'77 Lean Burn 400

71ChargerRT

71ChargerRT

Well-known member
Sorry folks no pics of the donor car, it was a gold on gold '77 'Doba with a white vinyl top and a 400 :dance: which now resides in my garage, still bolted to the K frame. Oddly optioned, in my opinion, car the aforementioned 400/727, A/C, color combo and radio delete, I pulled the uncut panel BTW. It was a running driving car til the numbnut that owned it "let his friend" do donuts and hit about a foot tall, 2' diameter stump and bash in the passenger side rocker, lower door.

It also gave up 11" drums, 11.75" front brakes, driveshaft, 15" steel wheels, tail lights, surrounds, grille and surround, K frame and torsion bar mount and other misc stuff that might end up at Carlisle :toot:

I thought they had transverse T-bars, but I guess that's on the later models?



My question is what do I need to do delete the Lean Burn system?



Thanks
 
Sorry I have 2 pics... Drivers side isn't bad, but I dont have a pic of the other side

doba.jpg



Fender tag

IMG_20120311_142331.jpg
 
71ChargerRT said:
My question is what do I need to do delete the Lean Burn system?
Thanks
Click to expand...

A non lean burn air cleaner and a b engine points distributor. Or a B engine electronic distrbutor, ignition module, wire harness and balast resistor. I would go electronic. Its super simple to wire it up, it needs no maintenance!
 
OK, so a '71 383 points distributor solves the L/B issue? Sweet! I'll order it when I get paid :)


Guess the Charger is getting a B motor! Well, until the 440 is done anyway :dance:
 
One of the big things is seeing if the ThermoQuad has a vacuum-advance port. If it doesn't, you can add one. Some '77s do, some don't... just like some have a vacuum-advance distributor, some don't. However, most of the Lean-Burn cars, vacuum advance or not, have no mechanical advance mechanism in the distributor. The Cordoba had longitudinal torsion bars through '79--they're all scrap though (trust me, I've had a set for years). The K will fit '73-'74 B-bodies, but I wouldn't waste much fuel hauling it anywhere. If the rear was a 9¼", I would have kept that. Budget Dana right there. As far as the front brakes go, you can use the caliper brackets, calipers and rotors on the Charger but the rest is scrap. You still need the spindles from a '73-'76 A-body or a '73-'74 E with discs.

If you've seen the "wedding pic", that was the '77 Cordoba I took on my honeymoon. Want to talk strange options? Who ordered a 400HP Cordoba with cop suspension?! We cut the poor thing up with torches and a Sawzall and it went to the junkyard in pieces, a pickup load at a time.
 
If you put a points distributor in it, put the points on the shelf immediately and order a Pertronix conversion for it. Stone-axe reliable, 20-minute installation, and hello electronic ignition. Easier to wire than the factory setup, and in fact as easy if not easier than points. You'll thank me, and Stretch can vouch for how reliable that setup is. I had a customer dead-short the positive coil wire to ground last year. He grenaded the coil, but the Pertronix lived. They're robust, to say the least. I've never warrantied one, and I've sold over 100 of 'em over the years.
 
Do NOT use a '71 distributor, by the way. They have that oddball retard-solenoid vacuum advance setup on them. I'd say tell your parts guy it's a '69 or something earlier, just to be safe.
 
I checked the rear first, 8.25... I did grab the rear sway bar though but I didn't realize the 8.25 had fricken C clips! :doubt: The car never left the trailer, and the trailer has 15" sides... I earned every piece I pulled :D I wasn't so much worried about the bars as I was the K, I heard the northern cars have issues with them rusting around the back bolt holes. Guess I'll throw it out back just in case, the T-bars will be pry bars.


I see the spindles are available new for about 3 bills, :D I paid $400 for the wrecked '74 Duster I bought and parted.


Yeah, I know all about cutting up cars and disposing of them in pieces... you can't scrap a body down here without a title. Evidently they've had a problem with stolen's being dumped at JY's and scrappers without titles and now there is a task force that visits them pretty regularly.
 
The title to junk thing is a federal law. Just in the last year or so.
 
Wasn't doubting the strength, just the crap design. I was hoping to jack it up pull 4 nuts, yank the axle shaft and recover the backing plate with ease. Not have to pull the rear apart to do it...
 
I've never seen a C-clip fail on a 9¼", but I have on the 8¼". It did some really-ugly damage to a gorgeous '73 340 Duster with which we were cruising. Up until that day, it was totally original, right down to the paint... the guy about cried, because the car was for sale and previously unmolested. The mileage escapes me now, but it was below 40K. I remember being with my roommate Danny, and telling him, "Oh shit--here we go!" when I saw that wheel start to walk out. It demolished the left rear of the car.
 
i have totaled 2 9.25s but the clips never let go..one in fact welded itself in
the pertronix is a blessing of a unit....and on my list for my 58 ford still

as for scrapin bodys..yeah its gotten TRICKY without a title...you gotta find the shadier yards.....i like to KEEP my old titles just for memorys sake ya know.......but what i dont get is you can scrap every bit of a pickup truck and why you ask"because every peice of it unbolts so we can take it"..aperantly it doesnt fall under the same law as cutups do....its down right gotten hard to even get rid of a quarter panel without knowing where you have to take it...or cutting it up into 1 foot squares
 
The design of the 9¼" is nearly indestructible. Sadly, as is always the case, production costs dictate the parts inside. The 9¼" in Stretch's truck is going away, but it's because of high mileage and piss-poor bearings from the factory (he's actually lucky to have gotten so many miles out of it). Same case with the "big" GM 10-bolt (the 8⅝" ring gear). Folks have told me for years that rear axle was crap and you needed to have a 12-bolt, but my Trans Am did not lead an easy life before or after I had it (Stretch knows one of the previous owners--he's not all that well balanced and the car was much faster then), and when it died in a crash, the factory 3.42 Saf-T-Track axle was still under the car... and I pounded the shit out of that car.
 
both of my 9s were in my ramcharger..fishy can atttest to how abusive i was/am to it.....the first one the pinion bearings let go while wheeling and it still got me home after removing the rear driveshaft and driving home in FWD mode...the second one the carrier bearings let go..same story FWD got me home...both were pretty mangled on the insides by the time i changed them out LOL since i DID use the truck to go get the axles from the wreckers LOL
 
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