The tachometer on these is a string of colored LEDs. Cold solder joints are extremely common on these. I have at least 2 good ones with plug in odometer chips. If you want one or would like me to repair yours, let me know. If yours has the plug in odometer chip, yours can be swapped into one of mine.

There is what a repaired tachometer looks like during the test sequence. It should do a sweep when the key is turned on.

 

Mine does not sweep with the key. Where is the chip located so I can check? I'm just learning the electrical stuff on these guys.

 

You have to remove the instrument cluster, and in the back there should be a removable cover near the center. It may be missing, inside the cover you should find a 14 pin chip in a plug-in socket (it may be flush or raised). This chip is the odometer memory. Chip number may vary, but here is one of mine:

If you have this style plug-in chip, it can be transferred to another cluster preserving the mileage.

 

I'll pull it in the next week or so and take a look. Thanks for the help! I'm pretty excited about this project. It's very different from my previous projects

 

I've been slowly accumulating parts and have the engine running pretty good. Still some work to do before it's drivable, it's just been too hot to do too much in the driveway. I did however manage to source some parts to get me started on the Turbo 2 swap.

 

Don't know what you paid for it but it looks like a pretty complete, solid looking Laser. Nice to see that you were able to rescue it. Good luck getting it road worthy again.

 

One caution on doing a Turbo 2 conversion on a 1986 Turbo 1, there is a thread on here regarding the connecting rods, the 86 T1 engines may have what are called "light weight" rods. If nothing else go here: The Dodge Garage for a lot of turbo information.

When I decided I was going to put a turbo engine in my 1985 Lebaron convertible after the 2.6L Mitsubishi developed cracks in 3 of 4 combustion chambers his site was a great resource. I was extremely lucky, I traded an early Dell laptop for a complete power train from a 1987 Lebaron sedan. It was a T1 system.

After cleaning all the crud from a blow out intermediate shaft seal, I found a strange gray/green colored block with brass freeze plugs, further examination revealed the casting date on the block was 1-8-88 so it was not the original engine. In cleaning it, I had pulled the pan off to see if there was any damage from possibly being run low on oil. No damage, but big beefy rods and a forged crank. I called a friend at a local dealer's parts department and found that it was a 1988 T2 short block as all unused T1/T2 short blocks and engines were put into replacement stock when the 1989 common block engines came out.

 

Good info. I've been spending hours on The Dodge Garage reading up. I have kind of a 3 stage build plan for this car.
1. Get it on the road as is and kind of learn the car and fix what needs to be fix while I gather parts.
2. Do the turbo 2 swap (and maybe some other stuff that can be used later). I won't be turning up the boost here, just a good running intercooled car.
3. Find the transaxle and parts to do a full turbo 2 build. This is when I'll start working towards some real power.

 

Going to be jamming on this thing to try and get it really driving this weekend, but got a giant box today and had to try it on. Needs hardware but the louvers are here and look great on there.

 

Going to be jamming on this thing to try and get it really driving this weekend, but got a giant box today and had to try it on. Needs hardware but the louvers are here and look great on there.
View attachment 286653
View attachment 286652

Louvers look good. When I bought my new 84' Daytona turbo I got a set of them from the dealer but the top hinges actually just had adhesive backing and didn't screw on. They just stuck to the top glass on the hatch. I think I had them on for about a year when one fine day while washing the car I was holding them up with one arm and trying to wash the glass with the other when suddenly the whole thing just started to slide sideways off the back of my car lol. I guess the adhesive wasn't that great over time and just gave it up after being exposed to all the elements, plus we have shitty winter weather here. I never ended up putting them on again as they just ended up being a pain to wash under each time.

 

Summit sells a set that use adhesive but also hook on to the hatch. I'm going to try those on the sides but I don't know how I'm going to address the top yet

 

I know adhesive has its drawbacks but I was never crazy about actually drilling any kind of holes in any body panels. I suppose if they clip on without damaging anything would be a step up.

 

Front brakes are rebuilt, rears are unstuck. I still need to get the drums off and clean everything back there off, but they are soaking in PB blaster.

So it has all 5 forward gears, but 3rd is pretty hard to find. It's not hard to shift into 3rd but finding the gate is a challenge. I pulled the console and both shift cables are hooked up and appear to be moving freely. What adjustment would cause this? Does anyone have a diagram of the adjustments on this set up?

 

Remove undo the wheel bearing and pull the hub and drum together

 

I have the complete 1986 FSM set. Let me get the appropriate volume and scan the adjustment section for you.

 

Ah the lovely cable shifted a525... IIRC they also had a unique H body cable shifter around 87 or so.. I've seen that transplanted into a couple L-bodies. Not sure if that was an improvement on the G body shifter, but just throwing that out there.

 

So I got copies of the FSM and properly adjusted the cables but 3rd gear is still very hard to find. I took everything apart and noticed this plastic piece was pretty wallered out and causing quite a bit of movement. Could this maybe be the cause? It's ovaled out in the horizontal portion. The top part fits much better.

 

I have driven all kinds of manual transmission/transaxle vehicles. The one thing I never liked was a cable shifted manual. They are stiff shifting, frequently vague and generally a pain. My favorite other than my Shelby was the Corvair Corsa my son had, very solid shifter that went right down the center of the car. The L-bodies, were my second favorite, all rods and bell cranks.

Strangest, was my sister's 1964 Alfa Romeo Giulia TI, 5 speed column shift, again, all rods and bell cranks, as was my 1961 Mercedes 220Sb 4 speed column shift.

 

I ordered a brake drum puller for the rear brakes. I'll do that tomorrow.

Does anyone have access to one of these shifters to look at? The white bushing that controls the crossover lever is pretty ovaled out where the vertical pin goes through. There is enough meat that I think I can drill it out and put a sleeve of some kind in there, I just want to make sure that it wasn't designed that way. I can't find any reference to the part anywhere and it causes quite a bit of slop in the cable

 

Sorry I can’t help you with the shifter cable issue, but the brakes I would really suggest pulling the hub and drums together and repack your wheel bearings with fresh grease and replace the grease seals, the drums on all my dodge shadows I’ve owned were press fit on the hub and the best way I found was to remove the hub and drum as one and then knock the hub out/off the drum after.
Good luck 👍

 

I've been slowly isolating the shifter issue and think I have it figured out. The shifter is adjusted correctly left to right, but the throw is about 1/8 in short. If I apply a little forward pressure to take up the slop it goes right into gear. I think I can adjust the selector cable a little bit and take up that slack, but even if I can't it's totally drivable now. The drums came off with the drum puller with no issues. Time to get tags and get her on the road after 32 years of sitting!

 

Just about ready

 

Well this little car sat for 30 years, and just made its first real drive since. 50 mile commute (each way) including a mountain pass with no major issues at all. Couldn't be happier, ru s great.

Does anyone know a source for these pieces of weather stripping?

 

I could be wrong, but I think that's part# 4276321.

Dodge Daytona Windshield Trim 4276318 4276320 4276321 | eBay

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">Dodge Daytona Windshield Trim. Removed from a 1987 non t top car. Shows normal age. Some cracking on the ends of seals as shown. Screws are included. </p>

www.ebay.com

Dodge Daytona Windshield Trim 4276318 4276320 4276321 | eBay

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">Dodge Daytona Windshield Trim. Removed from a 1984 Daytona. Shows normal age. </p> <p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">They have some over spray at the bottom and will need some attention to a few spots where they are bent a...

www.ebay.com

 

I think you are correct sir, thank you. Most of the rubber on the car is fine, but there are several pieces that will need replaced. I have been surprised how well it held up. This car sat for a long time uncovered outside and got very little water in it.

 

Don't know how picky you are, I was always a NOS whenever possible guy, but Martin over at Arizona Parts has these trim pieces in NOS also if you wanted to go that route?

www.arizonaparts.com

 

I've been in communication with Marty and he does have my missing trim pieces and a replacement electronic navigator. I need to shoot him an email and get them ordered. It's really amazed me how much new NOS stuff is available for these cars.

I may have sourced a 520 transaxle, so that'll hopefully be the next big project.

 

So a few weeks ago I pulled the cover off of the 525 to service it.

So the car shifts fine 1,2,4,5 and reverse but 3rd is very hard to find. This is the 5th gear shift fork but would this possibly be causing the 3rd gear problem? I'm looking for a 520 or 555 locally but I'd like to keep driving the car while I find parts. The broken part was removed so this was a known issue that parked the car in 92. Right now I'm basically just not using 3rd gear. Does anyone have any 525 parts around? I dont want to spend a ton of money or time on it, but I'd like to drive it while I'm gathering parts.

 

Good luck at the junk yard today.

Seats and visors from a 90 Daytona with a V6. The passenger seat has a pretty good stain I have to figure out but the rest are in good shape. The power drivers seat works.

 

Were the original seats that bad? I could only see a small tear in the driver's in that one pic.