69 Dart 340 Swinger Street/Road Race build

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Well, after a long hiatus, I was able to work on the Dart this weekend. The Hotchkis sway bar that I ordered on April 24th, finally came in so I got to work fitting the mounts and welding them in. Turned out great. I was worried about the angle on the end link brackets on the LCAs, but they’re perfect at ride height.

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I really don’t know if it makes a difference, but the end links on the Hotchkis sway bar that I put on the 68 Barracuda ended up straight up and down, your end links look like they tip in at the top and out on the bottom.
I’ll get a photo of mine.
 
my68barracuda said:
I really don’t know if it makes a difference, but the end links on the Hotchkis sway bar that I put on the 68 Barracuda ended up straight up and down, your end links look like they tip in at the top and out on the bottom.
I’ll get a photo of mine.
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And after getting down on the garage floor and looking, the end links on my sway bar also tip out on the bottom

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I hear what youre saying. My bar isn’t centered perfectly side to side so the passenger side looks kicked out more than the driver side. It should even out after the first drive. I guess the tabs on the QA1 LCA’s are inboard a little too far as well. I only have maybe 1/2” of clearance from the end links hitting the strut rods so the best I could move the tabs outward would maybe be 1/4” per side and I just couldn’t justify all that work for 1/4”.
 
black954 said:
I hear what youre saying. My bar isn’t centered perfectly side to side so the passenger side looks kicked out more than the driver side. It should even out after the first drive. I guess the tabs on the QA1 LCA’s are inboard a little too far as well. I only have maybe 1/2” of clearance from the end links hitting the strut rods so the best I could move the tabs outward would maybe be 1/4” per side and I just couldn’t justify all that work for 1/4”.
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Yes, I remember now the strut rods limit how far out the weld on tabs can be set.
You have a nice build going.
 
What offset on your wheels?

Love the build, hope you are still making progress.
 
They are 18x9.5" squared +25 rear and +35 offset front. I'm still making progress, but nothing worth posting about. Spending a lot of time gathering Magnum accessory brackets to make the serpentine set up work. I'll be drilling the front of my heads soon to bolt up the Magnum brackets to LA style heads.
 
Does the the kick outs on the pan sump protrude out further than the pan rail? I'm trying to get an idea of how much room is needed by the K-member. I'll likely upgrade to one and I would like to clearance my k-member before I take the old pan off. I didn't even think about trimming that pinch weld down when I seam welded it. Ugh.
 
racerjoe said:
Does the the kick outs on the pan sump protrude out further than the pan rail? I'm trying to get an idea of how much room is needed by the K-member. I'll likely upgrade to one and I would like to clearance my k-member before I take the old pan off. I didn't even think about trimming that pinch weld down when I seam welded it. Ugh.
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Yes, the kick outs protrude quite a bit. I trimmed 3/4” off the entire K-member around the inside radius and it was barely enough to clear, especially the passenger side. Here’s some pics of the extra I trimmed on the passenger side just recently.

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The second 2 pics is after I initially trimmed the inside radius. Then I trimmed the last little bit because I didn't like 1/8" of clearance. I did pull my engine to do this so I could see your frustrations in trimming yours. I was going to put a QA1 K-member in and I think I will hold off. The way I reinforced my original K member I believe it to be extremely strong and will stiffen up the chassis quite a bit. Now if I have motor mount issues, I will reconsider swapping K members at that time.
 
black954 said:
The second 2 pics is after I initially trimmed the inside radius. Then I trimmed the last little bit because I didn't like 1/8" of clearance. I did pull my engine to do this so I could see your frustrations in trimming yours. I was going to put a QA1 K-member in and I think I will hold off. The way I reinforced my original K member I believe it to be extremely strong and will stiffen up the chassis quite a bit. Now if I have motor mount issues, I will reconsider swapping K members at that time.
Click to expand...

Wow! Thanks for the detailed pics. THis will help a lot. It's bad enough I have to lift the engine up just to get the oil pan off/on. I didn't want to be cutting and wellding with the pan off. Great work on the car so far. You are going to love the ride with all the suspension mods you have done. I just upgraded to the Hotckis shocks and the difference was crazy. I've been waiting on my Hotickis sway bar since December. Seeing you waited a while for yours, I guess they just don't keep bars for A-bodies in stock. I was told they were having a supply chain issue with steel. Good luck with your build. I'll be followng along.
 
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