1972 Duster Project - Back From The Pasture

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At least it is getting a second chance.
 
Tooljunkie said:
Looking at the engine ,looks like a runner. Still has the beloved wire hose clamps. Never cared for those.
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Yea, after careful inspection of the bottom end this weekend, I have no fears that it will run. I hate those F...ng clamps too. All of them are going in the trash.

After sitting for 24 years there was no hard sludge in the bottom of the pan. We were amazed. Lemon Jr. really enjoyed cleaning up the pan. The crap was about a 1/4" thick on the outside. Character building experience. :thumbsup:. We got the bottom end all buttoned up today. On to the cooling system next.
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Flushed the cooling system and primed the oil pressure with real oil in it this weekend. The heater core is shot, no surprise there.
Good oil pressure to the top end. All systems go at this point.
 
John_Lemon said:
Yea, after careful inspection of the bottom end this weekend, I have no fears that it will run. I hate those F...ng clamps too. All of them are going in the trash.

After sitting for 24 years there was no hard sludge in the bottom of the pan. We were amazed. Lemon Jr. really enjoyed cleaning up the pan. The crap was about a 1/4" thick on the outside. Character building experience. :thumbsup:. We got the bottom end all buttoned up today. On to the cooling system next.
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Actually the wire clamps will seal better than worm clamps, they are easy to use if you have the correct tool.
If using regular pliers, good luck.
 
We made a little progress today. Business travel had me distracted for a little bit.
We tore into the front of the engine a couple of weeks ago expecting to have it back together that weekend. Got to the timing chain and were miffed at how loose it was. The engineer that came up with the nylon design should be hung if he hasn't already.

We put a new Edelbrock set on, new water pump, fuel pump, stat, etc. and touched things up. Lemon Jr. is a parts cleaning maniac.
On to dropping the fuel tank and going through the fuel system tomorrow.
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Nice. My first Mopar was a 72 Duster. Hang on to that charcoal canister - one year only, 4 connector, the restoration guys might want it if you don't keep it.
 
Demonic said:
Nice. My first Mopar was a 72 Duster. Hang on to that charcoal canister - one year only, 4 connector, the restoration guys might want it if you don't keep it.
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Stripped the canister today but definitely will keep it on the shelf. Clutters up the the engine compartment IMHO. We'll keep the vent line and fabricate a nice, small filtered solution for it.

Pulled the fuel tank today and flushed the fuel lines with carb cleaner about 5 times. The first blast yielded some pretty nasty $hit. It had been soaking for about a week. Pretty clear now.

Ordering a new fuel tank and associated parts and radiator this week. Lemon Junior wanted to stick to an OEM tank and sending unit to save a few bucks but I told him I will spring for the upgrade to all stainless. He'll thank me when he's 40 and want's to do a full blown restoration.

We'll push to fire this thing before Thanksgiving.
 
Productive weekend. Lemon JR and I are getting a little tired of the hard core time spent in front of the parts washer.:rolleyes:
Providing the new gas tank comes in this week we should be able to test fire next weekend. We have no worries this thing will fire right up as it has come apart and gone back together without any battles. Even the old fuel tank came out in about 10 minutes. The only struggle was one of the bolts on the battery tray that we had to destroy which is to be expected.

We replaced the points with a Pertronix Ignitor 1 and we're having a little trouble trouble trying to figure out which side of the ballast we need to tie the red/+ wire to from the ignitor. The diagram provided with the kit is below but a little vague. Do we tie into the side with brown wires or the blue wires on the ballast? We have researched several threads on this site but only confused ourselves further. Any help from anyone watching this thread will be greatly appreciated if not, we'll start a new thread to figure it out.
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I would do 12 volt ,key on ...IF the ignition switch, is good. I did GM training ,old school .Was taught every volt into primary ignition (going into the coil..) can deliver an extra 5,000 coming our of the secondary side. Just, what I was taught....others will chime in.
 
The reason that the top end did not get oil is because there are 2 passages that feed the rocker arms. These engines do not feed oil through the pushrods like GM engines, they oil through small passages in the cam journal. The cam has to be at a specific position for oil to shoot in, then it is forced through a passage in the block and head for each side. TO get oil to the top, the engine has to be slowly rotated while being primed. Once the "timed" passages line up, a copious amount of oil is forced through almost as a pulse. This was engineered to deliver the proper amount of oil to the top end based on demand. The crank gets the majority of the oil as it should. The cam lobes are merely splash lubricated from oil being thrown off of the spinning crank.
 
Kern Dog said:
The reason that the top end did not get oil is because there are 2 passages that feed the rocker arms. These engines do not feed oil through the pushrods like GM engines, they oil through small passages in the cam journal. The cam has to be at a specific position for oil to shoot in, then it is forced through a passage in the block and head for each side. TO get oil to the top, the engine has to be slowly rotated while being primed. Once the "timed" passages line up, a copious amount of oil is forced through almost as a pulse. This was engineered to deliver the proper amount of oil to the top end based on demand. The crank gets the majority of the oil as it should. The cam lobes are merely splash lubricated from oil being thrown off of the spinning crank.
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Kern Dog ,nice to see you. That is so accurate. Why even I slather roller cams in that dark grey/ black Stalube molybdenum lube.
I don't care what people say,it works for me.
 
Kern Dog said:
The reason that the top end did not get oil is because there are 2 passages that feed the rocker arms. These engines do not feed oil through the pushrods like GM engines, they oil through small passages in the cam journal. The cam has to be at a specific position for oil to shoot in, then it is forced through a passage in the block and head for each side. TO get oil to the top, the engine has to be slowly rotated while being primed. Once the "timed" passages line up, a copious amount of oil is forced through almost as a pulse. This was engineered to deliver the proper amount of oil to the top end based on demand. The crank gets the majority of the oil as it should. The cam lobes are merely splash lubricated from oil being thrown off of the spinning crank.
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Are the rocker shafts , mounted properly? I do Magnums now... (I don't remember..) ,there is a notch in the factory hydraulic rocker shafts that must be followed.
 
Kern Dog said:
The reason that the top end did not get oil is because there are 2 passages that feed the rocker arms. These engines do not feed oil through the pushrods like GM engines, they oil through small passages in the cam journal. The cam has to be at a specific position for oil to shoot in, then it is forced through a passage in the block and head for each side. TO get oil to the top, the engine has to be slowly rotated while being primed. Once the "timed" passages line up, a copious amount of oil is forced through almost as a pulse. This was engineered to deliver the proper amount of oil to the top end based on demand. The crank gets the majority of the oil as it should. The cam lobes are merely splash lubricated from oil being thrown off of the spinning crank.
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Hey Kern, good to see you here from FBBO. Runner 68 here.
What the hell are you talking about as it concerns this thread?
 
Didn't I read the following correctly...?
"We pulled the distributor and tried to prime the oil pump with a drill, got a little pressure but it never made it up to the valve train. Rolled it over a little by hand to get the journals opened up and tried to prime again....nothing to the top.

It rolled over very smooth from the start, nothing stuck at all, which surprised us but good news none the less. I am however curious why I didn't get pressure to the top end.

My thoughts are 1. The Marvel is too thin to pressurize up top. 2. The pickup tube is gunked up and can't pick up."

This pertains to what I wrote about the "timed" oil passages that direct the oil to the top end.
 
Kern Dog said:
Didn't I read the following correctly...?
"We pulled the distributor and tried to prime the oil pump with a drill, got a little pressure but it never made it up to the valve train. Rolled it over a little by hand to get the journals opened up and tried to prime again....nothing to the top.

It rolled over very smooth from the start, nothing stuck at all, which surprised us but good news none the less. I am however curious why I didn't get pressure to the top end.

My thoughts are 1. The Marvel is too thin to pressurize up top. 2. The pickup tube is gunked up and can't pick up."

This pertains to what I wrote about the "timed" oil passages that direct the oil to the top end.
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Oh, I see, but if you followed the whole thread you'll see around post 29 this issue was overcome by doing exactly what you state. Perplexed by my Pertronix question at this point. Any thoughts?
 
I had one hooked up on a C-body. The red wire ran to the blue wires on the ballast resistor, and one of those blue wires goes to the IGN side of the voltage regulator. This was on there for about ten years with no trouble at all. I took it out and replaced with points because I had improperly diagnosed a problem. I will probably put the Pertronix back on sometime. Hope this helps.

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4spdcuda66 said:
I had one hooked up on a C-body. The red wire ran to the blue wires on the ballast resistor, and one of those blue wires goes to the IGN side of the voltage regulator. This was on there for about ten years with no trouble at all. I took it out and replaced with points because I had improperly diagnosed a problem. I will probably put the Pertronix back on sometime. Hope this helps.

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It sure does 4spd, I'll just tie all three into one spade on the blue side. That's what I sort of figured but thanks for the confirmation.
 
I called the Pertronix tech support and while as not as much fun to chat with as you gents, I have a little more info I'll post in case someone else runs into this same issue down the road. I failed to mention on here that I also installed their Flame Thrower coil. With that coil its a simple bypass. Black Pertronix wire to negative on the coil and red to positive. It's an internally resistant coil. I just leave the original brown wire that went to the positive side of the coil off, wrap it and hide it.
 
For those of you who care, sorry for going dark for a while. We have been ready for the initial fire for the past week but have been waiting on a back ordered fuel tank. I should have paid the extra $30 and ordered it directly from AMD for the same damn tank. We would have been able to test fire over this weekend had I done that. This project is mostly:lol: on Lemon Jr's nickle so we're trying to save where we can. He has more time than money.

The tank finally arrived this past Saturday. The new sending unit is installed and the tank ready to go in. We didn't have time to install it this weekend as we had a 300 mile round trip expedition today to pick up a very nice left fender for the car which was needed. Worth the drive for a very good piece of body metal for $100. This guy is parting out 3 Dusters. Let me know if you want his contact info if you're looking for anything. Tons of parts, A and B.

Test fire this weekend for sure.

On a side note, Lemon Junior and I discussed wheel and tire size options during the drive. We have been thinking 15 x 8 all the way around then started thinking 15 x 10 rear, 15 X 8 front. We half @ssed mocked up 15 X 10s on the rear from my Bird (small vs large bolt pattern) and after some research, I think it would be hard to stuff a tire/rim that size under an A body without some surgery. Spring relocate, mini tubes, etc. Correct me if I'm wrong.

The bigger question now is will a 15 X 8 up front even have any rubbing issues.

Any input is appreciated as always.
 
Glad to see other young guys keeping theses cars on the road. My 72 duster was my first car. I went with 15 x 8s on the rear with 3.75 inch back spacing and trans dapt bolt pattern adapters. 275/60/15s. Backspacing is the killer with the spring pack being so close but these fit great. Although I do have to run air shocks cause my springs are shot. On the front 14 x 7s and no rubbing anywhere. Keep up the good work.
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Thanks Mike, nice looking Duster. I was always partial to that color. The black hood on top of it really makes it. The plan is to do Jr's very similar but in blue.
We would still like to put 15s all the way around if possible. Perhaps a 15x7 will still work. I'm too used to the B Bodies where they are a little more forgiving. I'm finding that the A Bodies are a little more particular when it comes to tire and wheel combos.
JR is insistent on Rallys and the only 15 x 8s I can find have a 4-5/8 back set. We have the 8 3/4 SBP original diff in it. How close to the rear springs are you with that set up?
 
I have 15x8 Cragers with 4-1/4" BS and 3/8" to the springs from a 275/60-15. Pretty close.
 
Thank you, it is one of my favorite colors but I do have a soft spot for B5 and B7 blue. Maybe someone can chime in as I'm off in college and sadly my car is back home. But if I recall correctly it was pretty tight and the adapters add half an inch, however, mancini (and a few others I'm sure) make spring relocation kits that move the springs inward providing more room. Good luck and keep on truckin'
 
Good weekend. Test fired it and it lives. We even had a chance to run to Wyoming to pick up a few parts from a guy parting out a 70 and a 73. Too bad we can't direct upload the video of it here. WTF? It's not worth the brain damage of going through a 3rd party. It sounded pretty good. Wish we could have shared it.
Now on to the interior.
 
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