My daily driver 67 Coronet wagon

[ckessel]

For sure. Having something is better than nothing. Even the bolt ins. But even those are better if welded. I didn't want to cut the floor or have to pull out the interior, so thats what I ended up doing. Chris Birdsong went further by cutting through the t-bar/trans x, to extend to the front rail. Didn't want to get that involved. On my 65, I made the units[ 2X4 .120 wall], extend through the rear rail enough to catch the USCT spring relocation boxes[ all welded together there], cut through the t-bar/trans x to run the unit about 8" into the front rail. The t-bar x got reinforced on 3 sides with ART t-bar caps, plus I added some additional in the exposed areas. Had the floor out. Lots of plug welding, butt welding, lap welding.

 

[ckessel]

The springs are now secured in the car. I cleaned off the u-bolts, nuts, washers, plates with a wire brush. After that, got them all in place and cinched down. When I set the car down on the u-bolts, after letting the jack down, I noticed that the right side was way high in the back. Turned out that the shackle flipped forward. Lh was fine. Ran it back up with the jack and tried to figure out how to get the shackle going in the right direction. Then I had a BFO[ blinding flash of the obvious]. Ratchet Straps! Put straps on both shackles to get some pull on them so they would slant back. Let the jack down some, tighten up the straps. All groovy now. Shocks secured. Now I'm like "my wagon has Bilsteins on it". After that I put the brake backing plates on the tubes with some sealer on the backside. I used the bearing retainer flanges from the green units to help spread the load on the plates for now. I put some urethane seam sealer on the top side of the SFC's,where I couldn't get the MIG gun, to stop any water intrusion. Done for the day.

 

[ckessel]

Today I was able to swap out the rear brake hose then went up front. Removed the battery, tray, braces from the area. Took the p/s belt off the pulley. Got the nuts and top bushings off the front shocks. My cross shaft package for the power lock unit showed up today from Dr Diff. Thank you Cass. I found a couple of 1/4" strap corners that worked fine, after I drilled a hole in each, to allow me to hang the center section on my engine stand. Will tackle the changeout tomorrow and get the unit hung on the housing. Probably get the axles squared away too depending on how the day goes. Also I printed out pictures of the rear brakes to help guide me on the assembly.

 

[ckessel]

Working away on the center section today. Got the carrier out, split it apart, swapped out the cross shafts, back together, torqued bolts down. Turns out this non oe carrier uses rh threaded bolts, not lefties. I ordered up a set of bolts, assuming they were lefties like the unit I had in my Challenger. Nope! Going to put a post in the for sale section of the items not needed/used. The bolts, spider gears, non drilled cross shaft etc.

 

[RemCharger]

Marked the case halves? Align the splines on assembly? Soaked the clutches?

 

[ckessel]

Yup, yup and yup.

 

[ckessel]

The diff is done and in the housing. It's been quite a few years since I used my dial indicator unit. I think I bought it in the late 70's. Last time it was used was around 97/98 when I put together a 489 unit for my Challenger. Got the backlash back where it was. My neighbor came over and gave me a hand getting it off my engine stand and onto the trans jack. From there, it's in! Will set the axles in tomorrow, get the clearance set on them, put the oil in, set the brakes on and be done back there. Oh, driveshaft on to.

 

[dodgeboy440]

The diff is done and in the housing. It's been quite a few years since I used my dial indicator unit. I think I bought it in the late 70's. Last time it was used was around 97/98 when I put together a 489 unit for my Challenger. Got the backlash back where it was. My neighbor came over and gave me a hand getting it off my engine stand and onto the trans jack. From there, it's in! Will set the axles in tomorrow, get the clearance set on them, put the oil in, set the brakes on and be done back there. Oh, driveshaft on to.

View attachment 1916318

View attachment 1916319

View attachment 1916320

View attachment 1916321

View attachment 1916322

Nice job !!
Mopar2ya!

 

[ckessel]

Thank you John!

 

[ckessel]

Got the axles in and end play set! Much easier this time as I usually try to do the procedure with the brakes in the way. My FSM says to go for .013-.023 on the endplay. I'm at about .011, but have new bearings etc so I should be fine. Will recheck down the road when I get some miles on. After lunch, going to start loading the brakes on, put oil in and reinstall the driveshaft.

 

[ckessel]

I didn't get as far as I had hoped, but thats ok. The rh brakes took me awhile to get situated. Got them together, then looked at my pictures and realized I left the e-brake strut off. DOH! Took them back apart partially to remedy that. Lh side went much faster. Tomorrow I'll toss the tires/wheels on and get them adjusted. Also put the gear oil and LSD additive in, plus the driveshaft.

 

[ckessel]

The back end of the car is a wrap. Other than flushing and bleeding which I'll do when the front is done. Rear brakes have a preliminary adjustment, oil is in, driveshaft on, lug nuts torqued, rubber head protection removed from the muffler clamps. Brakes are a little tight, but it's all new stuff so the fuzz will wear off and the surfaces will settle in. I measured the height to see if there was a change with the new springs and as a prior photo shows, there is about an inch difference in the free height between old and new springs. So I gained an inch for now till the springs settle in.

 

[ckessel]

Started working on the front end today. Was able to get quite a bit of items shucked off and/or ready for further disassembly. I was working at getting the lower ball joints loose from the arms, then remembered I'm using new arms and joints, so skipped that. Tomorrow I'll back off the bars, then get the arms out. I loosened up the steering coupler from the box, but it didn't rise up enough to disconnect. I'll probably pull the column either all the way out or far enough to work with. After that, I'll get the box and pump out then see whats left so I can swap out the K. If my thinking is correct, I can bring my cherry picker in from the front to grab the engine and hold it in place while I drop the jack and K.

 

[ckessel]

Torsion bars, lower control arms and strut rods are out. The strut bushings are the originals, upper ball joints had been before me but they are the newer ones requiring the washer under the nut. Not sure if lowers are original, same on the other joints. Lower bushings are toast. Torsion bar boots are originals. Took awhile to get the lh bar out, rh was easy. Looks like the lh bar was against the header. After I got it out, I thumped on the tube for when the new one goes in. Old ones are .880's, new ones are 1.06. Looking forward to the change! I need to remove the box and pump, then the core support brace to the K plus the upper control arms. After that I should be clear to swap out the K. Since I was working on the t-bars, I did a new video that will get posted to YouTube later tonight and will be the update I promised many years ago. Once it shows, I'll put that on here as well. Oh, my short block should be ready to pick up by next week. It's not together, I'll do the assembly. Mike is doing the machining etc I can't do. As I earn more dough on my money jobs, I'll get more pieces to put it together. God is great!

 

[ckessel]

Vid

 

[ckessel]

Got some more tasks done today. I pulled the steering column back some to facilitate getting the steering box out. It still was being a pain, so I put two bolts back in it and got it out with the K-frame. I supported the rails about where the front of the doors are with some cribbing after I figured out how much was required once I ran the rolling jack up enough the clear the lock. I stacked some more cribbing under the horizontal beams of the lift so I could run the picker under it and support the engine while I let the rolling jack down with the old K-frame resting on it. Once down I wrestled the box off the K, shoved the old one aside and positioned the "new" one on the jack. I put my alignment bolts into the rail holes which helped position the K. Got it in place then called it a day. Put tools away and did a little cleanup. Tomorrow I'll get the old upper control arms out. I marked the cams so I have a starting point to get the new arms to until alignment. From there, start loading pieces in. Still have to swap the pump but that should be straight forward.

 

[ckessel]

Today's plan was to get the new steering box in. I first ran a tap through the three mount holes since I had the K powdered. Getting it in from the bottom was a no go. So I had a look at the topside and decided if I took the pump out, needed to do that anyway since I have a new one, I could get it in. Took out #1 plug, took off #3 wire and got close. It looked like if I put the tall screw jack under the pan rail, I could get it in place. That worked. I did need to work on #3 header tube some to get some air gap between it and the box. While I was down there, put in the lh mount bolt and tightened it and the rh one up. I swapped out the brackets and pulley from the old pump to the new and put the assembly back in place. As Lares stated when I was inquiring about fit, stock exhaust you're fine but if you have headers, you're on your own.

 

[ckessel]

Today I put the steering coupler in place, installed the roll pin. Column is back in place. Counted out the turns right to left, 3.75, went halfway back so I can load up the under pinnings tomorrow. Pulled the old upper arms off. Bushings were about done like I figured. FF arms are in. I made sure to keep the serrated washers? from both sides of the bushings for my Mopar stash of parts. #1 plug back in, #1 and #3 wires back in place. Started laying out the return line plumbing. Going to put a filter inline plus a cooler. Started brainfarting on the cooler so I stopped for the day.

 

[ckessel]

So far today, having lunch right now, I have the center link in, Pittman arm on and Loctited, idler arm on. Put the strut rods in the lower control arms with the new urethane bushings up front. Greased them while loading pieces on. Put the lower control arms in place, then slid the new bars through. Got some grease in both front and rear bar sockets, re-used the old boots with some grease added into them. Bar adjusters are in place. Will continue adding more parts back on.