My latest Toy: A dodge AT4 with a difference

It may have been upgraded to the Powerglide rather that the Hydraslugmatic.

EH crossmember and red motor?
The mate's stock EH Premier many years ago, I thought went fine with 179 and Hydramatic. It had all been rebuilt and you could even feel the "ghost" gear Holden added from the EJ model on. It was in between 1st and 2nd. Not a real gear, but some sort of hydraulic trickery to ease the huge gap between 1st and 2nd.

Jarrod.

Bluey60 wrote: Hi PDU
Crappy old powerglide is a bit harsh unless I had a freak.Powerglide behind a 186 in a HD Premier had to really flog it to get worse than 25 mpg 30/32 on a trip and the trips were never what you’d call steady

I’d have to agree about the powerglide bluey, I had a HD Premier X2 station waggon with a powerglide with a 3:08 ratio diff getting 32 mpg on trip regularly with 150,000 kms when I sold it, and never a problem.

The hydramatic was a good box with direct drive in 2nd gear through the damper plate. Biggest problem with the Holden version was they had less clutches and driven plates in them than the original versions fitted behind Oldsmobile V8s.

I once had a Vauxhall Velox with one that did the front seal - trans fluid pouring out when I stopped in a garage, put two pints (as it was then) of trans fluid in it and drove out the garage, changed into second and drove it about fifteen miles home in 2nd gear. When I stopped in my driveway to open the gate it refused to move forward again in first. Pushed it in and wrecked it the following weeks!

I replaced the powerglide with a three speed manual box from a "57 Chev, MUCH better all round.

Overnite why did we sell them?

Bluey

To answer Bluey in order to pay for the next one.

Anyway the Dodge was delivered to me by a mechanic with a smile from ear to ear last friday with instructions "Take it for a couple of test runs in case we need to change something else before the roadworthy and drop it back tuesday as I am working through but only on projects"


We had to go to Melbourne so when we got back Sunday it was time for some fun.
We got home to find the brake lights on, investigation showed the pedal would come right up then settle about 3mm which was enough for the brake lights to go on. As there is more work to go on the pedal height a temporary fix with cardboard attached to the lever got them going correctly for the drive.
Trying to start it and the starter wouldn't crank. Put the battery charger on and the battery was down a bit so we blamed the brake lights and charged the battery for an hour. When we tried again the motor instantly burst into life.
First stop was the servo. As I put it in park and turned the motor off the car in front drove off. The truck wouldn't turn the starter motor over again. So I filled it with fuel, paid for it, got back in the truck and it burst into life quickly again.
We thought we would go to the East Boat Ramp. Then I remembered this was where a 100kmh zone started so wanting to get a bit of a feel at highway speeds we went for a blast down to Glanville Road where I was reminded what the turning circle was like. On the way back we were cruising happily when my wife using a GPS Speedo on her phone (as we suspected the speedo was inaccurate) said slow down or you will lose your licence and the Dodge. Lets just say it was cruising at high speed feeling planted on the road and feeling like it could go faster if pushed.

We then cruised gently through the port area to the end of the street turned right past the caravan park and was heading down Murray Esplanade past the paddle steamers towards the bridge hotel when the motor just cut out. I put the gear lever in neutral but the starter motor wouldn't kick so we rolled to a stop in the middle of the road. I got out and lifted the bonnet which was the sign for about 5 or 6 guys to come over. One noticed the battery was bubbling and smoking so grabbed his handkerchief and pulled the leads off the battery. Having RACV Total Care their assistance was summoned.

While waiting for the RACV one of the guys noticed some leads stuck to the extractors and with a light tug they were free but the wires were exposed. The RACV Man arrived and decided to tow it. The tow truck driver arrived and was looking for a tow point on the front. I asked if they could use the towbar on the back and that was deemed the easiest option. The tow truck driver had been told it was a modified holden so had brought with him the only tilt tray they had on airbags which enabled the dodge to be towed on without scraping the bumper bar!

The choice was to either get it delivered home and they would pick it up on Monday to deliver or they could take it to their yard which had alarms and cameras and they would drop it into the mechanic at their leisure. The second option was one call out so we took that. On Monday morning as the mechanic was opening his gates the tow truck arrived.

I got a phone call "What did you say was wrong with your truck? It's running fine","Look at the wires under the battery" "Holy shit! that is a problem". We need to investigate that. It turns out the 2 wires had been running through a plastic clip. The clip was melted. The thought is that the 2 wires we rubbing against each other and eventually wore the insulation through between them. They then melted the plastic clip and the wires dropped onto the extractors causing a short that removed power from the spark plugs.

Those wires have now been replaced and don't share any clips. Just a few minor things, the biggest of which is to drop 1.5 inches out of the pedal height for safety ( there will still be plenty of space between the pedal and the firewall when depressed), wheel alignment and try to play with speedo gears to improve the speedo accuracy

Once that is done and the vehicle on Club Plates it will be to a local autoelec for a radio, central locking and maybe a rewire. There seems to be a lot of disused and duplicate wires under the dashboard so tidying up that and the wiring under the bonnet will hopefully reduce the chance of future issues.

Boy were we having fun until it stopped - nothing silly as we were on the road in town but it was certainly turning heads. The guys had all seen us heading north and were as disappointed as we were when the noise stopped.

Even more importantly Helen (my wife) loves it. She finds it easy to get in and out of, the seat comfortable and the height from the floor is comfortable too. She even said it makes all the right noises! It makes it much easier to spend money on it when it's like this!

Bluey60 wrote: Overnite why did we sell them?

Because we needed the money for the next one we thought would be better. I also regret selling my FE Holden ute with a full stage 5 Waggott grey motor.
Bluey

Thats great news that the new toy is going great with only a few minor tweaks

Paul

I know nothin about customs......but I do know that Inters and Dodges should have extra side catches holding down the bonnet...........cause sooner or later,youll be finding out its hard to see through.

well this week the Dodge passed the RWC with no issues so I drove it to Rochester for the Rochester Motoring Club's scrutineer to take the photos (their club want the appointed people to take the photos rather than have people send it in) and it is now on the Victorian Club Permit system with M plates.

An interesting thing happened at VicRoads. As it was engineered in NSW and still currently registered (that ran out next week 29/1) the rules allowed me to put it on H plate. Please read the explanation before commenting

The Office Manger got H plates from the safe and went to do the paperwork. I asked if I could have M plates and the manager said I could but why as the vehicle was currently engineered and registered in NSW and I hadn't changed anything impacting the engineering it could go straight to H plates as it was 'as last registered'.
I explained it was a dodge cab on a holden chassis so the M plates showed the work had been done properly to an police officer who pulled up the plates on their computer to check it out. "You actually have the choice as it's currently registered like that but it's a good reason let me go get you some" was his reply. He then said I have some space for comments the police will see on their screen so he wrote "Dodge cab on Holden chassis" on the system so any enquiring police will know what they are looking at.

I may yet put the extra catches on the bonnet. At the moment I shut the bonnet then try to lift it up without undoing the catch. I figure that ensures it is shut and holding properly. I used to do the same thing on my XP ute so it's an existing habit that I still do on my modern vehicles too. I have watched many people just shut the bonnet climb in and drive off in modern cars without the bonnet being fully closed too