issues there too. The main thing was that the block had a large boss on the side of it that interfered with the center tubes. My block came from a truck. Passenger car blocks must not have that boss. A little time with a grinder is all it took to get clearance.
As I stated earlier, it warmed up over the weekend so I was able to get the engine painted. Yesterday I hooked up the trans and bolted the engine up to the K-member. I'm going to test fit the engine in the car so I can make sure everything fits. I'm 99% sure that the headers are going to hang too low. TTI makes a shorty header that would give me more clearance. I also need to modify the throttle bracket some more. The only way to get it right is to have the engine in the car. With the engine installed, it will also give me more room in the garage while I work on the Challenger.
Here's what it looks like so far. I'm not sold on the color just yet. I think it will look better surrounded by a blue engine compartment. I'm just really tired of orange engines in everything though. My friend photoshoped the valve covers black for me. I think that's the way I'm going to go. The alternator and power steering pump will also be black to carry on the theme. The trans lines don't clear the headers. I think I'll have to custom make some lines out of braided hose.
black valve cover photoshop
