What do I need to put a 520 in an L-body...

[Force Fed Mopar]

...and keep the rod shifter? I have a feeling that my old 525 in my '87 GLHS may not last much longer, and have decided to upgrade it. I have an 89 520 w/ a 3.5 gear out of a TBI car that I can use.

What I want to do is put the 520 in, and make it work with the rod shifter, so I don't have to hack up my #'d car to install a cable shifter. Also I want to Heim-joint the shifter linkage.

What I know is that I'll need to make a bracket for the dog-bone, also one for the shifter rods on the trans. Does anybody have some good pics of this? I got a few from TM.com, but they weren't real helpful. Also is there anything else I will run in to? Axle splines different or anything?

[boost geek]

I'll crawl under my car on saturday and post pics. I put a 520 in an 87 s.c., the original dogbone fit in the original k frame location. I did have to put another bolt sleeve in the dogbone though, since my tranny mount sits about 1" higher than the original 520 mount location. I also use the rod shifter.
Oh ya, you need axles from an 88-90 automatic Omni, unequal length.

[Force Fed Mopar]

Cool, 'preciate it:thumbsup:

Damn, no way around changing those axles huh? Aren't the Omni TBI axles weaker?

[boost geek]

The Omni axle ends which are splined and sit in the transmission are way thicker than the 525 axles. The passenger side is also full length thick tube. If you ever pull a starter, or your power steering bracket, you will have way more room to work with the unequal length axles.:thumbsup:
Oh ya, if your putting this tranny in a GLHS, a car us Canadians here can only dream of having, put an OBX in it, you won't be disapointed!!!

[boost geek]

Well, I hope these pics are usefull. I should have taken more when it was still on the workbench.
I used the original tranny mount, the lower right hole in the mount is the original hole used in the 525. When used on the 520 bolt in the pics, your spacing for the dogbone to line up with the k frame mount will be almost perfect. It took a bit of fiddling and spacers, cutting, welding to attach it firmly to the 520. I cut and bent back the top of the tranny mount where the pin sticks out for the linkage, getting about the same clearance from the bellhousing as the 525. Works nice to have the 2 side by side. The 525 is also a nice donor for long bolts, I needed them for the spacers on the mount. The upper dogbone mount has the nut welded to the tranny bracket, it sits quite close to the aluminum housing. I also had to grind quite a bit off that area to clear the housing. The dogbone was about an inch short, so I drilled a 1/2" hole through the rubber and pushed in another sleeve in the vice. A 1/2" drill bit will only give you a 1/4" hole in rubber. The tranny mount is attached by 3 bolts to the tranny, and is very solid, not sure if you can see all 3 in the pics.
The other shifter mount was made with a short piece of 1" angle iron. The threaded pin from the 525 was put on a lathe, and the hex nut taken off, making the pin longer. A hole was drilled through the angle iron, then the pin welded flush from underneath. We did some welding on the shift arm to lower it, but we probably could have bent it down to save some time. The tranny mount was the most time consuming, but was worth it because I wanted to stay with shift linkage. I plan to heim joint it soon, zapstraps are just temporary.

[boost geek]

Here's some more...

[Force Fed Mopar]

Oh ya, if your putting this tranny in a GLHS, a car us Canadians here can only dream of having, put an OBX in it, you won't be disapointed!!!

Hee hee, so I'm not the only one who dreamed of them huh?:lol:I'm originally from Canada myself. Long, long time ago.

And yeah, it's going in my GLHS and the OBX is one of the reasons I want to go to the 520:thumbsup: Thanks for the pics, hopefully they will help me out soon. I may go ahead and pull the 525 out of my '84 SC so I can sit the 2 side side. It has to come out anyway, broken diff.

[Force Fed Mopar]

Okay, looked through the pics and what you said to do, it looks like you're saying the stock dogbone and brackets will work, just have to modify them right?

[GLHS592]

You don't need to buy 2 Omni axles. You only need one on the driver's side. On the passenger side, you can use most of your stock shaft. You will use the part from the wheel to the U-joint. Use the intermediate shaft (from U-joint into the transaxle) from the donor car.

[Force Fed Mopar]

TBI's don't have intermediate shafts do they? And I don't think there were any turbo Omnis after 87, right?

[GLHS592]

No they don't. TBI cars used unequal length axles. 1986 was the last turbo Omni.

Get the intermediate shaft out of the car the donor tranny came from. Use it with your stock GLHS passenger side shaft and save the money.

[Force Fed Mopar]

No they don't. TBI cars used unequal length axles. 1986 was the last turbo Omni.

Get the intermediate shaft out of the car the donor tranny came from. Use it with your stock GLHS passenger side shaft and save the money.

Oh I see what you're saying, but that still won't work for me. My donor car is my 89 TBI Lebaron:happy7: Since it's getting a V6 it won't need the 520 anymore.

[DodgeZ]

No they don't. TBI cars used unequal length axles. 1986 was the last turbo Omni.

Get the intermediate shaft out of the car the donor tranny came from. Use it with your stock GLHS passenger side shaft and save the money.

You run the intermediate shaft?

[boost geek]

Okay, looked through the pics and what you said to do, it looks like you're saying the stock dogbone and brackets will work, just have to modify them right?
Ya, the bracket needs lots of modding, the only original mounting hole you use is the lower right hole. You have to modify the other 2. Your dogbone will line up, I just lengthened the hole spacings about an inch.
You can run equal length axles, but I'm glad I didnt. My U-joint had play, plus I like the extra room to work on underneath the car with the equal length gone.

[GLHS592]

You run the intermediate shaft?

Not anymore. I have a shortened unequal minivan shaft on the passenger side.

[DodgeZ]

ah. Those intermediate shafts scare me with any real power behind them

[Omnious]

ah. Those intermediate shafts scare me with any real power behind them


Why don't you like them? It seemed like i got more wheel hop with a unequal legnth in my black GLH,
temporaly I have a unequal P body axle in my project car, I will pull it back out and install the equal legnth when I finish my brakes,

[Force Fed Mopar]

Well, I was right, the trans went south a week ago. I was going just throw another 525 in for a while, but I dunno. Might go ahead and stick the 520 in, I found several other parts going bad too. Clutch cable is starting to fray, shift rod bushing fell apart on removal, axle needs a boot job, etc. Looks like I may be going cable shift though.

[DodgeZ]

http://boostedmopar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5770