Allright, Let's get this train back on track now.
I'm always looking for ways to reduce and lower (CG wise) the overall weight of the Challenger AND get the car balanced out better front to rear. Ebodys have always had a reputation for being nose heavy so the more weight I take off the front of the car the closer I'll be able to get to meet both of those goals.
Obviously the fiberglass hood, fenders and front valance will help but what else can I do? There's already the aluminum heads and intake as well as the tubular headers on the engine which help to offset the weight of the bigger engine to come. The late model mini alternator and starter on the SB now will be kept for use on the BB.
One downside in the weight department is that I want to add a Classic Air A/C kit in the future. At least it uses modern light weight compressor which will get mounted down low, beneath the alternator with a
Bouchillon bracket. I also plan on keeping the power steering and power brakes. Since I don't want to ditch those systems, my best bet is to keep looking for ways to reduce the overall system weights using smaller and lighter modern components. I'm thinking of using a 7" or 8" dual diaphram power booster to replace the wider single stage stock one. Weight wise it'll probably be a push there. However, the MC will get the heave-ho in favor of a modern aluminum one. On a side note, I really like this all-in-one
distribution block and adjustable proportioning valve even though it is a bit pricey.
That leaves the Power Steering system...
I had originally started out looking at the
Magnum Force Tubular K frame setup but after some research, it was deemed it not strong enough for use on a daily driven vehicle. It also retails for about $3500-4000 depending on options. Next I looked at the
RMS AlterKation conversion. It was designed to hold up to regular use on the street and also give a major reduction in weight. The cost was much cheaper last year but now it's about the same price as the Magnumforce kit.
I had planned on saving up for one of the AlterKation kits in the future when I came across another much more economical alternative. There is a new
rack and pinion kit made by a company called Unisteer. First thing I noticed is that it didn't replace the original K frame and that it was starting at about $1100 with free shipping to boot. It also doesn't replace the torsion bars, shocks, UCA's or LCA's. I can always get tubular UCA's later and I'll have already reinforced the LCA's and upgraded the torsion bars and shocks by the time I can get this kit. The other major plus is there will be less money wasted replacing already replaced new parts in the long run. The kit looked interesting on the website (which needs to be updated badly for this new Mopar specific stuff) so I gave them a call to see what was up. After talking to the Tech department for a while, I got the run down on this new kit. They have yet to publish an actual comparison of thedifference in weights of stock vs the kit parts, but I'd guestimate it will be at least 50% lighter overall than the stock system.
The kit replaces the stock (ie: HEAVY) original pump, hoses, steering gear box, steering shaft coupler, center link, pittman, idler arm, tie rods and ends. All that stuff comes out. In it's place, the first step is to attach the mount for the rack which uses existing bolt holes from the idler arm and steering gear box. The rack then gets bolted into the bracket and sinched down. Next the new smaller and lighter aluminum power steering pump and mounting bracket replaces the old parts. A fluid resiovior gets mounted remotely to the fenderwell. Then attach the u-joint to the steering shaft and connect it to the rack's input shaft. Next you connect the three braided stainless hoses to the pump, rack and resiovior. Lastly you need to reattach the fan belt, fill the resiorvior and bleed the system. Now you can center everything up as close as you can, tighten all the mounting bolts and get it to an alignment shop to dial it in properly.
BTW: They're going to have a customer's Cuda on display over at the Mopar Nats in Ohio this year so I'm hoping to get a good look at a kit actually installed on an E body in person while I'm there.
Check out the links above and let me know what you guys think about it.:bravo:
I had to remove the front seat in order to get access to all the bolts. It was a royal pain to get it all out but everything finally got done. Next I had to figure out how to mount the new MC adapter plate since the hole in the firewall for the brake booster was a lot bigger than the adapter plate. My solution was to make a sheet metal plate to cover the hole and then mount the adapter to that. I found some scrap metal lying around and cut, drilled and hole sawed it till it wasjust right. I next had to find some nuts, bolts and washers to geteverything mounted. Mark's got tons of spare stuff like that around but it's a chore digging through all the mixed assortment of coffee cans full of misc stuff. After a while I had enough hardware to mount everything up. The rest of the installation was fairly simple. After the cover plate, adapter and MC were installed I removed the lines to the splitter block. I'll get some replacement lines for those tomorrow when we head out to look for a tranny at the JY. I'll ger pics of the MC tomorrow and edit the post to add them. For now I'm beat and am gonna turn in now.
