Installing the TKX and hit a snag

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gnvair

Royal Smart Person
Sep 1, 2018
1,098
1,296
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Southern New Jersey near Philly
I have been putting more miles on the car. The car is a real pleasure to drive now. Nice and smooth. So a recap....
I replaced the Super T10 with a 2.87 1st gear Tremec TKX with a .68 over drive.
I replaced the defective (out of the box) Centerforce Dual Friction with a Ram HDX. The Centerforce chattered like crazy and the autopsy found the straps that attach the friction surface to the pressure plate cover were warped.
Clutch release is nice and smooth now.
I replaced my Spohn adjustable rear upper control arms (G body spec) with another set of Spohn adjustable upper control arms that are 64-72 A body spec. The reason is because I could not get the rear differential pinion to go negative. The max I could get was 0 degrees. This is no fault of the control arms. This is because of the position of the upper ears on the Crown Vic 8.8 rear. The end result was 1.4 degrees down giving me u joint operating angles that were nearly identical (front and rear) and within the range of .5 and 3 degrees.
The TKX gear box does shift very smooth. I noted some notchiness on the 1-2 and 2-3 up shifts when cold but that goes away when the fluid warms up. The shifter throws are a little longer than I prefer.
The shifter also has some buzzing to it but the handle is bolted solid with no isolator between the stick and the shifter stub.
The gear box has some notable resonance in all gears below 2,000 rpms. I can best describe it as the same noise most gear boxes make when you lug the engine down to a very low speed in a higher gear. This resonance goes completely away over 2,000 rpms.
Upon returning from the test drive I had a fluid leak from the speedometer cable adapter. Research online found other people with Tremecs using the GM speedometer cable adapter (Tremec transmissions are machined for a Ford speedometer cable and hardware) have had similar leaks from the adapter. I added an o-ring around the center shaft on the inside and the out side and packed the recesses around this shaft with heavy grease. This solved the leakage.
Last issue (if you want to consider it as such) is that in 5th gear on the high way I was turning about 1900 rpms at 70 with the 3.31 rear gears and a 26" tall tire. My camshaft is not super radical but it has enough duration to cause it to feel like it is bucking at that rpm. I looked around on Facebook Market place and found someone selling a brand new unused Ford Racing 3.73 ring and pinion set with a Motive gear install kit, I installed that on Friday night after work.
I test drove it on Sunday and found that did the trick. 70 mph is now 2200 rpms. The 3.73's improved the performance everywhere so I am glad I did the swap.
I know some of this might sound like I am being overly critical but I figured I would be very honest so others know what to expect. Don't get me wrong, I am pleased with it and I have it driving like I wanted.
I think next project will be a Dakota Digital cruise control set up, but that is going to be another story.........
 
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