Father-Son 1974 Duster Project

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One of the best things I’ve done to this car was to upgrade the steering box to the Borgeson unit. Their Ujoint coupler is also a huge upgrade over stock and now this fully restored column is in the car. Really happy with the steering gear and the whole front suspension rebuild we did.
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I had a few instances lately where the car stalled while stopping at a traffic light or stop sign. Like the key being turned off not sputter out like a fuel issue. Both times HEI module was hot.1st time got a ride home, got tools spare module and meter. Got back to car had voltage at module turned key car started drove it home without doing anything.
2nd time just waited for 45 minutes. Used time to go on Amazon and order MSD ignition. The only thing that bums me out about it was that the car looked silly with the MSD box sitting between the ballast resistor and the Chrysler ignition box that I had in there for decoration purposes only. I pulled the Chrysler stuff out and I am coming to terms with just the MSD box being in there. The car idles 300 RPMs faster in neutral than it did with the HEI module. I need to do a complete tuneup and timing set up with the new ignition..
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I’ve thought about cutting the bottom out of the stock washer bottle and putting the msd box inside of it to hide it.
 
Rd2Scamp said:
I’ve thought about cutting the bottom out of the stock washer bottle and putting the msd box inside of it to hide it.
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I have a friend with a dart who put it under the battery tray but my horns are there.
I’m over it now and it can stay where it is.
 
Did you consider a Pertronix module that fits in the distributor? I was uncertain but now have 5 years and 20,000+ miles across our 2 cars and have not had one glitch. Best part is nobody's the wiser it is there.
 
Jim Kueneman said:
Did you consider a Pertronix module that fits in the distributor? I was uncertain but now have 5 years and 20,000+ miles across our 2 cars and have not had one glitch. Best part is nobody's the wiser it is there.
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I was running pertronix. But over next to the mopar box. Maybe the wiring to the coil was too long? I had one of those designed to drive brackets but I sold it
 
DusterDaddy said:
I was running pertronix. But over next to the mopar box. Maybe the wiring to the coil was too long? I had one of those designed to drive brackets but I sold it
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The ones I am talking about go inside the distributor and replace the points/condenser plate.
 
DusterDaddy said:
I had a few instances lately where the car stalled while stopping at a traffic light or stop sign. Like the key being turned off not sputter out like a fuel issue. Both times HEI module was hot.1st time got a ride home, got tools spare module and meter. Got back to car had voltage at module turned key car started drove it home without doing anything.
2nd time just waited for 45 minutes. Used time to go on Amazon and order MSD ignition. The only thing that bums me out about it was that the car looked silly with the MSD box sitting between the ballast resistor and the Chrysler ignition box that I had in there for decoration purposes only. I pulled the Chrysler stuff out and I am coming to terms with just the MSD box being in there. The car idles 300 RPMs faster in neutral than it did with the HEI module. I need to do a complete tuneup and timing set up with the new ignition..View attachment 1715810829View attachment 1715810828
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Looks good! Kinda hiding in plain sight against your red paint.
 
Jim Kueneman said:
The ones I am talking about go inside the distributor and replace the points/condenser plate.
Click to expand...
I didn’t know that was a thing lol.
I’m ok with the MSD box, really.
I am going to order up those hose clamps
you recommended though!!
 
MSD utilizes Capacitive Discharge, which requires large capacitors. That's why the original (think 1960's) box was so big, because the caps were. With the advent of Super Caps, the box could be made much smaller and... actually perform even better. But, the big red box has become a recognized icon. I suppose the marketing department sticks with the large size, not the engineering dept.
 
mpgmike said:
MSD utilizes Capacitive Discharge, which requires large capacitors. That's why the original (think 1960's) box was so big, because the caps were. With the advent of Super Caps, the box could be made much smaller and... actually perform even better. But, the big red box has become a recognized icon. I suppose the marketing department sticks with the large size, not the engineering dept.
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wow that is really old school technology.
 
racerhog said:
So your really not sure why the ECU boxes are failing?
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I never ran stock ECU. The orange box and ballast resistor were only there for appearance connected to each other and nothing else. I had an HEI module behind the washer bottle, a few times they got pretty warm and stopped working, maybe because they were too far from the distributor and coil...
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DusterDaddy said:
One of the best things I’ve done to this car was to upgrade the steering box to the Borgeson unit. Their Ujoint coupler is also a huge upgrade over stock and now this fully restored column is in the car. Really happy with the steering gear and the whole front suspension rebuild we did. View attachment 1715716412 View attachment 1715716413 View attachment 1715716414 View attachment 1715716415
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I noticed you have stock headers I wonder if the box will work with shorty headers. I have a 74 Dart sport so same parts for me.
 
So I was out for a ride this afternoon and I’m starting to think about a quieter pair of mufflers and maybe some sort of H pipe setup to ease the drone. Currently running Thrush welded mufflers with 2-1/2” pipe.
What is a more civilized muffler that still has a nice tone?

Another thing that has bugged me is how weird these cars look from this angle. Really shows how they stretched the width in the back without lengthening the rear axel. so I just ordered some 10” wheels and 295/50/15 tires. Should fit fine since the 10” wheel is the same backspace as what I’m running now and the tire is the same height as what’s on there now. That should fill up the hole in the wheel well!
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If you are going to do an H pipe anyway, do that and leave the mufflers alone. It will mellow out the tone some. If it's not enough then look at changing the mufflers.

Cley
 
I used standard 40 series Flowmasters on a car and hated them. They were loud and had drone. However, I installed the Delta Flow 40 series Flowmasters and they are really great. I would assume the Thrush mufflers you have are a aggressive sound. D/D you can use a 8 inch wheel and just change the offset to like a 4 inch backspace and it will push the wheel out to the outer edge. It will be really close though. It could rub a little
 
TF360 said:
I used standard 40 series Flowmasters on a car and hated them. They were loud and had drone. However, I installed the Delta Flow 40 series Flowmasters and they are really great. I would assume the Thrush mufflers you have are a aggressive sound. D/D you can use a 8 inch wheel and just change the offset to like a 4 inch backspace and it will push the wheel out to the outer edge. It will be really close though. It could rub a little
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The wheels that I am running are 8 inch. They are 4 1/2 inch back spacing. The biggest tire I can fit on the car with three eights of an inch to spare before the rub the leaf springs are the 245/60/15‘s. If I go with a 10 inch wheel with the same backspace, I could get the 295 on the car without any problem.
 
295's are going to be tight.
I have 275's on mine, 7"wheel with 4.25" backspace.

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