First of all, a special thank you goes out to my brother (JosueLT that most of the midwest folks know and have met) who took his only day off and took time away from his family to come and help me with the install today. My hat goes off to Brian, Chris, and all the folks at Circle D. A1 customer service from the time i ordered the stall to the time of installation when i had questions about spacers.
I bought the converter Monday last week. It was at my doorstep Friday and we installed it today. Installation went about as we expected it to and it was a shit ton easier to install the converter pull the tranny, than it was to do headers lol. We started at 7am and by 9, the tranny was out. For once, thank God my motor has been replaced 4 times in the last 3 years and i only have 53k miles on the body. I have long tube headers as well that were installed in May so fresh bolts there too and not having to worry about finessing the stock y pipe, and im 2wd. All bolts were nice and fresh and were a breeze to break free and rather easy to get to. We made one little mistake and forgot to put the clip back on over the seal that goes around the shaft and realized it when we went to put the headers y pipe back on. This time, it only took us a half hour to yank the tranny back out. So this is very doable for the intermediate mechanic that doesnt want to pay someone and has access to a lift. After removing the tranny, installing the converter, figuring out the shims that we needed because my converter was too far away from the flexplate, stopping for 2 hours to go to the bank and go buy fluids/seals (i work 2 jobs from 8am to midnight so i could get to a bank before today) and eat breakfast, and buttoning everthing back up, we were done by 230pm. So about 4 hours for our very first time doing this. Next time when we go to replace my tranny, im sure it'll be less than 2-3 hours...
Onto the pix...
Getting started...
Laying out and organizing parts and bolts
We didnt have to remove the passenger side header to get the starter out to get to the stock stall bolts...
Definetly need the right tools to make the job easy as hell LOL
Out she comes...
The clip that we forgot to put on the shaft seal that you see laying on the bottom of the bell housing. The clip was on the work bench. We didnt install the tranny with it laying there lol...
Stock stall on the left. Circle D on the right
Shes in!
The shims we needed to use...
And putting it all back together...
Other than the scary first start up and harsh shifting, i can DEFINETLY tell a difference. It's not as bad as i thought it was leaving from a dead stop but absolutely rapes from a roll now. It doesnt take a lot of throttle to get it moving like i read it would. There's a noticible difference in normal take off now and my exhaust did get louder, but nothing too drastic to make the popo mess with me.
I bought the converter Monday last week. It was at my doorstep Friday and we installed it today. Installation went about as we expected it to and it was a shit ton easier to install the converter pull the tranny, than it was to do headers lol. We started at 7am and by 9, the tranny was out. For once, thank God my motor has been replaced 4 times in the last 3 years and i only have 53k miles on the body. I have long tube headers as well that were installed in May so fresh bolts there too and not having to worry about finessing the stock y pipe, and im 2wd. All bolts were nice and fresh and were a breeze to break free and rather easy to get to. We made one little mistake and forgot to put the clip back on over the seal that goes around the shaft and realized it when we went to put the headers y pipe back on. This time, it only took us a half hour to yank the tranny back out. So this is very doable for the intermediate mechanic that doesnt want to pay someone and has access to a lift. After removing the tranny, installing the converter, figuring out the shims that we needed because my converter was too far away from the flexplate, stopping for 2 hours to go to the bank and go buy fluids/seals (i work 2 jobs from 8am to midnight so i could get to a bank before today) and eat breakfast, and buttoning everthing back up, we were done by 230pm. So about 4 hours for our very first time doing this. Next time when we go to replace my tranny, im sure it'll be less than 2-3 hours...
Onto the pix...
Getting started...
Laying out and organizing parts and bolts
We didnt have to remove the passenger side header to get the starter out to get to the stock stall bolts...
Definetly need the right tools to make the job easy as hell LOL
Out she comes...
The clip that we forgot to put on the shaft seal that you see laying on the bottom of the bell housing. The clip was on the work bench. We didnt install the tranny with it laying there lol...
Stock stall on the left. Circle D on the right
Shes in!
The shims we needed to use...
And putting it all back together...
Other than the scary first start up and harsh shifting, i can DEFINETLY tell a difference. It's not as bad as i thought it was leaving from a dead stop but absolutely rapes from a roll now. It doesnt take a lot of throttle to get it moving like i read it would. There's a noticible difference in normal take off now and my exhaust did get louder, but nothing too drastic to make the popo mess with me.
. I just need it to hold for the next month or so since she'll be parked for the season here soon
