1st Gen G56 Swap

[Shadrach]

Discovered that 2nd gen starter can hit the frame rail slightly when engine is torqued. Minor shaving would solve this. With mods done to 4X4 shifter it is a it tight going into 4 low. Handle is against right hand edge of trans tunnel.

Here is picture of the Getrag shifter boot. Thats a Kenworth knob on the shifter.



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[Shadrach]

Ok so I didn't get it perfect but I'm learning. Shadrach

 

[therabbittree]

well my G56 swap is getting delayed till the spring and its now going into another truck... Picking this up this weekend hopefully

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1984 D350 8 foot bed . . plan is to swap 4wd parts and 12v engine manual trans etc. . I'm debating putting my dumping flat bed on this truck and parting mine into this one or keeping my dump or selling my dump etcetc. . argh this truck is a 360 727 410 rear etc. . I'm pulling the engine and trans and the present owner is going to be keeping them. . 1 family truck 129k, The guy's dad owned it since new he passed away and son inherited it and is selling to me. . His parents drove from NY to FL and it stayed in Fl every winter etc... has some minor rust drivers rocker, drivers front fender bed is nice etc. I have mint front fenders already etc. . I'm hoping the roof is good, as the the paint is coming up from surface rust there. .

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It has a/c and a black dash with rubber floor mats kinda neat. . More pictures will be coming etc

Thanks

deo

 

[pepecat]

wow great find especially up in NY! Looks like the trucks are going back to the earth at that place! That driver's door panel looks immaculate! I picked one up as well... I don't have plans to do a cummins swap yet. . unless I find a 2wd donor. My crew has a divorced 205 with a spicer aux trans with /over/direct/under in it. Dana 70 Closed knuckle front axle, dana 60 rear with 4:10s.



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[therabbittree]

nice truck. . !!! the dana 70 front is a pain i've heard ie front drumsanddthe wheelbearing nuts like to losse up . . at least thats the consensus over on pirate etc... any pictures of the underneath?... iv'e been looking fora divorced 205 setup to play with and with a crew cab long bed i have plenty of room...

as fro the truck falling into the ground. . yes sire. . I hope if rolls well as its been parked from 200o or 2002?... find out on saterday when i drag it 200 miles home. .

thanks,

deo

 

[therabbittree]

hey Shadrach, do you know if the G56 tail housing can be swapped from 2wd to 4wd?. . i know you and your friend bought both versions of the trans etc. . any info on that?

Thanks

Deo

 

[pepecat]

nice truck. . !!! the dana 70 front is a pain i've heard ie front drumsanddthe wheelbearing nuts like to losse up

Hmm well I'm not sure... this truck has made many many cross country trips and been a forest/backwoods hauler for 36 years, none of those problems have occured. Maybe if you wheeled with this axle it would be different iono? But yeah Pirate guys hate the front dana 70 there's no doubt about that. They're silly over 60's... which are just as strong and have tons and tons of aftermarket support obviously... Plus this closed knuckle setup can't turn worth a damn. better radius to the right then left for some reason though...

As it sits I'm going to try and just get it back into solid running driving shape, go thru it all and check things out, and then we'll see what lies in it's future. I like the divorced setup as a concept but I don't really have any experience with 4x4's in general. This is my first one (besides a blazer s10 when I was in college)

 

[Shadrach]

hey Shadrach, do you know if the G56 tail housing can be swapped from 2wd to 4wd?. . i know you and your friend bought both versions of the trans etc. . any info on that?

Thanks

Deo

I'm no expert on internals yet but I would think you would have to take the two halves apart to change the output shaft as well as the housing?



Here is a picture of my blue crew as it is today next to a co-workers "93" with the CTD. It started out life as a 76 with a 440.



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Here is my crew towing my 92 "parts truck". I bought it from a customer who bought it, drove it home, and pulled out the CTD to replace the one in his Furd F450. I jumped at the chance to get the truck. It had an auto and I wanted a std so I traded trans with the owner of the white crew as he wanted to switch to an auto.



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Shadrach

 

[therabbittree]

Those look like real nice trucks. . any more pictures. . maybe we can start another thread!! How do you like the 2wds compared to the 4wd?. . I have friends who say keep it 2wd and get better mpg. . how much mpg are do you get over the 4wd?. . Ijust got stuckon flat ground with my4wd in my lawn with the 4wd. . tons of rain and getting muddy. locked the hubs and viola. . drove right out. . thats waht im afraid of. . i don't just stay on pavement surfaces . . i park my trailers on grass and have to drive across soft ground often... my friend says if i get a locker i'll be fine. . im not sure about that...

Thanks

Deo

 

[Tippin Spotted Cow]

Tires, tires, tires. I have a 4wd because I can get myself out of (and into) more trouble with it. For what it's worth though, I bought a set of goodyear wrangler silent armor A/Ts for my truck and when I get bored I entertain myself by seeing what they can get me through in 2wd.



I borrowed a buddies flatbed trailer once, and it was parked sunk into the dirt, with a sheet of ice in front of it where I needed to put my truck to pull it out. He and his dad were standing there telling me to lock the hubs and put it in 4wd. They have about 12 trucks collectively between the two of them and have never been able to pull the trailer out. Even my buddies 71 F250 highboy with an aftermarket lift and 12 inch wide tires needed 4wd to pull it out. I backed my truck up in 2wd, hooked up the trailer, and to my buddy and his dad's amazement yanked the thing out without slipping on the ice at all..... in 2wd. I should be getting commission, because I can't count the times I've given the local goodyear dealers a sale doing something like that.



Will your 2wd be able to yank tour trailers out of the mud? Probably not with the fleet farm specials wrapped around the rims, but spend a little extra on some good A/Ts (not M/Ts!!!) and I think you'll be fine.

 

[Tippin Spotted Cow]

Oh... by the way... . I have an open rear diff.

 

[therabbittree]

my Patrol Vehicle is a F250 and I have the Silent Armors on it and it works well but I still use 4wd alot. Seems its almost always on wet grass with soft mudd under it. . if your creeping a;long slow all of a sudden your slipping. . i could spin teh crap out of them but its lots neated and easier to lock the hubs and used 4wd. . walks right out them. This happens often, thats the reason I am hesitant on a 2wd. .

 

[Shadrach]

4WD is nice especially in the winter, but I hate the ride of 1st gen 4X4's. I drove my crew daily for over 6 years. Tires do make a big difference. My beater I drive while my crew is parked is a 90 4Runner. I like having a 4 wheel drive for the few times I need it. When I get the crew dieselized it probably won't get driven in the winter. I will be using it for towing the family holiday trailer so other than being on the "gravel" in campgrounds it will be on asphalt most of the time. I currently run Michelin LT4. They are fine on the highway but pick up all kinds of rocks in the campground because of the wide grooves in the tread. I have enough work to do on my truck without adding the work or expense of converting it to a 4WD. My previous Dodge ( an 82 Club Cab 2WD) got stuck on flat ground several times.

As far as mileage goes don't forget my crew is still on propane, so when pulling my 24' trailer I get about 5 mpg. It has a 360-4 727 and 410's so I am buzzing about 3000rpm at 60mph. It is tweaked for max power so it burns lots of fuel to do it. When I get it running on diesel I will have about 2 and a half times the horse power, 3 - 4 times the torque and much better mileage, just by spending a small fortune :-laf. Sharach

 

[Shadrach]

Those look like real nice trucks. . any more pictures. . maybe we can start another thread!! ... ... Deo

There was a thread a while back that Sam started



https://www.turbodieselregister.com...rsions/114511-ctd-crew-cab-who-s-doin-em.html



We could continue the crew talk there





Shadrach

 

[Shadrach]

Update on G56 in 93 W350. The custom built 4 core rad started leaking. Turns out the fan clutch was coming apart and pushing the fan into the rad. The rad is about 3/4" thicker than the stock one. We had to trim the shroud for clearance. BTW If you put in a thicker rad you can't unthread the fan clutch without pulling the rad first. I went to change the front cover gasket and learned the hard way. That rad is heavy.



What does this have to do with the G56 swap you ask? It turns out we should have raised the rear of the G56 up about another 3/8" - 1/2", but it was already close to the floor. By not having the rear up high enough the bottom of the fan blade was closer to the rad than the top, and because the rad was thicker there just wasn't enough room, so when the clutch came part the fan hit the rad. With a stock rad this would have taken longer to happen but by then the fan clutch would have been totally apart and more than likely would have done more damage.

Of course this happened when he was nearly 200 miles away from home. I picked up a new fan and clutch from Dodge ( they change up as a pair ) and went on a hotshot run after work.

I guess the way to tell if you have the back end of the trans is up high enough is to see if the bottom of the fan blade is inside the shroud the same distance as the top of the fan blade. I am sure glad we used his truck as the guinea pig and not mine. :-laf



Shadrach

 

[Tippin Spotted Cow]

You're testing the chaos theory out, I see. A series of seemingly unrelated events that all conspired together to one outcome.

 

[Shadrach]

Part number for G56 swap

OK For those of you interested in doing this swap here are the part numbers you will need. Even if you don't buy everything new like we did you still might need some of these. With the exception of the trans itself and the rear mount all parts are the same for 2WD and 4WD. All # except Clutch are Dodge. These transmissions are the later version ( AE ) with the not so low LOW.

Trans ( exchange - core or extra $ required ) 4WD RL104715AA 2WD RL104714AA
Mount 4WD 52121774AA 2WD 52121773AA
Clutch Fork 52087515
Clutch slave cyl studs 2 req 6505668AA Nuts for Studs 2 req 6104716AA
Bolts for mount to trans 2 req 6033358 Nuts for mount to Xmember 3 req 6104717AA
Bolts for trans to Cummins adapter 8 req 6035470 - these have a captive washer and are threaded all the way
Shifter 55366868AB
Shifter Knob 52104174
Nut for shifter 6502556
Button with shift pattern 55366060AA
Wiring harness for backup switch plug 4801418AE - cut plug off throw rest away ( they couldn't come up with just a plug and we couldn't wait.

Parts from South Bend Clutch:
Hydraulic kit # HD-HYD ( originally for 94-97 - reuse 93 master cyl )
Clutch: we used the MU G56 CON OFE

The 2WD trans is more $ than the 4WD

If you can get one from a wrecker like Deo did it will be less money. Shadrach

 

[Shadrach]

UPDATE:



The mount under the back of the trans seems to have gone "cockeyed". Maybe it's because the trans is supposed to have a transfer case hanging off the left side and not the right side like in the 1st gens. Will keep an eye on it. The shifting took a bit of getting used to as one of the trans has a "spring loaded shifter" and the other doesn't. My buddies first Dodge/CTD was a stock 93 W350 with a Getrag. What a difference in this 93 W350 with a bombed 96 CTD and a G56. This 6 speed is really nice, and although it cost lots he thinks it was worth it. Shadrach

 

[therabbittree]

cool thanks for the part #'s!!! I have hit a semi decision point. I did not buy that cre cab we bought a excursion witha p pump cummins and a nv4500 it has a mitchell clutch and supposedly trans has been rebuilt with the differnet 5th gear and splined main shafts etc. I am thinking of swapping my G56 into the excursion with my southbend fe clutch. Then sell the nv4500 and mitcheel cluthc to get another g56 for my first gen... mummn debating

Thanks,

Deo

 

[glhs]

So how much is a new transmission?