When I eventually change my rearend, what do I need to know about the pinion snubber?

I can tell you my current system, the leafs are so weak and sloppy that occasionally during city driving, when my A-904 shifts to second simply coasting along, I hear a big "thud" back there, presumably that's my snubber hitting the underneath of the body.

Are pinion snubbers supposed to be near the body or touching the body? If I change out my very weak leafs, is this even something I need to worry about if I'm not a drag racer....which I'm not? My replacement 8 3/4 rearend has a snubber on it, so I guess I just use "as is" right? Are the adjustable ones for strip and street, so you can switch back and forth?

thanks for any feedback on pinion snubber function and folly...

BG

The pinion snubber in a stock car is to protect the rearend from damage in a overloaded car. The pinion snubber in a drag car uses a special set of springs and is adjusted to be close to the contact point on the body. Ii is used to control axle wind up and plant the tires.

I would not use the drag racing pinion snubber on the street, no suspension travel.

And the klunk is probably a bad U joint.

I was wondering about it being a bad U-joint.

I'm going to change the rearend and drive shaft, and I've already cleaned up the drive shaft. I have the 2 1/8 inch, 7260 type U-joints. Does anyone have a preference for type of U-Joint, solid, grease fittings, any particular brand they like better or that performs better for some reason? I'm at a good point, I can do some research before I press in the new joints.

thanks in advance on any U-joint feedback.

bg

Dana Spicer 5789X if you don't want to ever lube them. So long as you don't contaminate them or destroy the seal when installing them they'll last.

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Joshua

I don't mind lubing them, I crawl under my Dart regularly anyhow, but if these are low maintenance and last, I'm game.

bg

Yes, they are the best I'm aware of. Depending upon the use of the car you may never have to buy another set. I strongly suggest you have the driveshaft straightened and balanced before installation. You never know what's happened to that shaft in the last 40 years.

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Joshua

Considering I got the drive shaft for free, I might as well have it checked out. But I can tell you, after cleaning it up it looks brand new, the balancing weights are still on there and it is absolutely rust free, appears straight as an arrow.

http://s785.photobucket.com/user/67dart ... sort=1&o=0

Don't mind that other stuff in the background, just my back seat and the rest of my interior. As you can see, I've converted my weightlifting bench into a parts processing station....

bg

What kind of exhaust manifold are you running, it appears to are come out in one pipe near the front of your motor.......?

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1964 Dodge Dart 270 four door. Three speed automatic 225 Slant with a Carter BBS carb.

I'm running Dutra duals, I made my downpipes myself out of SS mandrel bends and wrapped them with header tape. I am currently in the process of reconfiguring them, because my front pipe is too close to the steering box, and I want to move my Y-pipe further forward and into the engine bay (right now the Y is near the tranny, and too low as well). I basically built this really quickly to get her back on the road, knowing full well I would re-engineer the system in the coming months. Below is a pic of the Dutra Duals (jet hotted black)

http://s785.photobucket.com/user/67dart ... sort=1&o=0


If you look carefully at this pic, you can see the rear downpipe behind the front one:

http://s785.photobucket.com/user/67dart ... ort=1&o=10


All I need to do is fix the front one, move it away from the steering box, closer to the rear pipe so I can weld in a smaller Y pipe. There's a ton of room in the SL6 engine bay as you know. I was just in a hurry and "eye balled" the first installation, which works OK, but I can do better. I just needed to find a smaller Y pipe in SS. See below.

I can send pics of the reconfigured pipes, which will be a single SS header, dual 2" going into a 2.5" at the Y. Below is the SS Y I will use to mate the SS downpipes when I reconfigure them. I'll weld a SS ball and socket coupler to this Y and use a mild steel counter part (you have to buy two couplers) to the rest of the 2.5" pipe going back (a flex joint in there somewhere to take any stress out).

http://s785.photobucket.com/user/67dart ... sort=1&o=4

bg

Looks great!!

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1964 Dodge Dart 270 four door. Three speed automatic 225 Slant with a Carter BBS carb.

Currently my two SS down pipes are connected to the (mild steel) Y pipe via some flex pipes because I tacked all the system together at my house and took to my buddies' place for proper tig welding of the SS pipes. Once there, we somehow had to take the system apart and lost track of the distance on one joint of the 2.5" near the muffler, so my Y pipe was too far away from my two SS downpipes when I bolted it on back home (I made the system modular, you can take the whole exhaust system apart in pieces). So, I have clunky clamps and flex pipes running from the SS downpipes back to the Y. The new system will be 3 pieces: a single SS header, a single 2.5 " piece that goes back including the muffler, and then the tail pipe section over the rear axle, so 3 pieces and two ball and socket joints.

My dream system is dual 2" SS running all the way back on the driver side, maybe an X or H-pipe in there, running through a dual 2" in-2" out muffler and to the back, i.e. duals right next to each other running back on the driver side only. No reason to have them on opposite sides unless you're running a V8...I'll build this someday unless my current system is just wonderful. In this whole story, I'm playing with various resonator/muffler combos and positioning. I've got it now where there is no drone at highway speeds, but the muffler is "trash canny" at acceleration. Before I had it sounding really great while accelerating, but had an awful drone at highway speeds. I think the answer might lie in a turbo muffler...my buddy has an old 2.5" SS system from his Mazda maybe there's something in there I could use.

bg