Tremec 5 speed conversion in a 1970 Charger

[chargervert]

It's great to see you tearing into it kern,it's a great looking car,and you are really going to enjoy it once the manual transmission is installed. The best thing about having the other Charger is that everything that you remove from this car can be used on the other car. I am constantly shifting parts from one Charger to another, and as I acquire other parts,which car gets them is changing constantly.

 

[CoronetDarter]

Interesting how great minds think alike. I used the shift fork grommet also to bring the handheld cable for the FI through the firewall. Only difference is I ran the 1/0 cable through the grommet; with only the FI cable there was plenty of room.

 

[watermelon]

Kern...see the attached pic....keep the rear bracket in (boxed in blue) and also try and keep the front part in if possible. i found i had to remove the frontmost bracket for my tko install; the console went in fine and is in there solidly with the two rear connection points. the area in yellow is probably a ballpark where you want to make the opening. start small then trim as necessary...i have a feeling you may get real good at sliding that tko in n out of place.



watermelon

 

[Kern Dog]

Greg, their website has all sorts of instructions/documentation on swaps:
https://shiftsst.com/installation-manuals

I clicked on that and saw a few sub-sections that seemed to be missing from my packet. I got a "manual to manual" section that is not applicable. I'll get the wife to print that out for me...I'm the home repair and car half here, she is the computer savvy one.

 

[dadsbee]

IS IT DONE YET... Is it done yet...??? Grab the air chisel and get at'r....

 

[moparedtn]

I clicked on that and saw a few sub-sections that seemed to be missing from my packet. I got a "manual to manual" section that is not applicable. I'll get the wife to print that out for me...I'm the home repair and car half here, she is the computer savvy one.

Yeah, I saw the trans tunnel doc and such and figured maybe you could use those.

 

[Kern Dog]

I only had a couple of hours of free time today but I got a few things done.
In 2001 when I converted from a 318 to a 440, I bought an aluminum Griffin radiator from Summit. I was working out of town and free time was scarce. When it arrived, it was a model without a built in transmission cooler. I went ahead and kept the radiator and just used an add on external cooler. It has been in the car all this time and has worked fine.

This won't be needed here anymore....

I have this thing where I am trying to do what I can with the car on the ground before lifting it up to do the underside stuff. I figure that this cooler needed to come off, the rubber hoses too. I was going to remove the Kickdown cable but got distracted....Staying on task can be difficult sometimes.

Next up, clutch and brake pedals!
The instructions were great here. First, remove the fresh air vent. That is the black grille you see to the left of the brake pedal. This has to come out to have room to get the longer brake and clutch pedal PIN that they swing off of.
The vent is held in with three speed nuts, 3/8". Mine were clean and came off easy. The gasket was still nice too.
Sometime in 2014 or so when I was trying to get better braking performance, I took a spare brake pedal and drilled a hole above the stock one, effectively increasing the pedal ratio. It worked quite well. The brakes start to grab within an inch of travel.
These reproduction pedals are designed to fit like a stock pedal. I am preparing myself for a slight reduction of braking performance.

It looks a bit rough but after I drilled the hole, I welded a washer over it and spritzed it with some cheap paint.

The pivot distance with the old pedal:

 

[Kern Dog]

The distance with the new pedal:

I will lose about 1/4" of distance. I have power brakes so it won't be as dramatic due to the fact that the power booster has a reduction built in to the linkage.
Here are the components:

I have never seen the underside of the dash in a manual trans B body so this was all new to me. The installation of the pedals looked like a simple parts exchange and for the most part, it was.
The brake pedal uses those thin nylon bushing sleeves you see here, just like stock:

The clutch pedal though...It has a slick looking bearing inside!

That is "Jigsaw" in the background....

 

[1 Wild R/T]

As long as the pin that goes through those needle bearings is hardened it'll be fine.... To often I've seen needle bearings run on mild steel & the shaft fails... Try dragging a file over the edge of the shaft in a non-critical area... if the file cuts the shaft you should consider options...

 

[Kern Dog]

The shaft was a dark gray in color, it looked like hardened steel...
I packed it with good wheel bearing grease too.

In automatic cars, the brake pedal was hung on a steel pin. The mounting bracket kept the pedal supported on both sides. On manual trans cars, the clutch pedal went to the left of the main bracket using a longer mounting pin that was cantilevered out.
These next 2 pictures are with the A/T pedal, just for reference.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

The shaft should still be sticking out past the support bracket, try dragging a file over it.... Most of the hardened steel on my materials shelves is shiny, dull gray tends to be pretty soft.... Easy to machine but soft...

 

[Kern Dog]

To support the cantilevered mounting pin, the factory used a bracket like this reproduction:

This one did not want to fit. There are 2 bolts that go through the firewall and one that attaches to the main support bracket that the brake pedal hinges on. The hole on THIS side of the large hole is where the pin sits.

That hole was off by about 1/8". I simply filed the hole a bit and trial fitted it until it was a snug interface.

So, pedal swap complete, sort of.
I want the pedals to sit at the same height at rest once I am finished. This may take some work to get there. The clutch pushrod is adjustable so that will help. The brakes though....
My brakes are a hodgepodge of incorrect parts that work great. One of the first changes I made to the car in 2000 was the front disc brakes from a 1975 Dart. I used the spindles/knuckles, lower ball joints, brake booster and master cylinder. I've rebuilt the front end and replaced the master cylinder but I still have this A body booster and all that comes with it.

I have rear disc brakes now and oddly, this setup works quite well. I would prefer to have a manual brake setup here though. In 2012 I fumbled around with a few manual master cylinders and never found an effective combination so I put this power setup back on.
The added ratio that the automatic pedal had resulted in the pedal sitting off the floor a comfortable amount. This new pedal sits closer to the floor. That is fine as long as the brakes grab before the pedal hits the floor. I have to wait and see how much travel the clutch pedal needs to function. If the clutch pedal needs to sit higher to have enough travel, I may have to pull the brake pedal pushrod to modify it.
I am tempted to swap in a manual disc master cylinder with an adjustable pushrod. The manual setup leaves that area looking so much cleaner and less cluttered and would also save about 15 lbs. I just need some assurances that a manual setup can have the same stopping force as this power setup has.

 

[Kern Dog]

The shaft should still be sticking out past the support bracket, try dragging a file over it.... Most of the hardened steel on my materials shelves is shiny, dull gray tends to be pretty soft.... Easy to machine but soft...

I will check that tomorrow.
The instructions mention a clutch pedal pad? I took that to be some type of means to limit upward travel of the Pedal? There was none in the kit and I have never seen one to know what they look like. I can probably make something and attach it to the brake pedal mounting bracket. Without it, what stops the clutch pedal from springing up and pulling the pushrod out of the clutch master cylinder ?

 

[moparedtn]

I will check that tomorrow.
The instructions mention a clutch pedal pad? I took that to be some type of means to limit upward travel of the Pedal? There was none in the kit and I have never seen one to know what they look like. I can probably make something and attach it to the brake pedal mounting bracket. Without it, what stops the clutch pedal from springing up and pulling the pushrod out of the clutch master cylinder ?

Mercy, young man....have ye not a FSM?
What you're asking about (I think?) is called the "up stop bumper":
http://www.brewersperformance.com/proddetail.php?prod=CPS820

Let's see if I can show this in a pic:

The appendage that comes forward off the clutch arm (that has the pin for the over-center spring and such) is also intended to terminate with a bladed "hook" that catches up under the bracketry as shown.
The little rubber bumper I linked above inserts into a hole for it in that bracket.
When you release the clutch pedal, the clutch arm bottoms out against the bracket at that hook, with the rubber bumper softening the blow - and when you do it rather rapidly, it
sort of gives out a dull "thump" sound as it hits.

 

[Kern Dog]

Yeah, there is nothing like that in the kit.
Of course I have a Factory Service Manual...It is about 180 feet away in the 40 degree shop while I am in the warm house on the couch!

 

[moparedtn]

Yeah, there is nothing like that in the kit.
Of course I have a Factory Service Manual...It is about 180 feet away in the 40 degree shop while I am in the warm house on the couch!

Well, hit that "refresh" and looky at the pic I just added on my post then.

 

[Kern Dog]

I can make something like that. Rebound bumpers for control arms or something.
OR I can call these dudes tomorrow...
https://www.classicindustries.com/product/1970/dodge/charger/parts/md2526.html

 

[moparedtn]

I can make something like that. Rebound bumpers for control arms or something.

I think maybe on yours it would be like this?

 

[Kern Dog]

Yeah....

I just went out back to look. The clutch master cylinder has a threaded bolt that extends from the bore. The pushrod has a threaded sleeve and a jam nut to secure it. Still, I will need some sort of bumpstop. The other 2 cars that I converted to a 4 speed required a total pedal and cage swap. All the stuff was attached and swapped as an entire unit.

 

[moparedtn]

Yeah....

View attachment 1053649

I just went out back to look. The clutch master cylinder has a threaded bolt that extends from the bore. The pushrod has a threaded sleeve and a jam nut to secure it. Still, I will need some sort of bumpstop. The other 2 cars that I converted to a 4 speed required a total pedal and cage swap. All the stuff was attached and swapped as an entire unit.

So...you're not using the stock pedal setup then? That's your pic I used in #78...