1973 Plymouth Duster repair and rebuild

[JohnFM3]

Third coat of paint has been applied. Its way to wet (rain) to work outside, will get on the assembly tomorrow.

 

[JohnFM3]

Making headway. Waiting for a response to questions regarding HDK upper control arms. After which, the front end will be on the ground.

Want to hear something crazy, my Classic Industries lower ball joints are sold with Nylon Locking Nuts instead of Castle nuts and cotter pins. Apparently that is the way its done. Still torque to 115 ft lb.

 

[JohnFM3]

We have a front end assembled, both sides. Now to build the hard lines and get the car on the ground.

 

[JohnFM3]

Are there any recommendations for setting up the proportioning valve in a new install?

 

[mygasser]

anywhere near you have a set of brake testing rollers? that'll be the 'best' way as you can test, adjust, test etc.
neil.

 

[JohnFM3]

anywhere near you have a set of brake testing rollers? that'll be the 'best' way as you can test, adjust, test etc.
neil.

I have no clue. I will have to look it up.

 

[Ozyduster]

Making headway. Waiting for a response to questions regarding HDK upper control arms. After which, the front end will be on the ground.

Want to hear something crazy, my Classic Industries lower ball joints are sold with Nylon Locking Nuts instead of Castle nuts and cotter pins. Apparently that is the way its done. Still torque to 115 ft lb.

You could probably drill a hole through the thread and put a split pin for safety i have had a nylock come off on another car and collapse the suspension when doing a U Turn. Put a nut on drill the hole then take the nut off to clean the thread

 

[JohnFM3]

You could probably drill a hole through the thread and put a split pin for safety i have had a nylock come off on another car and collapse the suspension when doing a U Turn. Put a nut on drill the hole then take the nut off to clean the thread

My success rate of drilling across a bolt is not very good. At this time, I am going to pay attention to it. May purchase a new nylon lock nut, and add RED loctite for additional strength. If I have to goto the effort of drilling it out, I will buy a new lower ball joint with the hole there. I just found this crazy as all my suspension parts are attached with castle nuts and cotter pins. This is a first for me.

BTW: New update. I now have front hard lines. I had to buy new 7/16 Banjo to AN-3 adapters for the calipers as the ones I bought were 3/8. My attempt can not be described as pretty unless its in front of "ugly". But it is functional. As soon as I am employed, I will pull the engine out and build new lines which look alot better. But for now, the front brake hard lines are ran. I will get the car on the ground and start working on the ford 8.8 rear end install and brake line replacement.

I will get better pictures of this later. Its pouring rain and I am soaked following the completion of bending and installing the front hard lines.

 

[JohnFM3]

Out for Delivery… then the front end goes on the ground.

 

[JohnFM3]

I got a UPDATE :-D

She has the front end assembled and on the ground with the new shoes from the barracuda. Those wheels/tires make the car. I am really happy with how it turned out. And considering where this car began.

Once this car can move, I am cleaning up around where I was working. Its a mess.

 

[JohnFM3]

Nothing exciting to say since my last update. I got the axle tubes painted in prep for installation. Tomorrow, weather permitting I will pull the rear end off the car and get ready for installing the 8.8 rear end.

Hopefully next update will be of the car fully on the ground and ready for finishing work.

 

[JohnFM3]

So I started to prep the duster for removing the Rear End only to be met with the car resting in a "not so stable" orientation. Needless to say, I put the car back on the ground. I am going to have to pay a tow truck driver to pick the car up, rotate it around, and make sure to park it straight in the driveway to ensure I can safely place on jack stands.

The new-to-me rear axle is painted and ready for installation.

Meanwhile, I took a bit of time today to attempt to start the car for the first time in a couple of weeks. Guess what, in slant six fashion, it started. Allowed it a few min to idle as I had no drive belts on. Then turned it off. More so, I was able to do all this from the ignition key. Major win.

Get the new axle in the car, bend/build the new rear brake line, and shorten the drive shaft. After that is done, go thru the car and touch everything one more time to make sure everything is tight and bleed the brakes. Then off to exhaust shop. That is what I am really excited about.

Keep everyone posted

 

[JohnFM3]

Well, the rear axle is loose. I will get some assistance lifting it out and placing the new one in place tomorrow. Should have the 8.8 assembled and on the ground by end of day. Then get drive line shortened and rear brake line bent and installed.

 

[JohnFM3]

Ok, good news. The 8.8 axle is resting in the car. Leaf springs have been re attached to the car. Ready for u-bolts. Bad news, with all my research on the centering pins I was correct in worrying. It looks like the leaf spring pins are 3/8 in and I know the mopar perches are 1/2 as thats what I purchased. Given how little hp this car has (probably 120 at max), would anyone run it? Even for a short period of time?

Note to self: Drive line needs to be shorten 1.5 inch

 

[JohnFM3]

I stand corrected. The leaf spring head is 1/2 in. The mopar performance perches are larger. :-(

 

[JohnFM3]

New center pins ordered. 7/16 thread dia with a 5/8 pin size. I will need to drill out my leaf springs from 3/8 to 7/16. This will be so much fun.

 

[JohnFM3]

Center pins being delivered tomorrow. Meanwhile, I used 3/8 bolts which head fits the 5/8 hole in the perch perfectly. That said, the rear axle is installed in the duster. I couldnt quite motivate myself to go back outside tonight to install the brakes.

I will save the center pins I purchased for when I replace the rear suspension. Meanwhile, I have drilled out my leaf springs to accept 3/8 bolts. I will be on the look for 2 ford spare tires to put on the barracuda so I can get the rear wheels off the barracuda and installed on the duster. Its my intention to have the duster on the ground tomorrow evening.

 

[RustyRatRod]

I would have just gotten perches with the correct centering hole. Unless of course you've already welded them to the rear axle. Those springs are gonna be a whole lot of fun to drill through.

 

[mopowers]

Why not just make a bushing to take up the extra space? Grab a pipe nipple at the hardware store, drill it out to the right size, and cut it to length.

Or weld up the holes in the perches and re-drill those. Plenty of ways to avoid having to drill through those springs.

 

[JohnFM3]

I would have just gotten perches with the correct centering hole. Unless of course you've already welded them to the rear axle. Those springs are gonna be a whole lot of fun to drill through.

Of course at this point I had already welded the perches to the axle. Drilling thru the leaf spring with a sacrificial uni bit was cake with the leaf pack torn apart. Had to get a second bit to drill thru the last leaf. Slow speed and consistent force for the win. Other than I need to buy leaf spring clamp set, its done. And the clamps are not really necessary right away.

Its kind of funny you would say you would have purchased the correct perches.... I bought mopar performance perches. There is a assumption there that failed me. But it does make sense, larger axles are normally for bigger power. Small leaf springs are not used in big power setups. And a center pin with 5/16 threads would snap under the load of big power. What I need are new leaf springs. For the time being, this is what I have until I can gain employment. I will be replacing the leaf's and shocks in the future.

There is another element to this, if you haven't had to change perches and leaf spring pins, it sucks. The hole diam in the perch is not normally provided in the specs. Its as if there is a assumption and I dont have the experience to know it. And when you try to buy a 1/2 center pin, you find out that the 1/2in thread diam is listed and not the pin diam. And of course there are several different thread and pin diam combinations. Non of which are listed, cause that would make sense I guess.

A final thought, I bought a perch kit for a Ford 8.8 first. Only to find out that I had to buy a chevy Dana 44 perch kit for my ford axle as my 8.8 came out of a ranger and had the smaller axle tube of 3.25. Explorer axles are 3.5 inch which was what was delivered as thats what I purchased. Hence my first purchase was wrong. And the company would not exchange it due to buyers fault even though their website show NO sizes on the description. Maybe a note on the 8.8 description that the kit was for large tube 8.8 out of suv's and large trucks. I finally found the mopar performance perches for the 3.25 inch tube diam as well as a u-bolt kit for the correct diam. And I elongated the new base plate holes 1/8 in inward to fit the u-bolts as finding new base plates for 3.25 was impossible. Let alone finding them with the shock mounts integrated the same as factory a-body.

Why not just make a bushing to take up the extra space? Grab a pipe nipple at the hardware store, drill it out to the right size, and cut it to length.

Or weld up the holes in the perches and re-drill those. Plenty of ways to avoid having to drill through those springs.

Both good points. Regarding building a bushing, I dont know if I stated earlier (few weeks ago) here but my metal lathe broke trying to build a crush sleeve for the front end. Not that matters due to the required dimensions. The pin head is 1/2in (.500), the perch hole diam is 5/8in (.625), leaving a difference of 1/8in (.125). That means my sleeve wall thickness would be 1/16in (.0675). So then I could use loctite to glue it to the pin. But slip fitting it (cut slightly smaller ID, heat it up and tap it down) would not be a good idea as the sleeve would most likely fracture. I would be more likely to use a larger grade 5 bolt, turn the head down to 5/8 and partial round, and turn the shank and threads down to nominal for 5/16, then single point thread. I would be concern a grade 8 would be to tough and become brittle during the lathe work.

As far as welding up holes and re-drilling, I wouldn't want to introduce inaccuracy into the setup.

 

[mopowers]

Both good points. Regarding building a bushing, I dont know if I stated earlier (few weeks ago) here but my metal lathe broke trying to build a crush sleeve for the front end. Not that matters due to the required dimensions. The pin head is 1/2in (.500), the perch hole diam is 5/8in (.625), leaving a difference of 1/8in (.125). That means my sleeve wall thickness would be 1/16in (.0675). So then I could use loctite to glue it to the pin. But slip fitting it (cut slightly smaller ID, heat it up and tap it down) would not be a good idea as the sleeve would most likely fracture. I would be more likely to use a larger grade 5 bolt, turn the head down to 5/8 and partial round, and turn the shank and threads down to nominal for 5/16, then single point thread. I would be concern a grade 8 would be to tough and become brittle during the lathe work.

As far as welding up holes and re-drilling, I wouldn't want to introduce inaccuracy into the setup.

You're completely overthinking it, but glad you got it taken care of. People have been resolving that issue for many years without drilling leaf springs.

I've always scribed a '+' where the oversized hole is on the perch, welded up the hole, ground it smooth, then used the the scribe crosshairs to mark the center punch for the new hole.

If a 1/16" thick bushing scares you, drill the hole out to 3/4" so you can use a 1/8" thick bushing. Plenty of ways to get it done.

 

[mygasser]

if the 3/8 bolt's head centres in the perch that'll do. it only needs to centre it for assembly, once the 'u' bolts are tight it can't move. same for the 5/16" centre bolt to be honest, it's function is just to hold the leaves together while the springs are fitted in place. there's no load on that bolt once the 'u' bolts are tight, definately not related to engine torque.
neil.

 

[JohnFM3]

Drilling the leaf springs was easy. My bit went thru with no real effort. Slow and easy. The 3/8 bolt is holding the leaf pack together with a flanged locking nut (non nylon). The u-bolts are torqued down to 90 ft lb. The flange u-joint adapter that was confirmed to fit a ford ranger 8.8 does NOT fit. The bolt pattern is smaller than what is accepted on the axle flange. As such, the flange adapter which came with the axle was cleaned and confirmed to accept a 1330 u-joint which I needed. The adapter has been cleaned and removed old ford u-joint. And I am double checking my measurement from axle center line to u-joint center line in comparison to my 7.25 for the amount to shorten my drive line. Last measurement was 1.5in which I need to shorten the drive shaft.

Has anyone ever cut the drive line of a A-Body up? Is it a simple tube, or is there some form of rubber dampener in there making shortening it a shop job?

The other thing I will be working on tomorrow (weather permitting), bending and installing the new 1/4in brake line to the rear. I also bought a 14in AN3 hose to replace the flex hose going to the axle. It appears 14in is perfect when the car is sitting on the ground with room to move. Put the rear sub chassis on jack stands and let the rear end sag, all of a sudden that 14in hose is too short. A 16in or most likely a 18in hose is in my future.

 

[mygasser]

i've shortened a few, all different makes (been building hotrods over 40 years). unless you can clearly see it's a tube inside a tube (rubber bonded between) then they just seem to have a thick cardboard tube inside. i'm guessing it damps any noise from the driveshaft when pulling at low revs.
anyway when shortening or even joining 2 tubes the same diameter i clamp them between 2 lengths of 2" angle iron to hold them straight. then weld the 2 sections still visible. remove angle iron, smooth welds and reclamp angle over the welds. lastly weld the remaining 2 sections and smooth the welds. now in theory that 'should' be it but i like to use belt and braces lol, so i cut another length of driveshaft or similar tube. then i cut it in half lengthways and clamp the 2 halves over the weld. there will be a 1/4-1/2" gap each side running lengthwise which allows me to weld both along these as well as around the ends.
hope this helps, neil.

 

[JohnFM3]

i've shortened a few, all different makes (been building hotrods over 40 years). unless you can clearly see it's a tube inside a tube (rubber bonded between) then they just seem to have a thick cardboard tube inside. i'm guessing it damps any noise from the driveshaft when pulling at low revs.
anyway when shortening or even joining 2 tubes the same diameter i clamp them between 2 lengths of 2" angle iron to hold them straight. then weld the 2 sections still visible. remove angle iron, smooth welds and reclamp angle over the welds. lastly weld the remaining 2 sections and smooth the welds. now in theory that 'should' be it but i like to use belt and braces lol, so i cut another length of driveshaft or similar tube. then i cut it in half lengthways and clamp the 2 halves over the weld. there will be a 1/4-1/2" gap each side running lengthwise which allows me to weld both along these as well as around the ends.
hope this helps, neil.

That does. And the 2 in angle iron to hold the drive line straight was what I was planning to do. My neighbor has scared me from trying speaking about distortion from welding causing the drive line from remaining straight. He has suggested I need a lathe large enough to cut the yoke off the end at the weld, followed by using a hammer to knock the yoke out, cut the 1.5 in off the end of the tube, re insert the yoke and weld.

With all the different opinions, I am thinking I will pay a shop to do this. Its $300 to have it shorten. Not that I have it, but I also dont have the cash to recover if/when the drive shaft weld fails.