Dwayne,
Your cam is a couple sizes smaller than mine. And you ran 12.80's. Not a lot of 12 second muscle cars running around these days.
Tremec TKX 5-Speed Conversion
- Thread starter CoronetDarter
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Your cam is a couple sizes smaller than mine. And you ran 12.80's. Not a lot of 12 second muscle cars running around these days.
Not sure if its original but it came with the car. Once the TKX is in I'll measure and get back to you. Thanks.
We rented a Fiat 500 Hybrid. The little POS had a 3 cylinder, 1.0 liter, 70 horsepower engine with a six speed! Speed was NOT an obvious quality the car had, so I really missed my Road Runner while on the highway!
Having said that, the little Fiat really worked well driving through small towns like this one. The road you see here was the main road in town - others were smaller!
Italy is on our bucket list. Did part did you visit?
We flew into Venice. Then we drove to where my wife's great grandfather came from, a little town called Citta St'Angelo. It is a little town on a hill; on the East coast near Pescara. We then headed to Rome.
I tell ya: The Romans were amazing engineers and builders. The Pantheon, for example, is 1900 years old and is still in use. The domed, concrete ceiling (with unreinforced concrete - no rebar) can't be built even today. From what I understand, Romans had some special way to make concrete that is superior even to our abilities today. There are many more examples of amazing stuff they built like the colosseum. But they also had aqueducts that fed holding tanks and pressurized water pipes for running water, along with sewer systems too. These folks had stuff figured out! I would go again in a heartbeat - it was very cool!
Sorry for derailing the thread!
When the Roman empire collapsed in the 5th century, most of their technology was lost.
No coincidence that was the start of the Dark Ages in Europe.
On Thursday we got the 727 out. Not without drama, but it's still much easier on a lift with a transmission jack than wrestling it out on a garage floor. We had left off with three bellhousing bolts in place along with the tranny cross member.
First things first, which I forgot to do: remove the fan shroud and if the fan assembly is close to the radiator, remove it too. In the Coronet, the fan blades are less than 1/2" from the shroud and the fan assembly, with a clutch, was only a couple of inches away from the Glen Ray radiator. After removing the cross member and lowering the trans jack down a bit, we heard a POP! It was the fan blade cracking the shroud. Fortunately the fan and clutch were still aways away from the radiator, but Greg removed the fan while I pulled the shroud nuts.
It's a clean break; JB Weld should bring it back together again with just a faint line.
First things first, which I forgot to do: remove the fan shroud and if the fan assembly is close to the radiator, remove it too. In the Coronet, the fan blades are less than 1/2" from the shroud and the fan assembly, with a clutch, was only a couple of inches away from the Glen Ray radiator. After removing the cross member and lowering the trans jack down a bit, we heard a POP! It was the fan blade cracking the shroud. Fortunately the fan and clutch were still aways away from the radiator, but Greg removed the fan while I pulled the shroud nuts.
It's a clean break; JB Weld should bring it back together again with just a faint line.
ckessel
Well-Known Member
Get some of this. Way better at bonding plastics. This stuff will actually do a chemical bond with plastic instead of just sitting there. If you have any connections at a body shop, they should have some, or similar, around. At the shop I managed, we used this stuff to repair door panels where mount tabs were broken off, trim pieces etc. It gets hot when its bonding due to the chemical reaction.
3M Universal Adhesive Black - 3, 08223, High Viscosity, Gap Filling, Durable, Industrial, 200 mL Cartridge
3M Universal Adhesive Black - 3, 08223, High Viscosity, Gap Filling, Durable, Industrial, 200 mL Cartridge
With the shroud and fan assembly removed, we were able to remove the three bellhousing bolts. They're a lot easier to access with the engine/trans tilted down a bit. The trans slid back enough to remove the torque converter, balancing out the fore and aft weight of the transmission. Here's we we ran into the next issue. The header collectors squeezed in towards the center enough that the bell's starter hump hung up on the collector. And we couldn't pull the tranny straight back because of the H-pipe. We wrestled the trans around, lowering up and down, but it wasn't going to clear. So we're contemplating: remove the driver's side header bolts, or cut the H pipe to gain clearance. The headers attach to the block with studs and nuts so backing out the nuts wasn't going to gain us much. Cutting the H pipe was considered, but that would require a trip to the local muffler shop afterwards.
It was Greg that came up with the solution. Loosening up the chains that held down the tranny to the jack, we rotated the tranny 90° so the starter hump was facing at 12:00. After that, the tranny dropped right down! I didn't get to take any pictures while this was going on, just the end result. As the saying goes "the ends justify the means".
It took about 2 1/2 hours and a lot of shop rags cleaning up tranny fluid to drop the beast and load it into the bed of my truck.
This is an old trick that I'm sure most of you know; when removing an auto trans, before removing the flexplate bolts from the torque converter, spray paint one of the 4 attachment tabs and the mounting tab on the TC. The flexplate mounts are not symmetrical so mark your starting point for reassembly. Of course if you swapped TC's, line up the new TC mounts to the flexplate before installing and mark the corresponding tab on the TC.
It was Greg that came up with the solution. Loosening up the chains that held down the tranny to the jack, we rotated the tranny 90° so the starter hump was facing at 12:00. After that, the tranny dropped right down! I didn't get to take any pictures while this was going on, just the end result. As the saying goes "the ends justify the means".
It took about 2 1/2 hours and a lot of shop rags cleaning up tranny fluid to drop the beast and load it into the bed of my truck.
This is an old trick that I'm sure most of you know; when removing an auto trans, before removing the flexplate bolts from the torque converter, spray paint one of the 4 attachment tabs and the mounting tab on the TC. The flexplate mounts are not symmetrical so mark your starting point for reassembly. Of course if you swapped TC's, line up the new TC mounts to the flexplate before installing and mark the corresponding tab on the TC.
Thank you. I've used their panel bonding adhesive before so I already have the applicator gun
ckessel
Well-Known Member
I've done the flex plate marking too. Works better than 3 tries.
BTW, I have to mention that when I got to Greg's shop on Thursday, he was sitting down and not moving much. When he got up, he was bent over like a 90 year old man. Turns out he has a bad disc that flairs up from time-to-time, and this was one of those times. It hurt just to watch him walk. But he was under the car, wrestling with that transmission for the better part of an hour, helping me flip it over. He's a stud.
1 Wild R/T
Well-Known Member
Not helpful for this swap but for those who are following & still playing with automatics.... If you should have the trans out & neglected to mark the torque convertor to flex plate... Well Mopar marked it for you...
See the little hole in the bolt circle at about 1 o clock? Well the torque convertor drain plug needs to be 180 degrees away from there...
See the little hole in the bolt circle at about 1 o clock? Well the torque convertor drain plug needs to be 180 degrees away from there...
1 Wild R/T
Well-Known Member
A stud? Yeah, but a big dummy too.. I have a similar back issue & I too force myself to work through it but wrestling a trans might be a little to much....
I didn't know that. Thanks.
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I've dealt with this type of back strain many times before. Each time while I'm healing, I have been able to do things within the limits of further damage.
I like Rich....but I'm not looking to risk paralyzing myself unless it is a life or death matter.
I like Rich....but I'm not looking to risk paralyzing myself unless it is a life or death matter.
1 Wild R/T
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Oh I get it, if you don't push through the pain the healing seems to take twice as long... And I'm sure your not looking to cruise around in a wheelchair as cool as some of them are..... Just be careful & stay off the roof...
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I've been to the roof and back and told the stories.
I still have no fear of doing the work and that is a good thing. Fear may keep you safe but it also kills the spirit of a man. I'd rather risk a bit to get stuff done than to play it safe from the couch the rest of my life.
I went back through my own Tremec installation thread to familiarize myself with some tasks that are coming. 40 page threads take awhile to get through.
Rich won't have many of the distractions that I had with my project.
He is starting with a column shift car with no console. There is no modifying the console parts and his original carpet will be reused.
No need to repaint his headers, no oil pan-valve cover-intake leaks to address, his flywheel will probably fit without machine work too.
The TKX has a rounder top that is supposed to fit without the sunroof sized hole I had to cut in mine. NO "doghouse" to cover the hole either.
For me, the two most difficult parts were the measuring of the bell housing runout and the final stuffing of the transmission into the car.
I love to learn from my past mistakes so here is what I've thought of.
If Rich wants, I'll modify the linkage rods of my dial indicator by shortening them to allow the needle to point at 90 degrees instead of this angle:
Next, some light lube on the input shaft and the pilot bearing may help the interface. I understand Rich's kit comes with a trans yoke but not a drive shaft. Slipping the yoke onto the output shaft would allow movement of the input shaft in case the splines are butting into each other instead of meshing.
I'm open to any suggestions as I'm sure Rich is.
I still have no fear of doing the work and that is a good thing. Fear may keep you safe but it also kills the spirit of a man. I'd rather risk a bit to get stuff done than to play it safe from the couch the rest of my life.
I went back through my own Tremec installation thread to familiarize myself with some tasks that are coming. 40 page threads take awhile to get through.
Rich won't have many of the distractions that I had with my project.
He is starting with a column shift car with no console. There is no modifying the console parts and his original carpet will be reused.
No need to repaint his headers, no oil pan-valve cover-intake leaks to address, his flywheel will probably fit without machine work too.
The TKX has a rounder top that is supposed to fit without the sunroof sized hole I had to cut in mine. NO "doghouse" to cover the hole either.
For me, the two most difficult parts were the measuring of the bell housing runout and the final stuffing of the transmission into the car.
I love to learn from my past mistakes so here is what I've thought of.
If Rich wants, I'll modify the linkage rods of my dial indicator by shortening them to allow the needle to point at 90 degrees instead of this angle:
Next, some light lube on the input shaft and the pilot bearing may help the interface. I understand Rich's kit comes with a trans yoke but not a drive shaft. Slipping the yoke onto the output shaft would allow movement of the input shaft in case the splines are butting into each other instead of meshing.
I'm open to any suggestions as I'm sure Rich is.
My buddy who’s doing the TKX swap, his kit from SST didn’t include a trans joke or a driveshaft, both are extra.
I wish I can help you guys, I love working on these old cars.
Greg take it easy with that bad disk, you don’t want to permanently damage your back
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Thanks. It only acts up occasionally. After it relaxes, I feel no pain and am pretty much normal. I see it like a headache in my back.
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