Tremec 5 speed swap into a '70 Charger

[darbgnik]

This is a stock 4 speed top plate.

So it looks like you may need to order the manual top plate overlay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/DMT-Mopar-68-70-B-Body-Manual-Console-Black-Leather-Look-Vinyl-Overlay-Sticker/360907379765?hash=item5407c19435:g:VoYAAOxySoJTS0Py

[Kern Dog]

Wonderful progress mate.

So you kept the Auto console and just planning to change the top plate. Hopefully they are interchangeable.

I know the manual console has a bigger bump on the driver's side to accomodate the side linkage of the 4 speed.

Hey there,
The Tremec 5 speed is an internal rail shifter design, much different from the stock external, side mounted shifter. The automatic console works just fine, it is only the shifter hole that is different.
I found a fix though....

[Kern Dog]

I did first admit defeat and put out a Want-To-Buy ad for a stock 4 speed console plate.
I started thinking that I might as well try to modify the automatic one that I have. I already sandblasted the chrome off of it, rendering it useless to most people buying at a swap meet.
The 4 speed shifter hole is 6 inches long. The shifter boot that came with this kit is about 5 inches long overall. I either needed a bigger boot or to shrink the hole.
The Tremec has much shorter throws than the 833. The shifter stub is also higher so the point from which it pivots is closer to the top plate of the console. These two things allow for a shorter arc of movement for the shifter lever and afforded me the opportunity to make the hole smaller and be able to use the boot I have. I'm not concerned with it looking original but it won't look like a butchered mess.
I moved the shifter to 3rd gear and marked 1 1/8" ahead of the lever, then shifted to 4th and marked 1 inch 1/8" . I then cut the console plate and test fitted it using  apiece of cardboard to simulate the end of the opening.

[Kern Dog]

Looks like it is going to work.
The pieces are die cast aluminum. I took a grinder disc to the ridges, knocking them down and cutting what I needed to fill in the back side of the hole.

[Kern Dog]

The hole will allow the boot to fit nicely. In fact, the console plate front and back are the right space apart to fit in between the  "ribs" of the boot.

[Kern Dog]

One drawback but not a big one...The spacing of the hole is a custom one. No "Off the shelf" vinyl overlay will work. I bought a set for a stock 4 speed and now I have no use for it. An automatic one would work for the top but a 4 speed one is too short for both sections. I'm going to look at commercial grade shelf paper or black textured plastic sheeting. I had first intended to use the black plastic long before I even turned a wrench on this project.

[Kern Dog]

That filled in section was epoxied in place with JB Weld.....

I did the back side first. By tomorrow it should be set up well enough to flip it over and get some on the top side. It doesn't have to look pretty, just have no bumps or ridges. There will be some type of covering over it whether it is the vinyl wrap over the thin sheet metal or the black textured plastic.

[Kern Dog]

Next up was the console brackets. The front one came off since that part of the transmission tunnel was cut out to make room. The middle console bracket is welded to the automatic trans shifter mounting bracket and I am keeping those intact to use on the other car, Jigsaw.

[Kern Dog]

The brackets were simple. I mocked them up before fitment. Tomorrow I weld them in place.

[Kern Dog]

Three things came in today...The Carpet from Rock Auto, the console top overlays and the clutch Up-Stop bumper. Man...I had no idea that those were so small!

[XH29N0G]

Three things came in today...The Carpet from Rock Auto, the console top overlays and the clutch Up-Stop bumper. Man...I had no idea that those were so small!

FYI - I added a little rubber spacer in addition to it so it would move the pedal a little lower. 

Do the JB weld tubes still have the little anecdotal advertising bits... you know something some grandma in Nebraska who used it to stick a tractor engine to to I-beam running across the barn to mechanize her gantry lift?

[Kern Dog]

No advertising on the JB Weld packages.

[XH29N0G]

No advertising on the JB Weld packages.

What a shame.  We lost something to the past. 

I recall a friend of mine reading the package and saying he needed to buy that stuff - just for what it said on the package.  They might have also lost some sales. 

[Kern Dog]

I remember the ads....Guy with a hard had stuck to an I-Beam, guy dangling while holding onto the hat...

I smeared some more of it on the top of the console plate.

[Kern Dog]

The tunnel patch panel was welded in place along with the console brackets.

[Kern Dog]

I put the car up on the lift and removed the transmission and bellhousing, then dressed the inside of the tunnel patch. I used some seam sealer on the edges and sprayed the bare metal with some Krylon.

[Kern Dog]

I will spread seam sealer on the interior side of the tunnel tomorrow.

Next up.....Removing the stock dowels in the back of the block. The instructions had a few suggestions including Vise Grips, drilling and tapping the middle, cutting a flat groove to pry with a screwdriver....
Nah.
LOOK at how little sticks out of the block! There isn't even 1/4" to grab on these.

[Kern Dog]

I took some stock lug nuts and welded them onto the dowels.
I left them about 1/8" off of the block so I could tap a Carpenters nail puller behind them.

[Kern Dog]

These are the measurements I got with the stock dowels in place.

[Kern Dog]

It was NOT a 5 minute job.


My technique:

Install the dowels. Tighten the center set screw.
Install the top 2 bellhousing bolts and the bottom 7/16" backwards bolts, installed snug.
Check runout and record numbers.
Back off bell bolts, back off dowel set screws, clock them slightly, tighten set screw.
Tighten bell bolts.
Recheck runout.
Repeat.
Repeat.
THIS is the final result.

[Kern Dog]

That is WELL within the .005 spec. There is .004 left to right and .0025 top to bottom.

[Kern Dog]

So far, yeah...THIS has been the LEAST fun, the most frustrating and the LEAST rewarding part. I was out there again today looking to verify the numbers. I repositioned the dowels in several ways to see what results I could get.
I was a dumb ass and didn't think to record where they were positioned from yesterday. This meant that I had a hell of a time getting it back into spec.
Yeah, I spent three hours today messing around with it. I had the bell off maybe 10 times. I clocked the pins multiple times. I read the instructions numerous times. This was a very frustrating day. I kept getting conflicting numbers that made no sense. I was yelling, cussing and bitching and not having any fun at all.
The original dowels indicated that I was .027 to the right almost  horizontal, something like 9:30 to 3:30. I was having trouble understanding that a POSITIVE number meant that the bell had to come back to get that number closer to zero. This meant that I had to point the dowel offset (High points) toward the positive number areas. I finished with it slightly better than yesterday but not knowing exactly why.
Once I got inside and talked to the Wife about it, I made sense of it. Point the offset/High points to the POSITIVE numbers.....IT is pretty easy when you understand it. Still, when I read in Mopar Action where Rick Ehrenberg states....Spend the 20 minutes to get this right I want to kick someone in the dick. 20 minutes my ass......

[66FBCharger]

Yeah! 20 minutes for someone who has done the process a few dozen times!
I did mine. I used the McRobb dowels as you did. Those dowels were much easier to use than a normal dowel. It took me a long time to get the bellhousing set where it should be. I was using a larger offset dowel than I needed so it moved the bellhousing too far. It took me quite a while to figure out what was happening. I went to a .014" dowel instead of the .021" and it came right into where it needed to be.

[Kern Dog]

Thanks. I was hoping that I was not the only one that had trouble.
I bought the dial indicator and a set of the smallest offset dowels from Summit racing, then found that I needed the .014 dowels.

[Kern Dog]

I went to bolt up the flywheel today and....it will not fit. The flange on the crank is 2.17 and the bore on the flywheel is 2.15. I checked 2 other stock flywheels and found that they measure the same as this new flywheel.