1970 Duster AlterKtion, 4 Link, LS/T56/Turbo and Minitub

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70DusterDev said:
Its a dana 60 now underneath there not the 8.75. Thats the issue haha. And no mufflers since its a turbo so thats no issue.
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Ohhh...I missed that part and only looked at the picture above. My bad
 
I finally figured out how to get it out the back. With the offset of my wheel I basically went over the axle and about completely on the outside of the frame rail. I just cant go any wider than the 315s I'm running now which is fine. They're pretty wide. Got the driver side all tacked and in, just need to mirror the passenger side tonight then fully weld everything. I'm laying on my back with the car up on 6x6's so I couldnt really take any good pictures to see anything lol. But this should work pretty well.
 
Got the exhaust done last night. I wish I had taken a picture of the tailpipes lying next to this section. But they are outside the frame in the back and then come up over the axle and to the inside of the car between the lower link and the frame to meet where this pipe 90s out in the back. Got all the hangers on last night too. No vibrations and sounds pretty good. I added the resonator when the car was together before because the 4" down pipe had such a bad drone it gave me a headache. I wish I could run without it, because at idle it sounds so much meaner without the resonator.

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Mind snapping a pic of where it goes over the axle when you get a chance? I am struggling on getting 3" pipes out the back with a mini tub and leaf springs. I know it can be done, and I have an idea, just want to see what you came up with before i start cutting pipes.
 
72Duster440 said:
Mind snapping a pic of where it goes over the axle when you get a chance? I am struggling on getting 3" pipes out the back with a mini tub and leaf springs. I know it can be done, and I have an idea, just want to see what you came up with before i start cutting pipes.
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Yeah! I'm going to bring it up to my buddies this week for an inspection so I'll throw it on his lift and take a picture then. I have band clamps at those 90s so the tail pipes can be removable, then they cross to the outside of the frame since my tire and wheel/mini tube allows all of that to work even with 315s. But I'll post pics when I get them!
 
70DusterDev said:
Yeah! I'm going to bring it up to my buddies this week for an inspection so I'll throw it on his lift and take a picture then. I have band clamps at those 90s so the tail pipes can be removable, then they cross to the outside of the frame since my tire and wheel/mini tube allows all of that to work even with 315s. But I'll post pics when I get them!
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That's the same thing I was thinking of doing. I had tail pipes before but they rattles and got smashed, trying to redo it now. I have bad clamps after the mufflers, plan to come up and over the axle then outboard of the frame rails. It's tight with a minitub and leafs though.
 
Yeah, its tight now. I'm probably 1/4" away from the frame and like 1/2 to 5/8 from the tire. And then I added all the hangers so it cant move. I bought the 12 pack of hangers from bear river that I saw someone else use. They worked great. I'd imagine you can run your exhaust out in almost the same exact spot as I did with the link since the mount is about where the front of the leaf spring mount was. The only thing is my links are inboarded so I cut a section of the frame out and the link buckets are welded in the frame. Are your leafs springs in like that as well?

A2HANGER Exhaust Hanger Southern J Hook 3/8" Arrow Head Rod w/ Rubber Grommet.
 
Ahh yeah! So you have the same amount of room as I do. What size tire are you running? We look to have similar setups! Also, if your diff isn't narrowed, whats your wheel width and backspacing?
 
70DusterDev said:
Ahh yeah! So you have the same amount of room as I do. What size tire are you running? We look to have similar setups! Also, if your diff isn't narrowed, whats your wheel width and backspacing?
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They are 315's. I used to run a 28x13.50 and downsized slightly. My rear end is narrowed, but they are 17x11 with 4.25" of backspacing.

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How much is it narrowed? Mine is stock width but with a 6" bs. Also 17x11 and 315s. If you're narrowed 3.5" the inside of our wheels and tires are in the exact same spots lol
 
I dont't remember what width it is, I think it's 3 or 4 inches, I wanna say 48" and some change, I have it written down somewhere.
 
Agree. The rear needs to come down a bit and match the front better. Close the gap over the rear tire. Duster body styles look great (IMO) just about level, not quite perfectly level but close. Little bit higher in the rear.
 
TT5.9mag said:
Agree. The rear needs to come down a bit and match the front better. Close the gap over the rear tire. Duster body styles look great (IMO) just about level, not quite perfectly level but close. Little bit higher in the rear.
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Agreed! The issue is, with my wheel offset my tires hit the lip of the rear quarter on big bumps. So I went up a little with it. Right now, measuring from the rocker to the ground the rear is like 1/2 higher than the front. And I don't wanna change the offset because the stance looks fantastic. So if I come back down too much, I'll have to add bump stops or something.
 
Running awesome! It definitely still builds boost, so the air filter setup didn't screw it up completely like the shitty green one did. I'll be curious to see how much its different on the dyno with the filter on. I just want to go do a burnout, but I'm trying to get 100 miles on the car with the new rear end. I've done some decent pulls with it already though.

I may also raise the front up just a tad so the cars level but with the rear clearance.
 
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Got a clutch safety switch in the car last night as the final piece to pass tech at the strip. Also fixed my weird no key start when hot issue when I rewired everything basically bypassing the factory wiring. It would start with a trusty screwdriver laying under the car every time haha, so I know it wasn't the starter. Usually by the time I'd drive to work it wouldn't restart with the key, but it did this morning. Going to take a longer drive this afternoon and see if it does it again or its truly fixed!
 
The car made it on its first longer voyage! About 40 minutes on the interstate each way to a steakhouse. Goes down the highway awesome. With 6th gear and the 4.10s I'm at 2700rpm at 80. So I may change the rear gears out for 3.55s or 3.73s. 3.55s I'll be at 2341 at 80 and 3.73s I'll be at 2460. Though I don't know how much interstate driving I'll be doing besides if I make it to the power tour etc. I definitely need to either raise the front or lower the rear a little to make the car a little more level as well.

Also, finally got to take my dad out in it Saturday night. He was almost speechless with how hard the car pulls. Pretty cool!

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Very cool. Your car might actually accelerate harder with 3:55s also. Turbos like load.
 
70DusterDev said:
I had bought regular old school subframe connectors for the car, but when reading an article about the RMS suspension and upgrades I found a set of weld in subframe connectors from USCarTools. It welds all along the bottom of the car and basically actually adds a full frame to the car. It seemed MUCH stronger than the style that just welds to the front subrame and the rear frame. So I returned the ones from summit and bought the USCarTool connectors as well as their minitub kit since I was placing the order. Man I will say with the floors as thin as they are it took me a little over 4 hours to weld the subframe connectors in. And I only have 1 terrible picture. I'll take more when I'm further along.

Step 5: Weld in subframe connectors.
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The next step I was dreading because I knew it would be a lot of work. And this is about where I am now. The minitub kit was a PAIN. And took about 20 hours or so being I've never done one before. I need to take more pictures of the right side completed. Once its all cleaned up, flapwheeled and seam sealed I'll also take more pics.

Step 6: Minitub kit.
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Agreed, mini tub was a pain. Nice job!
 
Been driving the car every day I can pending rain to try to get some miles on it before the 3 hour trip next weekend to the beach! Getting it aligned next Friday. Need to drop the tank still to fix the damn filler neck grommet that leaks when the tank is full, lengthen my clutch rod a little bit and raise the front about an inch before it gets aligned.

Also working on deciding between 3.55s and 3.73s for the next rear gear in the car. I'm leaning towards a 3.73. Sure is nice to be able to take it out and just drive it or even make some hard pulls on the way to dinner and then just park it in the garage until next time though!

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