Meet Regina FQ3, a 1970 Polara convertible who turns 51 today

[71Polara383]

Remember when I said the endplay had changed and I had to reset the adjustment? Well. Last Tuesday I put about 60 miles in total on the car and everything seemed to be going good. But at low speeds, I heard a noise that sounded like the brakes were dragging. Wheels came back off and upon further inspection I noticed the drivers side axle had up and down movement - no bueno.

I removed the inner seal, thinking maybe I didnt have it pressed in far enough. Nope. Then, I took a spare driver's side axle and swapped it in quickly thinking that possibly the machine shop made a mistake and hurt the new bearing. Nope. Still moving around up and down. Now I'm sure I've encountered something uncommon. The axle housing itself has excessive wear, likely from a previous bearing failure, the bearing froze and the race spun inside the end of the flange on the housing. I got a set of calipers and took some measurements of the new bearing/race itself, an original bearing/race, the housing flange in the car, and a housing pulled from my gold 71 and reported the findings to @ayilar

Here are some photos comparing the housing in the car to the good one from my gold 71, that will likely be the one we clean up/paint and install in place of the one that is hurt.

While this is a bummer, I'm glad I was being meticulous and by the book with this project. As well as monitoring and being right on top of any odd sounds. After discussing this at great length with @Xenon @LocuMob and @'69FuryIIIConvertible it is unlikely the new bearing has been hurt, and we should be good to go after housing swap.

Now when changing center sections and pulling axles, I have new tolerance/measurement to verify before putting one back together. I've swapped around many pumpkins and axles and have NEVER encountered this type of wear/failure.

I wonder if that trailer hitch that was torched off this car had something to do with what this rear axle experienced in its 101 thousand miles of life?

Oh the joys of working on 54 year old cars!

 

[73Coupe]

.058" - that's a lot of wear, dang...

 

[71Polara383]

.058" - that's a lot of wear, dang...

Enough to cause problems, but not enough to see if you arent expecting it!

The old bearings spun freely too, so at some point a bearing was lost, and spun in the tube and was replaced without question.

These old cars never stop surprising ya!

 

[71Polara383]

With the discovery of the axle housing being shot, I took some measurements and confirmed that the one I pulled measurements from was the exact same. For anyone interested, 70-73 Dodge C 8.75s and apparently 69 wagon housings are 59 ⁷/¹⁶" flange to flange. 69-71 have the same perch style, but in 72 or 73 the perches have a larger hole for the different isolator configuration.

With that verified, I got the wire wheel on my angle grinder and went to town.

I then took some rags and wiped it down throughly with lacquer thinner before spraying it with "Rust Reformer" I had left over from doing bumper brackets on Ming. We had just enough to give the entire housing a solid coat. This was my base/primer.

After that was dry I gave it 1 coat of gloss black fleet coating I had not yet used for a project of my own. Just making a driver here so I figured this will be better than a rusty housing and will look good for years to come. After painting, I placed it in the warm hallway to remain above 65° overnight.

The Following Day, I returned and got right after removing the old housing. Luckily we had already done the springs so I didn't have to fight stubborn U-Bolts. I removed the axles. Undid the brake hard line, and pulled the backing plates with brakes intact and let them dangle out of the way by the e brake cables. I unbolted the shocks next. Then I pulled the center chunk out. I cut the rubber brake hose so I could roll the axle over and dumped the diff fluid out into my catch pan. Then finally removed the housing.

 

[71Polara383]

I dont have too many photos of it going back together, but it went without issue. Cleaned the axle vent and distribution block up. Blew out the brake lines with compressed air. Luckily I had a new diff gasket of my own and was able to get the center back in without waiting for another. I got everything done as efficiently as possible to get things back on track for Regina. I set the end play within spec for the 4th and final time. Put the drums on, followed by the wheels, lowered the car and called it a night.

The following day, I returned with more gear lube, a metal wix filter and got after replacing the rubber brake hose. Luckily I was able to remove it without twisting/breaking off the steel brake line. Then I filled the diff while waiting for assistance from my father to bleed the brakes. While we do have the "Power Bleeder" and while it works okay, I still prefer dragging my dad out of the house to help me do it the old fashioned way if time allows.

After we finished bleeding the brakes, I documented my current mileage, got some more fuel and hit the road for some evening local testing.

After driving around for a while, I returned. Put the car back up and checked to see if my adjustment stayed put. No more issues here!

I then fiddled with cardboard infront of the radiator to see if I could make the temperature come up on the gauge, as it seems to no longer or barely move. It took a while to come up and I'm guessing the thermostat is stuck open, or gutted. I do not recall ever changing it in all this time doing miscellaneous repairs. However, usually we aren't getting play time in colder weather so, maybe that's why I've never noticed until now...

 

[71Polara383]

The next day was more testing. I was out in Regina for hours driving. She is a fantastic car, and I'm pretty sure the rear end issues are behind us, until her father does the right thing and has the center section rebuilt and set up with the proper sure grip to go with the 3.23 ratio she now sports.

 

[71Polara383]

The following day after the successful voyage, I tackled most of the remaining mechanical and preventative maintenance items on our list.

I replaced the 330 bulb in the RH fender turn signal indicator. Picked them up at Napa and they were in stock! There will be a spare left in the center console as we only needed 1.

Next up was the valve cover gaskets. These REAL gaskets were very nice, and easy to align... Pretty straight forward. Remove covers, clean gasket surfaces, and replace.

 

[71Polara383]

I replaced the plastic filter with a Wix metal one.

Then I started to swap in the mini starter, and this is where my evening started going south...the new starter did not come with hardware, and of course it's a different thread (metric vs standard) than the OEM terminal hardware. So I scoured the shop and luckily came up with the winners to get the terminal relocation kit on the starter...

I also checked to see if what I pulled off was the original to the car starter, it was not. This one I believe says 66 for the date code.

Next up I put the air cleaner decal on and compared it to the original location. I didnt put it on slightly askew, but thats fine. Looks great from here.

After this I fired the car up and noticed a slight fuel leak, and replaced the hose from the pump to the filter.

With that resolved I let it run for some time and noticed the passenger valve cover was having issues, I tried to snug it up a little more as it was warm and thats what the instructions said, but nope. Being these awesome re-usuable gaskets, I pulled the cover and checked out what I initially thought was the issue...Only the passenger side had the original front and rear lower studs, and they weren't all the way into the head, I removed those and got 2 bolts from my bin of engine fasteners. I cleaned the gasket with soap and water, as the instructions stated. Then tried installation again. Fired it up and watched carefully. As soon as I seen the wetness seeping out. I shut it down and pulled the cover again and took a good hard look at the area the leak originated from. Sure enough, the last person to do valve covers warped/bent the edge up pretty good, as well as flattened that area where it should be a groove pushing down on the gasket. Being that it was 1:30 in the morning. I set the cover back over the engine and called it a night. I was defeated.

I returned today (2/15) and worked the cover back into shape with some wood, a chisel, a small hammer and a whole lot of patience. 3rd time was the charm. No more leaks.

I went over everything one last time while the air cleaner was off. Messed with the idle mixture some more, (this holley 2bbl is so dang finicky) Verified idle speed and timing and put the air cleaner on and drove her home this evening. Pretty sure, the only thing I need have left as far as the engine goes, is to check out the thermostat situation, and likely get a replacement.

Otherwise...we have a few cosmetic items I will be addressing and a corrective measure for potential pinion angle mis alignment from the new springs and she will be as ready as she can be for now.

In the future I would absolutely love to correct the engines appearance. There is some oil seepage underneath, and the driver side exhaust manifold has a stud that is broken off, that causes an annoying exhaust leak when cold. I may perhaps attempt to fix this in the car, but would need to pull the manifold and weld a nut to whats left of the stud and get it really hot to successfully extract the stud. Then that opens the door for more studs snapping. I do not see the need for a rebuild in this ones future with how well it runs, perhaps a refresh/reseal and a face-lift. But @ayilar needs to enjoy her for a while AS IS and we will move forward with those items soon hopefully.

This is definitely his best Polara IMO, she deserves it.

 

[fury fan]

I'm pretty sure the rear end issues are behind us...

Is that some kind of pun or something?

 

[crv]

Great thread, nice car. Any luck finding the first owner?

 

[ayilar]

Great thread, nice car. Any luck finding the first owner?

Thanks! Unfortunately not. I keep hoping that @Tobias74 will convince the intermediary who sold him the car, to spill the beans.

 

[71Polara383]

Time for another update!

With the rear end handled. I've been driving Regina and testing her out as weather allows. Since spring seems to have arrived early, I've been able to get out quite a bit for driving.

One thing I noted was a slight vibration at higher speeds. Around 75-77ish MPH it seemed to be prominent. After some consideration, it seems the car had a little rake due to the new springs from espo. I recommended we try some shims to correct the pinion angle. So I installed them, and returned to testing.

The vibration has basically been mostly eliminated. I still feel some slight harmonics from the drivetrain depending on the road surface. I'm unsure if it's tire balance or driveshaft balance? Perhaps the road or wind resistance? It only occurs at higher speeds and seems to be intermittent. Will continue to monitor this and explore possibilities.

Next up we had a temp issue after doing the timing cover. I'm unsure if it was the thermostat or the temp sending unit. I had to block the radiator with cardboard to get it to show it was warm on the gauge - which to me was unacceptable considering it seemed to be fine before doing the timing set. I went for a 94 mile drive on a 74 degree day and the gauge barely moved. I pulled the thermostat and it was a little cooler than I think it needed, 160°. I went to Napa and got a new sender and 180° Thermostat and now we are registering on the gauge and staying perfectly cool. I'm leaning towards the sender being the culprit, however we never did the Thermostat and for piece of mind it was in our best interest to do both.

I then popped off the front drums for a quick peak at the shoes/hardware/wheel cylinders and wheel bearings. Shoes have plenty of meat on them. Hardware looked recent and one wheel cylinder was replaced already. I adjusted them a little tighter, re packed the Timken bearings and popped the drums back on. At this time I also re greased all the zerc fittings and double checked the front end I rebuilt previously.

 

[71Polara383]

After that there was an annoying can of worms I opened. The fuel gauge would read low all the time. Full tank would register just about 1/2 and when it hit E you might have 14 gallons or you might have 1. Knowing I had one OEM sender in good condition I rolled the dice. I pulled the old sender, and while it looked okay, the rheostat had something rattling around in it. My sender had a crappy fuel sock/filter, so I swapped the sock from reginas sender onto the "new" one and installed it with an original lock ring I had on hand.

I started the car and shared the results with @ayilar. The sender worked. However the car sputtered and died before I could get to a fuel station. I called it a night.

The next morning I added a couple of gallons and got the car running and to the gas station where I put a little over a half a tank in. However, I noticed it seemed to be starving for fuel at cruising speeds? What the heck? I checked over the rubber fuel lines thinking maybe it was sucking the air. I replaced a couple older looking rubber lines and tried it. Nope. I then tried to swap the fuel pump, unfortunately that wasn't it either. Dreadfully, I had to remove the sending unit with lots of fuel in the tank. I jacked the front up and slid under the back of the car and pulled the sender losing minimal gas. Upon inspection the sending unit seemed normal. I sucked on it and revealed the issue. The fuel sock I swapped on seemed to have bottomed out, not allowing sufficient flow. I readjusted it and reinstalled the sender. We were back in business. I swapped pumps back and resumed the rest of our scheduled work. Looking back, I should have went right to the sender, but given the possibility of dumping fuel all over, I tried everything else first.

After that I went on a drive to confirm we weren't starving for fuel anymore, I noticed the trim on the passenger quarter window was coming off. I used a couple dots of RTV to make sure it doesn't come loose again, but can be removed if needed.

I then added the H4 relay harness to take the load off the light switch and dimmer switch. I also added the splash shields and washer tank to finish things up under the hood.

 

[71Polara383]

Last thing we had to do was swap the rear bumper with the rechrome we put on Snow. Mainly because Regina's bumper had the hole for the bumper guards and Snows Rechrome did not. I pulled both bumpers. Tore them down. Swapped valances, brackets, and tail lights and reinstalled.

I finished it off with the passenger side NOS tail light lens.

With all that. Regina is basically finished aside from a through clean up/polishing. Will be continuing to put on miles before I release her to be with her daddy later this month...much more piece of mind with a fuel gauge that reads accurately.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Samplingman]

Awesome work! Who did the rechrome?

 

[ayilar]

Awesome work! Who did the rechrome?

I bought a bunch of rechromed bumpers from @58Desoto -- one of them was installed on Snow White, but when looking at some pics of Regina that Wyatt had sent to me, I noticed that her bumpers must have been replaced at some point because the fender tag shows no M81 or M85 code (while Snow's does). So we swapped the rear bumpers on the two cars to be correct -- would not want @fury fan to say that I am lowering my standards

Truth be told, while I understand the usefulness of bumperettes, the fuselage look -- without any addition to the loops bumpers -- is what first drew me to the 1970-1971 Polara. So I really wanted Regina to have the correct rear bumper, and now one of my cars sports bumpers that look just the way they would have looked if I had I ordered them from the factory.

 

[crv]

Would've been awesome to have a video record of the work carried out, a bit like Uncle Tony's channel.

 

[71Polara383]

Would've been awesome to have a video record of the work carried out, a bit like Uncle Tony's channel.

I have a YouTube channel, but I do not have a laptop or anything set up to edit videos efficiently. It's been on the back burner until I have a proper set up.

However I have several little clips I've shared with @ayilar that I could work into a video about the car and work being done.

 

[Big_John]

Uncle Wyatt....

 

[fury fan]

-- would not want @fury fan to say that I am lowering my standards

I'll just find something else to ...