I'm trying to put a set of Summit headers in my 73 Roadrunner and I'm having a pretty tough time doing it. I tried the passenger side from the top and no way the collector won't fit between the motor and the inner fender. From the bottom the flange and pipes won't fit between the bell housing area and the torsion bars. The car is a 73 Roadrunner factory 318 car with the bottom of the passenger side inner fender cut back about an inch. Now has a 440 with Schumacher mounts and power steering. Does anybody have any tricks to help me out ?

they have to come in from below car high enough and motor ot of mounts
good luck

unbolt one mm at a time and jack it up so you have room to work.

as said above, go through from underneath, tip the engine by removing the motor mount bolt and jacking that side of the engine with either a bottle jack or a shop jack (put a piece of 2x4 between the jack and oil pan rail)and you should be ok. the starter might have to come out.

73/74 RR with factory installed big block had a big slab of the inner fender cut out for exhaust clearance, could be what your problem is.

I was struggling with my headers on my 73 with a 440. Like the other guys said, raise the car high enough. I found it much easier to remove the steering linkage. Seperate both outer tierods, idler arm, and pitman arm. Place the entire setup out of the way. You can easily swing the pitman arm to ease the process. It made installing both headers a piece of cake. No lifting the motor. I was thinking to myself, "why the hell didnt I think of this before?" This is what worked for me. good luck. Lonny

Did anybody have to remove the shield/can over the rag joint on the steering column near the steering box to install the headers on the drivers side ?

I didn't have to touch my steering column, but 73 may have been different that 74.

I put my summit headers in from the bottom. I also run the schumacher mounts. I unbolted the mounts from the k-frame and used my engine hoist to lift my motor up until the trans was touching the top of the tunnel. Then the headers went in from the bottom. It was not difficult at all.

Daytona I saw the pictures of your column and it's completely different than mine. Mine has has the slip joint then a rag joint with the shield covering it near the gear box it doesn't look like yours has a rag joint at all just the slip joint at the gear box from the pictures I saw.

They corrected the rag joint location in '74 closer to the firewall, away from the exhaust heat.

The size of the headers makes a difference too when installing Bigger tubes generally harder to fit The higher the car the better to get in from underneath and a helper sure will go a long way.

The headers are the Summit 1-7/8 coated headers http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-G9141/

Good to know for sure. I had thought I heard the 74 steering column was different but wasn't sure. I just looked at a pic of a 73 column, and it's way more bulky lower down on the column where on mine the joint is right near the firewall. Looks like the #1 header tube may interfere with your column rag joint.

You saw in those pics I sent you what the clearance was like around my steering column. You may be better off switching to a 74 column..?