Mopar Action April 2021

CYBER TUESDAY , Green Wednesday, Polish Monday—your head (and Visa account) is probably spinning from all the promotional sales that sucked hard-earned cash from your wallet at the end of 2020. Time to regain your equilibrium by cranking up that classic muscle Mope in the garage and blowing out the cobwebs—both in your head and that willing 440. Some Mo’fans, though, are hesitant to venture out and expose their beloved classic Mope to all the gnarly horrors that lurk, waiting to pounce on you and your ride just outside your door. ’Course, if you have a Mopar that’s restored to within an inch of its life, what we here call a Reference Restoration, or a pristine original, we can understand how a stone chip, splash of mud etc. can cause a…

IT’S WAS THAT SORT OF MESSAGE nobody wants to get. “Your dad fell last night and is in the hospital.” My father, legal name George but known as Fritz since his college days, is now pushing over 8 decades on earth. You’re reading this column because of him; I probably would have never been a car guy if my dad had not been one first. He has always been a big guy, and this incident had left him first with the oft-elderly malady of a broken hip. Meanwhile, he also tested positive for the Corona virus while in rehab, leading to other complications (which he has now thankfully fully recovered from). Since I am the oldest of five kids, and my siblings have real jobs instead of zookeeping like I do,…

WE ALL LOVE OUR MOPARS , or else we wouldn’t be here, right? We love to race, restore, wrench, etc., but even under the best circumstances, things can go to hell in a hurry. Whether it’s someone who runs a stop sign, or you got your foot out of it too late on that 2-3 power-shift…there’s no two ways around it, accidents suck. Ok, so your dream car is now a nightmare, that pristine paint is still gleaming under that once straight sheet metal and the unibody “might” have scoliosis. So now you are facing several dilemmas—repair it or junk it; get a donor car and swap it over; part it out and start over? What to do? Hopefully, things are not as bad as they seem when the smoke clears.…

TOW ’N’ SLOW My 5.2L powered 1997 Ram pulls itself in OD at 70 MPH very well but the engine is loafing along at ~1750 RPM. Add a tall travel trailer and the 318 isn’t producing enough torque to keep a steady 70 MPH in OD (on flat road) at the 1750 RPM. A back of the envelope calculation indicates I need about 40 ft-lbs more torque to keep a steady 70 MPH. More displacement would be the answer if I don’t want to change gears but how much is enough? The easiest swap is to a 5.9L that I have access to, but not sure if the torque output of the 5.9L would be significantly higher than the 5.2L at only 1750 RPM. Not finding any real information on how…

Address all queries to this address: RICHARD EHRENBERG PO BOX 302 MARLBORO NY 12542 Best bet: Online submission form at moparaction.com GROUND RULES: • If you want to submit your question via e-mail, please use the on-line submission form at www.moparaction. com. If we ask for more info, send back all existing text, or else! • Snail-mail must include a SASE and/or a cash bribe. • All letters, electronic or otherwise, must include a full name and a least your city and state. You can request that it be withheld, however, and, if we had any the night before, we might even honor your request. • “20 questions” letters instantly get shredded and the scraps forwarded to Mopar Muscle. So – ask one clear question please, we’re a sleazy magazine, not an encyclopedia publisher. We won’t tell…

GET A HANDLE ON IT Mr. Ehrenberg–I recently bought a reproduction Slap-Stick T-handle for my ’71 Charger. The bottom has a bulge and will not fit through the sliding piece in the console top. From what I have been told, they are all like this. How can I make this work? Justin Hoffstead Toledo, OH Justin–The 1971 T-handle, P/N 3467051, had a straight shank and was prone to cracking at the lower extremity, good guess that’s why you need a new one. The repros are all based on the improved 1972 design, P/N 3467760, which had a reinforcement bulge at the bottom (see photo above). There are two ways to use this improved handle on a 1971: The quick, and the correct. Quick: File or grind away the bulge until it slips through the…