55 Chevy Four Door "Gasser" new pg 4

'55 Gasser, Patches, gets a new transmission !

Spent today pulling the clutches apart and checking them out, then putting the
new TKO 600 from Silver Sport Transmissions (SST) in the car.

An earlier trial fit showed that the shifter tower on the new trans
hits the underside of the floor, and had to be removed....

Some disassembly and it was off....

There might be a  problem trying to put it back on
with the tranny in place under the car.....
I might have to resort to cutting a bigger hole in the floor,
the hole that is there now from the Doug Nash gearbox is
small, and the DN shifter could easily be installed from underneath
after the tranny was put into position.

I did do a check on the runout of the mounting surface
of this Lakewood Blow Bell, back in late 2011

(More Pix HERE if you want a look)
and I discussed with my Tremec supplier (SST)
whether I should redo the runout check.
We both agreed that since nothing has
changed in the last 4+ years since I did that,
the motor and the blow bell are both exactly
the same, that I did not need to redo that work.

Did another trial fit of the TKO without that shifter tower,
no problem, it goes right into position easily...

And the shifter position is right where I wanted it to go,
located under the old shifter hole in the floor...

Those long bolts make sliding the tranny into position easy !

Now that I know the tranny shifter position is ok,
time to check out the clutch setup,
This is a McLeod RST dual disk setup that
I installed about 4 years ago, after roasting the
single disk clutch setup I had originally installed.

It looks good, a little dusty but not much wear really....
Below is the pressure plate and the Top clutch disk....

With this kind of a setup, the rear clutch disk is called the "Top",
and the front disk is called the "Bottom".

Below is the front side of the "Top" disk...
There is not much wear here, they would be good to go,....
I had originally installed the ceramic disks,
as they were recommended for drag racing....

Here's the intermediate plate that rides between the two clutch disks...
Not much wear here either....

You can see the rear side of the "Bottom" clutch disk
above under the intermediate plate...

Below is the front side of the "Top" disk,
and the rear side of the "Bottom" disk, they look good....

Flipped the "Bottom" disk over for a look at the front side....

A good look at the intermediate disk, rear side...

And the front side, still looking good....

 I have a set of organic clutch disks on the shelf 
for this setup, that should be smoother shifting on the street,
so I am going to put these in instead of the ceramic disks.

The ceramic disks are still good, they will go back on the shelf...

The ceramic disks are McLeod part numbers:
Top: 6922-07 (rear)
Bottom: 6924-07 (front)

And the organic disks are:
Top: 6920-07 (rear)
Bottom: 6919-07 (front)

Just for grins, here's a comparison shot of the original
Centerforce DFX ceramic clutch that I turned into
a toasty critter down at the track !!

Never had a problem with the McLeod ceramic setup.

Am running an aluminum flywheel with a steel clutch surface,
it looks good to go....

Installed a new pilot bearing...

And started reassembling the clutch setup
with the new organic clutch disks...

Sometime back I blew the input shaft gears in the Doug Nash,
I rebuilt the DN with new parts, and kept this old input
shaft to align clutches, it works much better than those
plastic alignment tools I've used up to now...

Bolted up the pressure plate...

Using the long guide bolts on the lower holes, 
the tranny slid into place easily.
Put the old tranny support bar in place and am looking
at what I need to fabricate to mount this transmission.

Got a real nice fit, perfect length , with the new SST driveshaft...

The new trans mount is about an inch forward, and 3/8" higher...

So, make a template for a piece of  3/8" plate,
and weld or bolt it to the existing flange...

I can center treanfer those holes to the new plate almost perfectly...

Marking it out on the 3/8" plate...

MORE LATER!

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