New guy from Florida

Sounds like your deal got even better! If it wasnt cheaper/easier to just put a V8 in mine I would consider doing a few things to the ol' slant to warm her up.

It never fails... i put an electric fan on the van yesterday and last night the heater core starts leaking!! The van runs better than it ever has and noise from that heavy stock fan is gone.

I guess i'll bypass the heater until i buy an A/C and heat unit.

I also installed tri-bar headlights with the h-4 bulbs, what a difference. I can see in the dark now!

I'm getting closer to installing the auto tranny in too. I picked up a real nice shifter on ebay that had everything. I also bought a large cooler. I would like to get a 2500ish stall converter before it goes in also. I fear the larger cam in the 6 will be a problem with a stock converter.

the shifters had differnt locations depending on the year. old post here will help you with this . did you get the shifter cable??? do you have the connection @the tranny.????

on the shifter were it holds the cable to the shifter body that is the weak link on these be carefull if you are removing and reinstalling the cable the tabs are weak.

I just bought a set of disc brake brackets from Scarebird. I've got calipers on the way and i'll get the other stuff soon. I'll post pictures as i go. I replaced the rear brakes a few weeks ago and adjusted the front. The pedal felt great until yesterday, the master is bypassing and i might as well do it all.

Rockauto had a closeout deal on the calipers, $9 something each with no core charge.(they have more left) The stores around here wanted $15-50 just for the core charge.

dix wrote:the shifters had differnt locations depending on the year. old post here will help you with this . did you get the shifter cable??? do you have the connection @the tranny.????

I did get the cable and i think i got what i need for the tranny. The end of the cable has a bracket with a single hole and the cable it self has a clevis. But i don't know for sure, i haven't seen one work.

What a difference!!!!! It stops now!!

The last of my parts showed up yesterday and i got an early start this morning. All in all it was pretty straight forward, the only issue i had was the brackets went on the wrong sides. (followed the instructions) They say welds go to the outside and calipers to the rear (except a100, calipers to the front). But they didn't say welds to the inside.

Here are some pictures and everything i bought totaled $363, i also didn't have to pay any core fees.











You can see with the welds on the outside, they are too close the the rotor. I trimmed the bolts before i found the problem.





I couldn't find a stud until i was finished, i thought i left it at work.



They look good behind the crappy wheels!!

The worst part of the whole thing was making the room needed for the new master cly.

The stopping power is way better, plus the fact that my van was a 108 with 10" drums. Stops straight too, i need to relearn not to steer into the brake pull.

I also fixed a brake line from another owner, kinda scary to see that kinda fix.

that kinda fix would work just fine compression fittings are actually stronger than the line,dave

do you know what parts are used????

Here's a link that i got from a guy before i bought mine. The funny thing is on his sheet, they say inward!!! That's frustrating!

http://www.orchidlakecandles.com/manual.pdf

When i received the brackets from Scarebird it came with the pair of bango bolts. I got the calipers and master from Rockauto, hoses and pads local, the rotors on ebay.

Just another note, the calipers clear the swaybar links, close but it clears.

Drove it to work and back, what a joy to drive now. I still find myself steering into the brake for no reason.

where did you put the master cylinder? in the place of teh old one? do you have to replace it?

I mounted the new master in the same place with the same bolts. I had to trim the sheet metal to make it fit because the new one is longer.

looks alot better than a Dodge Caravan isnt? , on the bad side you will have to listen to everybodys story each time you park the van or at the gas station , sometime ist okay but it make longer drives.....very nice van.

Haha, yeah. Thanks

I'm very happy with the brakes, driven about 200 miles so far.

I put some new shoes on the old girl!! I found a great deal on a set of 09 Challenger rims for $80 and they are 18x7.5. I bought a set of used tires that are 215/55 for the front and 235/55 for the rear. In order to use the wheels i had to space them out 1 1/4" and the other reason is that dodge changed the bolt pattern to 5x4.52 from 5x4.5, so the spacers did both. They bolted up to the 5x4.5 hubs but i know it's different.







You can see the brakes now



Here are a few pics of some of the other stuff done







Just to compare with the old



The brakes have been outstanding, i had someone pull out a few weeks ago and hands down, they saved me and the van.

Does anyone know what the stock caster setting was? Has anyone used shims to change the caster, i've seen 2* and 4*. If so, did a 2* shim really change it 2*?

thanks

Stock should be in the manual. it's probably ~5 degrees.
I put shims on the 108 due to the nose down attitude, made a big difference!

Love the new look of the motor and the wheels. Great job! Wish I was moving along that fast.

Hey,

Welcome and great looking Van!

Thanks guys,

I put it on our alignment rack at work and it had 1.5* of caster, i found that 6* is stock spec. That explains the way it drives, kinda always never stays straight and always sawing at the wheel. The new tires made this problem worse with the stiff sidewalls plus i have staggered sizes now and it raised the rear up. I installed 4* shims in it a few hours ago and that helped a lot!! I'll get it back on the rack this week and see where i am.

So, if you haven't checked your alignment, check it!!!! The more the springs sag, the worse this will get.

Next up is the auto swap and install the header.

john

hey john looking thru this post i havent seen the part numbers and stuff just pics of the parts.id like part numbers on the flexhoses,calipers,rotors,pads,even the replacemet bearings for the hub,aalso any other parts required to do the conversion.thanks in advance

Here is what Scarebird sent me, it's the list of stuff needed. I didn't mess with my hub bearings at all.

http://www.orchidlakecandles.com/manual.pdf

I pretty much bought everything from rockauto, the rotors are ebay but very nice so far.

I drive it hard and everyday, best money spent, hands down.

I took some pictures the other day of the van. This is after i removed the bottom 2 leaves of the front and rear.







And just to see the difference



I also got the 904 tranny in it. Here is the picture of the shifter installed.



Along with the trans swap i installed a 6 into one header and 2 1/2 exhaust on it. I made the exhaust end before the rear tires just in case i flip the rear axle. The header really woke up the slant 6 in a big way. I guess the 10-1 and big cam needed to breath. Another change for the better was to swap the holley 390cfm for a edelbrock 500cfm. I'm getting better mpg and just an all around better drive.

Here are a few pictures of the engine with the header, elec fan and small starter. It doesn't sound like a can of rocks when it starts.







The next group of pictures is of the 904 swap. I used a tranny cross member and mount from a '98 full size dodge van. The only thing i did to the mount was shortened and drilled a new hole in the bracket that bolts to the tail shaft. It fit well stock but hung to low.







I shortened and drilled a new hole in the stock dart shift lever don't laugh at my screw it's lasted for months.



My exhaust hangs low but i can't really do much about it, with out cutting the header all up.