1970 Plymouth Duster 5.7 Hemi/T56

[B_Chandler]

Front suspension. Another one of those "read everything, second guess, triple guess, reconsider, and then do it. As stated before I needed the big balljoint upper control arms for the disc brake conversion. Used were hard to find or expensive for what they were so I splurged and got the QA1 stuff. Same with lowers, I looked at plating and rebuilding the stock pieces and considering time and money, I was bucks ahead with the QA1 stuff. The adjustable strut rods and swaybar are also QA1 pieces. Everything else, tie rods, idler, pitman arm, etc are off the shelf. The '70 drag link hit the back of the oil pan sump before reaching full lock. No Bueno. I think I read here or saw pictures here with the '73 and ayer drag link that locates the tie rod ends vertically instead of horizontally like the 70-72 piece. Looked like it would give enough clearance and it does. The front brakes are another Dr. Diff purchase.

 

[jrc4y4]

Cool build, keep it coming!

 

[DionR]

Front suspension. Another one of those "read everything, second guess, triple guess, reconsider, and then do it. As stated before I needed the big balljoint upper control arms for the disc brake conversion. Used were hard to find or expensive for what they were so I splurged and got the QA1 stuff. Same with lowers, I looked at plating and rebuilding the stock pieces and considering time and money, I was bucks ahead with the QA1 stuff. The adjustable strut rods and swaybar are also QA1 pieces. Everything else, tie rods, idler, pitman arm, etc are off the shelf. The '70 drag link hit the back of the oil pan sump before reaching full lock. No Bueno. I think I read here or saw pictures here with the '73 and ayer drag link that locates the tie rod ends vertically instead of horizontally like the 70-72 piece. Looked like it would give enough clearance and it does. The front brakes are another Dr. Diff purchase.

View attachment 1716470261

View attachment 1716470262

View attachment 1716470263

View attachment 1716470264

Quick note that the OEM orientation is with the caliper to the front of the car. This makes the brake hose cross the centerline of the spindle and keeps it straighter.

Plenty of people have done it that way, just pointing it out in case you made an assumption.

Carry on, great work!

 

[340sFastback]

You got a ToddRon crossmember from Modern Driveline? Was this recently or are we several years in the past at that point??

Last I looked they were discontinued, but I admit I am not following them closely. Ok, not following at all anymore since I am past that point now.

They were out of stock when I wanted to buy one. I contacted ToddRon and he contacted Modern Driveline and told them if they can't produce them he was gonna find someone else that could. ToddRon said he got a commitment from Modern Driveline to sell them and if they could not live up to that commitment he was gonna find another vendor. As a result Modern Driveline pulled one out of their warehouse which lacked powder coating and missing the bolt spacers and sold it to me right away with a small discount since "it wasn't finished or complete".

 

[DionR]

They were out of stock when I wanted to buy one. I contacted ToddRon and he contacted Modern Driveline and told them if they can't produce them he was gonna find someone else that could. ToddRon said he got a commitment from Modern Driveline to sell them and if they could not live up to that commitment he was gonna find another vendor. As a result Modern Driveline pulled one out of their warehouse which lacked powder coating and missing the bolt spacers and sold it to me right away with a small discount since "it wasn't finished or complete".

I remember you saying that.

They don't list them on the website at all anymore. I have it bookmarked and the link goes to some blog of theirs now or something. Wonder if ToddRon took it back and is still looking for another vender.

In the end, it didn't really affect me. With my non-stock engine location due to the Holley mounts, it probably would have been a $700 paperweight. After designing my own, pretty sure I would have been able to use about 0% of that kit. So if anything, Modern Driveline not listing them for sale might have actually saved me money.

 

[B_Chandler]

Its about this time in the story that my "Field Find/Dead Project" 77 Power Wagon showed up and I did what any normal, sane, reasonable adult would do, made it my daily driver. My (very short) attention was diverted so Duster progress was/is hit or miss. Now that the truck has proven itself by completing Sick Smokies Sick Ward, I'm turning my focus back to the Duster. During the truck thrash, one of the things I did was purchase a Champion radiator with same side inlet and outlet, Ford Contour electric fans and wiring pigtails for the fans. I cut the bottom of the core support and lowered the radiator a little. The top tank is now even with the top of the suppor and still the liquid high point. My plan is to graft a USCT core support brace at the bottom to regain the strength, protect the radiator and restore the look of the lower core support. Still need to fabricate brackets for the fans and come up with upper and lower hoses.

 

[B_Chandler]

I'm setting up a cable operated throttle. I'm using a 92mm Holley style LS throttle body. Clocked upright, the angle on the Hemi manifold puts the throttle linkage i ln the air on the right side. I flipped the throttle body and with the Sniper manifold, it will let me hide the cable a little and clean things up some. I kinda like it.

 

[B_Chandler]

The last thing I tinkered with was the oil filter relocation. Words of wisdom-- If you want or have to relocate the oil filter, do not buy the "kit" from Mancini racing. I loves me some Mancini, but they got this one wrong. It might even be a bit cheaper if you're a smart shopper, to buy the hoses, correct fittings, filter mount, etc. The problem with the Mancini kit is the AN fittings for the block. They send a pair of 45deg -8 male AN to Male NPT. Well you can only thread one of them into the block. The 45deg angles won't let you spin the other fitting into place. I emailed them about it, not expecting anything, just wanting to let them know and I.never heard back. I bought a straight -8 to NPT and a 90deg hose fitting. Seems to do the trick. The other problem was finding a place to put the filter mount. I didnt want it anywhere that would make a huge mess or puke oil all over everything at oil change time. A friend suggested the wheel well and after rejecting the idea at first, I sat and started scratching my head while holding the filter mount in various places and decided my friend might be right. Don't tell him I said that. Out came the CAD tools and I started fabbing a bracket. The source material was an old Dell computer case. My concern with locating the filter out there was rocks and other debris damaging the filter and leaking oil. To that end I made a shield out of the same source material that should do the trick.

 

[72dustervs]

Great project , looks like its coming along nicely

 

[Woody500]

Is that the filter mount or your pattern? That material doesn't look heavy enough & looks like aluminum in the pics.
If it's the mount, vibrations will crack it.

 

[B_Chandler]

Both are in the pics. It's a little thin. Its from an old PC case. I figured I'd keep an eye on it. I rarely get it right the first time and this is probably no exception. Blue is the pattern. White is the metal.

 

[nckennyb]

Great build. I'm enjoying your pictures and commentary.

 

[B_Chandler]

Quick note that the OEM orientation is with the caliper to the front of the car. This makes the brake hose cross the centerline of the spindle and keeps it straighter.

Plenty of people have done it that way, just pointing it out in case you made an assumption.

Carry on, great work!

I found that the front swaybar made it easier/better to hang the calipers on the back. Thanks for the info. I'm always open to suggestions, comments, other opinions and ideas. I get tunnel vision pretty easily and it takes someone else's perspective to snap me out of it.

 

[B_Chandler]

Another productive weekend...not here, but I'm sure it was somewhere. I am back in Duster mode. After much consideration and groaning, Ive swapped back to the Holley Sniper intake. The Edelbrock is a beautiful piece and the better of the two in terms of performance but more suited for drive-by-wire than cable. Can't say I didn't try. Got the throttle cable routed and connected thanks to the fine folks at Lokar. Had to modify the bracket a little, but it works. Still have to tweak the pedal to get true WOT, but for now it'll act as a soft rev limiter. Yeah, let's go with that. Finished plumbing the oil filter adapter after getting the right fittings. Funny how that works. I love Mancini Racing, but their kit sucks. Cheaper and easier to buy the hose, fittings, and remote filter mount than to buy their kit. One of my awesome neighbors gave me a big Dayton industrial fan. Its a wall mount deal, but I couldn't come up with a place to mount it on a shop wall so it sat in a corner. In an unrelated event, I removed the pole mounted HughesNet satellite dish from the far side of the house and thought the pole would make a good fan stand. Turns out I was right. All it took was one of the old wheels off the truck, a Slant 6 crank pulley, and some MIG wire to make it happen. I modified the dish mount to fit the fan and now I have what amounts to a portable hurricane. Now that I think about it, maybe I actually was productive. Maybe.