72 Duster Resurrection

moparmat2000 said
Underneath, yep normal 40 years of slime.

Upgrade to the big ball joint because you have the arms, and they are a little stronger, but also because the cost for the ball joints is the same BBJ or SBJ , if you go SBJ then you got to spend $45 for adaptor sleeves. After the cost of the sleeves is figured in, if you sell the BBJ arms you might make $50 on em if they are worth $100, prob not worth it. I sold a set of SBJ arms for $30, and kept the BBJ arms for my use.

I think the sleeves are for guys that dont have the BBJ arms but have the brakes. Or you could use the sleeves, and SBJ arms, and sell the BBJ arms. I dunno what the going price is for those lately.

Rear axle, measure the bolt circle. Somebody else put wheels and a grant gt steering wheel on it. Its a possibility the rear ends been changed out. If its got a 3" axle tube, and the BBP axles its prob an 8.25" rear. Thats a good one. You need to keep it. The 8.25" or 8&1/4" as some call it can handle V8 power well up to 400hp after that its a toss up.

The good thing about the 8.25" is that rear end gears and a sure grip locker (positrac)out of jeep grand cherokees, and dodge dakotas fit it.

Check the tube diameter, as you can still have the BBP axle setup in the weaker 7.25" rear end. I had a 74 dart parts car that had a 7.25, and had BBP axles under it. When it comes to Ma Mopar anything was possible lol.

Based on all that I think the right choice is to put the BBJ arms on. I want to make the best front end I can based on the parts I have and sell the leftovers.

So about the rear end, I dont have a set of calipers, shamefully, so I wrapped a piece of wire around the tube, then measured its length and got the diameter. My very rough tube diameter measurement is 2.6" in diameter. So is it just a 3" and my measurement was very rough or was there a two point something inch version?

I also have a pic of the diff:

And the tube:

The rear bolt pattern is this big:

So the back wheels are the 4" small bolt pattern right?

moparmat2000 said
That rust is nothing. I mean its got to be taken care of eventually or it will get worse, however its nothing compared to what some guys on this site deal with.

Before you dissassemble the suspension on the front, you will have to drop the tension on the torsion bars first.

Theres a few other things you need to do in regards to the lower control arms on dissassembly to make your life easier getting it apart, and on reassembly so the lower arms dont rip the bushings first time the suspension deflects up and down.

I will send you a PM

Good to hear about the rust, it looks minimal to me too, just wanted another set of eyes on it. I plan on doing body/paint myself eventually...

I have heard about the torsion bar thing, I will read more into it and contact you if I need more advise, thanks.

moparmat2000 said
Set jackstands under framerails where they go from angled to flat under front floorpans. Not under rocker panels, the cars weight will damage them.

trapster said
I would not get under the car with the jack and stands sitting on dirt. And I would also put the stands on the frame of the car. You don't want anything that can move or shift for any reason holding up the car.

moparmat2000 said
If you cant jack it up on pavement, i have seen guys use a wide piece of 3/4 plywood under the jack so spreads the load and it doesnt dig into the dirt. Under the jack stands you can put some 24x24 concrete pave blocks. You can get them at lowes or home depot pretty cheap in their outdoors area.

I would love to have a proper shop, If someone wants to sneak into my yard and build one I would take it! But unfortunately dirt is what I got.

I agree, I need to get some paving stones or similar. I have the jackstands on thick peices of solid wood boards so they dont sink, but its not ideal.

Also, so to be safe and have access to the from suspension, are you guys saying I should put the jack stands where my actual jack is in this pic?