Ok. I sort of hinted at the project a while back. Now we can talk
about it. The DACUDA has been resurrected. The truck has been
converted to a 5 speed beefed up NV3500, 9.25" rear with 3.90 gears and
MagHytec cover, Viper disc brakes all around (don't ask, I am not going
to tell anyone how to do it!), Hurst short throw shifter, custom billet
shifter ball. Now before you start going on about why change out from
an auto trans, this is a road race and autocross truck, not a dragster.
More fun this way anyhow.
Problems we ran into... Headers - different part numbers for manual
versus automatic. Also the location where the collector flange connects
to the exhaust pipe before the cat is 10 inches more aft on the manual
trans! Get out the grinder and sawzall! The main issue was we needed
new bolts and such. The manual flywheel uses different bolts than the
automatic flywheel. The pressure plate/clutch pack we got (yes, very
beefy!!!) didn't have the pressure plate bolts included!! A lot of
bolts that connect the trans to the engine were different between the
two trans. Even some of the parts departments didn't know what we
needed! Flywheel sensor different between the two trans. The pilot
bearing hole in the crank was suppoed to be around 1.001" in diam. Try
0.984"!! We ran through a grinding bit with the Dremel on that one!!!
Destroyed three pilot bearings before we got it right!!
The trans tunnel is a lightweight metal shell with a lot of plastic
undercoating on it. Cuts like KAKA! The 97 5.2L auto interior trans
tunnel had two humps in it that are not there for the manual version.
You need to pound them out to get the floor console to fit and then
bolster up under the carpet on the sides of the tunnel to get the
console to sit flush. The engine wiring harness had to be swapped for a
manual one. What a pain. Then we find out that while everything else
hooked up fine, the speed sensor connection to the trans had changed
probably due to different manufacturers. Had to cut the old one off the
original harness to make it work. The new Holley Performance plug wires
already are melting after one month of use! The pedals were easy to
swap out but we also had to put in a new steering column specifically
for a manual. Can't use the automatic steering column and just
disconnect stuff.
After all of this work, we are now sidelined. Why? Apparently the
drive shaft we ordered had to have the metal mined somewhere, smelted,
forged and then sent to the main warehouse at DC. It is somewhere on
the road!!! Hopefully it will be in thursday and then we can finish
this beast! You can expect to see the entire project and read about it
in an upcoming issue of Sport Truck Mag. There were a lot of little
stuff that we found out about during the course of this project!!!!
Sure will be nice to drive the darn truck again this weekend!!!
TTYL
Jim
DACUDA II
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:01:55 EDT