Hello everyone My son just picked up a 69 Dart from his grandmother and needs some help. Where can I find some OEM parts for this if even possible? He is looking for lug studs (front left, LH threads) and tires, P185/80R13.

He wants to restore this to original, bless his heart!

 

Wheel studs should be available at auto parts store, Tires at tire store.

 

It's simpler to replace them all with RH studs, it's otherwise a pain in the behind finding studs and lugnuts and some service techs not old/experienced enough to remember the oddball configuration are likely to snap the lefthanders off or spin them/strip out the stud holes with an impact gun.

 

We have looked at all of our parts stores and can not find a hub assembly that will work on the 69 dart. Can anyone point me in the right direction to find a supplier for parts?

 

Dumb question perhaps... is there something wrong with the hub you have? changing wheel studs just a matter of pressing the old ones out and the new ones in.

I'd suspect a wrecking yard/craigslist/ebay are the only places you will find parts that old, also suggest you look up some online forums that focus specifically on the old classics, I know there are slant 6 user groups and clubs on line, someone probably has parts you need laying around in their garage

 

Not quite a dumb question! I guess if my son and I had known that Mopar had put LH threads on the left side of the car we wouldn't have snapped one off and stripped a couple of the other ones. Had them pressed out and the hub is bad enough that the new lugs just slip in and slip back out by hand. Lesson learned!

 

Your hub is not necessarily beyond use...

While wheel studs often will have enough interference fit to keep themselves in place after driving the old studs out, the proper way for the old Mopars is to have them installed by a machine shop, wherein they are swaged into place...

Meaning a special tool is used to in essence make a rivet out of the stud by pressing from both sides to deform the stud where it passes through the flange and create an interference fit and lock the stud in place. if the link below does not work, simply do a search on "swaging wheel studs"
http://books.google.com/books?id=mNI...0studs&f=false

When a swaged stud is pressed out, the expanded swaged portion often can't help but enlarge the hole a bit on it's way out... also why a press is often needed to remove them... and new ones swaged into place to literally become a part of the hub or axle flange rather than a nut/bolt assembly. take a look at the other hub/drum you'll see the deformation at the base of the stud.

This is commonly overlooked by do it yourselfers because too often new studs can simply be driven in with not much effort, just a hammer. It works as the wheel/drum/hub are bolted together but from a machinists/structural assembly point of view it is not exactly a one piece (hub+brake drum)rigid structure as intended. The caveat is that not ALL wheel studs are swaged, depends on the manufacturer/vehicle.

For future reference re LH threading, LH nuts are generally marked with an impression on the "points" of the nut between the flats, later on some lug nuts were stamped LH so it would be obvious.
LH bolts are marked as well, I'm not sure there is a standard way for marking LH fasteners, I think it varies by manufacturer. You'll find LH threading on different things, typically so that a spinning shaft would cause the fastener to tighten rather than loosen when vibration is combined with rotation.

Obscure stuff for the average DIY'r, though have to say I learned the hard way busting LH studs on my first car many years ago just as you have. I've owned a few Darts, fun simple cars to work on.

 

Stephens Performance will have the parts you need either reproduction or used form their salvage yard.
FF

 

Hubs are a junkyard part, since not a wear item. Hubs for 9" drums, 10" drums, and disk brakes are all different, as are the spindles and ball joints. The control arms are the same (1972 and down). I understand you can get studs with a thicker base to fix the "enlarged hole" problem. Many people just weld the stud end to secure a loose one. Consider the wheels you eventually want because some require longer studs. Install RH studs everywhere, too many tire monkeys spin LH thread ones and don't tell you (Goodyear did to me). It wasn't just Chrysler that used LH threads, even Japanese cars did.

Before anything, think at a higher level. You probably have drum brakes and even the smaller 9" ones. So many people upgrade to front disks that you can get the entire upper control arm to hub assembly *******ly free. Ditto for 6 cyl engines. I recently got an engine and tranny free from a local guy who gave up trying to sell it. Might be a good time to upgrade to at least 10" drum brakes. There are affordable kits to add disk brakes to either a 9" or 10" drum spindle and hub. The 9" parts are notorious for failing. Both 9" hubs in my 69 Dart had the bearing spin and ruin them.

 

http://www.mpbrakes.com/