New to rebuilding. 74 dart custom 318

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dopplegangster

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Hey guys my name is Dustin. Pleasure to be part of the forums ill be posting pics as I move along. Any ideas or tips are appreciated. First thing for me will be a new oil pan and finishing the electrical. The kid that owned the Dart before me tried to turn it into a civic with like 3 kill switches and a bunch of random 12v hots just run into the car and coiled up to go no where.... MY buddy Brian "Goat" Zombro was helping with the electrical and passed away (RIP 9/4/2011) So any tips as far as electrical what to make sure is assembled first would be aweesome. Thanks again guys!
 
Welcome to FABO.Maybe try to get all your electrical back to stock if you can.There,s a few members on here that are electrical guru,s(me not being one of them LOL)Maybe start a thread in the electrical forums asking for help with your problem,showing pics of said areas usually helps.Good luck and enjoy the site.
 
This sounds so much like the 74 Duster I just acquired. He had hot wires and jumpers going from the battery to the coil and other random places... But when you take them off and use a tester on them, they were getting plenty of juice all along.
 
Look up the site "painless wiring harness" they go by there name as being "painless" i bought one for my 74 dart sport and my dad and i are putting it in (im only 16 and neither of us are wiring guys) hahaha. painless also has an online instruction manual that can be helpful. Hope this helps dude. Welcome by the way ahaha i just signed up yesterday!

1974 dodge dart sport 360 soon to be 410 stroker, 727 trans 8 3/4 rear
 
Welcome, not to sound repetitive but the previous posters are correct. In your case where the wiring was Mickey Moused its better to pull it and get a painless wiring kit. Take your time and follow their online instruction manual. That way you know it's done right.

Like I was taught, "Do it Right,Do it once, the first time"....:D
 
Thanks for making me feel welcome guys! Im looking into the painless wiring harnesses but I'll have to save$$ for it, and I believe Im going to have to drop my steering linkage to get that bad oil pan out... Any tips on that? Ill post pics soon I gotta get a new camera for said purpose. I used to have one just to stick in areas I couldn't see easily which helped me a ton. Thanks again guys!!
 
dopplegangster said:
Thanks for making me feel welcome guys! Im looking into the painless wiring harnesses but I'll have to save$$ for it, and I believe Im going to have to drop my steering linkage to get that bad oil pan out... Any tips on that? Ill post pics soon I gotta get a new camera for said purpose. I used to have one just to stick in areas I couldn't see easily which helped me a ton. Thanks again guys!!
Click to expand...

Welcome. If you want to remove your steering linkage, remove cotter pins, remove castle nuts, and then use a pickle fork and BFH and hope they will pop free. DO NOT use the hammer on the threaded bolts in which the castle nuts thread onto. You will mash the threads and never be able to get the castle nut back on.
 
i'd pull the steering arm off the steering chuck (you can borrow the tool at some auto parts stores) and unbolt the idler arm. that usually gives you enough room the get the pan out without having to beat the crap out of stuff. if you need a little more, loosen the motor mount through bolts and carefully lift the engine up an inch or so. watch the distributor cap doesn't get mashed. what's wrong with the oil pan?


sorry about your friend :sad8:
 
Welcome! +1 on going back to stock. However a complete new harness is a lot of work. Maybe you could get the "Painless" Harness but use it in "pieces" for example: Splice it into the Harness near the firewall so all the wires are about the perfect length and attach them one at a time to their prospective components. Good luck and sorry to hear about Goat. You were lucky to have a mentor and friend like that. I wish I did.
 
Welcome to FABO. Just like you where thinking, drop the steering link and you can get the pan out. We just replace the pan in a dart with a 360 in it and didn't have any problem.

Good to see another Washington State member joining.
 
Howdy, from central Texas. Glad to have you here.
My son's daily drive while in college is a '74 Dart Sport with a slant six. We started building a '74 Gold Duster, but he ran out of time and money (college does that to a young man.)

All good suggestions here, but what I would like to mention, if you are on a limited budget like we were, is to consider only replacing original segments of the wiring that have been hacked up - maybe the rest of it is in good shape. You would be surprised how many cars are being parted out, or how many folks have just pieces of what you need squirreled away from projects long ago.

Your '74 has several harnesses that can be separated into "regions". Identify the butchered wires and what components they serve, then ask here on FABO if anyone has that segment of the wiring for sale. For example, last weekend, my son and I were changing out his column shift steering column to a floor shift column. The wide plastic connector underneath the column that serves the ignition switch split in half. Fortunately, we had an extra harness and robbed the connector from it. Back in business and back to college that afternoon.

Keep us posted and good luck,
Jerry
 
Holy Moses! Thanks again guys this information is all very helpful almost overwhelming how awesome you guys are. The oil pan looks like it was high centered onto and then jb welded shut... Just one of the crazy things the previous owner did. Thanks again for the tips on clearance to get it out, and I've got another buddy coming to help finish the wiring this weekend. He works at a shop so he's gonna bring over some extra wires for splicing but after unwrapping it looks like its not in too bad of shape. Except for the random section of ground wire spliced in the middle of a 12v hot?? Never seen that before. Anyways thanks again guys ill get some pics posted soon. Found a trunk pan for $100 and was going to get a r. Quarter skin since there's some rust on one but would it be cheaper to try and find a used quarter on a parts car? Also thanks for the sentiments about goat, I miss him a lot. Getting "goat custom" logos made in a month or so :)
 
Welcome to FABO

This is a great site

Enjoy!
 

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