Cold Shifting, Alternator charge circuit, Clark 5 Speeds.

[Darrel Kline <darrelk@domain.elided>]

  I have trouble shifting my Scout when the weather is cold.  It has the
close ratio T19.  It's very difficult to get into first gear, and next to
impossible to make the 1-2 shift.  After about 3 minutes of driving it
shifts ok.  And it's not much fun driving the first mile to work in first
gear.  I suspect the oil in the transmission is the cause of my problems.
I'm going to replace the oil, maybe with the Amsoil brand.  The Amsoil oil
is synthetic and is supposed to improve cold weather shifting.  At least
that's what the advert. says.  Anyone have any recommendations?

  I bought some new VDO gauges (and I just got the factory gauges working
properly, doh) and will not be using the amperage gauge   I don't think it
will like the 100+ amp alternator I plan to swap in. Problem is I have to
do something with the 10 gauge wires going to the amp gauge.  There are 3
wires connected to the gauge.  One to the fuse block, one from the
alternator, and one to the starter(?).  Do I need to keep all these wires
when I remove my amperage gauge?  Can I just run the charge wire directly
to the battery and another wire directly to the fuse block?  I'm just
trying to get rid of any unnecessary wire, and upgrade to wire large enough
to handle the bigger alternator.  If I run the charge wire directly to the
battery, I think I can stay with the 10 gauge wire to the fuse block since
it won't have to handle the entire amperage of the alternator. Obviously I
haven't dug into the manual yet, but I figured there would be an expert out
there with the answers. John Landry are you out there? (anyone need some
factory gauges?  drop me a line).

  I'm toying with the idea of dropping a Clark 5 speed into my Scout II
(I'm too cheap to buy a NV4500).  These are all divorced setups AFAIK.
What I'm concerned about mostly is my rear driveline angle.  Does anyone
know the length of these transmissions? (Allan W. you out there?) Like from
the bellhousing flange to the rear flange. What about the bellhousing for
the Clark compared to the standard bellhousing?  My dana 300 is very narrow
so maybe it would work?  I'm planning a spring over so I'll have about 5.5
inches of lift. So angles are critical.  The Clark I have my eye on has the
6.21 first and .823 fifth.  Lets see, 6.21 x 2.62 x 4.11 = 66.87. Now
that's a crawl ratio.  Wait, might as well drop in that 4 to 1 transfer
case kit (then I'll be able to break some axles).  Anyone tried the 4 to 1
kit for the Scout dana 300 yet?

  A couple more messages like this and maybe I could take over Tom's job on
the digest. Not. <g>.    


Darrel Kline
Colorado Springs, Co
1980 Scout II, T19, dana 300.
determined to have my spring over and on-board air by my b-day