The Dogleg Is Done!!!!!!!

[Moisabamf]

yes!

im so freakin happy.

[Pacific coast Datsun]

Pics..issues [if any] you ran into...mods necessary..we wanna know !:D

[Moisabamf]

alrighty then where do i start?

it all started when i was on the datsun1200.com site,

and one of my friends(mark duncan) offered to trade my 60A 5 speed for his 63A dogleg 5 speed. i immediatelly jumped on the chance

well i have an A15 so during the swap we got ourselves a little fabrication exp.

so we looked at the situation and thought we could do it in 2 weekends

 

yeah right.

 

the whole swap was just obstacle after obstacle after obstacle!

the first obstacle was to just get the tranny out. that was no big deal, got it out soon enough.

then we hit the first obstacle

we were looking at the trannys and something seemed off.

the 60A had 18 spokes on the whajamacallit that holds the clutch plate into place.

the 63A had 24.

no big deal right? i bought a whole new clutch assembly(not nessesarry, you only need the disk)and soon the wheels were turning again

or not.

the clutch adjustment tool had the 24 spokes, but the actual piece that aligns the plate to the flywheel was way too wide. so we got a universal clutch alignment tool and got it all done (this is now week 2)

okay, so were really powering through now. we got the tranny in the car.

(very little banging with the hammer was required) and then we had to tackle the crossmember. we couldnt just make an adapter plate like the other tranny swaps we had done in the past, we needed to make a legit one.

so we got some steel bars and set off on the task.

i was sitting there thinking about how we were going to do this when all of a sudden my dad comes out with a mistery crossmember, makes some mental calculations, and realizes that it will fit with the only modification needed is to weld a piece of said steel bars to make spacers(upon further reflection, the only car that could have come out of is our 710 wagon. if someone can get me a picture to the tranny mount to a 710, i can verify this) so we get the spacers done, we drill holes into the floorpan to bolt it all up(we welded pieces of 1/4 inch steel for support.(yesterday) today, we were looking at the axle realizing that the 1200 axle has the 18 spokes to connect to the tranny, and the dogleg had 24. so we took an axle from our yard that had the 24 spoke pattern, cut it, and welded it to our existing 1200 axle.(for our car, the finishing length of the axle was 50 inches.). finally we had our mechanic friend fix our exhaust pipe because when we made the crossmember, the pipe was lowered and it wouldnt reach the headers(we have a custom exhaust, cant tell you about stock) then we hooked up the axle, put oil in the dogleg, hooked up the starter, hooked up the battery(we unplugged it), fired her up, and made my tires that much more thin:D

when we were done my dad said "the guy(duncan) probably wanted to put the regular 5 speed instead of the dogleg because its so much F#$@ing trouble." i found that hilarious

 

if you have any questions, dont hesitate to ask me, i feel that i must pass on the knowledge of this epic adventure in tranny swaps.

[Burabuda]

duncan may not have liked the dogleg pattern

plus there's very little parts available

 

the 63L was mostly for L-series cars, that's probably why the mount is further aft

 

 

bottom is 60L

[Pacific coast Datsun]

Wow what an experience. Nothing ever seems to be "easy" on our Datsun's :D You guys made it happen & thats kool. Any pics of the finished product?

[Moisabamf]

yeah they will be up shortly

[DRIVEN]

Did the dogleg swap in mine too. It was not the direct swap I had hoped for (like I need to explain that to you). Totally worth the headache. You won't regret it.

[Phlebmaster]

Thanks for the info...I plan on doing this eventually.:D

[Moisabamf]

here are promised pics

Crossmember

 

here is the axle modification we had to do

 

new slave cylinder that had to be put in