Stickies!!! Seriously the same questions get asked over and over again, if you do a search for any given subject you get a bunch of posts where half the problems, pitfalls and tricks are answered and if you check the right 3 posts you can piece it together, but miss one and your sol. A post with a concise all encompassing answer to all possible variables on the most popular subjects is what I'm saying. I love this forum and its users have saved my *** and money plenty of times, I'm just saying a sticky or two for the most asked questions couldn't hurt. When I make a post, I get the correct answer for my particular problem, but if I try to avoid crowding the forum with redundant questions it can get very confusing very quickly.
Example? Ok, so PS to manual swap. What would you search? I tried such exotica as "PS", "Manual" and "Swap" and found the question has been asked many many times in both directions. I read through a bunch of them and gleamed that I would need to A:lengthen the PS shaft with an adapter or swap the shaft from the manual column B:Use the pitman arm from the manual box. 3 identical responses later I figured that this must be what I have to do and what I need to know. I have a 74 Dart with PS, the manual box, arm and column I purchased were from a 72 (ok calm down if you've heard this one). So after taking the day to get the parts, laying down some cash, prying out the manifold (exhaust compression seal seriously seized), removing the column, yanking out the PS upon installation of the manual box I realize that the tapers on the pitman are in the wrong direction. So I think to myself I must have read it wrong all three times, I have to use the PS pitman obviously. So off to the store I go for a puller, pop pop and wth? It's too big? So off to my trust FABO I go and this time search the obvious "Pitman" and come across a guy immediately with the same problem, the boxes have to both be pre 73 or post 73. To mix and match requires a new center link and idler arm. I wished I had searched pitman but pitman was the answer to my question not the question itself. This is my luck it seems but also the way of the mopar as my short year and a half working on the dart have taught me. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems. I ran into almost the exact same problem when I did my ball joints, when I sized out my wheels and tires and when I tried to figure out which mounts to use for my engine swap. So from now on I am going to post my own question and get my own answers which will probably confuse someone else and the circle continues, but Ive learned my lesson for the 4th and last time.
Example? Ok, so PS to manual swap. What would you search? I tried such exotica as "PS", "Manual" and "Swap" and found the question has been asked many many times in both directions. I read through a bunch of them and gleamed that I would need to A:lengthen the PS shaft with an adapter or swap the shaft from the manual column B:Use the pitman arm from the manual box. 3 identical responses later I figured that this must be what I have to do and what I need to know. I have a 74 Dart with PS, the manual box, arm and column I purchased were from a 72 (ok calm down if you've heard this one). So after taking the day to get the parts, laying down some cash, prying out the manifold (exhaust compression seal seriously seized), removing the column, yanking out the PS upon installation of the manual box I realize that the tapers on the pitman are in the wrong direction. So I think to myself I must have read it wrong all three times, I have to use the PS pitman obviously. So off to the store I go for a puller, pop pop and wth? It's too big? So off to my trust FABO I go and this time search the obvious "Pitman" and come across a guy immediately with the same problem, the boxes have to both be pre 73 or post 73. To mix and match requires a new center link and idler arm. I wished I had searched pitman but pitman was the answer to my question not the question itself. This is my luck it seems but also the way of the mopar as my short year and a half working on the dart have taught me. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems. I ran into almost the exact same problem when I did my ball joints, when I sized out my wheels and tires and when I tried to figure out which mounts to use for my engine swap. So from now on I am going to post my own question and get my own answers which will probably confuse someone else and the circle continues, but Ive learned my lesson for the 4th and last time.
