Tremec 5 speed swap into a '70 Charger

[Kern Dog]

The console top plates were sprayed with 3 coats of base coat black and 3 coats of matte clear. The center sections that were woodgrain are now covered with black textured vinyl.

[Q5XX29]

I've really enjoyed following along here. Nice job. I'm anxious for you to take that maiden voyage and hear your impressions.

[Kern Dog]

I've really enjoyed following along here. Nice job. I'm anxious for you to take that maiden voyage and hear your impressions.

Thank you. I'm getting close. I expect a few snags to pop up before everything is finished.
Right now, I have the clutch pedal pushrod adjusted so that the clutch and brake pedals are even. I need to bleed the clutch master cylinder and start the car up to see if the clutch pedal has enough travel. If it needs more, I'll adjust the pedal to sit higher. To get the brake pedal to match the clutch, I can pull the brake pedal pushrod to cut and extend it.
I have touched or moved several things along the way and I expect to see a leak or something that doesn't work. I've encountered some small obstacles so far and been able to work around them. It has taken longer than I expected but I have not been out there every day for 8 hours at a time.

[darbgnik]

Time to drive it!!!! haha

[Kern Dog]

Yeah, I'm closing in on the finish line.

The console was assembled and installed. The forward console plate was adjusted as far forward as I could but the console door wouldn't close. I had to slot the mounting tabs of the console plate to get it to slide forward another 1/4".

[Kern Dog]

I cleaned and reinstalled the left side fresh air vent, then cleaned and repainted the parking brake lever.
The wiring that was rerouted at the start of this project was connected to the "Brain Box" of the instrument cluster. The seats are in. I'm going to button up everything before bleeding the clutch and starting the car.

[Kern Dog]

Woooo

[Kern Dog]

I started it up today to see what works and what doesn't.
I had to rig a short wire to ground the neutral safety terminal on the relay. I did buy a MOPAR clutch safety switch from a vendor on ebay...
Ten bucks!

[Kern Dog]

The turn signals and tach work, gauges too. I'll have to see if the speedometer is accurate once I get the car on the road.
I watched a few YouTube videos about bleeding the hydraulic clutch setup. I do have the Silver Sport instructions but I thought that maybe I could do it by myself like I've done with bleeding brakes.
Uhh, no.
The procedure of bleeding brakes has traditionally been to pump the pedal 3-5 times, open the bleeder, the pedal hits the floor, bleeder is closed and the process is repeated. With the clutch, the procedure is different. The bleeder is left open while the pedal is pressed, then when the pedal hits the floor, the bleeder gets closed. That is hard to do by myself!

[Kern Dog]

I'll get the Wife to help me bleed the system tomorrow.
One thing though...I have no idea of what to aim for. What constitutes a "good pedal" feel? I know what a mechanical linkage setup feels like but I'm told that these are a LOT easier to operate and that the pedal effort is very low. I guess if I get to the point where the bubbles stop coming through, I'll start the car and see if I can get it into all gears.

The brake lights stay on. Surely just a matter of adjusting the brake light switch. The reverse lights work, at least the left one. The bulb was bad on the right side but even with a fresh bulb, it still is dead. Maybe there is something wrong with the right side wire?

[BrianShaughnessy]

The turn signals and tach work, gauges too. I'll have to see if the speedometer is accurate once I get the car on the road.
I watched a few YouTube videos about bleeding the hydraulic clutch setup. I do have the Silver Sport instructions but I thought that maybe I could do it by myself like I've done with bleeding brakes.
Uhh, no.
The procedure of bleeding brakes has traditionally been to pump the pedal 3-5 times, open the bleeder, the pedal hits the floor, bleeder is closed and the process is repeated. With the clutch, the procedure is different. The bleeder is left open while the pedal is pressed, then when the pedal hits the floor, the bleeder gets closed. That is hard to do by myself!

The original Keisler design had no bleeder.   The procedure was just to pump the hell out of it.   Unfortunately,  their in house master cylinder occasionally leaked air into the system so you'd be tooling around town and suddenly have no clutch!    So I'd be furiously pumping the GD pedal trying to get something where I could get into 1st and get out of the way of traffic.    Seemed heat related... So I tried dot 4 fluid, etc.  Nothing.      Ended up with wilwood clutch master and a different Keisler line with the bleeder which they never really admitted being faulty.           

[Kern Dog]

THat sounds pretty crappy.
It seems that there have been several refinements to this swap since Silver Sport took over.

[XH29N0G]

The turn signals and tach work, gauges too. I'll have to see if the speedometer is accurate once I get the car on the road.
I watched a few YouTube videos about bleeding the hydraulic clutch setup. I do have the Silver Sport instructions but I thought that maybe I could do it by myself like I've done with bleeding brakes.
Uhh, no.
The procedure of bleeding brakes has traditionally been to pump the pedal 3-5 times, open the bleeder, the pedal hits the floor, bleeder is closed and the process is repeated. With the clutch, the procedure is different. The bleeder is left open while the pedal is pressed, then when the pedal hits the floor, the bleeder gets closed. That is hard to do by myself!

Kern dog,  I did end up stripping the teeth off one of the speedo pinions (if that is what they are called).  I do not know if that is what you are using.  They are readily available and I hav enot had to replace the second one, so I do not know why it went the first time.

[INTMD8]

Nice work! Looks great

[Kern Dog]

Kern dog,  I did end up stripping the teeth off one of the speedo pinions (if that is what they are called).  I do not know if that is what you are using.  They are readily available and I hav enot had to replace the second one, so I do not know why it went the first time.

I must be lucky. The speedometer worked on the test drive!

Today was a great day. The Wife helped me bleed the clutch hydraulics. I had the car up off the ground a bit and with the engine running, I tried to run through the gears. It would get 1st, 3rd and reverse but nothing else. I figured that the clutch needed a bit more travel in the pedal so I extended the pushrod. Pedal feel is great but now the clutch pedal sits about an inch or so higher than the brake. I may or may not extend the brake pedal pushrod to get them to match.

[Kern Dog]

With the pedal raised up, it gets all gears and engages about midway through the travel. There is still a gap between the clutch pedal lever and the under-dash framework where the "Up-Stop" bumper is placed.

[Kern Dog]

If the clutch pushrod were adjusted to get the pedal lever closer to the dash, the pedal would be way too high. I suspect that the lever is welded too far down. No problem, I am going to use a suspension bumpstop cut down to fit.

[Kern Dog]

People have stated that when they swapped in one of these Tremec transmissions and the hydraulic clutch, it felt like a totally different car.
They are not wrong.
What a huge difference. Not only are the shifting gates real close and tight, the clutch pedal feel is great. The pedal has some resistance but is not heavy. The shift gates will take some getting used to. It is easy to go from 2nd and hit 5th accidently.
At freeway speeds, the rpm reduction is matched with a reduction in vibration and overall noise. This alone makes the swap worthwhile. If you've ever driven a stiff geared car with a manual or automatic, you know that after a few miles, you start to feel fatigued and a bit frazzled. It is a matter of sensory overload from having noises and vibrations drilling into your brain.
Now, maybe some of the improved feel is because I now have a new transmission, new mounts, drive shaft/U-joints, new shifter, etc. The 727 had a modified crossmember and a mount that sat too low, probably causing some vibrations. The floor shifter was original with some slop in the bushings and linkage.
Driving at 70 mph in 5th feels so much better now. It is smooth.
The rpms at speed took a radical drop, as expected. The following is the comparison with the same 3.55 gearset:

60 mph: 2800 rpms VS 1650.
65 mph: 3000 rpms VS 1800.
70 mph: 3200 rpms VS 2000.
Fantastic!

[Kern Dog]

To those contemplating something like this: Be smart and expect to spend money on UNforseen issues. It is tempting to make additional changes when the car is torn this far apart. Here is a list of the expenses that I had with the project.

* SST TKO-600 5 speed Tremec kit including transmission, Bellhousing, Pistol Grip lever, hydraulic throwout bearing, transmission mount and crossmember, clutch, pressure plate and flywheel, drive shaft and fluids......
$5978.
* Used center console top plates including an additional console door since the first set came with a door with broken mounting studs.
$280
* Harbor Freight blast cabinet and 2 bags of sand to sandblast the console parts and oil pan:
$260
* Paint to refinish console parts....? I bought basecoat black and matte clear but barely used any. I'll use the rest on other projects so I'm not going to include this in the total.
* JB weld for console top plate mods, vinyl contact paper for console center section:
$25
* Flywheel machine work....The center hole had to be machined oversize to clear the improperly machined hub on my Chinese crankshaft:
$60
*Dial indicator, one set .007 offset dowels, one set .014 dowels.
$140
* Carpet with mass backing:
$200
* UP-stop bumper and shipping...Oddly, I found the one included with the Silver Sport kit.
$12
* Windage tray, 2 oil pan gaskets, valve cover gaskets, valley pan and intake gaskets:
$220
*Racing oil:
$72.
*Fan belts, 4.
$70
* Engine and header paint:
*15
Grand total.....
$ 7312.
Now, this could have been done a bit cheaper if a few things were different. As I stated, unforeseen things do happen. The $60 on the flywheel machine work is something that shouldn't have happened. A stock crank or a properly machined aftermarket crank would have allowed me to skip that expense.
The console parts....I could have modified my original stuff but I set them aside for the other car, Jigsaw. I could have left the console parts and modifications off of this list. That stuff added up to $565.
I didn't have to replace the carpet but I wanted to. $200.
The dent in the oil pan gave me the excuse to pull the pan to repair. Thankfully, it helped me to discover the improper fitment of the plastic windage tray to the "shorter than stock" Milodon pan. $270 could have been saved if the pan sealed and wasn't dented.

[Q5XX29]

Fantastic! Great to hear that everything turned out so well. I wish they would make a 5 (or 6) speed manual transmission that would stand up to my FHO 572 Hemi's output. I would rather have that than the GearVendors overdrive I'm using now. Which is just "ok", as you know.  Nice work... enjoy! Thanks for taking us along for the journey.

[TexasStroker]

Man, those highway speed are nice!

Great job and thanks for the write up and details...should help others going forward with the same swap!

I couldn't tell in the pics, did you blackout the rear "vent" in the console?  I'd always wondered what that would look like. 

[Kern Dog]

I couldn't tell in the pics, did you blackout the rear "vent" in the console?  I'd always wondered what that would look like. 

Yes, Sir....I painted the parts all black except for the light bezels on the side and the chrome strips that act as a border for the carpet on the sides.

[Mike DC]

A thread like this should be archived.  Great write-up and thanks for making the effort.  Thanks for posting all the real costs too.
             

[Kern Dog]

Thank you.   

[moparstuart]

The drive shaft came in today. S C O R E !
It is 3 1/2" in diameter and weighs 5 lbs more than the 3" one I had with the 727.

Fitting it into the trans was a small struggle. The yoke fits close to the rubber seal.

im worried your drive shaft is about an inch to long  , your rear end will travel and shaft should have more room to travel in and out  

nice write up looks great