So I pulled my 69 into the shop to replace a leaky header gasket (BTW, thank you, Chrysler, for your lovely water jacket design....clean up is gunna be fun) and noticed a leak from the output shaft

Checked the U-Joints and one was definitely bad, so pulled both of them and headed to my local parts store.

Had a hard time finding matching U-Joints in the decent brands like Spicer and Moog, but surprisingly, the cheap no name brand under the same part numbers matched fine

Anyways, I installed the new seal, but now I'm looking at the driveshaft and for the life of me can't remember which end goes where

I'm pretty sure the skinny end goes to the rear and yoke goes on the fat end, but I just wanted to check here first before pressing these things in

 

I think that is right. Been a long time since I ran a stock drive shaft.

 

Thanks, just got back from a test drive and it seems to have worked fine

Now I gotta clean up the shop floor of all the coolant that pissed out the head while changing the header gasket

After she cools down, I'll pull the carb for a rebuild and ditch the carb spacer while I'm at it

Hopefully it will give me some room to add an air cleaner

 

did you put silicone on the bolts when you put them in? They will leak if you didn't.

 

Yes

Ultra Copper silicone on the gaskets (both sides) and a little dab on the bolt ends after a little run on the wire wheel (rusty)

Let it sit for about 4 hours before starting and so far, no leaks

Just tore down the carb and it's pretty much clean and I wanted to pull the carb spacer, but just realized it has the only vacuum port for the PCV

I guess I'll have to drill and tap the manifold this week

 

Leak from the output shaft and installed a new seal...

Uhm did you put the generic or the factory with the dust boot that covers the sliding yoke preventing rust which cuts up a new seal in no time?

If you put the factory style, which is available from Chrysler or a good transmission shop, did you make sure the drain hole was at the bottom?

Btw Silicone doesn't work on exhaust gaskets very well. An old trick I have used without problems is grease, more specifically high fiber grease. The oil burns off leaving the fiber behind making a very good lasting seal.

 

It was generic (Advance Auto Parts), but it had the dust boot and looked exactly like the one I removed

I was actually going to ask about this, but there's a hole in the dust boot itself and then there's a cut on the ridge of the ring.

I installed it the same way the old one came out with the cut on the bottom and boot hole on top

Did I goof?

The Ultra Copper is actually what my local speed shop guy suggested.

I prefer aluminum gaskets as they've worked great in all my other cars, but he didn't have a set for the 440, so he gave me a set of Mr Gasket Ultra Seals and said he uses them on his own cars with a little Ultra Copper around the edges.

We'll see how they hold up, but if they do start leaking, I'm ordering a set of aluminum gaskets

 

As long as any condensation can drain out of the boot it should be fine. Usually there is only a tiny little hole in the rubber dust boot at the seal that points to the bottom. If you have a cut that does the same thing it will work.

 

Hmm, the cut didn't appear to do anything except let me align the hole to the top

I guess I can drill another hole in the bottom of the boot

 

Leave it. If it fails you know why. Chances are it will be fine as the amount of moisture that builds up is minimal and with exhaust right there the water will evaporate from the heat of the exhaust anyways.


Cause he wants to put on an air filter.

 

Yeah, I've tried a few different air cleaners that fit the Dominator and none would clear the hood

One comes close, but needs about 1/2" to clear, so I need to ditch the spacer