You have to be INSANE to have long-tube headers on a big-block A-body Mopar!
i worked on the $#%! Cuda today - all day after i dropped by NAPA and purchased a very heavy duty Pitman Arm puller ($37.00). i did get a LOT of "tearing apart" done today.
the NAPA puller worked great taking the pitman arm off in about 5 minutes after numerous 1 lb. hammer blows. after that i:
unbolted the steering box so it would move around.
"unloaded" the driver side torsion bar and beat it with a pair of vise-grips attached and the "big hammer" till it slid back about 24" out of the way.
unbolted the clutch Z-bar attachment from the bell housing and let the Z-bar drop loose.
removed the driver's side valve cover and two remaining plugs.
removed one of the starter bolts.
the steering shaft is still in the way ever with the steering box unbolted so tomorrow i'm going to put the steering wheel and slide the steering shaft up out of the steering box connector. once that is done. i believe the header will either drop down on the ground or go back up through the top of the engine.
over the years, i've collected probably $10k or more of tools and have about every wrench, socket and special tool you can think of the "old cars" often need. i now have a lot of them spread out on the floor under the car. naturally, all the bolts on a 69 Barracuda are good old "American" sizes but i did notice that the bolts for the OEM steering box are not "hex head" but are something like "star" head bolts. fortunately, i have both hex sockets and the "multi-facet" sockets (12 point sockets?). i had to use the muti-facet sockets on the special star bolts on the steering box. all the other fasteners were standard U.S. bolts and nuts.
Summit sent me an email saying my starter and master cylinder will be delivered tomorrow so maybe i'll be installing my new starter tomorrow. i did try to get the old starter working before i started this project but had planned on putting on a mini-starter at some point so this lousy job was going to have to happen at some point. i am also going to put a Borgeson mini power steering box on the car before i reassemble all the stuff i've taken apart. the smaller borgeson box along with the mini starter should make this job a lot easier if i ever have to go through this nightmare again. i bought this car off of Ebay with just a few pictures. spending all this time under the car i've discovered that the previous owner put a new driveshaft and all new universal joints on the car, changed some of the original brake lines, installed new disc pads and two new rotors on the original Kelsey Hays calibers. the 4 speed looks to be original to the car and the Hurst shifter is in very nice shape and is still very tight. the car does have some surface rust underneath but it isn't too bad. here are some new pics...
i worked on the $#%! Cuda today - all day after i dropped by NAPA and purchased a very heavy duty Pitman Arm puller ($37.00). i did get a LOT of "tearing apart" done today.
the NAPA puller worked great taking the pitman arm off in about 5 minutes after numerous 1 lb. hammer blows. after that i:
unbolted the steering box so it would move around.
"unloaded" the driver side torsion bar and beat it with a pair of vise-grips attached and the "big hammer" till it slid back about 24" out of the way.
unbolted the clutch Z-bar attachment from the bell housing and let the Z-bar drop loose.
removed the driver's side valve cover and two remaining plugs.
removed one of the starter bolts.
the steering shaft is still in the way ever with the steering box unbolted so tomorrow i'm going to put the steering wheel and slide the steering shaft up out of the steering box connector. once that is done. i believe the header will either drop down on the ground or go back up through the top of the engine.
over the years, i've collected probably $10k or more of tools and have about every wrench, socket and special tool you can think of the "old cars" often need. i now have a lot of them spread out on the floor under the car. naturally, all the bolts on a 69 Barracuda are good old "American" sizes but i did notice that the bolts for the OEM steering box are not "hex head" but are something like "star" head bolts. fortunately, i have both hex sockets and the "multi-facet" sockets (12 point sockets?). i had to use the muti-facet sockets on the special star bolts on the steering box. all the other fasteners were standard U.S. bolts and nuts.
Summit sent me an email saying my starter and master cylinder will be delivered tomorrow so maybe i'll be installing my new starter tomorrow. i did try to get the old starter working before i started this project but had planned on putting on a mini-starter at some point so this lousy job was going to have to happen at some point. i am also going to put a Borgeson mini power steering box on the car before i reassemble all the stuff i've taken apart. the smaller borgeson box along with the mini starter should make this job a lot easier if i ever have to go through this nightmare again. i bought this car off of Ebay with just a few pictures. spending all this time under the car i've discovered that the previous owner put a new driveshaft and all new universal joints on the car, changed some of the original brake lines, installed new disc pads and two new rotors on the original Kelsey Hays calibers. the 4 speed looks to be original to the car and the Hurst shifter is in very nice shape and is still very tight. the car does have some surface rust underneath but it isn't too bad. here are some new pics...