Father-Son 1974 Duster Project

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It's nice having Aaron home from school on break. We have been in the basement most evenings. He has been hand sanding the cop wheels, snorkel and engine bay braces, and I have been going through the stock underhood harness eliminating the connector to the engine/alternator branch and modifying it to run HEI (with the module inside an old Mopar ECU) but to have an original appearance. Added a circuit for the electric choke and replacing the second (green) alternator field wire that was hacked out by the P.O.
Because of the never ending battle of limited funds, we're just going to clean and re tape forward of the starter relay for now and do the headlight relay down the road at some point.

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Now comes the task to locate the "boxes" were they are supposed to be. The only holes in my inner fender that line up with the vreg put it here, but I think the ignition box goes here. I think the original vreg was mounted on a tin box which was bolted thru the holes seen on the verticle section of the inner fender.
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Also found holes that the starter relay line up with. It's pretty close to the battery tray though.
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Waiting on an old ignition box to ship so I can hollow it out to conceal the HEI module. Once I have it I can narrow it down.
 
Voltage regulator should be on the passenger side firewall.
 
I'm pretty sure this a stock 74 with air. I think the vreg is on the driver side inner fender, no?
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The ignition box is on the drivers side ND the voltage regulator is on the passenger side. You can just see the voltage regulator near the heater and AC hoses.

Cley
 
Bob, my ignition and resistor are same place as blue one above . Regulator a little diff but on passenger side. I will find or take pics, probably sometime tomorrow
 
The ignition box is on the drivers side ND the voltage regulator is on the passenger side. You can just see the voltage regulator near the heater and AC hoses.

Cley
Thanks Clay. I'll look for it on a pic screen and find the mounting holes on the care tonight
 
Bob, my ignition and resistor are same place as blue one above . Regulator a little diff but on passenger side. I will find or take pics, probably sometime tomorrow
Thanks Keith. A couple pictures always help me overcome my ignorance
 
I'm not arguing, just trying to help. This is my stock 73 Dart Swinger yes I know not Plymouth...but it is stock AC car. Mine is located to the right of the Brake master cylinder you can see all three in the pic. Just trying to help I can't imagine they are that different...but I'm probably wrong about that too.

Brad
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I'm not arguing, just trying to help. This is my stock 73 Dart Swinger yes I know not Plymouth...but it is stock AC car. Mine is located to the right of the Brake master cylinder you can see all three in the pic. Just trying to help I can't imagine they are that different...but I'm probably wrong about that too.

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Hey Brad, nice to see your post. When Keith posted I went out to see if there where holes on the passenger inner fender where he indicated and there are none. There are holes that fit the vreg perfectly where I showed it sitting on the slope of the driver side inner fender. Misty is a power brakes car and the location where yours is would be behind the booster. Not easy the get at.
The alternator field wires were in the harness and cut off in the vicinity of the ignition box plug. So I'm thinking it was indeed on the right on the slope of the inner fender. I have the harness set up for it to go there.
Thanks for the pic. Now I know I'm not going crazy....
 
All good buddy, just trying to help...I agree with you and the placement. reg on the inner fender ignition up on the side of inner fender. Love this build!!!
 
From what I remember mine was right behind the coil on the firewall, I am using a 1 wire alternator, so I welded the holes up when I painted the engine compartment.

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I have holes in these locations for bred and ignition box. The ballast resistor has a hole in the usual place on the firewall.
Pretty confident this is were Ma put them when Misty was built in Hamtramck
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I dragged in a 73 Duster the other day, and went out and looked where the Voltage Regulator was. It's a V8, AC, PDB car, and the V Reg bolts in the same place as where BKD's pic shows it on the manual brake car. The bolt holes are in the 2 little raised ribs. If yours fits where your bolt holes line up, I'd put it there. It would be a lot easier to change if it ever goes bad.
 
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Yesterday I needed to do the railings on my porch or they were going to cancel my homeowners insurance. They needed to be done for sure and they look nice and all, but I hate responding to threats...

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Today my son Alex and I took down Christmas lights. Then he gave me a hand hauling the dash out to the car, and we set it in place. Left the column down and just put 2 cowl bolts in so we can pivot it down later to hook up all the stuff.

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While I had a willing helper with a good pair of hands we unwrapped the front bumper and hung it without the inner structure on couple of bolts temporarily. I know it's taking forever and I need to go back and do a ton of stuff, but I love how this old car is turning out.
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Sledgehammer mechanic hard at work hollowing out an old ignition box...
300 watt light bulb heating up the old box better than an easy bake oven.
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Dug out all the innerds from the box and soldered on the leads onto the back of the connector to connect the HEI module.

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Worked in the yard today, but after dinner I soldered the slip on terminals for my faux Chrysler ignition box that will hide the HEI module. Gave the box and the voltage regulator a couple coats of Corporate Blue.
Going to make an aluminum plate to serve as a heat sink for the module tomorrow...

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The garage was a balmy 60 degrees today. So I finally finished painting Misty's door jambs.

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After lots of slithering, crawling and a **** load of cussing, I managed to weld up my custom bumper bracket that allowed me to use the original 74 bumper yet suck it up real close (3/8") from the body. I think it came out nice and you can't beat the price. Like $22.00
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