So far, so good. We are watching your progress. I’d like a picture of the smile on your face when you drive it for the first time.
Sorry to miss that pic for you Lugz, my selfie skills are way down the scale, :-)
Late Friday I did a 10 mile test drive, then Saturday just about finished the swap, more on that later.
I’ve driven a little under 100 miles so far, and really, really like the results. The shifting is nice and smooth, great feel when changing gears, very quiet too. The throw is compact, there are no worries about contact with the dash or seat when shifting. I find myself putting my foot in it more, taking the rpm out a little more going thru the gears. It has brought back and increased the fun of driving it. If you are thinking of doing this swap, I vote two thumbs up.
Comparing a GPS app to the speedo, the truck speedo is reading 3 to 5 mph above the GPS reading. It’s closer to the GPS reading say at 40 and lower, then seems a bit more optimistic above that. Of course a little needle waver and paying attention to traffic is good for a couple mph miss read too. I’m running 60 at 2K rpm give or take which is what I had with the previous 3 speed and OD. In the end I’m quite happy with how it turned out. I’ll get to a stretch of road with some mile markers and see how the odo side of it looks.
The last thing to do is make a collar or base let’s say for the shift boot to rest on. The boot I got is little short to reach the floor comfortably. You’ll see in the pictures below. I could stretch it enough to reach the floor but I don’t like how that would look. I have access to a 3D printer and design parts often so I have something in mind.
The one fly in the ointment comes from the shifter I picked having an angled tab that directs the shift arm towards the driver. It ends up sending it a bit too far left. The height is good, it’s just when making the 1-2 shift I am grazing my leg. It doesn’t bug me too much, I’ll give it more time and see. Once you are doing 3-4-5 it is fine. If I did it over I’d go with the straight version, option “C” on the vendors web site.
Yeah, overall I’m really pleased with the outcome, I have about $2,500 in the job, a little more maybe. When I get the boot collar done I’ll post a couple pics. Cheers.
