Dirty D - 73 Duster Street/Strip Build

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Well, after a long list of to dos were completed, I finally turned the thing over. Got it running for 5 seconds and the ignition box decided it was done.
I will need to send it back to holley and they will send me a new one.

Below is the log from the ECU. I think things look good, but what do I know?

log.png
 
rich_mc said:
Was it a new box?
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Brand new out of the box from summit. Luckily still under warranty.

Edit: Actually it appears out of warranty but they're replacing it anyways. 90 days warranty is kinda chicken **** when I waited months for the terminator x and had to sit on the ignition box while I waited.
 
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Still waiting....

Ignition Box is supposed to shop up today. Turnaround was unbelievably slow.
Also still waiting on the driveshaft. They had to order a flange adapter for the Ford 8.8.

One day I'll get to drive the car.
 
The day has finally come, but still dealing with a fuel leak at a NPT joint.



I was able to wrap up a lot of loose ends while I waited on the new ignition to arrive and truth be told I may have traced the problem with the original ignition to a loose ground so I can't confidently blame Holley for a faulty product.

Finished wiring the line lock, installed exhaust, installed trans cooler, and a ton of other small things.

To do list is pretty small right now:
Correct Trans linkage.
Dial in kickdown linkage.
Install Driveshaft.
Install interior trim.

Pics:

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With my other junk

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inZane240 said:
A bunch of billet ****....which is about all I know. Automatic transmissions are like weird science to me, I'm not too knowledgeable on the intricacies of how or why they work. I honestly just signed off on what Jim, the owner recommended. He was knowledgeable, fair, and didn't try to sell me on anything I didn't need....at least I think he didn't. He explained every recommendation and why he recommended it. He's been in the game over 50 years and started with torqueflites. Now he specializes 47/48REs, but said he'd done about one 727 a month so far this year when he typically sees 2 or 3 a year.

I also kept it auto, column shift. It's primarily a street car and I didn't want to be rowing through the gears.
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Jim at ATO does great work
 
Great work and build,did you fit engine/trans with headers already fitted or did you manage to fit them after engine was installed and bolted in?I am soon fitting my new BP 408 once workshop gets cleared.Keep up the great work and info
 
inZane240 said:
The day has finally come, but still dealing with a fuel leak at a NPT joint.



I was able to wrap up a lot of loose ends while I waited on the new ignition to arrive and truth be told I may have traced the problem with the original ignition to a loose ground so I can't confidently blame Holley for a faulty product.

Finished wiring the line lock, installed exhaust, installed trans cooler, and a ton of other small things.

To do list is pretty small right now:
Correct Trans linkage.
Dial in kickdown linkage.
Install Driveshaft.
Install interior trim.

Pics:

View attachment 1716141222

View attachment 1716141223

View attachment 1716141224

With my other junk

View attachment 1716141225
Click to expand...

I have to say I love your engine bay! It's similar but better than mine!
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exile uk said:
Great work and build,did you fit engine/trans with headers already fitted or did you manage to fit them after engine was installed and bolted in?I am soon fitting my new BP 408 once workshop gets cleared.Keep up the great work and info
Click to expand...
I was able to slip them in without any real problem after the trans/engine were installed. I was very surprised... Now that I've tightened everything up, the steering coupler rubs a little bit.

If I had to do it over again, I would have installed the entire package along with the k-member, when I put the k-member back in.
 
Installed a dash cap while I wait for the driveshaft. Pretty good fit on top, but the bottom leaves a lot to be desired.
I should probably work on getting that windshield installed...

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Turns out I had a shift lever on the 727 from a B&M shifter which was screwing up the column shift ratio. Sourced an original spec shift arm, installed it, and my shift linkage problems went away. One of those problems I would have never figured out if I wasn't able to look at pictures on the internet.

Picked up the Driveshaft from Driveline Services in Stockton. Had to go buy some appropriately rated metric bolts for the 8.8 flange. Threw the driveshaft in with no problems.

Hooked up and purged the power steering in about 15 minutes. Pinion was uncertain but I roughed it in and tacked perches. Probably not a great idea, but I decided to take a spin around the block. Video below:



Got home and put it on the lift for inspection after the drive. Everything looked OK. Some loose bolts here and there that probably should have been tightened before the joyride. Spent a few hours trying to figure out pinion. Finally dialed it in (fingers crossed) and welded the perches. Greased all the joints and checked for fluid leaks. Everything seams OK so far.

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Looking forward to getting a windshield in so I can take it to get an alignment.
 
Exciting stuff! I am about a week behind you on my build. Picking the engine up this Friday and hope to have it in this weekend. Already got the transmission and driveshaft so they will go in as well.
 
Still waiting on the windshield. The local distributor only had the glass with the shade strip, which I didn't want so I had to order a windshield from AMD. The shipping costs more than the actual windshield, so I'm feeling a little bruised on the price, but I am adamant about not having the shade strip. I found a local company to install it so hopefully I will be good to go by next week.

In the meantime I've been cruising around the neighborhood fixing little things here and there and to try and dial in the tune. I was running an external MAP sensor which I was having nothing but trouble with. I switched to the internal MAP sensor on the ECU and everything seems OK now. I'll figure out the external sensor thing later (or maybe not). Now that I've finally got all of the details correct in the ECU I am at a point now where I should be able to venture out of the neighborhood and on to bigger and better things once the windshield is in and the car is registered.

Also got an alignment done, but seeing as how I'm still waiting on DMV for registration, they didn't road test it. Have a decent vibration around 25-30mph that I'll need to figure out.

I also finished out the door jamb repair. I got lazy and bought some aerosol mixed single stage from the local PPG dealer. Turned out really well, and the aerosol made it easier than ever. The car was painted Viper Red at some point but it was a cheapo job (failing single stage) with no jamb work. I painted the jamb viper red and you can't even really tell a difference between the factory rallye red. Any remaining rallye red in the jamb will be covered up by trim or is already covered in primer overspray from the previous re-spray. The shittiness of the previous work, really makes my work shine.

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Can someone tell me how to get my pics to be uploaded in a higher quality? I cant figure out how to embed google photos links.
 
Updates:

Got a windshield installed. What a headache. It's hard to find anyone around here that will put a windshield in an old car. I had two companies blow me off, one that specializes in classic cars, before I found one that would do it. I ordered a windshield through AMD because the only glass available locally had a shade strip. No thanks. The first windshield from AMD showed up with a manufacturing defect. To AMDs credit they sent a second one out no problem. Second one showed up was good to go. The whole process took about a month.

Got the car titled and registered online through the DMV, a process I do not recommend. Took over a month all said and done and a ton of back and forth with scanning paperwork and emailing it in for review. And when your done with all of that you have to snail mail everything in anyways for a final review.

I think I may have overtightened the power steering pump/belt/pulley (is that even a thing?) to try and fix a squealing belt and ever since then the power steering requires intermittent effort with varying steering input/feedback. Makes for a shitty driving experience. Backed the belt tightness off a bit with no effect. Brand new fluid is a brown color. I think I'm in the market for a new pump.

I've got a bad vibration around 35 mph. Gotta throw some radials on and see if that changes anything, which it won't. If not, I'll be sending it back in for an alignment with the radials on.

Engine tuning is going well, but it would be nice to have a second set of eyes looking over this stuff. Gonna try and post in the forums for some tuning input.

Cooling is not great. Slowly been chasing coolant leaks. The highest I've been so far is 200F in cool weather. I'd like to be around 180 but I know that's unrealistic. Gonna put in a shroud eventually and move the fan a bit closer to the rad to see if that helps.

I've got a noisy rear disk brake I've got to fix.

Rear Tires rub, so I'll be performing some fender lip surgery.

Needless to say I've got stuff to do.
 
Also, changed the name of the car to "Dirty D" so the thread title gets changed too...
 
Drove the car 50 miles. Did a bolt check after. All good.

I've narrowed the vibration down to the drivetrain. I probably screwed up the pinion so I'll take it by a local 4x4 shop to verify what the actual pinion is. Wish me luck.
 
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Great progress on the build. Looks like we both started building our 73 Dusters around the same time and are about as far along as each other.
 
inZane240 said:
With the front subframe out of the car, the suspension was a little easier to manhandle and take apart. I ended up using none of it except for the k-member, spindles, and rotors. I was able to source rebuilt lower front control arms and rebuilt front calipers locally from a member. Upper control arms and tension rods are QA1. New MOOG joints all around. Had the front rotors turned and I repacked them with new Timken bearings.

Reinforced the lower control arms and beefed up the K-member a bit. Cant believe how bad the factory welds were... Also modified the K-member for Schumacher /6 to small block motor mounts.

Suspension in a box:
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Before:
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After:

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Reinforcing the K-member:

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Reinforcing LCAs

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Everything installed:

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Did u keep stock lower rubber bushings in lower control arms? Also did you tighten everything with the weight of car or up on lift? I ask cuz I'm getting ready to put my dart sport front end together. Thank you!
 
-Boosted- said:
Great progress on the build. Looks like we both started building our 73 Dusters around the same time and are about as far along as each other.
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Right on, I've been following along with your build. Awesome work.
I'm at the point now where progress is difficult, but keeping the motivation is harder. So close, yet so far.
 
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