In the past 48 hours, me, my dad and my grandpa have pulled two engines, one transmission, 2 rear ends, 2 complete front ends and put them both all back together except for the engine back into the Dart. Now here comes the mother load of pictures to illustrate this project so far:
Starting at 8am Saturday morning
The 318 in the Duster being stripped down ready to be pulled
The parts tub that spawned from the 318 in the Duster
Oh hi thur, on jack stands and cutting off the exhaust and unbolting motor mounts and trans crossmember
Its in the air! That was a project in itself to pull that old tired engine and trans!
It looks so sad with the hood pulled off and the engine out
We decided to leave the two together for now, engine turned over and the trans fluid didnt smell burnt so maybe their still good
And then we swapped bays with the two, the removal of the Dart rear end proved to be our worst enemy oddly enough, had one bolt that had to be completely broke on the leaf spring that held the perch on
and now we move to the Duster to pull the bigger rear end with the bigger rear drums and the BBP.
The 8 1/4 finally comes out, doesnt look too bad
The dinky /6 rear end, soon to go back under the Duster so we could still roll the thing around and out of the way
The 8 1/4 under the Dart, dad had our big black Panther helpin us with the swap
After quite a bit of fighting it is finally on the ground, just to figure out we had to swap the shackles that were ghetto rigged on the other rear end to raise the car up in the back so it wouldnt be too low to the ground.
From what I have been told and shown, this MC will work with my new brakes, just have to get a proportioning valve.
By 3am, the Dart was jacked up, blocked and the engine out of it.
Now after a little bit of sleep, at 12pm Sunday we are staring at a V8 k-member that desperately needs into the Dart
Slant 6 K Member that needs gone, soon!
Had to bring the crecent wrench of death out to loosen a nut up
Front suspension finally showing sign of weakness and coming out of the Dart
Both sides put up a helluva fight but we finally got them going out of the car
The beast is dead! Now this k-member gets to go back into the Duster so we can roll it around
There is what were after! After so much work we finally get down to the brakes
Sometimes you just gotta get down in the engine bay and do some damage, pulling the steering loose on both cars sure was easy with the engine out of them both! Those are 3/4in bolts in them, all 3 of them, do remember that!
Now we have the piece weve been after all day long, took everything, shocks and all out of the Duster.
Used the cherry picker and jack to make pulling the new K-Member into position on the Dart a bit easier
We finished at 7pm tonight
I didn't get another pictures past that point, but we did get the new K-Member installed, all the front suspension put back together, steering linkages bolts back up, brake lines hooked up and everything except the engine back in the Dart. We also got the V8 torsion bars swapped into the Dart, which is SO much easier with the k-member out. We ran into a few glitches but its all back together. We put the Duster all back together enough to roll it outside and free up the other bay in the shop. Now that the suspension is under the Dart, the replacement of parts and upgrading can begin. Luckily both cars were '74 models so everything was the same.
Thanks for the help I've got from you guys here and the threads running around on here, it helped us a ton! Though the battle is over, the war is far from over with this car. Once I get it back on the ground and running, I'll have quite a few questions about the suspension and brakes that Ill have to come here to get the answers!
