NJ Steves Pit Viper Revival

[Lynn]

I understand the reasoning behind that style of slave cyl. I just don't think the pros outweigh the cons. I needed to change the clutch slave on an old BMW last week. Took about 10 minutes.

Having to pull the trans is a huge pain in the butt on many cars.

[njsteve]

It's been a crazy few days. I have ordered and reordered the slave cylinder four times now. It seems that every time I order what is listed as "in stock and ready to ship" it turns out to be a "we will charge your card and then look and see if our suppliers have it" scenario. That goes for Amazon, Ebay, Rockauto, Advance Auto...Still waiting on refunds from three of them after they cancelled my orders unilaterally.

I supposedly have the throwout bearing itself due for delivery tomorrow from rockauto but I ran into all sorts of issues getting a slave cylinder. Finally I reached out to a Viper parts specialist who recently commented on a posting on one of the Viper enthusiast websites that he sponsors. He said he had a couple of the original Mopar complete slave cylinder assemblies with bearing. (Chrysler current PN5037357 & original PN4642581) He pretty much bought up the last few units that were still available before they went obsolete years ago from Dodge. So he is shipping me the real deal factory part. It cost around $250 (bearing included) delivered.

The funny thing about the Viper parts guy (Bill Brobst) http://www.viperpartsrack.com/index....te=common/home is that I met him at the First Viper Owner's invitational back in 1994. My newly-wedded wife and I went to this event in order to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. (my idea of coure). She even got a "good sport" award for attending from Dodge management. The award still hangs in the garage. :-)

Anyway, Bill said in his email "It was actually HER that I remembered first!!"

I had to laugh at that comment. And then he sent me a link to the original Dodge video that they did to document the crazy event. The wife, the car, and I are featured in several sections of the video including at 32:20, 35:04 and 36:26.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGJk...vikPerformance

[njsteve]

The new slave cylinder and throwout bearing arrived yesterday. I was taking a close look at the original 1992 vintage slave and bearing and saw something interesting. See if you see what I see. :-)

[njsteve]

And the shiny, NOS Mopar slave and bearing. No manufacturer logo on the plastic bearing carrier.

[njsteve]

Well it took some time by myself but I managed to get the slave cylinder, throwout bearing, and aftermarket 48-inch bleeder relocation hose installed. It took several hours to get the transmission back in place, manhandling it on my own, but by 6:30 PM it was bolted back up and the clutch system was fully bled with the help of my Award-Winning Wife. Tomorrow the rest of the hardware gets bolted back up and it will be time for a test drive.

And here's her award from 1994:

[njsteve]

I got to use some of my old parts that were hidden in the basement. I remembered having a few of these but this was the last package from back in the day. Look at the date on the package. May, 1992

[KevinW]

Steve, I found these in one of my parts boxes, an image search came up on a 94 Viper for sale ad. You want them? Or should I chuck em?

[njsteve]

I can always use more license plate screws. I never seem to have 4 of the same style so that makes them super duper rare! I PM'd you.

[njsteve]

I've been driving the Viper the past few weeks to use up the 22 gallons of fuel in the tank in time for refueling and winter storage. We took the car to a couple cars and coffee events and had a lot of fun with it. This old relic is gonna be 30 years old in four months!

During the recent drive my son noticed that we had no back up lights, no brake lghts, no flashers, and only one turn signal working. Great!

So I pulled the tail light lenses and replaced several of the 29 year old, 3157 bulbs. That got us the turn signals working and the flashers but still no brake lights or backup lights.

So I crawled underneath the dash and looked at the brake light switch. It was very hot to the touch! So I pulled it out. I took it apart and noticed all the contacts were tarnished and causing so much resistance that heat was building up but no contact was being made in the switch. So I used an fingernail emery board and cleaned them up and reinstalled the thing. (I also ordered a spare unit since any parts for this thing are either unavailable or in the process - it turned out the unit is from a Dodge truck and is made by Standard Motor Products under part S-151 so I ordered one for $25). I reinstalled the switch and YAY now the brake lights work again.

I figured the reverse lights were due to the switch in the transmission no longer working from being parked in reverse for so long during storage, so I ordered one of those which is still available from Mopar for $29. Since that required putting the car up on jackstands and pulling the big transmision skid plate I figured I'd change the 29 year old transmission fluid at the same time.

I tested my bad switch hypothesis by jumping the two terminals on the wire connector and the lights lit up. Bad switch, it is. I swapped out the old switch for the new one and YAY we have reverse lights now too!

Now here's the bug in the ointment. These cars came with a T56 6-speed which used Dexron II(E) as the lubricating fluid. In 1994 Dexron II was replaced with Dexron III which was OK'd by Dodge for use in these transmissions. In 1998, Dodge put out a very specific TSB stating that the fluid in all Viper transmissions should be upgraded to Mopar ATF+4 to avoid neutral gear rattle...all EXCEPT the 1992 and 1993 cars. It had something to do with the blocker rings and synchros in the early transmissions being made of a material that was not compatable with a synthetic fluid. So...I had to find actual non-synthetic Dexron II or III. And of course the current Dexron VI synthetic is out as well.

I searched and eventually located a currently available, cheapo non-synthetic AC/Delco version that is called ATF Type III(H). It turns out that no one can call it Dexron III any more because GM no longer licenses it to be made under that trademark.

I also decided to drain and refill the rear diff as well. Luckily this is a very early car that actually has the drain plug in the rear diff. Shortly after this car was built, they did away with the drain plug and those owners have to suction out their diff for maintenance (not fun).

I did take a sample of both fluids and sent it off the Blackstone labs for analysis. I'll update when the results come in.

And if you're wondering what all the little yellow specks are in the photos: I ran over an Osage Orange (Maclura Pomifera) while coming home from the cars and coffee on Sunday. The frikken things are as big as a grapefruit and are all over the local roads around here. I thought it would clear the underside but it struck the front crossmember and then got neatly sliced in half by the transmission skid plate as evidenced by the section sitting on the plate when I removed it this morning. So now the underside smells citrus fresh! So I got that going for me.

[njsteve]

Here's that TFFKAD-III (The Fluid Formerly Known As Dexron) III(H) that you can currently get under the genericly named "Type III(H)" since Dexron is no longer licenced in its prior iterations as it is now considered "the name that shall never be uttered again" AC/Delco part number 10-9240