headman headers and steering problem

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streetdak

streetdak

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Cypress, Texas (Houston)
I've been having an extremely difficult time installing my headman headers on my 73 Dart 318. The drivers side went in very very nicely to my suprise from the bottom, however the passenger side has been a living nightmare. First the header had to be clearanced a little due to the tortion bar, and then when i go to hook up the steering, the header is in the way of the idler arm so much that it is impossible to even clearance that amount. I do have power steering btw.

The car has spool mounts and disc brakes, I'll grab the fender tag to see if maybe it was originally a 6 cyl, but i believe it is originally a v8 car. Anyone else have this problem or any solutions???
 
A quick ratio steering pitman arm will not work. IS this the possible case?
 
Are you sure you have the right headers? I have Headmans with a 73 Duster that had a slant 6. No issues at all.
The DRIVERS side I had to take off the idler arm. The Passenger side was the easy side. I have power steering too.
 
myasylum said:
Are you sure you have the right headers? I have Headmans with a 73 Duster that had a slant 6. No issues at all.
The DRIVERS side I had to take off the idler arm. The Passenger side was the easy side. I have power steering too.
Click to expand...

Yeah they're correct. The pitman arm is on driver side, and idler arm is on the pass side, driver side header went on beautiflly, I've been researching, so far I find that mopar was a litte inconsistant with k frame motor positioning.

I'm gonna try to move the motor mounts to bolt opposite side of the ears to move back about 2/3 to 1 inch, maybe that will help. Any suggestions would be great
 
I have a 73 spool mount K-member and a 360 in my 68 Barracuda with power steering. My Hedman headers fit fine. When I swapped from manual to power steering I used a 73+ steering box which required the 73+ pitman arm, idler arm and center link. This style has the posts on the pitman and idler going down into the center link verse the older one coming up from the bottom. This positioned the grease fittings very close to the headers (about 3/16") but they do not touch.

BTW, the motor mounts bolt to the back side of the ears on the block.
 
dgc333 said:
I have a 73 spool mount K-member and a 360 in my 68 Barracuda with power steering. My Hedman headers fit fine. When I swapped from manual to power steering I used a 73+ steering box which required the 73+ pitman arm, idler arm and center link. This style has the posts on the pitman and idler going down into the center link verse the older one coming up from the bottom. This positioned the grease fittings very close to the headers (about 3/16") but they do not touch.

BTW, the motor mounts bolt to the back side of the ears on the block.
Click to expand...

man that is my exact setup, so im not sure whats going down. It hits bad, esp when the center link is bolted up. gonna have to do some positioning i imagin :(
 
here is how bad the headers are hitting

c7939a3b.jpg
 
Something is real wrong there. My tubes don't come any where near the torsion bar and the way the tubes and the closest part of the idler to the header tube is the top where the grease fitting is. Are you sure you have the correct headers?
 
Wow My Hedmans miss by 3/4 to 1 inch from passenger t-bar. I don't have spool mnts but can you shim eng to driver side. Like a large washer under mount?
 
Yea, dude... I swear you have the wrong headers. I'm sorry ahead of time if I'm wrong, but my car SHOULD be identical to yours... Power steering and all. No pounding bending or hitting of any kind. As you see in the picture, the Headman headers run over and underneath the torsion bar. With your set up, how do you even get the oil filter on and off???

headman.JPG
 
no their correct, 78050, match the picture on summit correctly, part numbers are correct, so either my k-frame is completely out of whack, or the headers have been malformed. I'm under the suspicion that the motor is sitting way way too close to the passenger side.

Now the collectors are uneven when in the car, the drivers side is 8-10 inches further back on the car than the passenger side, i think this is correct for these headers, anyone have any input??
 
:wack:

Post more pics from the upper drivers side.There should only be about 1/4" from the power steering and the headers.

I don't know what exhaust system you have in mind right now... If none... I wouldn't worry about one side being 8" further back then the other (I think mine is a few inches too). Just get these things to fit first... any exhaust guy can cut to fit the length to fit.
 
yeah sucks lol, im gonna do some investigating. When you reffered to the power steering, are you talking about the gear box?? or the pump itself?
 
The gear box, the pump itself shouldn't even near any of this. I'm curious as to what the drivers side looks like.
 
**Update** Long Overdue, but in case anyone runs into this same problem, my original K-Member bent badly because of a previous wreck. New K-Member in now, headers fit perfectly.
 
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