Yard Sale Valiant

[mopar57]

Great Project! Keep it up and keep us in the loop.

[DanStokes]

Excellent project! I did a similar build for my bro and was it was a real sleeper, too. At that point my niece was still a toddler (she's now a Mom herself) so the car seat only added to the illusion.

Dan

[GEARHED73]

Down and dirty update. Once I had everything slid under and bolted up I was able to set it all on the ground and measure the pinion angle, very glad I wait to burn them in. It was 14 down...dont know how I messed that up. Anyway, cut the tacks and rotated it up. It took a few attempts but landed on 4 down. Tacked them and pulled it for welding. I was not able to use the explorer lower spring plates because of the way the shocks were mounted. I ordered up a set from an offroad shop and called it good. At this point we were back in the car and bolted up. Needed driveshaft and brakes. I almost just called the driveshaft shop to come and measure one up and be done with it, but my budget said not so fast. I ended up back in the junk yard with a tape. After crawling under every car with an 8.8 I left with an aluminum shaft the measured just a little long. It think it was about 50 9/16 cl-cl.

[GEARHED73]

I got it all home and started seeing how bad it fit... I was pleased to find that using my eyeball method of lining up slip yoke and driveshaft I had exactly 1" of pullout with weight on wheels. Seemed close enough for this bucket. I ordered up a conversion ujoint and slammed it all together. So, all said I have 7/8" of slip yoke pullout on all 4 wheels. I would like a little more but I'll see how this works out.
Also ended up with stiffer leaf springs from a 340 car that I put new poly bushings in. They were the same leaf count as my original ones. I ended up standing on each set and had my son measure the deflection with a tape. The originals dropped approx 2" with my body weight, the 340 were at 1"... I have no idea how that works out as far as spring rates but I know the 340 have more ( and they were $40) so they are in the car.
Brakes were the next one.

[GEARHED73]

Just messing around. Haven't been updating this post. Still banging away.. Ive had it up, down and broken. Currently operational but the engine is hurt, luckily it still sounds okay for a low compression 318. I have a replacement mill in the garage.