72 Duster Resurrection

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Duster Captain

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2017
Messages
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Location
Houston
Hello Mopar Guru's!

I am a new member to both this forum and the Mopar world.

I have a bit of experience with older engines/cars, but it has all been Chevy stuff so far.

I recently found a 1972 duster on my local craigslist in great shape for only $500 so I jumped on it and now its in my front yard!

This is my first stab into the mopar realm, so I would like some advice on how to get started here.

The seller says this duster ran and drove about 3 years ago and has been parked under a tarp since then. I would love to get the slant 6 back up and running.

This is a 225 slant 6 according to the VIN. Pictures attached.

Here is the list of things I plan to do before throwing in a new battery and trying to fire it up:
  1. Drain and fill gas tank with fresh fuel. When I take the cap off I get a very strong "old gas smell".
  2. Drain engine oil, remove oil filter and inspect both. Add fresh oil and filter. Anything special about doing this?
  3. Flush and fill radiator. I cannot see any fluid when looking in the radiator cap.
  4. Pull spark plugs and inspect? What am I looking for here? Standard burnt deposits and corrosion? Oil?
  5. Remove carb and inspect? Should I just rebuild it? The butterfly valve moves freely...
  6. Test compression? Any tricks on this?

That's the plan for now, any advice from the experts would be appreciated. Really looking forward to getting this beauty back on the street!

Thanks!

20170912_111337.jpg
20170914_190704.jpg
20170914_190648.jpg
 
Dude, thats awesome! I'd add oil to full line and squirt some gas into the carb vents and start her up! The slant will run on bourbon and getting the car up and running uo to temp will make the first oil change worth while. Once it's running up to yemp, pour some motor flush into the oil and idle for another 5 minutes. Before all this, cover the carb and distributor with foil and hit that motor with a hose! 3 years is not that long.
 
Thanks man, I'm super excited for this project!

So you think adding oil and spraying good gas into the carb will be good enough to start? Even if its old gas in the tank? Along with filling the radiator of course.

I also need to get a battery and see if it will turn over...
 
Just jump it (keeping with the "let's test this thing" vibe) have someone video its first startup for our boards enjoyment. Draining the gas is hard unless you have a siphon hose and a cast iron gut. What's fuel level? Under a 1/4 tank of old stuff will probably dilute pretty good with some fresh gas. Fuel filter will probably foul if the tank has rust but you won't know until you put some fresh gas in it.
 
I'll be free to play with it this weekend, so I'll check the gas level and try to jump it. I'll try and get a video of the result.

And yes, the $500 entry price was what sealed the deal for me. The seller knew it was worth more, but he was older and had his fun with these kinds of projects and was looking to pass it on.
 
Its a /6!
She will start right up with the advice you received!
Good luck!
Great find for $500.
Just got a FREE 67 Satellite! /6 hasn't run in 20 years!
Guess what?
She runs now!
 
fill the carb bowl with gas, see if accl pump is working. unless someone has pulled the tank and added new pickup, that will be in your horizon. very nice score!!! you find it before or AFTER the flood!!???? ha
I like to drain oil and add Seafom, you can use it on carb too after you get it runinng. if be sitting longer maybe??? pull the plgs, look t the, sqirt some oil? marvel oil down the cylinders, trn it over by hand to lub cyl.. the Seaform additive will make it SMOKE!!!!! jst change oil. if put if carb it will smoke BIGTIME.
 
Last edited:
Its a /6!
She will start right up with the advice you received!
Good luck!
Great find for $500.
Just got a FREE 67 Satellite! /6 hasn't run in 20 years!
Guess what?
She runs now!

Awesome! Glad to hear they can come back to life. I love this stuff and am looking forward to learning about this crazy looking engine.
 
fill the carb bowl with gas, see if accl pump is working. unless someone has pulled the tank and added new pickup, that will be in your horizon. very nice score!!! you find it before or AFTER the flood!!???? ha
I like to drain oil and add Seafom, you can use it on carb too after you get it runinng. if be sitting longer maybe??? pull the plgs, look t the, sqirt some oil? marvel oil down the cylinders, trn it over by hand to lub cyl..

Thanks for the info.

This was after the great flood of 2017 but where the car was stayed dry thankfully!

Is this the accl pump on these? Kinda new to this, thanks for the help

carb.jpg
 
No, that's the bowl vent. Carburetor operation and repair manuals and links to training movies and carb repair/modification threads are posted here for free download. Tune-up parts and technique suggestions are in this thread.
 
A jiffy kit for these carbs is super cheap. Looks like a holley model 1920. I can rebuild those in my sleep. Slants will run on shitty gas. A friend of mine ran his one time on varsol and laquer thinner for a week, though i wouldent ever recommend that. I would recommend using a bit of loctite on the carb to intake manifold studs and carb mounting nuts as i have had them work loose on a few slants i have had.

A quirky thing about these is the distributor drive gear. Its nylon plastic. After you get it up and running i'd recomnend pulling the distributor , taking it apart to clean out the spiral oiling grooves on the dist shaft. By now they are prob coked up. Cleaning them up and applying fresh oil will prevent the shaft from locking up and breaking the gear. Also i recommend dissassembling the distributor and clean and lubricate the advance weights. they use bronse bushings on them. Also remove and clean the timer shaft that the rotor fits on. Theres a felt pad in the hollow upper part of the shaft under which is a snap ring to remove it. Every time you do a tune up your supposed to put a few drops of motor oil on the felt pad under the rotor so that shaft stays lubricated. Its prob all sticky by now the grease being close to 50 years old. Then get a new nylon drive gear from dorman (help section) it comes with a new roll pin and thrust washer for about $10.

Mopar made the distributor gear on slantys out of nylon so if it broke it wouldent wipe out the cam. Theres plenty of slants with plastic distributor gear pieces in the oil pans that are happily running around out there so its not a big deal.

Other than a few quirky things, an engine is an engine. Check to make sure the vac advance is working, and make sure none of the vac lines are cracked. Mopars slant 6 or 30° inline. Isnt much different than any other inline six. The reason for the angle was they wanted it to be able to clear lower hoodlines that were being penned in the styling studios that a regular straight six wouldent be able to do.

Congrats on the duster. Hope our wealth of knowledge helps you out. We're glad you found us. This is the best place for mopar A bodies in cyberspace. I'm sure there will be a build thread on this in the future. Will there eventually be a V8 in it? Or are you planning on staying with the /6
 
New member also
Recently got my duster slant 6 running after 5 years in the garage
Ran when I parked it, went to start it and no spark, had resigned myself to chasing down the problem but before I started replacing things I disconnected then reconnected every electrical connection under the hood and like a miracle I had spark
So if you don't have spark when you try to fire it up before you go replacing parts try all the connections it worked for me
BTW good luck with the duster
 
Mine sat for 12 years and started right up! I used a boat gas tank hooked directly to the fuel pump. At the very least you should change the oil and filter, definetly check the plugs, take apart the carb and clean it really good!
 
The accelerator pump is a plastic piston which is at the bottom, connected to the throttle mechanism. The diaphrams tend to tear and leak gas out the slot, but new ones are in the rebuild kit. The 3 screws in front of your circle are the top of the "economizer" which is similar to the "power valve" in 4 bbl Holleys. It richens the mixture at higher flows (lower venturi pressure pulls the diaphragm opening 2 fuel ports). Also in the kit. The Holley 1920 can drive people nuts if the sealed metering valve is clogged, so you get a lean idle. For startup, run a hose to a jug of clean gas. You can also spray starter fluid down the throat just to test (don't run long).

Don't run more than 30 sec without coolant. You can run a garden hose when testing, which will also help flush the block. Once driving regularly, run w/ water and 1 lb citric acid (ebay) for a day to get a good flush.

Looks like you have front disk brakes (MC has a large F reservoir). That would be the valuable Kelsey-Hayes disks in 1972, also used in Mustangs. A used setup runs $200 on ebay, so consider you paid only $300 for the car. Rockauto has rebuilt calipers. Your wheels are somewhat unique "small bolt pattern" 5 x 4" bolt circle. Don't fret, since many sell their alloy wheels cheap when changing to later size, or you can buy new 17" alloys in SBP.

Many parts have options. For the electronic ignition, consider GM 8-pin HEI conversion (TrailBeast here sells kits). For AC compressor, consider a smaller Sanden. For starter, look at later Magnum-engine mini-starter. You can change to a 2 bbl or 4 bbl intake manifold, or even retrofit MPFI like pishta did. Take it slow and read up before jumping into anything major. Like most, yours is rusted below the brake MC (leaking glycol, plus exhaust heat). De-rust and paint that when you have parts off. Overall, your engine bay looks really sound. I hope the hood rust is just on the surface since rust-thrus are a whole bigger issue (need weld repair). You usually have that around the rear wheel wells and door front corners.
 
My 65 Barracuda had been sitting in a ladies yard for 28 years. We believe it was parked due to a bad starter. I put a new one on it, some fresh gas and a battery..."Wah-LA!" Cranked right up and it didn't look much better than yours. If I could figure out how to post the video of the start up, I would. Anyway, I ran it just long enough to hear it run and shut it down. Drove it around town for about 2 months. I'm now (slowly but surely) restoring it. Good luck with your 72, Post pictures.
barracuda engine.JPG

Norm
 
... We believe it was parked due to a bad starter. ...
Changing a starter takes 5 min in a 1965 slant six. I have done it in parking lots. Most of Joe Public is totally helpless. They also believe mechanics who state, "must be a bad head gasket, will cost $$$$ to fix".
 
Nice! I just found my old 76 dart I owned back in highschool, and bought it back. I checked the fluids, sprayed some gas in the carb, and it fired right up. Actually stayed running on the 12 year old gas it had in the tank.
 
Changing a starter takes 5 min in a 1965 slant six. I have done it in parking lots. Most of Joe Public is totally helpless. They also believe mechanics who state, "must be a bad head gasket, will cost $$$$ to fix".
You are right...When I put the battery to it the starter just made a grinding noise (bad Bendix), swapped out the starter and it fired up. After doing some needed stuff like brakes and such, I drove it around. And to think, it was parked for a $35.00 starter...Kind of glad that it was.
Norm
 
Woah! any chance you have a link to this build? Looks interesting!
I wont hijack this thread, I've been building it forever it seems and Ill post up a thread one of these days. I just want to hear this 3 year old Duster light off!
 
Sorry for the delayed response, it turned into a full weekend.

Wow, thanks for the mountain of solid info and advice everyone! Looks like I definitely picked the right mopar forum to join!

No, that's the bowl vent. Carburetor operation and repair manuals and links to training movies and carb repair/modification threads are posted here for free download. Tune-up parts and technique suggestions are in this thread.

That is exactly what I needed, thats a goldmine of carb knowledge, thanks dan!

A jiffy kit for these carbs is super cheap. Looks like a holley model 1920. I can rebuild those in my sleep. Slants will run on shitty gas. A friend of mine ran his one time on varsol and laquer thinner for a week, though i wouldent ever recommend that. I would recommend using a bit of loctite on the carb to intake manifold studs and carb mounting nuts as i have had them work loose on a few slants i have had.

A quirky thing about these is the distributor drive gear. Its nylon plastic. After you get it up and running i'd recomnend pulling the distributor , taking it apart to clean out the spiral oiling grooves on the dist shaft. By now they are prob coked up. Cleaning them up and applying fresh oil will prevent the shaft from locking up and breaking the gear. Also i recommend dissassembling the distributor and clean and lubricate the advance weights. they use bronse bushings on them. Also remove and clean the timer shaft that the rotor fits on. Theres a felt pad in the hollow upper part of the shaft under which is a snap ring to remove it. Every time you do a tune up your supposed to put a few drops of motor oil on the felt pad under the rotor so that shaft stays lubricated. Its prob all sticky by now the grease being close to 50 years old. Then get a new nylon drive gear from dorman (help section) it comes with a new roll pin and thrust washer for about $10.

Mopar made the distributor gear on slantys out of nylon so if it broke it wouldent wipe out the cam. Theres plenty of slants with plastic distributor gear pieces in the oil pans that are happily running around out there so its not a big deal.

Other than a few quirky things, an engine is an engine. Check to make sure the vac advance is working, and make sure none of the vac lines are cracked. Mopars slant 6 or 30° inline. Isnt much different than any other inline six. The reason for the angle was they wanted it to be able to clear lower hoodlines that were being penned in the styling studios that a regular straight six wouldent be able to do.

Congrats on the duster. Hope our wealth of knowledge helps you out. We're glad you found us. This is the best place for mopar A bodies in cyberspace. I'm sure there will be a build thread on this in the future. Will there eventually be a V8 in it? Or are you planning on staying with the /6

Thanks for all the info, I had to read your post about 5 times to soak it in. It is indeed a 1920 carb according to the stamping on the side. I would like to get the /6 running and do some cruising until I accept the fact that its gonna need a V8. I actually bought a rebuilt 318 thats in the garage......

New member also
Recently got my duster slant 6 running after 5 years in the garage
Ran when I parked it, went to start it and no spark, had resigned myself to chasing down the problem but before I started replacing things I disconnected then reconnected every electrical connection under the hood and like a miracle I had spark
So if you don't have spark when you try to fire it up before you go replacing parts try all the connections it worked for me
BTW good luck with the duster

Good to know, thanks. I am having some electrical gremlins, see farther down in my post.

The accelerator pump is a plastic piston which is at the bottom, connected to the throttle mechanism. The diaphrams tend to tear and leak gas out the slot, but new ones are in the rebuild kit. The 3 screws in front of your circle are the top of the "economizer" which is similar to the "power valve" in 4 bbl Holleys. It richens the mixture at higher flows (lower venturi pressure pulls the diaphragm opening 2 fuel ports). Also in the kit. The Holley 1920 can drive people nuts if the sealed metering valve is clogged, so you get a lean idle. For startup, run a hose to a jug of clean gas. You can also spray starter fluid down the throat just to test (don't run long).

Don't run more than 30 sec without coolant. You can run a garden hose when testing, which will also help flush the block. Once driving regularly, run w/ water and 1 lb citric acid (ebay) for a day to get a good flush.

Looks like you have front disk brakes (MC has a large F reservoir). That would be the valuable Kelsey-Hayes disks in 1972, also used in Mustangs. A used setup runs $200 on ebay, so consider you paid only $300 for the car. Rockauto has rebuilt calipers. Your wheels are somewhat unique "small bolt pattern" 5 x 4" bolt circle. Don't fret, since many sell their alloy wheels cheap when changing to later size, or you can buy new 17" alloys in SBP.

Many parts have options. For the electronic ignition, consider GM 8-pin HEI conversion (TrailBeast here sells kits). For AC compressor, consider a smaller Sanden. For starter, look at later Magnum-engine mini-starter. You can change to a 2 bbl or 4 bbl intake manifold, or even retrofit MPFI like pishta did. Take it slow and read up before jumping into anything major. Like most, yours is rusted below the brake MC (leaking glycol, plus exhaust heat). De-rust and paint that when you have parts off. Overall, your engine bay looks really sound. I hope the hood rust is just on the surface since rust-thrus are a whole bigger issue (need weld repair). You usually have that around the rear wheel wells and door front corners.

How in the world do you guys know so much from seeing those few picture, this is awesome, thanks! I think you are right on with the improvements (brake, radiator, AC comp, etc) I need to do. Thankfully the body is in great shape, the hood rust is very light looking. Im going to take a stab at the body and paint work myself. Also, I might have a frankenstein car then, because they look like drums on the front:

20170917_231019.jpg

20170917_225335.jpg




Ok gang, here is the update:

I had some beers and then tried to jump the duster. I sprayed some PB blaster in the spark plug holes, removed the old battery, put jumper cables directly on the battery connections, turned the key and......nothing.

No lights in cab, no noise or movement from the starter at all.

So looking at other cars, I realized that the duster is missing these things so I bought and installed new ones from autozone:
20170917_225051.jpg


-voltage regulator (it was unplugged and stuck to the side of the old battery. The black silicone stuff had....run...out?)

-Ballast Resistor (noticed those 2 wires going no where)


Then we tried it again. The running lights on the back came on (they may have come on the first time and I didnt notice) and my blinkers worked..mostly. Still no other lights in the instruments and not a peep from the starter.

So naturally we progressed to jumping across the starter terminals manually with a screwdriver and it started turning! Exciting! Less exciting was the slow speed and awful grinding noise that came out. It did not look near fast enough to start anything either.

So I checked the following based on internet research:

20170917_225112.jpg

Multimeter showed 12V getting through this fusable link, a common problem according to the internet.

20170917_225153.jpg


Fuse panel was missing 2 fuses so I replaced them, not sure what I am supposed to be seeing here, I have not multi metered these yet.

Also here are some non engine critical pics about stuff I need an expert look at:

20170917_225410.jpg

Do these look alright? They were the dirtiest ones, had some oil on them..

20170917_225215.jpg

Bonus interior pic!

So whats next, gurus? What do I check to get my starter to turn over with the key ignition?
 
Do those plugs have gaskets on the bottom? They are not supposed to have them. When you replace them, take the supplied gaskets off or dont install any loose gasket: the spark plug tubes create the plug gasket on the bottom. Make sure you got that voltage regulator bolted down onto some CLEAN metal and even use a star washer to get some good contact. The E-regulator varied the ground to the alternator instead of the + voltage of old for more of a fail safe operation and the ground it varied was delivered through that case. As for ehgrinding noise, I cant really say, but a Chrysler gear reduction starter is no song bird compared to a Ford or Chebby. IF you need a new starter, get a 'mini' one from a newer RAM pickup: Smaller, lighter quieter and more torque!
 
Needs an M body disc brake conversion. Yes, stock mopar hi torque starters sound awful. A mini denso from a ram pickup or van with magnum v6 or v8 is a bolt on.
 
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