Updating the Super Street Mopar

[ckessel]

Yesterday, I made a drive to Modesto and hooked up with Randy, 1wildrt, to pick up a steering column he tracked down with one of his E-body sources. Today I pulled the Unisteer rack unit out. New Borgeson from BAC showed up yesterday along with the front sway bar. Drained the Hydraboost lines going from it to the radiator and main unit. After that I pulled the radiator out. Took it to Industrial Radiator in Santa Maria to get the leak in the tank taken care of. Doug down there clued me in on issues he's seen quite often on aluminum radiators that are constructed like the Be Cool unit I took out. This is of concern to me too as I have one of their units for my 65. Anyway, on the top and bottom of these crossflow units, they have a cap to protect the core and tie it all together at the tank/header area. The problem is that with the thermal expansion/contraction, the radiator can't expand. It needs expansion joints for the same reason you come across in concrete, block walls and other stuff. Since it's tied together and can't move freely, the upper and lower tubes[ first ones to have problems with this] end up bending, then leaking where bent. He shined his light on the bad areas in question and it was enlightening. So his unit can be patched, but no guarantee on how long it last. Gotta replace the unit. He put this in 5 years ago, paid $1k plus labor to install, and hasn't driven it much due to some of the issues he brought it to me for. Maybe has 500 miles on it? Tomorrow I'll see if I can put a brass/copper unit in and see what the cost will be for all the needed pieces. Radiator, shroud, hoses, fan, clutch etc. I took pictures of my new, unused unit so you all could see what I'm talking about. On the way back from seeing Doug, I tossed around different possibilities to eliminate this problem from happening to me down the road. I think what can work is to cut 2-3 vertical straps per side, weld them to the top and bottom plates to tie the plates and core together, then cut the plates away from the tanks which will enable the radiator to expand/contract without binding up and tweaking the core tubes. My finger is pointing where the plates are currently welded to my unit on the tank. Another thing I ran into which has no selection on the radiator company, is that a PO put green Loctite on the fan shroud mount bolts. WTF! Had to cut the nuts on two with the cutoff wheel.

 

[ckessel]

Today I started dropping front suspension components out. For anyone wanting to drop torsion bars out easily, check out my vids on Youtube. The left one zipped right out. No muss, no fuss. Lower arm bushing is toast. Uppers don't look too sporty. I went to mock up the QA1 arms that Peter sent and it looks like QA1 blundered and sent A-Body units Way too narrow. No biggie, I have time to wait while other areas get worked on. Craigs box of goodies showed up today. Great guy to deal with. @mobileparts is the man! Waiting to hear back from the radiator gent about a brass/copper unit. So far it looks like I might be able to re-use the fan/shroud unit from the Be Cool radiator on a oe style. News as it happens on that. Also, it looks like SSBC provided the wrong style of spindle nut. Shades of the Rat Rod with the Stang 2 stuff.

 

[Kern Dog]

Is this the wagon?

Here is an upper control arm from my 72 Duster.....

 

[ckessel]

No, this is on the 72 Challenger that I'm working on. Peter is on it. I have a few things to do that will keep me occupied till the correct arms show up. The QA's are 9.5" or so on the outside, the arm from the E measures 11.25".

 

[Kern Dog]

Earlier this year, Rich and I were working with some PST UCAs for his Dart. The A body UCA mounts are approximately 9 3/8" apart overall. You can see that in the picture above.
We had to mill down the spacers on the ends to get them to fit, then one side was jigged and welded so wrong, I could not get any positive caster out of it.

 

[ckessel]

When the hopefully correct ones show, I'll check fit again. When I head down to go clock in on the car, going to check the t-bars for proper length too. Springs are supposed to be tomorrow and will hit those with the tape measure too.

 

[ckessel]

Today I dropped out the rh side of the suspension. The torsion bar was being difficult to slide back. Loosend up the nut on the arm shaft a little more, no go. The nut actually just spun. WTF! I took the nuts off the strut rod, then pushed/pulled the arm assembly out. Turns out the lower bushing was mostly gone and the shaft was just there for the ride. The end of the shaft is mushroomed over some. K-frame sleeves look fine on both sides, thankfully. I'll remove that sleeve and file down the shroom tomorrow before I give the pieces to my neighbor so he can run them through the press at his work.

 

[ckessel]

Yesterday I spent some time getting assemblies ready to install. Put the tie rod/sleeve units together. Pulled the old torsion bars out. The sockets were dry and boots toast. Good thing I have new bars and boots.The new bars and boots are on/in, but the bars are hanging back for now. Pulled the wrapping off the springs. They have urethane front bushings so I ordered a set of urethane shackle bushings from Mancini earlier. Removed the front sway bar. Tried to put the new Hellwig unit, supplied by BAC, in but I had to raise the front off the cribbing to slip it in which meant I had to put the rear wheels on as the jack was occupied under the diff.

 

[ckessel]

Today I had a setback on the control arms. Looks like I finally got tagged by Moog's poor qc. The shafts slide right into the bushings with no effort. This is a manufacture screwup and not the supplier. Going to try a pair from the store I used to work at and see if those fly. If not, I got a tip on another manufacture to check out. Didn't have this problem on the wagon when I did the work on it last month. So...I did get the front sway bar in and ready for the control arms. Borgeson box is in. I had to run a tap through the three mount holes in the frame as the threads were a little dorked up. Hosed them out with brake clean, put some Loctite on the bolts and cinched them down.

 

[Kern Dog]

Today I had a setback on the control arms. Looks like I finally got tagged by Moog's poor qc. The shafts slide right into the bushings with no effort. This is a manufacture screwup and not the supplier.

I saw this chart posted at FABO:

It seems that you stumbled into a problem that has been known for years.
It was news to me too.
Oh, the urethane front bushing in those springs will certainly give a harsher ride!

 

[ckessel]

I've heard about it for awhile now. My turn in the barrel.

 

[Kern Dog]

As is the case with me, I've stumbled through life unaware of problems that might lie ahead, somehow averting danger, all the while the Guardian Angel has cleared the path for me.
I've never encountered this issue but am at least aware of it now.

 

[ckessel]

For the next time I do front end stuff, I'm having my neighbor take apart one of the old arms from the wagon. That way I'll have a go/no go gauge of sorts. Use the shaft and the inner recess on the bar socket. Might even hunt down a bent arm so I can cut the socket/adjuster unit out to use.

 

[ckessel]

The immediate bushing issue is fixed. The store I used to work at ordered up a pair of K791's for me. Checked them yesterday with an empty arm and bare shaft, good to go. Should have them back later today from my neighbor. Amazon sent the wrong strut rod to the customers house. They were mis tagged by the vendor. Ford units tagged as Mopar. Those are on the way. I put the BAC coupler on the "new" column yesterday, will clean it then spray some SEM Trim Black on it when it's time. Need to swap the lock cylinder and t/s switch on it still. Got the center link in, so thats done. While I was talking to the car owner earlier, the correct QA1 arms showed up. Got the lh one in. We ordered up a new brass/copper radiator from US Radiator. 3 row, high efficiency core. Thats about a month out.

 

[ckessel]

Since there's been a discussion on shock length when in droop, I had a look at the lh arm on the Challenger to see how far away it was before hitting the bumper as thats part of the equation. I found that the arm, on the rear tube, was hitting the rail. So...out came the airsaw. I trimmed away one section, outside of the spot weld, to get some clearance. Good to go there. Put the rh arm in and same issue. Trimmed off that piece. The old upper arm had some beat up bushings. Good thing they're getting changed. On the new QA1 arms, I removed the supplied zerks and put some in with 45's. Make it easier later to get the gun on. New bushings are greased up.

 

[ckessel]

I got the lh side squared away today. Brakes loaded on. Shock in its general area. With the suspension at full droop and resting on the upper bumper, it looks like about 3/4" gap till the grommet hits the apron. I had to whittle the lower bump stop bracket welded to the rail as the shock hit it since the Bilsteins have a plumper body. Good to go there now. I had to loosen the -3 line on the caliper and rotate it around to clear the shock body, but it's good now. Went to the rh side, got those pieces loaded in. It seems like the Sway Away bars may have a little larger hex on the ends as they were tighter getting in this car than the FF bars I put in my wagon. Could just be an angle of the dangle thing. I didn't have to clearance the lower bump stop bracket for the shock on this side. Maybe a difference in placement when the car was made? Who knows. I did grind a little on the rail flange for the back tube of the QA1 arm to clear. There is one spot on the welded upper control arm pivot mounts, on the rear, that was hitting the arm. Massaged that too. Got the spindle loaded up. Put the rotor on. While I'm thinking of it, the incorrect spindle bearing adjustment nuts were on this like the rat rod had. Correct stuff on now. Got the caliper on and tightened up. Rotated the assembly right then left full lock and saw that the 90* -3 hose end is hitting the shock. Loosened it up and changed its orientation like I did on the other side, but still hitting. I can't rotate the Banjo fitting very much as it hits the caliper. It looks like it may be missing one crush washer under it. I have some and will try that tomorrow to see if I get clearance. I will also look at swapping places on the hose. Put the 90 on the frame and the straight on the caliper.
I hope you all enjoy the sideways pictures due to the forums software update.

 

[ckessel]

I had a stare session with the brake hose and caliper on the car. I figured my best solution was to remove the caliper and whittle down the area under the banjo fitting. It seems like the fitting pocket was cut too far into the caliper. Got that area trimmed down which allowed the banjo to rotate some more and give me room for the hose end fitting without binding. Put the caliper back on, rotated it some until I had room around the shock. Good there now. Put the tie rod assemblies in. Got them adjusted so the toe is close on the rotors and with the steering box travel centered. I did this a few times, rotating the box and measuring between one zerk fitting and the oil pan. Got the lock travel on right and left measured, measured from the pan to the zerk on left so I could add that to half of the travel measurement to give me my zero for having the box centered. Quite a bit more force was needed on the long ratchet once I got the rod assemblies in and had them plus the ball joints to rotate. I'm experimenting on the sway bar link units with different, shorter, sleeves than what was supplied. The supplied ones are too long making the bar hang low. I'll get it on the tires, which will have my greased steel plates under them to help the suspension settle. I did an initial 4.5 turns on the torsion bar adjusters for now. Enjoy the sideways pictures. Gravitational pull is still affecting me here on the left coast. Anyone else?

 

[ckessel]

I've been working on the "new" column for the 72. Installed the hybrid coupler from BAC, cleaned it up, wiped it down with wax and grease remover, hit it with scotchbrite, feathered out the visible chips, hit those areas with some 320, wiped it down again, shot it with some SEM Trim Black for the first coat. That stuff was a $30 waste of money. It was no different than using a can of Krylon. ? You say? Yeah, very little pigment in the paint. Didn't cover squat! Good thing I had some Rust Oleum. It covered in the first coat. Not transparent. Anyway...got the old one out today after disconnecting wires etc. The car had several other wires spliced in, so I cut those one at a time, with a pigtail sticking out of the connectors for id and put some tape on the hot sides for just in case. The car has a master cutoff switch but I wanted to be sure. Tomorrow I'll start loading in the "new" column. BTW, how do you gents like the old shaft?