The Hillbilly SUV rides again.. this time with 5speeds instead of just 2
At LAST! It’s finally done. Well at least enough to drive around town I need to iron out a couple of bugs, but the Hillbilly SUV made her maiden voyage with a fully functional 5 speed setup this Saturday.
Between being busy with work, allergies, and the heat this summer this project took WAY to long. It is completely worth it though. Even with my partially full 50 gallon diesel tank, and a few hundred pounds of scrap in the back of the car (enough to squat it down even with the air shocks at 100psi) it still feels much quicker. Of course with 31.5” tall tires and 3.08 gears it isn’t going to impress anyone else, but old Herkimer sure is a lot more fun to drive.
Now, I just need to get those 3.73 rear gears installed and the trac-loc rebuilt.
The biggest pain in the rear, believe it or not was the clutch pedal setup. Doing this on an 89 is no picnic. Of course I decided to go a slightly different route than 4kfe or Freshmeat. (BTW, thanks to both of them for their “vast” chronicles) I got it to work, and the pedals look and feel like a stock setup, but it was a lot more work than it needed to be.
There were a few bumps in the road, namely I had a hard time getting the right brake booster. It’s just a non abs booster from a 92+, simple right??? Well for some reason they kept sending me one for a 93 Lincoln with ABS. This happened not once, but twice. The third time I got one I went back in the yard with them and started pulling master cylinders until I found the right one.
I don’t know what other years fit, but I finally got one off of a 96MGM with abs that worked with my stock master cylinder. I should have cleaned it up and painted it, but I was still half afraid something would be different, and by the time I got it together far enough to tell that it was going to be ok, I said the heck with it.
A few observations.
I am glad I got the king cobra clutch (got it cheaper than a stock replacement when I bought some other parts a while back) but it doesn’t play around. There is no easing off the clutch to take off smoothly. It engages quicker than any stick I have ever driven before. It is a bit annoying but I am getting used to it.
Old brake pedals make great homemade shifters. If you cut the actual pedal off, and the pivot point, what you have left is the right height and curve to make a great homemade shifter. Since most aftermarket knobs these days have set screws instead of threads the square shaft doesn’t matter. I ground the weld off the pin that pushes on the brake booster, and drove it out, which leaves a ½ hole in the shifter. I am considering drilling a few more equally spaced holes in it just for looks, and mounting the thing. If I don’t like it, I am out 0$ and maybe a dull drill bit or so.
If you use a Vato Zone shifter boot… get the big one, the smaller one looks perfect, but it is a bit too short to line up right with the hole in the floor.
That’s about it for tonight.
I’ll try to get some more action shots when work slows down again.
BTW anyone know off the top of their head how much atf it takes to fill a t-5?
Between being busy with work, allergies, and the heat this summer this project took WAY to long. It is completely worth it though. Even with my partially full 50 gallon diesel tank, and a few hundred pounds of scrap in the back of the car (enough to squat it down even with the air shocks at 100psi) it still feels much quicker. Of course with 31.5” tall tires and 3.08 gears it isn’t going to impress anyone else, but old Herkimer sure is a lot more fun to drive.
Now, I just need to get those 3.73 rear gears installed and the trac-loc rebuilt.
The biggest pain in the rear, believe it or not was the clutch pedal setup. Doing this on an 89 is no picnic. Of course I decided to go a slightly different route than 4kfe or Freshmeat. (BTW, thanks to both of them for their “vast” chronicles) I got it to work, and the pedals look and feel like a stock setup, but it was a lot more work than it needed to be.
There were a few bumps in the road, namely I had a hard time getting the right brake booster. It’s just a non abs booster from a 92+, simple right??? Well for some reason they kept sending me one for a 93 Lincoln with ABS. This happened not once, but twice. The third time I got one I went back in the yard with them and started pulling master cylinders until I found the right one.
I don’t know what other years fit, but I finally got one off of a 96MGM with abs that worked with my stock master cylinder. I should have cleaned it up and painted it, but I was still half afraid something would be different, and by the time I got it together far enough to tell that it was going to be ok, I said the heck with it.
A few observations.
I am glad I got the king cobra clutch (got it cheaper than a stock replacement when I bought some other parts a while back) but it doesn’t play around. There is no easing off the clutch to take off smoothly. It engages quicker than any stick I have ever driven before. It is a bit annoying but I am getting used to it.
Old brake pedals make great homemade shifters. If you cut the actual pedal off, and the pivot point, what you have left is the right height and curve to make a great homemade shifter. Since most aftermarket knobs these days have set screws instead of threads the square shaft doesn’t matter. I ground the weld off the pin that pushes on the brake booster, and drove it out, which leaves a ½ hole in the shifter. I am considering drilling a few more equally spaced holes in it just for looks, and mounting the thing. If I don’t like it, I am out 0$ and maybe a dull drill bit or so.
If you use a Vato Zone shifter boot… get the big one, the smaller one looks perfect, but it is a bit too short to line up right with the hole in the floor.
That’s about it for tonight.
I’ll try to get some more action shots when work slows down again.
BTW anyone know off the top of their head how much atf it takes to fill a t-5?
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