Marks 66 Sportsman

Hi everyone, finally getting around to posting some pictures of my A100. Really happy to have found this site, lots of knowledge here!

I bought this van about 5 yr ago when I decided it was time to sell my hillclimb/rally cross cars to buy something more practical for my growing family.

In the beginning.. Bought it in very decent shape; new (mediocre) glass out paint job, new seals, no interior and needed plenty of misc mechanical work. It used to be Robins egg blue, but PO/flipper painted this color. I probably would have left it blue, but I like this color too. It is a Mopar dk green color.

No rust, next to no body work, very clean underneath.

It had apparently been used at a hunting club in NY, used to haul game. Then sat in a barn for over 20 yrs. Had 40K miles when I bought it. I bought it sight unseen on CL, got a ride down in the Spring and drove it home 250 miles with out issue.





Driving it up to its new home in VT:

First things to tend to were charging system, carb/tune up, brakes and shocks.
Then tinted the windows and installed the maple interior.

The interior took me forever but really happy how it came out. Not quite done, but hope to finish it this Summer. I installed new carpet, used SC1000 sound deadening paint in the cab area (top coated green) and some dynamat on the walls and in doors. I made some brackets for the ford truck seat in rear. I am not crazy about the seat but it was free and works for now. Also added three point seat belts all around.

I found this super nice 66 COX camper for cheap down in CT. It only weighs about 500 and tows great. We use it a lot, it is very basic but better then a tent.




I made this removable aluminum bike rack to hold 4 bikes. had to straddle the camper since it has a soft top. The rack can be quickly converted to haul other things.



Pic somewhere in Maine. Over the past few summers we have done nearly the entire coast of Maine in this thing, pretty much all on back roads.







It has also been up to the top of many mountains all over the NE. Not fast, but does great both up and down. The manual trans is a must.



I take it down to the Limerock Historics vintage racing event every year for some track side camping. This thing gets tons of attention!








Gotta find some pics of actual project work (the pics I have will not load for some reason, having a heck of a time with pics!). This thing is not really much of a project at all, I just use the heck out of it! There has been some big projects though, update coming..

Great narrative, and great pictures!

I can't believe you actually found something in that good of shape on the east coast! You must have Great Karma to have bought that nice of a van sight unseen with no major issues! SCORE! I love how the Maple interior lightens it up and looks super clean. If you're having issues with posting the project pics, I can send you my email address and would be happy to see if I can get them posted for you. Just let me know. Seems like you were able to post these Fantastic pics OK. Welcome and I think that pic with the waterfalls belongs in a calendar!!!

BTW, the pooch seems to like the rear seat just fine!!!

Nice van and pictures! Looks like you got a lot of good ideas and are putting the van to good use! I bet there's some great bike riding around there!

Thanks for the kind words.

Outofsight - looks like our rigs are the same color. Your Cragers look great and made me seriously consider them.
I actually just bought some new wheels since the original 15's do not fit with disc brake swap (wish I knew this before..). I ended up finding a really good deal on 15x7 TorqThrust D's which I also like. They are in the mail so hopefully will swap over tires early next week. I have new 235 70 15 BFG's which should fit well. I wanted to stay with steelies/dog dish but they won't fit this disc brake swap...

Thanks Vanny, yea it was a nice find in the NE. It is from NY but I bought it in Stockbridge Mass. I bought it in the Winter so the guy let me leave it there until Early Spring. He was away when I went to pick it up, so I went down with a battery and drove it home. It was very crude at the time with no interior, bad spring bushings, etc. Roads were rough, but made it home just fine. No problems other then gas gauge broke.

Yea, have put a lot of miles on it with the fam. I don't hesitate to hop in and drive this thing long distance. The only time it had let me down was a broken throttle cable, which happened at a camp sight. The temporary fix I made with a Butt connector is still in place, really need to redo that cable though.. Oh, and ran it out of gas a few times since the gauge is flakey.. It has stock front seats which are comfortable enough, but I get "van neck" after driving this thing a few hours.

This is where she hibernates for like 6 mo a year. Just pulled it out a couple of weeks ago to do king pins and front disc swap.



Need to organize some pics and get them on photobucket, seems to be the only way to post them. Pics that I posted were mostly from trips and already had them in photobucket.

Couple of pics of transmission rebuild. I heard/felt a clicking in first gear, turns out it had rusty gears. I think what may have happened is that I got a bunch of water in it through the vent on a trip back from Maine in a torrential rain storm. Then the van sat all winter and the next season I started to hear noise.

The A745 is about as simple as they come. I really do not like the non syncro 1st gear, but there are limited options to change it. I looked into installing an A833od (4 on the tree with pull rod for reverse), but even the short tail unit is too long. I would consider an auto,  but only if it were a V8 (maybe someday..).

So it ended up needing every gear in it except for reverse idler. These are probably the most expensive parts you can buy for this van! I looked around for another transmission and found an A903, I drove about 3 hrs into NY to get it, and it turned out to be garbage (and the 903 is a light duty POS anyway) I had to get it on the road ASAP so bit the bullit and bought all the gears and counter shaft and all bearings. They were a pain to find too. The only part I could not find was a 23spline input shaft, so had to reuse it but it was in good shape. If I ever put a v8 in it I'll buy a new 10 spline input shaft since they are available.

I had to pull the trans out in the gravel, since at the time I had still had a car I was restoring in my only bay for 6 yrs! Since it is such an easy transmission to R&R it was easiest to just to it outside.

Anyway, it is like a brand new transmission now and has been in the van for a coupe of years now.



example of rusty,pitted gears



Junk A903 I should not have bought:

Some pics of latest project; Scarebird front disc conversion. The 11" drum brakes really did work pretty well, but I drive a lot of hills and often tow a small trailer and the fade was noticeable. I figured the disc swap would add at least a little bit of extra safety and peace of mind when i am driving the family around in it.

While I was in there I did king pins and longer front studs. The tie rods and drag link are fine and i grease the crap out of them all the time. I added oil to steering box and it too has been fine. Spring bushings were replaced when i got it and are still in good shape, they made a big difference in ride quality/handling

The latest snafu is that my 15" steel wheels do not fit, which I did not expect. I did not know at the time that the drum brake wheels are different, but even so I do not think that even the disc 15: wheels (cop, rallye, etc) will fit based on the measurements i have done. Had I known this I probably would not have tore into this right now. I ended up buying 15x7 TorqThrust D's and will swap the new 235 70 15 BFG's on them next week. I hope it all fits well, really need to get this thing out of my shop. What should have been a simple project took quite a while. I had to wait on the machine work for a few weeks.

Nice story and Nice van !

Excellent work! She's a Beauty!

uante wrote:Nice van and pictures! Looks like you got a lot of good ideas and are putting the van to good use! I bet there's some great bike riding around there!

Thanks Uante. I see you painted your roof white too. I did mine a few years ago, and tinted the windows and installed 3 fans inside. Made a big difference. Its not Arizona, but it can get very hot here in the summer. Maybe AC someday if i ever do a v8 swap...

Thanks!

Today I checked rear brakes and decided to go with longer studs for the new wheels and maybe 10mm spacers.

The brakes are OK, but the leading edge of front shoe's worn maybe 60%. I am going to leave them for now, hopefully can wait until until I install 3:55's so I can do it all at once.

I also installed a new gas filler hose that connects to tank, noticed the old one leaking right on tail pipe. Easy enough to do, but had more gas in it than I thought and was a pain to drain.

Hi Vanners,

Got the disc brake swap done a few weeks ago and have been driving it often. I installed all new wheel studs, hubcentric 1" spacers in rear and finally got all lugnuts and studs figured out. I ended up going extended since I had the room, but had to mill the ends down a bit so everything would tighten properly. I spent a lot of time tracking down correct studs, spacers and lug nuts!

I changed out the master cyl that I previously installed which was for drum/drum. The one I installed was quite a bit larger so took some additional mods to fit it, and new lines.

Everything is working OK but the pedal does travel farther then  would like it to. I think I may need a residual valve for the rear.

It drives really nice with fresh king pins, shocks, bushings and lubed up/adjusted steering box.

The wheels fit nice and look great. Tires are 235 70 15 BFG's on 15x7 TT D's. The front inner wheel well required some minor trimming to fit, but they do not rub at all. Glad these all fit, even with these wheels clearance is still pretty close to caliper.







Also picked up a 273 so finally doing that v8 swap. It has 81K on it and supposedly ran well when removed. I saw the car it came from, a 68 Dart GT conv that is getting restored and big block/4spd installed (the guy also had a beautiful, concourse condition black 70 charger RT 440)

I got the bell housing in the mail yesterday, have pretty much everything I need except not sure on exhaust manifolds yet.



The plan is to go into the engine and see what is what. If it is in spec, pistons/cyls good, I will rebuild it stock. If I need pistons or bore it will be built to commando specs. Not looking for a real hot rod here, the stock 2bbl 180 HP 273 is still like 50 more HP then it has now. I really just want to get rid of that "mail truck" sound... I did a lot of research on hopping up the slant, but decided I need a v8 in my life again...

Taking it camping with the fam next week, will tow the little 66 Cox tent trailer behind it.

Lovely van, and some crackin' pic's... nice to see it's a "hop in and go" vehicle. Will be happy when I get to that stage with mine, nearly there - just need to sort a worn out steering box and stop it from jumping out of second (finding parts over here isn't easy)... Good luck with the V8 install'.

Thanks JayDub,

Does yours pop out of 2nd gear under load, or does it just "fall" out with the weight of the shifter? Mine falls out of 2nd gear when I am at light load and hit a bump. It does it less (almost never) since I stretched out the detent spring when I was in the transmission. It is a single spring that pushes between both shift forks, could not find a new replacement..

Yea, V8 swap will have to wait a while. For now the /6 is running well and will stay in there for the Summer. It has been "hop in and go", but there is always a list of stuff to do as with any project. Are they ever really done?

Have a Great Camping trip! You must get a LOT of people wanting to talk to you about it and reminiscing about how they can remember travelling in one as a kid, etc...

Cheers for the reply... mine is fine under load. Jumps out of second under no load but will stay in fine if I keep a finger on the shift lever. Thanks for the pointer to a possible problem, I think there may be a spring missing (or broken) in the actual column shift as well - I'll check it out when I have it all apart to sort the steering.
Are they ever done? C'mon, what would you look forward to in your old age...

awesome van....super jelly

Gilead,
Great van you've got. Glad you're getting good use out of it. They really are universal vehicles. Thanks for the pictures and commentary. Good luck with the 273, when you get around to it.

Really beautiful wood work inside!! Very sweet ride!!

Very cool van, I love the white grille/bumpers/wheels color scheme. What size tires are you running? they look just right in the wheelwell.

" have pretty much everything I need except not sure on exhaust manifolds yet".


dont know if your ready to pull the trigger on exhaust manifold yet,but i have a set on ebay
heres the item number 292564221678 off of a 67 318

i like the story on your van,its getting used ,thats great. i love that maple interior work,reminds me of a old woody.

Hey Vanners, thanks for the kind words. Been driving the van often. Brakes are good except I need to get around to installing the rear residual valve (it needs a pump to get pedal up and I do not think it is air as I bled it a million times). Had a good camping trip for my 10yo sons Bday, with 7 of his friends (it was a zoo to say the least). Anyway, been busy with my other classic car, both DD';s and house project so van is done for now...

Falconvan; tires are 235 70 15. I did have to do some minor trimming at inside/front of front wheel well. They fit fine and do not rub, but 225/70/15 probably a better size for front. I like the big tires and tall sidewall though, as it sees a lot of dirt/rough roads.