Rear wheel went into peaces after burning rubber when accelerating on highway ramp!
The 3 speed manual transmission did not have synchronized first gear (original feature).
Chrysler alternators are not so reliable and electricity runs through ignition switch and ampere meter, so check that those work properly.
Clutch went broken, replaced myself. easy to work with.
I used this for unmaintained driving too fast and I crashed it couple of times with really minor damages to dart- but major damages to other party.
Car was really strong and did not mind the lack of service.
Outside design is ugly.
No synchros on first? All modern manual gearboxes do have that. Only antique transmissions have unsynchronized first gears. By the way. I owned a Dart. My mother crashed in to it. Nothing went wrong with the Dart. Her Mazda needed a lot of attention.
My 66 dart, which in Canada is a valiant is the most dependable car ever and chicks love it, I drove it hard since the day I was 16 and it still runs and looks great,4 years later.I've crashed it once causing 8000$ dollars damage to the other car and 150$ damage to mine. Vern and his valiant have become infamous in my city of Saskatoon.
Electricity (current) runs through the ignition switch and ammeter on all cars, not just Mopars!
Ahh!! The difference between all cars (not forgetting that most cars are not equipped with ammeters in the first place) and Mopars is that with the Mopars, the ammeter is a series connection from the voltage regulator (mechanical on my car) and the battery. If the gauge fails in a way that opens the circuit, battery charging stops. Although I have not personally experianced this phenomenon, It's one of the first things I heard about when I got my '67. I hear some owners even bypass the gauge for fear of this. As a preemptive measure, I have wired a toggle switch in paralell with my ammeter. This can be done either underhood, or at the dash. If my ammeter ever does fail, I simply close the circuit via the switch, and I'm good until I get a replacement. And as far as the Dart being ugly - beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
I had a '67 Chrysler Newport that had a similar problem with the ammeter. The contact posts in the back lost contact because of the old acid-based solder disintegrating, so the car wouldn't start. You could jump it by shorting out the mechanical voltage regulator, which of course trashed the voltage regulator. I did have to simply bolt both wires coming off the ammeter to the same terminal to ensure a complete circuit, and then wired up an external gauge to confirm that the battery was charging. I also bought the Chrysler Direct Connection (aka Mopar Performance) electronic ignition conversion kit, which consists of the magnetic pickup distributor, solid state voltage regular, and hotter ballast resistor. It made the car start more easily, run better, and get better mileage compared to the original points.
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