Looks like good progress to me!

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Thanks Lou, just wish I had a garage I could work in so I could make more progress instead of watching it disappear into a snow bank.

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'15 Chrysler 200S V6
'74 Duster 360, factory 4 speed car

I saw the pix of that R154 what did it come out of? You mentioned the AX- 15; that is exactly what I have out of a 93 Dakota V6 that I plan to put into my Volare unless I find something better for the same or less than what I could get out of the AX15;(but you guys won't like my motor; hint; that 3.9 BH on my AX 15 is a direct bolt up.) But it will be all Mopar! While I chose to pull my /6 for a V8, I don't 'dis' the /6 one bit. Ive thought about maybe a T5 but I already have this one. (part of "budget build"..... use what you got laying around)

A R154 is a toyota transmission

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_R_transmission#R154

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

If you look at the Wikipedia entry for the R154 you can see it has ratios much better suited to our purposes than the AX15. I have an R154 myself, but it's currently slated for a 273 in a brand X chassis. The 3.9 Dakota V6 bellhousing uses a 143 tooth flywheel like a big block. I bought an aluminum flywheel because the 3.9 flywheel was so d*mn heavy.

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Joshua

Speaking of flywheels, wish McLeod hadn't chosen to discontinue their SFI /6 flywheel. With the McLeod flywheel I would have been set, now I'm stuck debating about the wisdom of using a stock one.

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'15 Chrysler 200S V6
'74 Duster 360, factory 4 speed car

Well, here's the thing. Considering the level of fabrication involved with installing an R154 into a Mopar chassis, don't you think there are other options that may be less intense? (Easier). If you didn't have to cut up the crossmember and fab up another one, I'd think it would be a good swap. But, that's a lot of work for another gear.

Greg

No mod on an A body makes the same difference as swapping a 3spd column shift for a 5 speed. ....any motor...any model.

There is no down side.

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

A 5 speed was an absolute must, and I could find no other option that was cost effective enough. The T5 was a possibility, and after the work I've done I might be convinced it would have been a better option, but it's irrelevant as what's done is done and the only T5 I could find at the time was $800. The TKO was only a possibility if I struck oil in my backyard.

I wish it hadn't required so much of a cut, but up to this point I only have about 20 hours into the floor.

For me, a 5 speed is the difference between the car feeling like its 1963 or 2003. Above just about anything else, the extra gear is one of the defining factors in how modern the car feels to me.

The problem with the Mopar chassis is, it doesn't really matter what you do, a 5 speed (or 4 speed auto) is going to require floor mods. A 500/518 isn't any simpler than what I did and T5 still requires cutting the middle out of the crossmember. The only ones I know of that might go in with only minor mods are the TKO or 700R4 (or whatever they are calling it these days), but neither of these are an option for the /6 and they both are going to cost an arm and a leg. Not sure about Sandy’s swap, his might have worked better, but I needed a more robust trani than what he used.

FWIW, one of my stipulations was that I wanted the centerline of the engine and trans to be as close to factory as I could get it. I've seen some swaps where they jack the trani up until it interferes and then build the mount and clearance the problem spots about 1/2". Not sure how they get the driveline angles to work, but regardless of their solution that wasn't going to happen in my car. The floor will be built to fit the trani where it should be, not the other way around. If I had stopped, I probably could have saved more of the crossmember, but someday I would like to hit 150 mph on the straight at some road course and I don't want to have to check all the fasteners after every lap due vibration.

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'15 Chrysler 200S V6
'74 Duster 360, factory 4 speed car

Yeah, I agree about the cost of a T5. I'd like to find one that won't break the bank, too. The thing that I like about a more modern 5 speed, as opposed to, say, an 833 OD, is the direct mount shifter. I plan on putting a stock, OE Volare console into mine. From the factory, unlike the B's and E's of a few years prior, the only Aspens and Volares that came with a console were auto trans ones. I see less fab work with this sort of trans to make it work with a console than with the 833. yeah, I gotta either modify or build a new trans X member, but as far over to the side as the Hurst shifter mounts on an older trans I don't see getting enough zigzag in the shifter handle to come up thru the console hole without interference betweeen either the floorboard or trans case and the shifter handle. I never said that I "had to have a 5 speed" a 4 speed would be fine too,
if I could find one that would fit decently with the console. I had 2, 833 ODs and sold em when I found this trans. # of speeds isn't as important but I do want a stick rather than an auto, and I like the idea of an OD.

I look at the excellent work you've done and I say to myself that it takes a brave man to do that. As much as I want a 5-speed in my Volare, I don't think I've got the stones (or the skill) to take a sawzall to the crossmember and floor. Is your car already set up for a stick? Does it have the stick shift floor pan? I know those Tremec kits are expensive, but they seem the way to do the least amount of modifications to the chassis. Does the T5 conversion also require cutting out and re-fabbing the crossmember?

Greg

My car has an unmolested 3spd floor pan and a mildly modified crossmember.

There are a number of ways to do this. Search 5 speed...read for 2 days...and then start asking.

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

Volare crossmembers should be completely different as they don't have to support the suspension loads from the torsion bars. Might still need to be hacked, but certainly doesn't need to be reinforced like mine did.
Pushbutton auto.
True, but if that was the only way I would still be running an auto. As nice as it might be, out of reach is still out of reach. Plus, they don't have a /6 setup anymore.
I think it does. I've seen pictures of an Aussie A-Body with a T5 and he had to cut the center four or six inches of the crossmember off the tunnel, but left the tunnel intact. Tailshaft seemed awful low to me, but that might have just been perception. The advantage is you only have to remove the top of the tunnel, rather than the large chunks of crossmember on the sides. I wanted to save all of the trani mount bolt holes in mine, but that wasn't an option as the R154 is definitely a fat transmission.

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'15 Chrysler 200S V6
'74 Duster 360, factory 4 speed car

I am putting a trans similar to the 154 into my Volare, I have parted a couple Volares out during my project and have a couple of trans crossmembers that I can hack and experiment with. Theyre more available than you might think; Go to the local junkyard and find a diplomat or a 5th avenue, Mirada,80-up cordoba. 82-up Gran Fury. Same crossmember as yours probably can be had for <$10. All youll need is the part that unbolts not the whole thing that welds in.

Hey Don,
It's not the part that unbolts that concerns me. It's the portion welded to the floor pan. What tranny will you be using?

Greg