What have you done with your Charger lately?

[myk]

Yeah I can't believe I never noticed that.  I cobbled a wire and routed it from the negative terminal to the body.  Now I need to get an engine to body ground.  Can I use the repro strap or can I just grab something off the shelf at the parts store?  Where exactly on the head does the strap go to?  I'm thinking valve cover bolt?

[funknut]

Yeah I can't believe I never noticed that.  I cobbled a wire and routed it from the negative terminal to the body.  Now I need to get an engine to body ground.  Can I use the repro strap or can I just grab something off the shelf at the parts store?  Where exactly on the head does the strap go to?  I'm thinking valve cover bolt?

The previous owner of my Charger didn't install an engine to firewall ground strap and the car acted nothing short of possessed.  The only consistent problem was after a few days of unuse the battery would drain so bad the Battery Tender wouldn't even try to charge it.  Any accessories run off the firewall will not have a good ground and behave badly.  Dim headlights and otherwise weak electrical output would be good indicators.

I made my own out of some quality 10ga stranded copper core wire and some weatherproof terminal ends.  I got everything I needed at home depot.  There should be a bolt hole on the back of the cylinder head dedicated for this.  If you have an aftermarket intake there may also be one on there.  

If you try to install the ground wire on a bolt that needs a fair bit of torque you will more than likely crush the ring terminal and have to start over.  Ask me how I know!  

[crj1968]

Yeah I can't believe I never noticed that.  I cobbled a wire and routed it from the negative terminal to the body.  Now I need to get an engine to body ground.  Can I use the repro strap or can I just grab something off the shelf at the parts store?  Where exactly on the head does the strap go to?  I'm thinking valve cover bolt?

The previous owner of my Charger didn't install an engine to firewall ground strap and the car acted nothing short of possessed.  The only consistent problem was after a few days of unuse the battery would drain so bad the Battery Tender wouldn't even try to charge it.  Any accessories run off the firewall will not have a good ground and behave badly.  Dim headlights and otherwise weak electrical output would be good indicators.

I made my own out of some quality 10ga stranded copper core wire and some weatherproof terminal ends.  I got everything I needed at home depot.  There should be a bolt hole on the back of the cylinder head dedicated for this.  If you have an aftermarket intake there may also be one on there.  

If you try to install the ground wire on a bolt that needs a fair bit of torque you will more than likely crush the ring terminal and have to start over.  Ask me how I know!  

How do you know?   

My battery died also- I left the key on...    and I found that the battery tender thing couldn't do anything about it. (I thought it was broke) I had to hook up to a real charger for a little while and then the tender thing worked. 

[rebby]

Swapped out my spark plugs today (yep, on a practically new engine). Turned out to be a really good idea as I pulled out one plug that appeared to be damaged prior to installation. Car runs a lot smoother now. Was even able to turn in the idle mix screws and drop the idle a bit. Might have to consider dropping the primary jets a step or two but I want to get a few more miles on it first. 

[nvrbdn]

went to a show.

[b5blue]

Yeah I can't believe I never noticed that.  I cobbled a wire and routed it from the negative terminal to the body.  Now I need to get an engine to body ground.  Can I use the repro strap or can I just grab something off the shelf at the parts store?  Where exactly on the head does the strap go to?  I'm thinking valve cover bolt?

Pass. side rear of block/head there will be a 3/8 bolt hole behind the intake. Use that or an intake bolt and run to volt regulator bracket or close to it. 

[myk]

Yeah I can't believe I never noticed that.  I cobbled a wire and routed it from the negative terminal to the body.  Now I need to get an engine to body ground.  Can I use the repro strap or can I just grab something off the shelf at the parts store?  Where exactly on the head does the strap go to?  I'm thinking valve cover bolt?

Pass. side rear of block/head there will be a 3/8 bolt hole behind the intake. Use that or an intake bolt and run to volt regulator bracket or close to it. 

Thanks for that!  I don't have the VR anymore so do would you happen to know what size  bolt goes into the firewall?

[b5blue]

Just pick out any. 

[myk]

They're just self tapping metal screws right?  I'll have to go buy some; there's literally nothing mounted to my firewall.  Thanks for the heads up...

[VegasCharger]

They're just self tapping metal screws right?  I'll have to go buy some; there's literally nothing mounted to my firewall.  Thanks for the heads up...

Here's mine when I first got my 68 Charger. It's right below the lower LH corner of the water valve flange cutout. And like the others said, on the engine block it's RH side head at the rear. (see pics)

I bought a new ground strap from Bill Rolik Enterprises.

Link to the ground straps:

http://www.billrolikenterprises.com/products.asp?cat=17&pg=16

eww my greasy engine, the cob webs, the spray bombed black over gold engine compartment 

[myk]

Thanks for the link and the pics; might as well use the original strap.  I cannot believe I have not run an engine to chassis ground in the 22 years of driving this car....

[Charger-Bodie]

In 70 the stopped the one on the firewall to use one that went from negative post to radiator support.

[DixieRestoParts]

Had to replace the exhaust from the mufflers back. Purchased a system from Accurate LTD 12 years ago and it had rusted badly at the rear of the muffler. One muffler had a hole in it. I think it was premature, but Tom at Accurate said that's about right especially if you do short drives. Some other folks have said the same. Anyway, he gave me a discount on the needed replacement parts and installed them yesterday. Had to reuse my muffler hangars as the new ones weren't right, and I wasn't a fan of the exhaust tip hangar he sent, should have reused that too. I'm going to call him Monday, but no more exhaust leak.  

If you want to see the initial rust problems and then some of the work as I replaced it, use this link:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=B53B127E6326556F!6237&authkey=!AP-gMDvSGFTk73M&ithint=folder%2cjpg

[birdsandbees]

Dixie, is yours a 69 or 70? The new hanger you got is a '69 with the rubber loop. The old one you removed is a '70 with the single strap. I know because I just bought a pair of both from Frank at ARPS.

[DixieRestoParts]

Dixie, is yours a 69 or 70? The new hanger you got is a '69 with the rubber loop. The old one you removed is a '70 with the single strap. I know because I just bought a pair of both from Frank at ARPS.

My car is a '69, but the double loop was too short. It caused the tail pipes to bottom out against the shock mount. Unless, I did something wrong? 

[birdsandbees]

You mean too high... up against the upper shock mount. Maybe Accurates tail pipes aren't quite right?  Mind you, it won't take long for that rubber to sag a bit and maybe give some clearance.

[DixieRestoParts]

Yes, it rubbed against the top mount. Didn't think about the rubber sagging, but had a heck of time getting the hangar up high enough to even bolt on. 

[myk]

In 70 the stopped the one on the firewall to use one that went from negative post to radiator support.

So our cars only used 2 engine bay grounds?  Battery to engine and then either engine to firewall OR battery to body/chassis?  I heard the GM and Ford guys use all three?  I guess it can't hurt to have all three, which is what I'm going to do...

[Charger-Bodie]

In 70 the stopped the one on the firewall to use one that went from negative post to radiator support.

So our cars only used 2 engine bay grounds?  Battery to engine and then either engine to firewall OR battery to body/chassis?  I heard the GM and Ford guys use all three?  I guess it can't hurt to have all three, which is what I'm going to do...

There are numerous small grounds. Some just friction.

Because these cars are unibody they don't need the third main ground.

[rebby]

In 70 the stopped the one on the firewall to use one that went from negative post to radiator support.

So our cars only used 2 engine bay grounds?  Battery to engine and then either engine to firewall OR battery to body/chassis?  I heard the GM and Ford guys use all three?  I guess it can't hurt to have all three, which is what I'm going to do...

There are numerous small grounds. Some just friction.

Because these cars are unibody they don't need the third main ground.

"Need" is a debatable term, especially with the various ground problems that people have from time to time. When I put my car together I added a bunch of extra ground straps in numerous locations, most of them hidden. My favorite is a "combo ground" that I started from the engine and ran to the ignition box mount bolt on the firewall. The ignition box uses a longer lower bolt that is nutted on the back and I added another ground strap here that runs from the firewall to passenger side mounting bolt for the radio. I added a second wire to the lug that runs from the radio to the back of the gauge cluster and secures to one of the factory mounting screws. Yet another wire out of this lug runs from here and attaches to a bolt in the kick panel. I was sure to scrape the paint clean anywhere that a wire attached. If you can't tell, I'm hoping to avoid any future ground issues. In addition to the engine ground, I also added a few chassis grounds directly from the negative battery terminal (one of which that I use for the driver's side headlights as well).

Anyway... My GL accomplishments for the day include tweaking the brake pedal height (again), still trying to get it just right. I also completed my LED conversion. The only Edison bulbs that are left in my car are the hood turn signals, the radio, the ash tray, and the ignition key light. All of these bulbs fit in a sleeve of sorts and I have yet to find an LED that will fit the sleeve. I was able to get all of my LEDs from superbrightleds.com with the exception of the glove box LED which is reverse polarity (found on eBay, listing was for BMW/Audi/Mercedes dome light). I'll post more info on this in my GL thread.

[hawkeye]

Fired mine up for the 1st time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUaPc_q6wMM

[myk]

NICE.  thanks for the video.   Dakota Digital setup?

[hawkeye]

New Vintage gauges.  Homemade bezel.  Reply #7
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,122172.msg1519200.html#msg1519200

[BrianShaughnessy]

E-Booger wanted my stock 15/16 front sway bar for some reason...  So I sold it to him.
Bought a 1 3/8" Hellwig front bar from Summit - which is surprisingly affordable considering.  These are hollow which actually saves weight over the solid bar.
I have a FirmFeel 1 1/8" solid bar on the front of Betty but they are running $325...  and I don't feel like giving Hotchkis any $ since they dicked over my friend Kevin.

[rebby]

That sway bar is next on my list! Doing a rear one as well. Looks great.