As we’ve entered the deep chill of winter, I’ve resolved to try to keep things moving along a bit. I found a used Phantom Grip installed in a diff for $180, shipped to my door, so that box is sitting in the kitchen right now. I need to dig out the spare transmission and open it up to see if the ring gears are the same. I’ll also need to get the speedometer gear from Dodge as well as any bearings and shims that are necessary to get the diff installed in the transmission. Once the trans is ready to go, I’ll just pull the old one out, use a drill to try to catch the odometer up, and then install the spare.
I’ve also taken the dash apart again to reconnect all the heater vents. The main duct that attaches to the top of the heater box had come loose, meaning that all the hot air was winding up behind the dash. The heat isn’t great on the car right now when it’s -6 degrees, but there is plenty of flow. I think the car is just overcooling a bit since it’s set up to run hard and heavy in hot weather. I might put the hotter thermostat back in for the winter to see if that helps. I also noticed that the switch for the cooling fans is no longer working, so that will need to be replaced as well.
Today, I ordered a frog-eye cluster surround, a three-gauge universal dash pod, a 1.25″ temp sender adapter, a digital temp gauge, and a digital oil pressure gauge from Glow Shift. All told, it was about $180. I want to put the AFR gauge to the left of the gauge cluster, the boost gauge to the right, and then install the gauge pod on the dash, where the horn and fan switches are now. That pod will have the oil pressure, water temp, and oil temp gauges. Then in the radio space, I want to put in a plate with the fan switch and any other switches that I wind up adding the in the future. I may look for a nice switch panel, but I haven’t made up my mind on that yet.
I still need to do the water pump and timing belt, so that work should be coming up soon as well.