I've been gone, working on my diesel van , put in a manual 5 spd..

[moosiah]

 hi all . I've been gone from this forum for a while , 'cause I've been working on my 1 ton ford diesel van.. they came with crappy electronic shift 4spd auto boxes that are just weak junk,, Unless you spend , Oh 4 -5 grand .... so I swapped in a 5 spd ZF from a F350 and the pedals to match.... the hardest part was finding a hydraulic hose for the clutch master cylinder.. had to find a after-market one on line ( Dorman), and then figure out what the part # was in the NAPA catalog... turned out it was cheaper than fixing the stock tranny , less than half the $ and while it's no Bunny in the mileage dept , it has gotten 21+ on trips ..... which beats the bejesus out of the 9-11 it would get w a gasser .. so far I'm happy with it .. $1340.00 to swap , all parts total cost , and 99% of the parts came right from the ford catalog.... for other models .....it looks like I have one of four like it in the country, and 2 of those are gas jobs...

[maxfax]

Neat!!!   Pics or it didn't happen though...

[745 turbogreasel]

Yeah,  in for pics of you shifting with your elbow!
I hope you eliminated the dual slop flywheel while you were at it?

[moosiah]

Yes , single mass flywheel.. got pix on FB page, I'll figure out how to transfer here... interesting that on 
tds ( a ford diesel place) no one has asked to see pix yet... hummm

[moosiah]

I should have added that my next-door-neighbor has a E150 (1/2 ton)  ford van with a Mercedes 3ltr turbo -diesel engine and 4 spd manual gbox that he's dinking  the problems out of ..... when he has time ..... will be a nice rig when he's done ....

[bajacalal]

Nice, I've always thought it was a shame that vans don't come with manual transmissions, at least not in the North American market.

I would love to see someone do one of those Quigley 4x4 vans with some version of a Cummins and a 5 speed.

[R.O.R-2.0]

i dont remember where i saw it, but ive seen someone put a 5 speed trans in a chevy Astroid van before.. pretty sure it was out of a S10..

[maxfax]

Nice, I've always thought it was a shame that vans don't come with manual transmissions, at least not in the North American market.

Mopar covered that market..  The full size vans with that came with a slant six (early 80's) and 4cyl Caravans (late 80's) had a manual available as an option...   Swapped a 3.0 v6 and 5speed from a Daytuna into one of those Caravans years back..  It was sick I tell you... SICK!!!

[745 turbogreasel]

I helped  a friend build his SWB 69 Chevy van with a mid mounted 327, and a 3 on the tree.  It was pretty frisky if you weren't loaded.

[maxfax]

  It was pretty frisky if you weren't loaded.

Van or driver???

[Wayland]

I helped  a friend build his SWB 69 Chevy van with a mid mounted 327, and a 3 on the tree.  It was pretty frisky if you weren't loaded.

Pretty frisky even with the stock 250 6 cylinder. Zero rear wheel traction if the roads were the slightest bit slippery. I had one about 10 years ago. Sold it shortly after nearly sliding out onto a busy highway because of a little bit of frost on the road. The only time it ever felt safe or handled half decently was with 10 or so sacks of feed in the very back.

[Wayland]

i dont remember where i saw it, but ive seen someone put a 5 speed trans in a chevy Astroid van before.. pretty sure it was out of a S10..

They actually came stock like this. Very rare AFAIK. Only ever seen one.

[maxfax]

i dont remember where i saw it, but ive seen someone put a 5 speed trans in a chevy Astroid van before.. pretty sure it was out of a S10..

They actually came stock like this. Very rare AFAIK. Only ever seen one.

I remember seeing one of these in the bone yard with a 5 speed and an Iron Duke for uhh power?

[Wayland]

i dont remember where i saw it, but ive seen someone put a 5 speed trans in a chevy Astroid van before.. pretty sure it was out of a S10..

They actually came stock like this. Very rare AFAIK. Only ever seen one.

I remember seeing one of these in the bone yard with a 5 speed and an Iron Duke for uhh power?

Yes, the one I saw was a 2.5 4 cyl too.

[R.O.R-2.0]

i dont remember where i saw it, but ive seen someone put a 5 speed trans in a chevy Astroid van before.. pretty sure it was out of a S10..

They actually came stock like this. Very rare AFAIK. Only ever seen one.

I remember seeing one of these in the bone yard with a 5 speed and an Iron Duke for uhh power?

no, it was an early 90s 4.3 V6.. TBI, all that fun stuff.. 5 spd..

i never drove that one, but i drove one with a 700r4 trans, and a 4.3, and that thing was still all over the road if you wanted to take off fast.. i would leave the shop sideways more often than not with that van. lol. 5 speed woulda had me sideways everywhere..