1970 Duster AlterKtion, 4 Link, LS/T56/Turbo and Minitub

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Welcome back. Nice to hear the winter upgrades are going well.
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Thanks!

I also got the new upgraded clutch in and the T56 Magnum. I forgot to mention they are all installed. The new 1200hp clutch is definitely harder to press lol.
 
Finally got the dana 60 back from being regeared and setup. Got the old perches ground off and the tubes cut down to length last night. Now I need to machine some kind of alignment tool to go inside the axle to help align everything to weld it all.

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Have you though about welding the tubes to the center casting? That's another easy improvement.

Yep! That is part of the to do list when I weld the ends on. In the offroad world, breaking the factory plug welds and the casting spinning is a common problem so that's always one of the first things to be done before the truss goes on. Though this axle wont have a truss for the car, so that will probably be even more important to do here. Thanks though!
 
You can buy the aluminum alignment pucks and rod at summit.
 
You can buy the aluminum alignment pucks and rod at summit.

The only thing about those, is they only go in the outside bearing retainer. I found a chunk of tube in the "up for dibs" pile at work that I'm going to turn down that fits in both of the rear end and the outer housing so its lined up. Should work!
 
Sweet. Yea to do it right you really need to align it through the diff as well. But the kits to do the whole thing are $$$. Your way will work great.
 
Yeah, because the biggest thing is that the bearings are in line with the carrier. Hopefully this tube will allow the axle shaft to still slip inside it and use that line things up as well. I'll fool with it all when I get this piece machined. I figured worse case, its just going to eat up a wheel bearing a little sooner. But in all reality how much misalignment is too much to put extra stress on the bearing when the axle shaft is X distance long to help the alignment some. When you put a 1500# camper in the bed of a truck, it puts extra forces on the wheel bearings just the same as if it was misaligned by a few thousands of an inch I'd think? And I've never changed a rear wheel bearing before. My current truck has 320,000 on it haha. This is just me thinking out loud about it.
 
Here's the alignment tool. Works pretty awesome! This should help out a ton and get me as close as anything else I think.

Theres 3 OD's on it. 1 is the raw stock that is almost the perfect diameter for the inside of the bearing housing, the second OD is a shoulder that the lip of the bearing flange sits on and is the main alignment datum for the flange and the 3rd is the OD that slides into the axle tube.

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Finally got to work on the axle last night! Set the pinion angle, welded on the flange ends and then welded on the perches that the 4 link kit bolts to!

I'll paint it all tonight and weld the new cross bar up into the car that has the upper car side link mounts. THEN I can bolt it all in!!! Finally! Last drivetrain step after that is having the driveshaft shortened an inch or so.

I have a MAT, fuel pressure and oil pressure sensor to add as well to be able to collect more data when doing logs with the Holley system. Then the last thing I'm hoping to do is cut another hole in the passenger inner fender and try to fit an air filter in there. I know its not ideal, but its gotta be better than just a screen on the turbo. I don't drive it in the rain normally anyways.

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Nice work on the rear end.
This…….
Here's the alignment tool. Works pretty awesome! This should help out a ton and get me as close as anything else I think.

Theres 3 OD's on it. 1 is the raw stock that is almost the perfect diameter for the inside of the bearing housing, the second OD is a shoulder that the lip of the bearing flange sits on and is the main alignment datum for the flange and the 3rd is the OD that slides into the axle tube.

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Is an awesome tool. Nice machine work.
 
Thanks!!! I'm so relieved to finally have it done haha. Hopefully I get another free night this week to work on it again! The weekends are all booked with different crap up till September, so I basically only have week nights when theres a free one.
 
Also, just and update on classic dash. I had got their gauge/cluster kit as shown in the pics way back, which was fantastic. The parking brake LED died on me at the end of the season, but since I did the dash in 2019 and just finally got the car on the road the end of summer/beginning of fall of 2021 I was way past the warranty. I just reached out today and they still are sending me a new LED to replace the dead one. That's some awesome customer service right there if anyone is wondering about classic dash!
 
Well, idk if anyone caught it yet, but I've been in the jeep/offroad world for much too long. I got the perches at the perfect angle to the pinion, however they're on TOP of the axle for a spring over setup..... they need to be on the bottom for a spring under setup.... son of a.... lol sooo ordered new perches. What an idiot. :BangHead::mad:

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Well, idk if anyone caught it yet, but I've been in the jeep/offroad world for much too long. I got the perches at the perfect angle to the pinion, however they're on TOP of the axle for a spring over setup..... they need to be on the bottom for a spring under setup.... son of a.... lol sooo ordered new perches. What an idiot. :BangHead::mad:

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I was going to say something, but I figured it had something to do with the 4-link system you're using. Good thing it's a relatively easy fix.
 
I was going to say something, but I figured it had something to do with the 4-link system you're using. Good thing it's a relatively easy fix.

Good catch haha it is odd that the 4 link system bolts up to a perch at all, I suppose they do that to try to help the ease of installation on a stock setup. But yeah its still supposed to be sua lol. Yeah that wont take long to do, I'll cut em off with the plasma cutter and then flap disc the welds down. Just annoying doing things twice lol
 
Round 2!! Last night I got the old perches cut off, axle ground down and the new perches welded on. Then got the axle under the car, all measured up in place and then tack welded the upper link mounts on. Called it quits at that point so now tonight I need to pull it back out, finish weld the upper link mounts, paint the housing and cut down the u bolts. THEN she's ready to bolt in for good and assemble!!

Unfortunately at that point I have to take a new measurement and get the driveshaft cut down lol. So while I wait on that I can finish setting up the new secondary fuel pump setup. They use to be on together always, but now that I removed the water/meth setup I have 2 unused outputs, so I'm going to turn the secondary fuel pump on over 50% throttle basically. I also got the air intake temp sensor in and the fuel pressure sensor in and hooked up so I can monitor those in the Holley system.

I also will hopefully be able to get an air filer in the car somewhere.

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Got the axle back out last night, finish welded, painted and back under the car!

Of course I completely forgot to take a picture of the axle when it was out and painted because I was cutting down the u bolts and doing other stuff prepping for the axle to go back in.

But here's a picture of the axle back under the car! Got my new driveshaft length as well, so they should be starting that today hopefully!
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Finally got some more progress on the car.

Ordered the new machined rotors to fit on the new axle shafts. That was another road block I hit that my old rotors didnt work. The driveshaft showed up this week as well.

My dad and I got the air filter installed last night. After watched two different episodes of engine masters on air filters and piping with an engine on the dyno I decided I was going to make a filter fit one way or another, because as a street driven car in Vermont I didn't feel comfortable with just a screen. I just hope it doesn't lose too much HP. Also, I know it'll have dust and crap kicked up into the filter with time where it is, so I'll have to be good about cleaning the filter but its better than nothing. There's a bracket that's hard to see that's holding the tubing up under there.

I also may make a plexiglass shield or something to try and deflect water if I get caught in the rain, but I don't want to sacrifice air flow. Or maybe just keep one of the filter socks in the car for rain.

I used one of the cobra head elbows that is supposedly designed to still flow the same volume because it gets wider where its shorter. We'll see. When I get back down to the dyno at some point after we get everything dialed in I'll put this setup back on and see how much it screws with everything. But for now I'll drive it how it is with it on. I'm gonna log some data and see what kind of boost it still makes as well because with the old **** filter, it wouldn't allow the boost solenoid to build boost at all basically. So I'll a way to get some indication with that.

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I’d say that’s a hell of a nice solution to fit an air cleaner in there. Even if it does cost a few hp it’s worth it. Way better than that green thing you had on at the beginning. And at the track you can just remove it easily and make a run. The filter might surprise you, mine is mounted right on the turbo under the bed of my truck. I drive it in the rain, dirt, you name it, and I just clean it every two oil changes. Stays surprisingly clean under there.
 
Well thats good to hear! What do you think of the cobra elbow? Think its gonna kill it? I'm really curious to see what it does. Whatever the loss is from that setup on the street, I'm sure I wont notice a difference.
 
Well thats good to hear! What do you think of the cobra elbow? Think its gonna kill it? I'm really curious to see what it does. Whatever the loss is from that setup on the street, I'm sure I wont notice a difference.
Yea I agree, you won’t notice it on the street. With boost, loosing a few hp is no big deal. You just add a pound. But at the track when you want it all I’d just take it off. I bet the shape of that cobra elbow will cost a few, I’ll guess 8-15 hp, but like I said worth it and you won’t feel it. I’ll send Richard Holdener a text and see if he’s ever tested one.
 
What is the OE vehicle that thing came off of?

Nevermind, I found the link to the company that makes em.
 
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