The old Dart has now officially been immobile for the longest stretch since I picked her up last October, almost 4 weeks! I've been trying get ready for dual exhaust and get my power steering gear rebuilt but it's going slowly and it's been hot and or rainy here along with too many other summer activities.
I was planning on just doing the power steering gear rebuild first but as I looked at getting it removed I realized that it would be much easier with the exhaust manifolds out of the way. The manifold to down pipe bolts proved to be a formidable adversary. Two came out after a week of daily rust penetrant soaking. Of the other two, one broke off nicely and the other one rounded the bolt head off leading me to using a reciprocating saw to remove it.
Next as I started back on removing the power steering gear I was removing steering linkage and decided that if I was going to go to the work of removing these parts I should replace them with new ones. So I've ordered: tie-rod ends, upper and lower ball joints, stabilizer and sway bar bushings, pitman ar, idler arm, and control arm bushings and caster/camber bolts. They have started trickling in.
After dropping a wad of cash on front end parts I am now considering buying an exhaust kit rather than having a custom dual exhaust system installed. My only concern is the downpipes. By the time I buy them I'm just back to paying for the install so I'm still weighing my options there.
I have the passenger side manifold off but I'm leery of snapping the bolts off on the driver's side manifold. It seems that with the power steering gear it's a bit of a catch-22. It looks easier to take the exhaust manifold off first but also vice-versa.
Anyway, that's my update. Persistence will eventually win the day.
