I have a 1988 150 ramcharger 3 speed manual and in order to get better gas milage I plan to find and install a used 5 speed from a salvage yard off a dodge pickup. Does anyone have any advice about selecting and installing the manual transmission. I'm a competent oil changer and now want to adopt this conversion project as a mechanical learning experience - but I think it is also very reasonable due to the gas prices. Thanks....

 

What engine and transmission are in your RC now, 2 or 4 wd? Also have you already found the donor tranny? These factors will determine how hard the conversion will be.

I'm going to asume that you have a 2wd RC and you are geting a 2wd donor.

Things you should considder in no particular order are:

- You need to make sure that the yoke on your drive shaft will fit on to the donor trans. otherwise you will want to take the donor shaft and press out the u-joints to mate it up. You may end up having to get the shaft lengthened or shortened to make it all go together.

- I think the 88 has a mechnical clutch, so you need to figure if you can bolt the donor trans to your existing bell housing and reuse your clutch hardware. Othewise you are looking at the bellhousing from the donor and if it will mate to the back of your engine. Either way you may need to modify the bellhousing to accept either the engine, or the transmission. I've heard of custom shims that do this, but you would need to adjust the driveshaft length once everything is done to copensate.

- Should you end up going with a newer bellhousing, you will get to fab in the linkage for the clutch. You could decide to scrap the mechanical clutch and move to a hydrolic one, but I have no idea how hard that would be. It would save routing the linkage, but it would need to be mounted and you would need a pully someplace for the pump, unless it was electric.

- You will also have to figure out which would be a better match between bell housing, flywheel, and clutch disc size.

- If both transmissions are 4wd, you need to make sure that one of the transfer cases will bolt up - either the donor to your shafts, or your transfer case to the donor transmission. And that it ends up in the right place, so that all of the half shafts link properly.

I'm looking at going from auto to manual. I have an 85 RC now with a 3-spd auto (Torqueflight A-727), I used to own an 83 Ram Van. The van had an OD4 (A-833) manual in it. When I pulled it, I pulled everything I could think of. The pedal assembly for the mechanical clutch including the brake pedal, all of the clutch linkages, the bell housing, the flywheel, the clutch assembly, the trans, the rear trans mount, the hurst shifter, and the drive shaft.

Recently due to my own stupidity, I twisted the the driveshaft on my RC in half. It made about 2 full rotations before snapping. This accident let me find out that the drive shaft from a 1/2 ton van is the exact same length as the one from a 1/2 ton RC. Even the spline was the same on the slip yoke. Talk about freaking lucky.

Eventually I hope to be able to take my RC off the road long enough to do the trans swap and a carb rebuild that it badly needs. At that point I would probably want to put the dual exahust on it as well. I am looking at some fun myself, since the angles for the mechanical linkage on the van are vastly different from those on the RC. The pedal is about a foot lower and about 2' farther back on the RC. also will have to figure out where the hurst will end up and have my shift lever bent and a hole chopped in the tunnel. for it to pass though since on the A-833 the shifter is bolted to the side of the transmission, and doesn't go in though the top case like it does on the NP-435 (New Process) which is the one often used on 4wd trucks.

So I wish you good luck!
IGadget

 

Thanks for the info... I ment to say that I'm wanting to go from my 3 speed auto trans in my 1988 RC with the 318 to a 4 or 5 speed. Can I use a 4 speed manual that is in some of the 4x4 RC in my rear drive RC.It seems like the clutch pedal and brake pedals would at least match ... thanks

 

In the stock setup, the clutch pedal is pared with a different brake pedal, the brake is about half the width to allow room. The brake pedal has a hollow shaft and the clutch pedal rod passes through it. The rod for the clutch passes through the firewall between the gas and brake pedals there is probably an oval rubberplug in the hole under the floor rug. If you have it, the plug should be visible from the engine compartment. From the front it will be about 8-10 inches below and to the left of the brake vaccum booster. Otherwise you are looking at cutting holes in the firewall, or coming up with another clutch configuration.

If the same sized engine is in both RC's then it will likely bolt up. An issue is that the 4wd also has a transfer case that bolts in after the transmission which the drive shaft attaches to. The heavy duty transmission has a through the top shifter and the 4spd that was stock for the 2wd trucks is a bolt to the side though floor model. The 2wd trans was an an A833 OD4 and it was avalable into the late 80's. I know it stopped being an option in the vans at the end of 87, I'm not sure about the trucks, before my current RC I only had Vans.

Mounting the 4wd manual into a 2wd would deffinately require some sorts of fabrication. Anything simple from changing the length of the drive shaft to re-engineering the transmission mounts under your RC and rebuilding the trans tunnel all depending on the transmission used. I would not considder it a beginner project either way. In fact only car hobbists think about doing it. Many shops are unlikely to want to get involved, there are too many variables. you could easilly spend more than the saving in gas you are looking for. A sane reason to do it is because you want to drive stick, and dont want to look at it as a way to save gas. you may save some gas, but you would need to buy lots of gas to earn back the cost of the install. It is admittedly becoming more of a factor as prices continue to rise.

 

Thanks for all theinfo thisforum is great.

So it seems thata person wanting to take out a A-727 rear wheel drive automatic from his 88 RC with a 318and put in a 4 or 5 speed rear wheel drive manual (in order to save gas) should find a late 80's dodge pickup (not a van because of the fabrication needed on the pedals in order to fit in the RC)with a two wheel drive manual and pull out all the pedals, linkage, trans, bell housing, clutch, flywheel etc.

But before calling the salvage yards, I've now read in this forum that some of the 318's with a automatic trans sometimes won't accept a manual because the crank shaft does not have a recess in it to receive thepilot bearing on a manualtransmission on certain older 318s. Does anybody know if the 1988 318 has a recessed crank. I hope it does cause thenI could continuewithmy intended transmission swap.I think it would be great to have a 5 speed manual 2 wheel drive RC. I'll put dual pipes on it and find out if there is a more economic carb than the fuel injected throttle body on it now. I read that some properly outfitted 2 wheel drive 318 RC can get 20 mpg.

thanks again for the past responses.

 

you misunderstood me a bit I think. The pedals need to be fabbed some only if you dont get them with the trans. the brake has to be narrower simply so everything fits. Any car with a stick has a narrower brake pedal, than one without. Evidently people who need an automatic need a larger target or something....I dont know, I'm just making that part up.

as for which one. Im saying only that the A833 OD was offered until 87 on the van and later on the PU it was still the same transmission. The heavy duty truck transmission from a 4x4 I have zero experience with other than I think the model is NP435 for the 4 spd. For any transmission how easilly it will bolt up to a 318 is based on which engine it the donor vehicle has. To reduce the amount of fabrication you will need to do, ideally you want a transmisson/bell housing that was an option on a 318 or 360 engine, since those are the small block V8's. A V6 has a different bell houseing, as do the large block V8's like the 440.

I had not heard that bit about the pilot bearing before. It doesnt make sense that this would be the case, it would involve too many extras and make building an engine for a car needlessly complex. The only way to be 100% certain would be to take out the transmission, the torque converter, and whatever passes for a flywheel for an automatic transmission to look. a transmission shop might be willing to tell you. just make sure you talk to someone who actually does the work and not the receptionist.

 

thanks... so a small block 318 or 360 with a 4 or 5 speed manual 2wd would be a good doner... I see you were originally talking about the linkage not the pedals causing the fab problem in your earlier post.

..did dodge put any big block 318 or 360s in their pickups? I would want to avoid those in the salvage yard... right. They would havedifferent bell housings then my small block 318. ( I read thatsome 318s are big block and some are small blocks) Thanks again

 

the brake clutch ped. isnt really a prob un bolt the shaft and install the new ped .. the spring will be a bitch .. also ther is a stiffnin bracket that willatach to the motor side of the floor pan around the brake booster area .. as far as the tunel goes im not sure how far back you have to go but in the shifter area in a 4x4 the tunnel is bolt in .. just cut yours out in this area .. youll need to be mind full of youre flywheel 5.2 and 5.7 are different as far as ballence goes .. youll need the z bar set up for the clutch .. theirs a ball end on the bell housin and a braket that youll have to drill into the frame for .. hope this helped .. as far as an mpg gain .. dont know what youll get out of it that will take some home work on youre part ..