My 71 Duster work in progress

[b-body-bob]

Yeah I'm old enough to remember the old in-ground single post lifts. They'd start leaking off and it takes a service call to fix it so you learn to put your faith in the safety pole/foot contraption. But I never saw a car try to come down from a lift on its own until I went to work in the Sears Auto Center.

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

and? what was the rest of the story?

 

[b-body-bob]

Every now and again someone would forget there was a muffler stand under a car and lower it. Never saw one hit the ground but the shop was usually full of people who would start yelling if you screwed up.

One night I was working on a car and the manager came through to help us out by raising all the racks for us to sweep under them. One after another all the way down one side, boom boom boom, all locked open so they'd go to the top. He wasn't paying any attention. One car was parked over the lift but the arms weren't set so when the lift came up it caught the car at the rockers and kind of stood it on its nose.

Stuff like that happens when you run enough volume through a shop. Nothing like that happened back in the gas station days because we were never really in a rush.

 

[b-body-bob]

Lost another evening trying to get the torsion bar out. Popped the UCA off the spindle again, now the TB will rattle but won't come out. Noticed the LCA end of the bar is loose, it's the back end that's stuck. When I pry/hammer the LCA back and forth I can see that end of the TB doesn't move just slides in and out. So the back end isn't moving. Yes the spring clips are out.

Tonight I'm taking at least the the DS inner tie rod end off the center link and the center link off the pitman arm and idler arm so I can get the headers out.

 

[b-body-bob]

Continued chasing the "maybe if I take *this* off, the TB will cooperate. Makes me feel smart when none of it works and I do what I should've done from the start.

Finally I just made a TB tool from scrap and 3 u-bolts



The key is for the plate the u-bolts bolt through is stout enough that it won't bend. That, and the bicycle tube. Definitely the bicycle tube.

Passenger side needs a dent here for the TB to pass by


Driver's side PS box spots



DS TB spot

Now to figure out how to do it. I've got a mapp gas torch so it will get extra hot, several pieces of old pipe to try to give it some shape, and a BFH. What I don't know is how much support it will need and what works good for that. I suspect just banging on the pipes laying on the floor isn't the best idea but it's the only one I've got right now.

 

[68R/T]

Because you'll only be heating one side of the pipe why not cushion it on a pile of wet rags?

 

[b-body-bob]

Because you'll only be heating one side of the pipe why not cushion it on a pile of wet rags?

The yellow blanket looking thing in the DS photos is a fiberglass welding blanket. I'm thinking of supporting each header on wood blocks covered by that. It won't get hot enough on the bottom side to cause combustion in a 2x4, especially with the blanket stuck in there for some padding.

 

[b-body-bob]

 

[b-body-bob]

The question I usually get is "are you still alive out here?"

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

My wife wants no part in the 'Cuda's, she wouldn't even take a ride when I finished the first one, now she drove my original 'Cuda when we got married for 4 years, with no power steering, maybe that's why?
Anyway I just tell her at least you know where I am & the ole bar stool remains empty!

 

[Dr.Jass]

OK, there's gotta be a trick to getting these things installed, right?

View attachment 27612

I noticed that the adjuster has more room for those than there is at either end of the pedal rod. I'm thinking about slimming down the ends of that.

I'm not aware of a trick. Mine went in without a ton of effort. I mean, yeah, there was some resistance and they snapped into place but it wasn't a huge fight to get them started.

 

[b-body-bob]

I'm not aware of a trick. Mine went in without a ton of effort. I mean, yeah, there was some resistance and they snapped into place but it wasn't a huge fight to get them started.

Those have been back burnered but it really didn't look like I had the same distance for the clip to fit in, comparing the clutch rod to the adjuster by the bellhousing. The adjuster looked to have more space, and the clip went right on.

 

[b-body-bob]

Actually it turns out the way to bang on a header is to throw that welding blanket on on the floor, lay the header down on that, heat it up, hold it with your foot, and wail away.

I didn't find anything bigger than a 2x4 to use as a support, so that wasn't going to help but it wasn't necessary anyway.

I banged on both, retried the passenger side since it cooled off while I was banging on the driver's side, and it needed more banging so I did that and then quit because I didn't want to wait until it cooled off before I could touch it. The driver's side promises to be a real production going back in so I'm not even trying to fit that in until the other side is OK.

I don't know if I had to or not, but on the driver's side to be sure I could get the danged thing out I unbolted the biscuit from the k-frame. So I lifted the motor mounts completely out of the k-frame and like to never got them back in.

The passenger side just slips in from below, easy peasy with all the suspension out of the way.

 

[b-body-bob]

The hard part of all this is trying to mark the right spot, then heating it up, banging on it for a few minutes, waiting on it to cool down, and lifting the engine up to stick it back together, just to see I hit it in the wrong place because you can't really mark it where it's needed. I haven't looked but trust the engine isn't going back in the same exact place every time too.

 

[b-body-bob]

I think I'm finished with the banging, or at least nothing is touching on either side. I'm not going to even think about how much clearance there is but decided daylight is plenty. Now to paint them and get things put back together.

 

[b-body-bob]

I'm here all worried about getting the headers clean and a good coat of paint on them, but then I recognized that break in is likely to burn off any paint that I put on them anyway. I won't be in any hurry to take things back apart to the point I can send them out for coating either. Maybe next winter, probably never.

FWIW I bought VHT white. IIRC the key is a thin coat because it eventually turns to powder anyway, or at least the late 70s mix did.

 

[b-body-bob]

Headers are painted. 2 cans of primer, 2 cans of color. Don't look too close. There's a special process for the final coat involving getting it all sprayed within one hour (or waiting a week to put the next coat on), which I followed, and heat treating it in steps up to 600* F, which I laughed at. They're going to get plenty hot soon enough.

 

[b-body-bob]

Put the dumb headers on, remember the starter before I got too far along. Now working on the clutch linkage. All I can say is, having the right z-bar is only half the battle with this dumb car.

I should've stuck with the original idea to put that 440/727 in it. The last duster I hot rodded had a 904, manual steering, and hedman hedders went right on it once I dropped the suspension and shimmed the motor up.

I didn't realize how much tighter things are under an a-body. I never had this much trouble with a b-body because there's more room. I'm unbolting the headers to get the linkage clip on at the bottom now but I'm not sure if that's even going to help or make it worse.

 

[b-body-bob]

We now have a clutch pedal. Good grief those retainer clips.

It seems pretty stiff but there's no seat in the car. There's no mistaking you're working on a spring and not hydraulics doing it for you. Boing boing.

 

[b-body-bob]

Now I've got an unreasonable fear of putting things together too soon and having to take them back apart.

I think the driveshaft is going to work. There's more than 1 cap's distance of pull out from all the way in the tailshaft so I've got the inch you need for that And I just realized I tightened the straps on that.

I put the steering knuckle that I took apart for the torsion bar back together, and put the rotor and caliper back on. Dreading putting the TBs and drag link back in, because if the headers need to come down again, those are in the way. But I don't think there's anything left that would require me to unbolt the headers at this point. Still I'm tempted to leave them out and fire it up on stands. Leaving the drag link out for now would definitely make stabbing the column easier, so...maybe it's interior and finish the wiring day.