The Great Pumpkin - '71 Duster

So I was finishing up the front end and tightening everything up. Unfortunately, I cross-threaded the right side lower ball joint stud. It was spinning and not tightening so it needed to be removed and inspected. I was eventually able to power the castle nut off with an impact but the damage was done. I cleaned the threads but ultimately decided to order a new one. I should have known to tighten it with the car on the ground but I was all amped up to get everything in and I blew right through the proper procedure. Haste makes waste or so my wife likes to say. Such is life with textbook ADHD, skipping steps to get to the end result.

So besides the ball joint, almost ALL the brake lines I made are leaking. In my recent past, I was/am an ASE Certified/Chrysler factory trained, Level 4 technician in brakes. I know how to make a flare and I have good flaring tools. I took my time with this stuff, discarded ones I didn't like etc. But again, despite cranking them down with a ton of force, almost all of them leaked. It was driving me bananas. The leaking fluid ruined some freshly-painted parts and the fluid was all over the floor.

Turns out it's the stainless fittings. I called Inline Tube which is the place I got the stuff from. I went through my explanation over the phone and the guy told me very plainly to loosen and tighten them several times until they stop leaking. I've never really had to do that before but I guess the stainless fittings are little harder to get to seat to crush/form the seal. I suppose it makes sense but its no less frustrating. Some of the fittings are tough to reach. It can also get messy with the fluid leaking all over the place. I will try to repaint some of the stuff like the rear end housing but the left side brake backing plate would be tough to do without taking it all apart again.

I also decided to get a different shifter cable - I ordered a 4 foot 'performance' one instead of the 'super duty' type which is a lot less flexible and tougher to work with. I did not like the way the 5 foot cable was routed. It is basically laying on the headers and there isn't a whole lot I can do to alter it. I tried to run it to the passenger side first then back under the bellhousing but the angle of the cable was to harsh where it attached to the bracket on the pan rail. My idea here is that the 4 foot cable won't have to be looped as far forward. We'll see!

Hopefully I can get this irritating stuff resolved soon. I am getting close to being done with the reconstruction phase of this project. There's not a whole lot I can think of that needs to be finished - basically just fluids, alignment and basic tuning once I get it running. Stuff from Summit just showed up at my door so I'm gonna go bang this stuff out when I get a chance.

More to come.