'67 Coronet K- member mods.

[BatMiro]

Cheers to all members,
I saved a '67 Coronet roller off the crushers, It had had a slant plus three on the tree, long time since gone.

As I have a running mid 80s 318+ 727 out of a truck (with a car oil pan on it), I am aiming of planting it into it.

I can't benefit from sourcing a correct 318 B- body K- member, the slant one ( quite awkward looking) has to be modified to take the 318 and here comes the question- which type of mopar mounts is the best way to go? I have got the truck- 318 brackets I can use or modify, or should better go for the big block type of a mount with a single bolt and welded nut on it?

As an addition, I also have an E- body small block V8 K- member I have no use for, but would it fit the B- body platform? I have read some confusing statements of different between E and B- bodies steering box flange angle. Any thoughts?

Thanks to all the knowledgeable peers.
Best of wishes from Europe.

 

[Kern Dog]

The E body K member will physically fit, there is a slightly different angle for where the steering box attaches. The 71-72 B and 70-74 E K members were supposed to have a unique center link to accommodate it but I have used an E body K member in a 70 Charger with no problems.
If you can weld, you could cut the mounts off of your 1967 K member and the E body unit and make the 67 unit resemble an original V8 unit.
I don't remember if the 67 models still had the crappy stud mounted idler arm mount or if they had switched to the superior double shear design like so:

That one above is a 73-76 A body unit but the idler arm mounts on the A body went to this double shear design in 1968. If yours is not like this one, the E body K member would be what I would use. If the steering box angle concerns you, just know that many Mopars had some amount of steering box angle and they drove fine. Here is mine:

You can see that my steering box is not square with the fore/aft lines of the K member but this car aligns right and drives straight.

 

[ckessel]

-67 used the Bayonet bolt for the idler arm. 68-70 is the double shear, better, unit in Greg's picture. -69 the sway bar is mounted in front of the k. 70, somewhat unique and what I'm using in my 65, runs the sway bar through the K. There is a mounting difference on the control arms for where the sway bar links attach to the control arms because of the width of the sway bars. Need either ones to match your bar or DIY some brackets to weld on. 71/72 used the E body K frame and like Greg mentioned there is a difference in the mounting pad for the steering box. The angle changed. You would need the center link for the E/B body to match that series like he said. Along with cutting off the mounts from one and putting it on the other, Schumacher engine-swaps.com, at one time did /6 to V8 packages so you didn't need to swap the K. Sourcing up a V8 unit for your car would be no problem here but the ride to you, plus customs etc, may kill the deal.

 

[BatMiro]

Well, I finally came round to have the E- body K- member installed.

But before getting there, it was a small battle going on- the damn thing seemed to never have been taken off the vehicle.
All the relevant steering and suspension related threads were seized, with the four main cross member bolts particularly badly.

The low- grade 1/2" battery- powered impact wrench did no more than waking the neighbours up at 0130am, so cracked them loose using the much trusted 3/4" 27mm socket (close enough) and a hard drive plus 1m. of a steel pipe for extra respect.

Luckily enough, no threads damage was present and after thoroughly wirebrushing of bolts and threaded holes plus some good grease on, all four of them went all the way in by hand.

As alerted and instructed, the steering box didn't align with the steering column and its input shaft was aiming higher then the column, at least good 5 degrees higher, maybe even more.
So as a counter measure I turned on the lathe a thin spacer that got one side face- milled to nest the lower steering box bolt. I find the other two bolts make sufficient contact with the mating surface so decided to give it a go and see what happens in time.

I also had to drill two sets of holes to fit the stock '67 B- body sway bar to the up going K- member. Few measures and the 8.5mm drill got it done.

Instead of getting back the original knuckle/ brake/ lower ball joint assy up, I decided to fit a set of relatively fresh E- body assemblies for the time being, until a time is sourced to have the stock irons looked into, like brakes hardware, lower ball joints, bearings, etc.

At the same time, with the K- member down and out of the way, at the cost of two castor bolts, one 125mm cutting blade and about three hours fiddling about, both upper control arms left the battlefield. Again pair of freshly rubbered and balled E- body units went up. An E- body idler arm, shimmed about 5mm to provide adequate size chain to tightening it replaced the stock one.

Finally, the E- body K- member is up, all relevant bits are fitted and the upcoming 318 would be welcomed soon, but nevertheless before a pair of engine mount bracket were fabricated.

Cheeres.