Howdy! I'm new to the board and need some help with some questions please. I have several Plymouth Dusters of various years and I have a REALLY solid 74 Duster but it has the small bolt pattern with no power steering or power brakes(drums) Its the true blue Slant 6 equipped so I like that Great on gas! But the car just needs some good TLC to make it into a very decent daily driver.

Now these are the questions I need help with...what kind of rearend would this car have in it? I call it a peanut rearend because its so tiny Would yall say do a full swap and put the regular bolt pattern on it or just live with the drums(dont like that idea really) The motor has unknown miles but looks pretty good(not got running yet) Its had a good bit of afro enginerring done to the poor little car Would yall say keep the engine stock and just drive the piss outta it or pull it and do some work on it? If so what kind of upgrades? Not anything expensive like Clifford stuff now this is hoping to be a daily driver! I've heard of like the Super Six intake but have no clue what people are talking about HAHA so what is it? What kind of rearend would you put under it if we changed all that? I have several different Dusters I CAN part out but don't know what kind of rearends are in them or if it would even be worth fooling with. Help answering one,all, or any of these questions would be great!! THANKS

That should have a 7 1/4 rear in it. A Super Six intake is a two barrel setup for the slant six, and perhaps an 8 1/4 rear would be your best bet, but then you'd have to convert the front to the 4 1/2 pattern as well. If you can find a later disc brake A body, this will simplify such a swap immensely.

If you find a true A-body 8 3/4" rear end you can still keep the 4" Bolt center wheels/axles and use 10x1 3/4" drums vs stock 9". Supposedly just moving the back to 10 x 1 3/4" drums helps stop the car better. Then in the future if you decide you want big bolt pattern all around, you can get custom Moser axles (for $200 a pair, if I recall) for an A body 8 3/4" big bolt pattern

If it really is a '74, it should already have the front discs and 5 on 4.5" bolt pattern on it. If not, then somebody has swapped stuff in. Why anybody would put older stuff on is a mystery to me.

Anyway, I've got a writeup on swapping a 8 3/4 into my 74 Duster up on my site if you want to read about it.
The book, Perfromance Handling For Classic Mopars, by Tom Condran, is an indispensible reference for modifying these older A, B, and E-bodies. It's available for $30 from Acme Mail Order, P. O. box 282612, San Francisco, CA, 94128-2612. Highly recommended and you'll save the cost of the book the first time you go to the JY.

As for modifying the engine, the option to leave it stock and 'drive the piss outta it' or modifying it are two different concepts not related to each other. Only you can decide what's the best course of action for you in this case.

If you want to modify it, use the search function here, or on slantsix.com, and all you ever wanted to know about the /6 will be revealed.

Lastly, not trying to be a mod here, but this post would be better suited for the 'Other' board, and the reference to the type of 'engineering' on the car is not appropriate.

_________________
It's a Slant thing. Even I don't understand.

1974 Duster, EFI /6 soon to be turbo...

Get that Monkay! Get that nasty thing!!

Small Bolt pattern 9" drums were used OEM through the 1975 model year, in the 1976 model year the floating caliper disk brakes became standard(=LBP). Disks were optional on all cars up to 1975, this also necessitated the change to 5 on 4.5" or LBP and made the rear drums LBP 10" (and either a 7 1/4" rear or after 1973 an 8 1/4" rear for performance or HD use).

1974 is kind of a 'tween' year for the A-body, not only was chrysler dropping the 198, but it was starting to also 'strip/standardize/cost cut' a lot of features found in the compact line up. Yet you find a fair amount of items that remind you of early models (parking brake handle, manual wiper fluid pump, mirrors that are attached to the ceiling, standard/deluxe door panels,etc...)


FYI,

-D.Idiot

I stand corrected on the disk brake year points..

_________________
It's a Slant thing. Even I don't understand.

1974 Duster, EFI /6 soon to be turbo...

Get that Monkay! Get that nasty thing!!

Mopar Man my first drag car was a 74 Dart Sport it also had small bolt pattern wheels. This car was a street/strip car that was fun. I did not win much at the drag strip but the logstists was minmun. If that is your route you want to take here are some suggestions. Try to find some small bolt pattern 340 steel wheels they are 1 inch wider than stock wheels. Install a 3.91 ring and pinon on the 7. 1/4 rear end and put short but wide tires on the car. Idrag raced my car two years on this combo and had no problems. If you kep the car from violent burn outs you should not have a prblem. I don't think the super six is a big help unless you have one are can get one cheap it will pick the car up about 3 tenths of a second over a good running one barrel Thanks Ron Parker

gone bagel bagging back in 11.89 seconds

Well I got to checking the car closly today and I'm sad to say that that little /6 and tranny can not be used The tranny has NO fluid in it what so ever and I THINK the block is cracked and the radatior has no a drop of anti-freeze and a lot of other crap is just mickey moused on the car

It has the small bolt for a fact and the crappy drums and in need of a steering column. BUT the good news is the body on the car is very much straight and I have a GOOD slanter and tranny in anohter parts Duster that I've got to drive the car and the motor and tranny both seem nice... Now I'm back to the suspension and brake stuff...We have like a 75 or 76 Dart that has the power disk and all that good junk and a good small block K-member but I think that I got a good /6 what if we took the stuff out of the Dart but NOT the K-member and put the disk brakes and rearend in it and to a little work in the interior and probably drive the sucker to school and crap... Will the disk and that good junk bolt up to the /6 drum k-memeber thats under the car? What about springs in the rear? I seen you had some different springs in your car Gun Pilot(BTW This is Mopar Man from RCC bud!) What exactly do the springs help? I'll try to take some pics of the car tomorrow when I have time between working on some other projects Thanks for all the help guys and this is a great site!!

Mopar_man......yes, you can take the disc brake stuff from the later car and put it on the older one. What you'll need is everything from the upper control arm mount point down to (and including) the lower ball joint from both sides. This should be a direct bolt-on in place of your small drums and SBP wheels. You'll also need the master cylinder and proportioning valve from the late one in order to keep front/rear braking bias correct.

You should also grab the rear diff and springs from the late one and swap into your early one. That, too, should be a direct bolt-in. Make sure you get the drive shaft, too, as there may be some length issues if the rears are different, (i.e. 7.25 to 8.25).

The above process will give you front discs with LBP wheels for a minimal amount of effort, and it'll be set up right, rather than el cheapo wheel adapters. The 4.5" pattern will also open up your aftermarket wheel availability drastically.

You might want to keep the column out of the '76, too. It just may swap into the duster, as well.

Roger

Welcome Mopar_Man...
Sounds like you have a fun project on tap.
If you can find a "big bolt" donor car then you will have an easy time swapping over to the Large Bolt Pattern. (LBP)

Looks like this thread is more about the LBP conversion then it is about engine stuff so we will move it to the Suspension & Brake section, look for it there in the future.
DD

Hope this helps... I remember my dad buying a 76 FEATHER Duster way back in 1980. It had the slant, 3 speed on the floor, manual steering/brakes, 10" Front DRUMS/9" rear Drums, and the small bolt pattern... It only had around 50k miles on it when Dad got it, and I worked on that car enuf to remember what it had in it... My brother beat the snot out of it once he bought it from my dad... I remember nearly crying at 16, when Dad would not even consider letting me have a car, that one or any car... My mouth watered the whole time he had it, thinking it would end up as my 1st car Most kids don't want their 1st hand me down from Dad, this was 1 car that I really wanted, and wish was still around. Anyhow, That goes to show, that they did sell 4 wheel Drum A-body cars right up until the very end.