Diary of a Madman; TitaniumTT's see you @ DGRRXI RE-REbuild

[TitaniumTT]

Got the bitch buttoned up, checked the fluids, got her on the grnd and went for a drive....... HOLLY FUCKING HELL does she pull HARD. The 6-spd shifted great, the car ran SMOOTH, the ratios in the trans were spot on and the 4.3 rear was an awesome addition as well........ there was only one problem.... drivetrain vib in 4th-6th around 60mph and up. It's exactely like my truck when unloaded and hard on the gas.... the angles of the drivetrain are wrong and the shaft/u-joints are out of snyc.

Remember that pic above showing the engine rotated? Banzai mounts, so... I busted out the hoist, pulled the cup out of the driveres side, shimmed the passenger side, rotated the drivers side to the bottome of the adjustment, and the passenger side to the top of the adjustment range and got it to .1* with the rest of the car. Cool, that pulled the shifter over a little more as well.



Next problem was the angle relative to the pinion shaft. The pinion is offset to the passenger side in the FC. This means that the tranny needs to move over as well. Fuuuuuuuck, more notching of the tranny tunnel. Not very fun with a full interior but it's done and over with. Now, the tranny is so far over to the passenger that the original mount won't work. Not a big deal, build it once, I'll build it again. Now that's done.

Next problem is the angle of the engine trans. When I originally took my measurements they were off the u-joints becuase I though I was going to be re-using the orginal shaft. With that out I was forced to get it to where I though it should be.

Here's where it looks like it should be from the bottom. When I built my strut toer brace with the torque arm, these two points were lined up. They clearly aren't.



So I adjusted and moved and got it closer, took this pic,



moved it some more and got it spot on. Pulled a few angles from the tranny output, the yokes on the driveshaft at both ends & the pinion flange. They were within what I had understood to be acceptable measurements, built the mount, factored in some movement, and went for a drive. What started out as a vibration that could shake teeth loose, is down to what feels like a truck with mud tires on the highway feels like.... a constant little hum. MUCH better, but still needs some adjusting. I'm almost out of room regarding moving the tranny, I MAY have to drop the pinion flange down some to get some angle back.

Next step is to find the centerline of the car and with some lazer lights and plumb-bobs, get the offset of output shaft, the driveshaft, and the pinion, as well as the angles relative to horizontal and send them off to my driveshaft guy. He'll throw all that info into Dana-Spicers computer and see what needs to go where to get rid of the vibe. Gut says that becuase the tranny is a little longer, the pinion needs to come down slighty. Guys who lift trucks are all to familiar with this, except they go the other way with thier pinions.

If all that fails, it looks like it'll be a double cardon steel driveshaft... which would really piss me off.

So, that's where we are now. This tranny ROCKS! Can't thank Dave and his crew @ Speed1 enough for thier efforts. Without them, this NEVER would've happened. Anyone who can build a custom tranny is tops in my book. Thanks again Dave, I owe ya huge! This thing kicks ass, I wish it weren't raining today.