Tremec 5 speed conversion in a 1970 Charger

[ckessel]

Greg, what calibration choices do you get for the speedo? One truck I worked on had the cluster upgraded by Classic. There was 3? choices on setting the speedo. Where I was working at the time had a smog dyno. We were able to use that to set the unit. One guy was in the truck, in D on the rollers and watching the speed readout on the dyno with me on the calibration buttons on the speedo module. Once the parameters were met I did the calibration sequence. There was not a very good spot for me to set it on the road going by markers. With the programmer for my Ram, a Smarty unit, they give you an option to set it by the tire rev's per mile. If you have that option, you just need to measure the circumference of the tire to get inches then do the math to see how many rev's per mile. Works very well if thats available too.

 

[Kern Dog]

Without digging into the specifics, the speed sensor generates pulses that the "brain" interprets. The Dakota Digital system has the capability to read a wide range of pulses. The procedure, in short, is to start at the beginning of a known, measured mile. Press a button to bring up the system, choose the option, press another button and drive that mile. At the end of that mile, press a button again and boom....done.

 

[HawkRod]

Make it a Root Beer & we can have a party

And Hawk, please let me know when you're buying; I'll belly up the bar.

Happy to do it gentlemen, Greg and others too! Either at Carlisle and/or next time I can get on a cross country road trip. Let's hope for fall this year if this damn pandemic eases up...

 

[CoronetDarter]

Happy to do it gentlemen, Greg and others too! Either at Carlisle and/or next time I can get on a cross country road trip. Let's hope for fall this year if this damn pandemic eases up...

Yes sir!

 

[ckessel]

Ok.

 

[Kern Dog]

Why for the sake of appearance? It's supposed to be down there so you can pivot your toes off the go pedal and onto the brake pedal without lifting your heel and vis versa! Think starting on a hill...

I wanted to revisit this topic about the brake pedal height.
Backing up a bit.....
My experience, while limited compared to some of the more "seasoned" members, has been that a power brake car often had a lower pedal height than a manual brake car. Right or wrong, that is what I have seen.
This car was a manual brake, 4 wheel 10 inch drum setup. I bought the car in March 2000 and at that time, it was my first B body. I had already owned 11 A body cars and was pretty familiar with them. I parted out a 1975 Dart 4 door and took the front disc brakes and the booster/master cylinder/lines and proportioning valve from it and put it in this car. Everything bolted up as if it were made for it. I didn't know what a stock B body brake booster and master cylinder looked like or how it mounted. I didn't know about the under-dash pedal linkage that the B body models used for power brakes.
Sometime a few years back, I took a spare brake pedal and drilled a new hole for the pushrod, making it closer to the top for more leverage. When I did that, it raised the pedal a slight amount. I wrote about this in the early days of this project but I'll recap:

 

[dadsbee]

Mine, OE booster/linkage/master, for reference.

 

[Kern Dog]

The old pedal next to the new one:

Old pedal:

New pedal:

There is a 1/4" difference between the 2.
Long ago, I did the math on the pedal ratio change that resulted from the relocation of the hole but I don't recall it now. It may be written in a notebook.
Regardless, the change to this new pedal resulted in the brake pedal sitting closer to the floor than it did before. That 1/4" difference translates to approximately 1 1/8" difference in height at the pedal pad.

 

[Kern Dog]

Mine, OE booster/linkage/master, for reference.

Wow, what a difference.
No offense, but that much of a difference would really bug me!

 

[Kern Dog]

My point is also that while all the A-body stuff did fit, maybe the pedal height is lower than a stock B body with power brakes. I'm lucky that this hydraulic clutch doesn't need as much pedal travel as a regular one.

 

[joe smith]

Thats the era when Disc brake cars became the norm.. They were ALL like that... 71/72 I was working at a service station after school and saturdays... I remember distinctly saying the same thing you are... It was very different seeing the change n brake pedal height... ALOT more manual transmissions around so we saw alot of them.......

 

[Kern Dog]

I am going to do some periodic updates here for topics related to the swap. Some will be transmission related and others will be regarding things that were changed or fixed while I was busy with the project.
I have driven 41 miles so far. The oil pan and block are still dry. Ordinarily, there would be some oil streaks on the headers by now so maybe the pan gaskets and The Right Stuff are a winning combination. It really would be great to be able to park anywhere and not worry about leaving a spot.
It was a HUGE relief when the speedometer and the backup lights worked. I soldered the original wires to the Tremec pigtails then connected them before the first of 4 trial fittings of the transmission. In a moment of frustration, I lowered the transmission jack to look for a cause for the poor fitment and I forgot to disconnect the wires. The weight of the transmission had the wires stretched and at tension. I thought that multiple strands of the wires may have torn, causing a failed signal. I got lucky there.
I took the rear bumper off to trace a problem.

The right hand backup light wasn't coming on. I replaced the bulb but I still had nothing. I didn't know that the housing grounds the lamp through the screws to the valance. A new bulb and scraping some crud allowed the light to work again.

Unrelated...The RH tailpipe hanger broke and was crooked like you see above. Yeah, I fixed that too.

 

[Kern Dog]

I still have this clutch safety switch too.

Right now, the brown wire on the starter relay.....

Is disconnected and a short section of another wire is attached to the relay and grounded to the firewall.
Here is the question.....
Can this grounded wire be used to trigger the clutch safety switch? In other words, can I run a wire to ground, through the switch and back to the relay? Would that work?

 

[1 Wild R/T]

As discussed previously we need to know if the switch is N/O or N/C... But basically yes, you want to set it up so the relay is grounded when the clutch is depressed....

 

[Kern Dog]

I have a rudimentary understanding of electrical systems so while I do understand Normally open and normally closed, I'm not experienced enough with many things to just dig right in.
Sometimes I jump into the unknown and figure things out. I could wire this up in "mock-up" form just to see what it does.
I'm still contemplating the extension of the brake pedal pushrod.

 

[Kern Dog]

As discussed previously we need to know if the switch is N/O or N/C... But basically yes, you want to set it up so the relay is grounded when the clutch is depressed....

I was just wondering if the entire circuit could be a matter of completing a ground instead of feeding a "positive".
Keep in mind my lack of training on this stuff.
Usually, I have used a switch to intercept the positive feed.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Yup, wire it in & see what position the switch needs to be in to allow the starter to work, then figure out how to mount it so its in that condition when the clutch is depressed...

 

[1 Wild R/T]

I was just wondering if the entire circuit could be a matter of completing a ground instead of feeding a "positive".
Keep in mind my lack of training on this stuff.
Usually, I have used a switch to intercept the positive feed.

Ground side switching vs power side switching six of one half dozen of the other... Makes no difference...

 

[Kern Dog]

Wouldn't a switch of the ground side be less prone to fires if a wire came loose?

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Kinda depends on which wire came loose...

FWIW ground side switching is actually easier on the switch contacts, less prone to metal transfer & welding the contacts together..