Hold my Coffee ! another manual transmission swap thread

[cynicwanderer]

hmm, 2019 came and went and while an interesting year, no progress on the manual swap... last november I drove the doomsday van to Ensenada to help chase my favorite Class 11 team "bochito". we had some torrential downpours before the race and on the way down and went through some water crossings and managed to foul one the transmission connectors and the computer decided to shut down. I was able to limp to Ensenada and spent the next day pulling codes, cleaning connectors and restarting the computer... Chasing the Baja 1000 with the van went without a glitch and we got 1st place, but I swore to myself that I need to do the swap soon... there was also the treacherous washed out crossing between Valle Santo Tomas and Valle T. in the dark, complete with broken down farm equipment blocking the road, adventure, but that's another story. I was invited back to help in the 2020 season, so that's cool and incentive to get some work done on the van.

so what was the road block ? I quick inventory reveals that I have 2 ZF5 transmissions (one 2WD and one 4WD), an Ebrake and one transfer case. I also have a couple of driveshafts, but after doing some measurements concluded that they are too short for the 2WD transmission or the 4WD with Ebrake setup. if I use the transfer case setup, I can cut the stock driveshaft and make it work, but I will have to cut the tank. I actually have everything for this approach and cutting the driveshaft could be done fairly cheaply. however, with the transfer case, it would be silly not to do the 4x4 swap, since I have a complete Dana 50 TTB axle and a ARB locker for it. I think this weekend, I will make a trip to the junk yard to see if I can find a driveline for the ebrake setup. I think I will need something that is 83-85" long, so a two piece drive line from an old F-250 extended cab should work just fine.


these were my "helpers"...

 

[cynicwanderer]

OK, getting closer. went to the pick-n-pull and found a two piece driveline which is long enough to work with the ZF5+driveline brake implementation, however, it takes 1330 u-joints and the e-brake has a 1410...so far I have not found a 1330/1410 adapter; I'd need to replace the welded in yoke with a 1410 or 1350 yoke end. this shouldn't be too expensive, but gets rid of the notion of minimizing the amount of custom parts needed. I like the idea of being able to fix this thing on the road, with parts from a junkyard or parts store in places like Baja. I guess I can pre-make that part of the driveline and carry it as a spare.

 

[Raul]

i just went through similar issues, but in reverse. I had the 1330 flange and i needed the 1410. Spizer has online catalogs https://d3qx1uccksbb2n.cloudfront.net/docs/j300-p2.pdf Catalogs that helped me find the one I needed.
I talk about it on my build https://expeditionportal.com/forum/...0-e350-5-4-diy-coil-conversion.167666/page-14

 

[cynicwanderer]

i just went through similar issues, but in reverse. I had the 1330 flange and i needed the 1410. Spizer has online catalogs https://d3qx1uccksbb2n.cloudfront.net/docs/j300-p2.pdf Catalogs that helped me find the one I needed.
I talk about it on my build https://expeditionportal.com/forum/...0-e350-5-4-diy-coil-conversion.167666/page-14

that's great. thanks for the lead.

 

[cynicwanderer]

Getting serious about adapting the driveline to the EB flange yoke.

 

[cynicwanderer]

Turns out what I needed was a 1350 to 1410 adapter, which I found...



but for the life of me, I can't get it to seat properly to get the clip back inside...



I'll take it apart for the third time and this time measure the internals and thickness of the cup to make sure the part is actually going to fit, or whether I just have some interference in the seat on the drive shaft yoke. the first time I installed it, I dropped one of the bearing needles inside the cup and that misfit was really obvious, but at this point I'm only off by aprox. 1/32", so I'm pretty sure it's not a needle.

 

[cynicwanderer]

I usually just use my vice to press in U-joints, which has worked well in the past. what do you use ? what about on the road ? while strangling this thing in the comforts of my garage, I can't help but think about how I would change out a u-joint on the road, if need be. I suppose I could use the jack and the weight of the vehicle to press it out and back in...

 

[Raul]

I usually just use my vice to press in U-joints, which has worked well in the past. what do you use ? what about on the road ? while strangling this thing in the comforts of my garage, I can't help but think about how I would change out a u-joint on the road, if need be. I suppose I could use the jack and the weight of the vehicle to press it out and back in...

Two sockets and a hammer. One socket slightly bigger than the bushing as anvil and one slightly smaller as striker.

 

[Mwilliamshs]

I usually just use my vice to press in U-joints...what about on the road ? ... I can't help but think about how I would change out a u-joint on the road, if need be...

Parts store rented ball joint press or buy one (HF has em) and keep it in the tool box

 

[cynicwanderer]

all good suggestions. I have done the hammer and socket method, and it works OK, but can ruin the sockets. however, it's a good enough road side repair, if needed. ideally, Autozone parking lot with borrowed tools ;-)

 

[ghiamonster]

I have a lower ball joint press that I discovered works better than the vise, at least for Jeep sized U-joints. Easy to carry or borrow from Autozone.

 

[cynicwanderer]

OK, so last night I removed the new U-Joint that wasn't seating properly and one of the cups exploded !


I did some measurements of the original u-joint stackup (i.e. the length of the cross plus 2 times the thickness of the cup surface) and the new ujoint. the original has the correct width for a 1350 (3.622") while the new one is about 100mil too thick. the new joint has a plastic liner in the cup, which the orginal doesn't have and I have never seen in any others. without the liner, the new ujoint is about 80mil too short. the spec for the particular converting ujoint I ordered, match what it "should be", not what it is. weird. I have some new 1350-1410 ujoints on order one from another manufacturer, to see how they "stack up". as usual, the devil is in the detail...

 

[cynicwanderer]

the new ujoint from a different manufacturer fits with no issues. took like five minutes to install. I even managed to get the grease fitting on the correct side so I can get the gun in there. this one is from GMB, the one I had trouble with was from NEAPCO. Moog also makes a 1350/1410 but couldn't get it as fast as the GMB, which still took a week.

 

[cynicwanderer]

I think I have all the pieces figured out. The only thing missing is the carrier bearing cross member, which probably needs to be custom in order to miss the gas thank on the driver's side and the exhaust on the passenger. I did get some shielding gas for my MIG welder so I can fabricate it when I'm ready. just in case...

 

[limatangobravo]

I have wanted to convert my E4OD to a 5 or six speed. My thought was to buy a doner F250/F350, I would presume 7.3 IDI or PSD engines would have the same transmission to bolt up to my 1995 PSD. That would basically give me everything I would need to perform the swap. I know there would be modification to perform on the take off parts, the biggest question is how to mock up the sifter as it would sit behind the drivers seat.
Was a doner vehicle ever an idea that you had? Have you set up the shifter by chance? What other parts work from a truck that you can install? Example would be flywheel, clutch etc.
I skimmed over the post, if I missed any of these questions I apologize in advance.