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Hey Robert, glad you're back. I've wondered what was happening with that crate motor convertible.
1) Is the bolt patterns between the 3.9L and the 5.2 magnum (I think 5.8 is the same even though externally balanced) the same for the A500?
Yes, the 3.9 block has the same bell housing bolt pattern, AND, the rear of the block ends up in the exact same location as the V8 when sitting in the stock mounts. In other words, few worries with having to move things (like the cross-member) to accommodate the V8.
2) I bought a 2006 crate magnum 360/380hp...the guy I bought it from however sold the tranny to someone else and unfortunately lost the flex plate. Since the 5.9L is externally balanced were all the flexplates the same, or were they weighted/drilled differently at the factory? In otherwords, can I just order another one from Summit like this?: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/bm...iew/make/dodge and be good to go? Any other weird considerations for mating to the A500?
I don't believe the flexplates were weighted for each individual motor, if only because of the time and expense that would have taken. You should be fine with the Summit flexplate, just be sure it's for a '93-on Magnum motor because pre-93 5.9's (360's) had a different balance than the later 5.9 Magnums. It's also possible to use a neutral-balanced flexplate with a convertor drilled for a magnum 5.9, but that would be costly.
3) In regarding the motor mounts and motor positioning. Will the V6 motor mounts work on the 5.9L magnum? You said you re-used yours on the 5.2L, but in other threads I didn't think this worked, or you had to flip them around or something? If they do work, does the tranny position end up the same on the cross member, or did you have to do some metal work for a new mount?
From '88 on, V6 (and later V8) Dakotas used the same Magnum style motor mounts. So, any V8 Magnum motor will drop right unto the mounts used for the '88, '89, '90 and '91 pre-Magnum V6 Dakotas. It's the earlier pre-Magnum V8 swaps into these trucks that have problems, since those earlier motors don't have the drilled bosses in the block for Magnum-style mounts.And yes, as I mentioned earlier, you'll be happy to know that the trans will end up in the same place, whether attached to the V8 or V6. The extra length of the V8 all goes toward the front, hence the lack of space for a belt-driven fan in pre-91 Daks.
Keep up the great work. That black/silver interior looks incredible.
Thanks. I'll keep at it, as much as I can with the long distance job thing. I'm very envious of your detached 3 car garage, and with a lift yet! My attached garage is used for "other" stuff, and my 2 car detached is packed so tight with my tools and assorted mess that my truck ends up relegated to a narrow one car slot.
Even if its just an occasional update, do post your progress, I'd really like to know how its going, and I'm sure plenty of others here would too.
After some further reading, I guess the flexplate I needed is a B&M 10241 which they no longer make. So my options are to find a stock magnum flexplate and elongate one of the holes to make it fit to a 904/A500 neutral converter. Time to go J/Y digging.
Well I solved my sealed bearing problem, and I feel a little dumb for not realizing this sooner. First, I tried getting the correct open bearings at NAPA, but when I went to pick them up they were marked "China", so I passed on those. I took another look at the bearings in the kit and attempted to remove the seal on one with an awl. It popped off easily, and surprise, it's basically the same open bearing that was in the t-case originally, once the seals are off.
So, over the weekend I was able to get the new chain, bearings, o-rings, and seals in, clean the filter and magnet, and put the case back together. I still have the front and rear output seals to put in, and the tail extension needs to be torqued down. I'm happy to say it spins silky smooth now, so this part of the adventure is almost over. Aside from removing the front output rear bearing (see above), this rebuild is relatively simple. Next it's on to the drive shaft, brakes, etc.
Last edited by ragged89; Dec 16, 2014 at 01:12 AM.
Looks sexy man...Cool that you're doing all this work. I did literally no work to my transmission, motor, transfer case, or diffs besides fluid changes. Course mine have no obvious problems but still, it would be ideal to do as thorough a job as you're doing. Keep it up.
Ragged, I am drooling over your build here! You do amazing work, and I get the feeling that you are a fellow engineer, or if not an engineer, someone with another sort of technical career background.
It doesn't look like you have any "door sills," or whatever those plastic trim pieces that cover the edge of the carpet are called. Yknow, those pieces that are at the bottom of the door, and they have the chrysler badge on em?? Mine are both broken, and I can't find replacements anywhere, so I could either put em back broken, fix em, or try and find something different to replace them. How are you handling it?
Wishin' I was home to work on the OCD, just haven't been able to in a while. Nothing new to report since I'm still working out of town. First chance I get though, I'll be back on it. Its so close to being drive-able again I can't stand it.
DukeDomB, sorry I didn't check in sooner - so I missed your post. I'm not using the original polyethylene door thresholds because they're red/maroon and no longer match the truck well. I have a set of dark grey ones that were cracked (like most) so I roughed up the underside of the cracked area and patched it by wetting it with marine epoxy and then laying on a little carbon fiber cloth. The cracks are in a low-stress area (not where you would step) so I think the patch will work, despite the poor adherence qualities of polyethylene. The grey thresholds are not from a convertible so I believe they're a little different. As I recall there's a slot cut into the originals for the seat belt anchor, and the grey ones don't have it. I plan to modify the grey ones by cutting the slot in and trimming them if necessary.
Well well, where has the time gone. I'm still 175 miles from home base, commuting home on weekends, and so I have very little time to spend on 'ol OCD, but I have made a bit more progress.
My youngest son helped me get the transfer case back into the truck. It went in just fine, but unfortunately my torque wrench broke and now I'm going to have to find another one before I can lock the transfer case down.
In the mean time I started to check the condition of the rear brakes. I expected to replace a leaky wheel cylinder on the right rear and put in new shoes on both sides. I wasn't planning to do much more than that at this time (remember, I'm anxious to get this thing on the road!). When I removed the right rear drum however, it turned out that the dampness around the drum was gear oil, not brake fluid - so I had a leaking axle seal, not wheel cylinder. The left rear was dry, but pretty rusty. Given the state of things, I decided to go ahead now and replace pretty much everything behind the drums; both rear axle seals and bearings, wheel cylinders, shoes, and pretty much all the other hardware.
I found tbugden's "Victim Build Thread" (in this forum) very helpful for performing the axle seal and bearing replacement. Primarily his info on the repair bearings available from Timken. My only concern came when I noticed that these repair bearings came with instructions stating that they receive lubrication from the gear oil, just like the OE bearings. No problem with that except that the repair bearings come as a single bearing/seal unit, with seals on both sides, and packed with grease. The obvious question for me then was, how are these being lubed by gear oil if they're sealed and packed with bearing grease? I contacted Timken and was informed that the instructions included with my bearings were outdated. The new repair bearings are lubed by the grease packing and all gear oil is sealed out. The tech I spoke with said Timken designed the repair bearings this way because they discovered that previous versions were failing prematurely due to metal particles suspended in the gear oil.
Satisfied with that, I pulled the axles and borrowed a bearing/seal removal tool from Autozone. Bearings and seals on both sides come out fairly easily with the removal tool. After cleaning out the axle shaft bores the new bearing/seal units went in snug and without a hitch. Though not required, I painted and/or clear-coated the backing plates and all the new springs and hardware going into the drums (but not the friction surfaces of the shoes). I did that to help keep rust away a little longer. Rear parking brake cables were replaced as well.
While in the process of replacing these items I discovered that the previous owner had actually removed the parking brake lever and strut on both sides. I had to make a trip to the JY to locate these pieces. No wonder the parking brake never worked!
This thread is long in the tooth I know. I finished my out-of-town job and I thought I would be able to finish up some problem areas on the truck over the next couple months, but then my doc found a problem in me and I wound up in the hospital.
I got home yesterday. It was one of those experiences that gives you new appreciation for being alive. I still have a million things on my list of "to dos", but this Dak is going to see the road again, I promise.
I have made some small progress on the front brakes, and an update will be posted before long.
