Unchewable, the D170

[kingcrunch]

That's a tight fit... 6.1 Cherokee SRT8 headers supposedly are way closer to the block than my Challenger headers but i would have to source a set first before i can proceed with placing the engine.

[kingcrunch]

Had to dissassemble. I did not know this thing has a dual clutch plate clutch assembly. Nice.



My chinese engine hoist absolutely hates lifting both... Needs better casters or more of them.
Anyhow, next the heater will be removed from the cab so i can do some more clearance checking for cutting the firewall.

[kingcrunch]

Oh and i forgot to mention this:

I think i found a solution for a shifter relocation on this Dodge variety of the Tremec TR6060.
Someone apparently had this same problem with the Chevy variety of the TR6060 transmission and was able to use a CTS-V center shift "recepticle".
Part no. is GM 19210307.

CTS-V



Challenger


It's "only" 120$ on Ebay including shipping... i think i'll order one as soon as i can rebuild funds.

[kingcrunch]

It's offical:
You can attach axles with 3.5" axle tubes to stock Chevy trailing arms.



Captainfab on 67-72chevytrucks.com hooked me up with a custom set of axle perches and i had the u-bolts (95mm bolt spacing, 18x1.5mm metric thread) made locally.
Fits like a glove inside the stock bolt holes.

[kingcrunch]

So i had a few days off to get things done on the truck... and then i got sick.
Might as well show what i was able to achieve.

I unfolded my cardboard coil bucket and transferred that into 3/16s steel sheet (not the final sheet gauge).







Then formed it in the bench vise





You can see i cheated and placed cuts to make bending easier.

I was now able to test fit stuff on the truck better than before.



I found i had to alter a lot of things. It was too wide, sitting too high and the top plate sitting at the wrong angle.



When i kinda liked the fit and the angle of the top plate, i figured i would need a gusset to triangulate it to the frame sidewall.








During all of that i was able to cut and grind away one of the old leaf spring axle perches on the M60...

[kingcrunch]

The CTS-V transmission part, called a "lever" showed up:



This is where it needs to go.






Some modification needed...
Shift rail needs to be removed, cut, drilled and the removed piece needs to be shortened and turned down, because the "lever" is assymetrical:
The diameter of the rail going to the rear of the transmission is smaller.

[kingcrunch]

This is a general call for opinions:

I am considering rigidly interconnecting my trucks cab and bed by a to-be-dreamed-up metal profile that bolts to the back wall of the cab and the front wall of the bed (so to speak).

This metal profile could span almost the whole width and height of the front wall of the bed, say four by one and a half feet of surface.

My thought is, that this would further help stiffen up the frame, which - in my case - will be bolted solidly to the cab by means of aluminum pucks (that will eventually replace the cab mounts)
and is solidly bolted to the bed.


A full race cage is still in the future of this truck but i this idea keeps coming back to my mind.

I hope my crude explanation can be understood.
Any thoughts on that?


Thanks,
Alex

[kingcrunch]

Nothing new here. Stalling at the moment...

[bovey]

The CTS-V transmission part, called a "lever" showed up:

Some modification needed...
Shift rail needs to be removed, cut, drilled and the removed piece needs to be shortened and turned down, because the "lever" is assymetrical:
The diameter of the rail going to the rear of the transmission is smaller.

Thanks for this update. I'm about to do the same thing to my Tranzilla. Who's shifter are your planing on using? I had good luck with my last McLeod. But using the Viper mount location should open up other options, I just need to find them.

[kingcrunch]

Is that a TR6060 based transmission?
The T56 has a different shift detent thingamabob underneath the lever shown above, so this particular part will not work with the shift detent arrangement in a T56.

That is how much i was able to find out:
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...=300892&page=3

I am still undecided on what shifter i want to use and thus pushed the research for this particular topic away from me until i know where the engine and transmission will actually locate.
I would like to center the shifter in the stock cutout, that is a 5" setback requiring cutting of the firewall...

I was looking into the reasonably priced core shifters: https://core-shifters.com/products/c...eed-trans-swap

[brawls43]

Yeah Core or Hanlon seem like the limited options for a midshift on the TR6060, depending on which TR6060 it is, or which car it came out of.
http://cart.hanlonmotorsports.com/hm...-mid-shift-kit



T56 has some other midshift options, too bad they're not the same.

[kingcrunch]

Hanlon looks a lot like Core... or the other way round. I don't care as long as they don't rattle apart...

I was looking into the Core products because they offer options for very long (typical in a truck application) shifter sticks.
Apparently Core changes the fulcrum point to maintain a relatively short throw, despite the long stick.

[kingcrunch]

Went on a rampage this weekend:










The cutouts will be redone in carbon fiber. About 8lbs saved. And then i looked over to the shelf with the hole-saws...





That's another pound of metal removed.

[kingcrunch]

While i am waiting for funds to build back up, i started tearing into the next big modification on this truck:

The rear fenders are about 1.1" too narrow per side to house the big 305 tires i want to run.
That's on the outside. The inside needs a little more clearance as well.

So, plan of attack:

- drill out all the spot welds that attach the inner parts of the wheel house to the bed and the bed sides.
- find a way to widen the outer part of the wheel house. Because that is part of the inner bed side...
I think i am going to cut it parallel to the inner bedside, push the outer bedside 1.1" out and bridge the gap with a strip of sheetmetal.

Then on to the inner wheel housing:
- cut the bed floor so the inner wheel house can move further inside (like flush with the frame), retaining the lip that the inner wheel house welds to.
- widen the inner wheel house with another strip of sheet metal and reattach

Should give me a 3" wider wheel house in total and look stock too.


Drilling out spot welds over head is real fun... not.

[kingcrunch]

So here we have it. Official travel warning for trucks to Germany: You will get cut up!
I can bear the beating i will receive for cutting up a completely rust free, pristine bed. ;D

Here we have one uncovered wheel:



After i had drilled all the spot welds - some were hidden quite well - the inner wheel house just pulled out.
You can already see where i placed my cut to part the outer wheel house from the inner bedside.

Working with highly specialized and pro-level fender pushing tools here:



Thus.





The fender in front of the wheel arch moves freely and nicely but the rear is still hesitant. One too many spot welds still holding it in place...
Will be solved next week.

So far this is going well and i can easily achieve my goal of 1.2" (30mm) wider rear fenders.
The inner wheel house is basically an exercise.

Why tub it, when there's that much room for the 305? Because 335. I am already thinking about 335s on the rear...

[kingcrunch]

This wheel topic still is not solved... somehow i took some bogus measurements, tricking me into believing that a 20x10" wheel would fit a SRT-10 upright.

[kingcrunch]

I am so glad i did not order the Forgelines early... this would have been a total desaster.
Here's why:

I wanted to run 20" wheels. Because 22s are a bit on the large side on an 80s truck...
So i figured - and this was horribly wrong - i could just have 10x20s made in the 3/4" offset the OEM Ram 1500 9x20 wheels have.
I completely ignored the fact that the stock tire on these 9x20" wheels has a larger diameter (33") than the stock tire on a SRT-10 (31.6").

Kind of embarrassing...

So besides the fact that even 10x20s wont fit the upright, the scrub radius would have been horrible as well.

And i kept wondering why the SRT-10s 10x22s have a 1" offset while the regular OEM 9x20s have a 3/4" offset....


Limited options here:

10x22" OEM wheels, with a 305/35 R22 tire (a little bit smaller than the OEM 305/40 R22) or another "mad scientist"-idea:


Mill a wedge off the mounting surface of the wheel bearing and change the SAI so 10x20s can fit. But i doubt this will actually work out...

[kingcrunch]

Chassis build continues.
I aquired some more materials to make the LCA mount jig and another prototype for the upper coil bucket.

[kingcrunch]

More prototypes, still working on the upper coil spring mount but getting close to the final product.



Did all the bends on my improvised metal brake (piece of angle iron and something to push on it in the press).







Needs some modification here, did not think it through far enough...



Then i proceeded with making a new top brace, which will double the thickness of the metal directly above the spring and triangulate the mount to the frame further.






This is made from 3mm or 11 gauge sheet metal plate.
The final piece shall be 8 gauge (or 4mm) S355 plate, which is stronger than the material the frame is made of.

[kingcrunch]

Parts4progress!

Placed a 700$ order at Rockauto for brake and steering parts (booster + master cylinder, steering rack + tie rod ends) to become able to proceed with replacing the firewall.
I need to know where to place the engine (with the Challengers exhaust manifolds installed) and to do that, the firewall and some of the floor needs to go.

I really want to make a new one from 19 gauge (1mm) steel... the old one should be easy to remove. Drill all the spot welds and away it goes...

In the meantime i am like: