69 Dart 340 Swinger Street/Road Race build

[black954]

Well, what I thought would be a pretty straightforward job turned into a few hours and breaking out the torch. I removed the steering linkage pretty easily, but when I went to remove the steering shaft from the steering box things took a big turn. The steering coupler was seized onto the splined input shaft of the gear box so I had to choice but to heat and beat the piece of **** off lol. Then the K member came out without any issues.
Tomorrow I will sandblast the K member and a few other parts so that I can begin plating the K member and get it painted. I also ordered my Viper brake kit from DoctorDiff with spindles and new Mopar Viper calipers. I’m hoping to buy the steering and torsion bars tomorrow. Still crossing my fingers I can get all these deliveries before the shippers get shut down from all this Virus stuff.
I almost forgot. I drove 2hrs round trip to look at a 127,000 mile 5.9 Magnum engine and it turned out to be a 5.2L, so I came home empty handed.

 

[abdywgn]

Looks good! First time I removed the coupler from the box I used a pickle fork for ball joints(might have been tie rods). The drift pin was the pain to remove till a friend sold me the punch that has the half ball end. Polished it a bit on the sides and it more or less popped out. Looking forward to more progress.

 

[black954]

I wish it would have came off that easy! I used 2 hardened steel wedges and a BFH to try and wedge it off the shaft with no luck, not to mention my 36” Snap-On pry bar I tried first.

 

[black954]

First big order came in today. I was able to get the rear Hotchkis/Fox shocks on. I think I will have to fabricate a new upper shock mount bracket to move the upper mounts in 3 1/2” per side to match the leaf springs moved inwards. I took some clearance shots of the rear tires vs the fenders. About 3/8” on the outside and 1” on the inside. I also found a brand NOS Mopar idler arm in the trunk, so one last steering part to buy.

 

[black954]

Got most of the engine bay stripped down this afternoon. I’m finally running into issues with seized parts. The coupler on the end of the steering shaft is stuck on and I cant get the pushrod out of the master. So I’ll pull the steering column and brake rod off the pedal tomorrow and remove them on the bench.

 

[halfafish]

I found PB Blaster or Kroil to be very helpful getting stuff loose. Multiple applications, allowed to soak in for a day or two usually works.

 

[black954]

I’m a Kroil fan myself. I soaked them both and called it a night. Hopefully tomorrow they come apart.

 

[halfafish]

And of course, there's always the hot wrench...

 

[black954]

Well if they don’t come apart today, I’ll be breaking it back out!

 

[black954]

2 1/2 hours of sand blasting later, I got the K member cleaned up. I’ll start bracing it and rewelding all the factory welds next

 

[abdywgn]

looks good! how big is your cabinet?

 

[black954]

looks good! how big is your cabinet?

I don’t have a cabinet. I have a Speedaire siphon feed portable sand blaster that I use. It wastes blasting media, but I went through 50lbs of black beauty to do the K member and it was only $7 worth of sand so I don’t sweat it.

 

[black954]

And of course, there's always the hot wrench...

Success! The master cylinder piston came free from the push rod after 2 days of soaking with penetrating oil. Tomorrow I will try to get the steering shaft adapter off the end of the steering shaft.

 

[black954]

I got the K member all re-welded and gusseted today. Kind of like what I read, the factory welds are horrible which makes it difficult to get clean enough to weld over. I used both TIG and MIG. MIG to go over all the original welds and TIG to weld up the factory spot welded seams and to weld in all the 4130 chrome moly sheet reinforcements.

 

[abdywgn]

Nice work!

 

[black954]

Thank you. It was a pain welding over the absolute horrible factory welds. Probably some of my worst MIG welds in a long time. I was pretty happy with how the reinforcement plates turned out. I believe the steering box mount and Idler arm mount are about as stout as can be lol. I also trimmed about 5/8” off the “U” part for more clearance for the road race oil pan.

 

[abdywgn]

I didn't notice the reduction in the lip. Could the top and bottom been clamped together, spots where the lip was ground out completely, those spots welded and so on so the whole inside lip was gone?

 

[black954]

I didn't notice the reduction in the lip. Could the top and bottom been clamped together, spots where the lip was ground out completely, those spots welded and so on so the whole inside lip was gone?

I do not believe you could cut the entire lip out and clamp it together to weld without distorting the K member. The top of the lip is rolled out so if you cut the lip out, there would be at least a 1/4” gap between the top and bottom to have to clamp back together to weld. You’d have to fill the gap in with steel first.

 

[black954]

All painted with Steel-It

 

[black954]

J-Bar plates fab’d up and welded in this afternoon. I ran out of argon yesterday and luckily the welding shop sold me a refill today. Tomorrow I will bend up some 1 5/8“ .120”MWT 4130 tubing for the J-bars.

 

[black954]

The power steering box showed up so I got it mounted up. It clears the back side gussets I welded in. I was a bit nervous about it clearing but all good.

 

[abdywgn]

at this rate, you'll be done before May!

 

[black954]

Lol maybe a roller by then. I’m still avoiding the “elephant in the room”, what to do about the power plant........

 

[black954]

Well, I found out the hard way that the 73-76 front sway bar will NOT fit an earlier car like mine. Looks like I need to ship the Hellwig bar I bought back and I’ll wind up going with the Hotchkis front bar.

 

[abdywgn]

can you "make" your k-frame into an open 73 style? I see space were you could reinforce the opening.