'94 Dakota body swap
This is by far the most ambitious projects I have undertaken. I have built off road vehicles (some to the extreme), motorcycles, but never a V8 powered vehicle. Part hot rod dream, part sentimental journey. Going back to my very first vehicle, at least body-wise. But it will end up what I always wanted to do with the first one.
But, back to reality. I have to disconnect the transmission linkage, any other connections (I think I have them all), then comes the mounts for the engine and trans. I picked up a load leveler for the engine hoist today. Gonna pull the motor and trans as one piece. Gotta drain the trans, too. Whose stupid idea was it to drain the trans by taking almost all the pan bolts out and tilting the pan?! Yeah, that's better than a drain plug. (NOT!) Anyway, almost done crawling under this thing. Starting to think about a four post lift even though I have a gantry crane. Being able to work on it standing up looks really attractive at this point. Yes, I am old. We don't need any more vids or memes about how funny it appears to the younger crowd.
I resemble that remark.
Never saw the movie but I was hoping he was gonna pull his Dirty Harry pistol out and shoot them about a minute in.
Mt point was mainly to remind that if you do not use it you lose it.
As for the lack of a drain plug, IMO Chrysler and the rest started designing vehicles with making money on forcing us to pay them to do maintenance things in mind back in the 80's.
Never saw the movie but I was hoping he was gonna pull his Dirty Harry pistol out and shoot them about a minute in.
Mt point was mainly to remind that if you do not use it you lose it.
As for the lack of a drain plug, IMO Chrysler and the rest started designing vehicles with making money on forcing us to pay them to do maintenance things in mind back in the 80's.
Last edited by onemore94dak; Jan 16, 2023 at 08:51 AM.
Maybe I should just drill the appropriate size hole in the pan for the drain plug bung, let it drain, then clean and weld once it's off! Then again, I don't think this transmission will be used, I am back leaning toward a LM7 hooked up to a 700R4.
That's a neat project.
I have a 39 Chevy I was thinking about putting on my dakota chassis.
The 46rh only needs a shift reprogram kit in the valve body and more clutches for 3rd gear to handle alot of power
I use a mini compushift controller to use lockup and overdrive. This way I can lock the converter up before overdrive.
The only standard transmissions that can take any power are the t56, and variants. Maybe old 833.
Ls swap may be the easiest. Hemi is a tight fit.
I have a 39 Chevy I was thinking about putting on my dakota chassis.
The 46rh only needs a shift reprogram kit in the valve body and more clutches for 3rd gear to handle alot of power
I use a mini compushift controller to use lockup and overdrive. This way I can lock the converter up before overdrive.
The only standard transmissions that can take any power are the t56, and variants. Maybe old 833.
Ls swap may be the easiest. Hemi is a tight fit.













You can install them yourself though, and if you are in there more than twice, it's worth it.