Chuzie's monster transformation

[BucknEB]

Great write up and pics Chuzie! Glad to see this project progressing for ya. I'm waiting for you to give this thing a good work out and write a review on its performance.

Thanks for being the guinea pig on this one, One day I hope to do a transmission upgrade as well.:xyxthumbs:

[broncomatt]

Nice work Chuzie! As for your vent in the old housing, I would definetly put one in. Thats the vent for the c4, if you dont have it there or one at the dipstick you may build case pressure and start leaking atf. I know with my c4's custom vavle body and JBG didpstic I found it nessary to put a larger vent in. The stock c4 dipstic can vent if pressure builds beyond what the stock vent can handle.
I'm guessing the locar dipstic will be a rubber topped one that seals nicely, good for offroading but with no other vent in the trans case it could cause trouble.
Keep up the pics!!! If you get it done by aug 25th there is a run to Holepaw....

[chuzie]

Went ahead and made the cuts on the webbing and the rear boss. This will make room for the shifter bracket and allow the inner flag to move full forward.



Now this is not how anyone wants to start their day! You are looking at the 3/8" bolt that connects the transmission to the ZF adapter. Yep, those are aluminum threads stuck to the bolt!



The normal torque rating is 45 ft-lbs but since this is an aluminum adapter, I decided to reduce that to 30 ft-lbs. Advanced Adapters does not provide torque specifications in their installation instructions so this seemed like a good strategy.

I called them and they suggested I Helicoil the damaged hole. Of course I had no Helicoil set in the garage. Now I can add $30 to the cost of the conversion for a Helicoil kit. The other option they offered was to exchange it for a new adapter but none would be available for shipment until next Tuesday and that would delay the project another week.

I went ahead and used Helicoil in all six holes because I know they are all weak and the last thing I want is to strip out another hole especially after it is installed and I go back after a few hundred miles to retorque.



This weekend I want to start installing the computer.

[chuzie]

This weekend I started the controller installation along with the transmission end of the Lokar shifter.

My controller came with 5' of length which gave me the option of placing it pretty much anywhere in the cab. Some folks want to have it where they can read the display for temp, speed, gear selection, errors, etc. Since I intend to use my Autometer trans temp gauge inline at the cooler, I really don't have a need to have the controller in sight at all times. For me, it was between the Tuffy center console and the glove box. I chose the passenger wall of the glovebox so I could at least glance at the display when troubleshooting on the fly rather than looking down into the console. Also, the controller is not waterproof so the glove box is a much higher and safer place.

I used a 1-5/8" hole saw to get through the back of the glove box to route the cables directly to the passenger side hole in the upper corner of the firewall which in not in use for my configuration.



I used the mounting screw that holds the glove box to the frame on the passenger side to hold the controller. It seemed quite secure, so I didn't bother with the second mounting point on the controller.

All the harnesses were routed through the firewall except the vehicle harness which was left in the cab and plugged in to the RJM harness. Having this harness connect to the RJM harness is awesome since it eliminates the need for multiple splices.



I loomed the three exterior harnesses and routed them to the tunnel area. The four wires for the neutral safety switch and the backup lights needed to be spliced to the vehicle. I was a little disappointed that the harness does not come with the square connector native to the Bronco. I ended up cutting my connector off, leaving plenty of pigtail in case I ever needed it in the future, and soldering the four wires to my Bronco harness.

Looking at the Bronco connector, the Red/Blue wires are for the NSS. The male connector goes to IGN START and the female goes to STRT RELAY. The Black/Red wires are the backup lamps. The male connector goes to 12V IN RUN and the female to BKUP LAMP.



That is as far as I am going to go with the controller until the transmission in installed later in the week.


I also started to installed the Lokar shifter.

Pulled the pan and swapped out the old filter. I cut open the old filter to make sure there was no debris to be concerned about; it looked good.

The Lokar directions are pretty good although they do not mention the electrical connector. Before removing the NSS, I marked its position because I know the mounting holes are elongated which suggest it has some adjustment.

Here is the before pic...



The 21mm nut (not the size stated in the directions) holding the selector shaft in place was super tight. I used a 12mm wrench on the outer part of the shaft where the old linkage went to hold it in place. Pulled the roll pin and swapped out the old shaft for the new one.



The new linkage will have to come off to slide on the NSS. Remove the bolt and not the three allen head screws.



The after pic...



That is all for now. Maybe tomorrow I will see what I can do about some of the column work for the Lokar shifter.

[chuzie]

The last few days have yielded a significant amount of progress. The 4R70W is now in its new home nestled comfortably under my Bronco.

There has been a week long delay waiting for a set of twin sticks to arrive from the West Coast. I wanted to hold off to make sure there would be no issues with JB's new sticks since the J-shift/4R/ZF adapter combo is not off the shelf compatible... yet.

I consider the stock position to be the middle clocking position since this brings the D20 shifter flags to an angle equal to the top of the bellhousing.





For whatever reason, Jon was given info that the 3rd clocking position was stock and that is how he designed the sticks. When my sticks came in, they did not fit correctly because my D20 was in the middle clocking position. The 3rd clocking position rotates the D20 CCW 7 degrees. This creates misalignment issues with the stick, D20, and bracket. I considered using the 3rd clocking position but decided against it as it drops the bottom of the D20 a couple inches and exposes it to potential hazards. Not acceptable for a rock crawler.

If you look below, you can see how the stick will not work with the middle clocking position. The bolt will not align in the bracket and the dowels are misaligned in the flags.



Jon is working to make his sticks off the shelf for this application. At his request, I sent him some measurements along with the sticks so he could get to work on a new set. They should be back in a week or so.
Hoping the new sticks will be bolt on, I went ahead with the 4R70W install.

I don't have a transmission jack and, if I did, it wouldn't be much help with all my lift; nothing can get high enough. I just use a floor jack, 2 cargo straps and a cinder block.

I left the D20 off to keep things on the level and as light as possible.

The only clearance issues I had were with the bellhousing and the pan. The bellhousing had what looked like some sort of tab sticking out on the driver's side.; it was hitting my header.



I cut it off...



and bolted her on...



Here you can see how my passenger header collector is hitting the pan. I have a set of ceramic coated headers that drop down slightly more than this set and I hope they will clear the pan. This interference did not prevent installation but will prevent me from installing my exhaust.



Luckily, I caught myself before I tightened the bellhousing mounting bolts without ensuring the torque converter studs were through the flexplate; rookie mistake!

Next I installed the D20. I did it twice since I forgot the gasket the first time!

With the pans of the 4R70W and engine leveled axially, I had everything pretty well stuffed under the Bronco with plenty of clearance while not sacrificing to much D20 to differential angle.





This is the BC Bronco's ZF crossmember. As you can see, there is about a 3" gap between the crossmember and the bracket. There is a bit of offset even after adjusting the transmission bracket all the way to the passenger side. Either the transmission is cocked or the ZF crossmember is not welded in the correct position. I even thought I may have the crossmember backwards but that was not the case.



Ideally, I would like to re-weld the crossmember and add an extension piece to properly connect the two. Info on that is located here http://www.classicbroncos.com/forums/sho...t=4R70W+ZF. In the mean time, this is my temporary solution. It's not pretty, but it is functional.



Once Everything was bolted in I started on my driveshaft measurements. I took measurements for static, compressed, and extended.

My measurements, after taking them a million times, came to the following:

Rear Compressed: 31"
Rear Static: 31-15/16"
Rear Extended: 32.5"
Rear Max Travel: 1.5"

Front Compressed: 27-3/4"
Front Static: 28-7/8"
Front Extended: 29-3/4"
Front Max Travel: 2"

Not a as much movement as I expected and not sure how much the 4-link plays in to that equation.

In the end, I found the difference between my front and rear shaft lengths, 3-1/16", was much more than I had originally thought so my dream of having interchangeable driveshafts was over.

Lastly, I plugged in all my connections and fired up the computer. Everything works great and I look forward to playing around with the programming software.

I still have to install the starter, cooler lines, exhaust, driveshafts, column shifter and dip stick.

More to come... 8-)

[broncomatt]

Looking good, buy the way they make special ring plyers for that. Next time come up and borrow mine. Another idea, let the air out of your tires.
Dont forget that vent tube....
Give the guys a Tom Woods a call, they can set you up with a great drive shaft.
Keep us posted!

[Casey835]

Looking good! Cant wait to see how this works out for you.

[chuzie]

Alllllrightey then....

I'm back from a couple weeks out of the country single handeldly winning the war on terror!

As of today I am STILL waiting for my driveshafts to be finished so I decided to work on some of the "little" items to include, dipstick, shifter, and twin sticks.

So the twin sticks that JB modified arrived while I was gone. We were hopeful they would be bolt-on but that was too good to be true. Hey, when working with a new product, this stuff happens.

Anyway, the first thing I did was remove my Tuffy center console and trim the tunnel cover aft 2" to account for the D20 shifting aft 2".

I know it isn't pretty.



Unfortunately, the front axle stick (driver's side) was impacting the driver's side of the tunnel cover opening preventing the set from installing.

I trimmed the tunnel cover all the way to where the angled plate and the horizontal plate meet. This was still not enough. I did not want to continue to trim so bending the sticks was my next step. I think these sticks were made based on zero body lift as the outboard bend was at the base of the stick instead of a couple inches higher where it would be more ideal.

I straightened this stick and moved the bend up a couple inches. This was about 2 hours of trial and error fitting but finally got it to work.

Sadly, all I have is a propane torch so I had to resort to this method to bend the sticks. ;D




Also had to bend the sticks forward as I trimmed the tunnel cover back all the way to where the aft angled portion meets the horizontal portion and was not willing to trim any more.

Long story short, the j-shift sticks are installed after a LOT of work. I am hopeful that JB will use the notes I sent him today to iron out the kinks and possibly have a bolt on 4R70W / ZF / D20 J-shift twin stick setup available for purchase in the very near future.

Next I installed the Lokar transmission dipstick (XTD-3AODFM). The beauty of this flexible setup is I can mount it anywhere.

I chose the firewall cubbie area so as to keep it off the headers and still easily accessible. Had to use a couple of nuts as spacers to move it slightly forward off the firewall so I could remove the stick without hitting the upper ledge of the firewall.

There is so much crap in my engine bay that it took a bit of doing just to drill the self tapping screws into the firewall. Sadly, this was the easiest thing I did all day and it took about an hour. :-X



The Lokar column shift linkage (ACA-1808) was lots of fun too. When I purchased this item I failed to realize that it is designed for a GM column NOT a Ford column. This created my first issue with this install below.

This shows the column shifter and the bolt that came with the kit. The hole in my Ford shifter is way too big!



Lokar includes special bushings to adapt this bolt for a GM application so I had to ditch the bushings and come up with a solution.

My solution was to use the bushing that was originally used with the C4 shifter linkage. I would recommend obtaining a new one from one of the vendors though.

Had to drill it out with 21/64" to get enough meat out of the bushing to allow the 5/16" bolt to fit.



Reinstalled the bushing on the shifter and installed the Lokar hardware. Make sure you install the heim on the back side of the column shifter or your angle will be bad going to the 4R70W.



Now down to the 4R side of the shifter linkage. I had to re-clock the adjustable Lokar arm that was originally clocked to the 8 o'clock position to the next position clockwise (approximately 9 o'clock).



In the process of finding the right position, I cut about 3/8" off the rod. I think I could have gotten away with not cutting it at all.

Unfortunately, I stripped one of the set screws holes so Lokar is sending me a replacement.

Once connected, I ran the shifter through the full range with the key on to observe the position indication in the display window of the computer.

Spent the rest of my time working on cleaning up the disaster I created in the engine bay with the header install.

All in all, I don't feel like I got a lot accomplished today. Hope tomorrow yields better results.

8-)

[blazinchuck]

its looking good man...keep in mind some hardware stores might have some bushing(metal) to fill in a hole like that column shifter/lokar rod. any luck with the exhaust?

[chuzie]

Good point. If the stock bushing doesn't end up working, I will look into that.

The exhaust is kicking my ass. I just don't have the experience nor the "vision" to effectively cut angles to join pipe correctly. Each time I make a cut, it ends up making things worse. I have seen you do exhaust many times and you always made it look so easy. Guess it is just an experience thing. I will try again today. Had to walk away yesterday before I set the darn thing on fire.

There is also a question about the need for a seal on the trans output to prevent fluid from seeping into the xfer case since this is designed for a manual not an automatic. More to come on that issue as well.