Here she is, my beautiful, and (so far) STOCK, '87 Raider. Thanks to CARDOMAIN, I found her in West Virginia, where they've never heard of road salt.

Here in Syracuse, N.Y., we liberally apply the stuff to our roads 7 months out of the year.

As you can imagine, it eats up our cars and eventually renders them unroadworthy.

I had to retire my original '89 Raider that was still running strong after 211,000 miles...

the frame literally disintegrated!

Fellow CARDOMAIN member Rich had the '87 with a real sick motor, so a heart transplant was planned. Rich's is an automatic and mine was a 5 speed, so I decided to pull the 89's motor and tranny, hang the clutch pedal in the '87, plumb the clutch master and slave cylinders and live happily ever after. At least that was the plan....

A deal was struck, a truck and tow dolly were rented, and Rob brought home a nice red Christmas present in December 2005.

Fast forward to April 2006 and old Blackie comes off the road for good. Her mortal remains are rushed into the morgue where yours truly began removal of all valuable body parts and vital organs. Oh by the way, anybody need any Raider parts?

Things always break off here in rust land, but drilling and re-tapping has become a way of life for us.

Needless to say, the motor emerged with only minor surgery required for the re-installation into "Lil' Red".
Meanwhile, a funny thing happened on the way to the motor pool...

As Red's motor was being prepped for removal, I found 2 cylinders with very low compression, so I decided to pull the valve cover. I was looking for any anomaly in the head that was causing the volumes of blue smoke to pour from the exhaust every time I started what was an otherwise good running 2.6 Liter mill.

I've operated a bunch of these little 4 bangers over the years and always got many trouble free miles out of them. The clouds of blue smoke from this mill suggested oil, rather than the sickly sweet smelling white smoke of antifreeze, so I ruled out a cracked head.

Much to my relief, I found a broken #1 MCA jet valve, and the #4 jammed wide open. A set of Jet valves are $60 at the Mitsu dealer, $85 at the Dodge dealer and about $50 on-line. But why bother? The jet valves were a good idea from an emissions standpoint, but aren't necessary for the engine to run well. Plugs with the correct height and thread were available for $20 on-line, so I pulled the jets, installed the plugs and a week later, Lil' Red was on the road and running sweetly with no transplant work.

Here's where an interesting 2.6 liter issue was resolved! There have been numerous postings from CARDOMAINERS about how underpowered the 4 cylinder Raiders are. However, my experience operating one Raider and 4 Dodge D-50 pickups, all with the 2.6, has been positive, but you know what? THEY'VE ALL BEEN FIVE SPEEDS!!!!

For the first time in my life, I drove a Raider identical to old blackie, with the only exception being that it's an automatic. WOW! What a DOG!... Dudes, I see what you mean! Sloppy shifts and losses at the torque converter... yeah they're anemic. And here's something else. A lot of 2.6 owners have complained about cracked heads and other motor problems, and I see why. If all you guys are driving automatics, then your foot's always in it to get out of someone's way, your upshifts are delayed, and it's constantly revving itself to the 4 and 5 K range.

I've always preferred to "stir my own", and now that I am forced to let some stupid hydraulic pump select my gears for me, I cringe as I watch the tach race toward no-mans land. Friends, try out a 5 speed before you disparage the 4 banger and wish you had the V-6.

Postscript, Fall, 2006. I didn't want to subject Lil' Red to her first heavy dose of road salt, so I looked around for what we call a "winter rat". Luck was with me again, as I scored this tired beater in Saranac Lake.

Old Blue is an '88 and has 140k on her. She's a little rough, with rust in the usual places, but the frame's sound and she runs well.

Hell, she even has a working original equipment cassette player. (Yeah, I know, what's a cassette player?) Yup, you guessed it, the damn thing's an automatic. She's about as sluggish as Lil' Red, nowhere near as zippy as Blackie, but for $250, I'll live with it. This one had a "kick-down" cable that was seriously out of adjustment, and occasionally stuck, so I can further see how people can crack heads and blow motors.

It was frustrating, and the end came when the cable stuck on the way to work one cold and snowy November morning. The damn thing refused to shift out of first, and it took a hell of a long time to get to where I was going.

That night I disconnected the cable, and now the tranny shifts faithfully at 2500 RPM regardless of where I have the gas pedal. If I pull out in front of a truck or something stupid like that, I just downshift the thing manually and run it up like any self respecting 5 speed driver.

Old Blue will do for now, and be a good rat for another few winters.

However, be advised, I plan to pull the auto out of Lil' Red as soon as spring time comes and it gets warmer in the garage, so I can put in my beloved 5 speed.

Stay tuned.

MAY 2007

Ahhh, spring is here at last. The snow's all gone, temps are climbing and the "honey-dew" list is growing by the minute. Pull the pop-up camper out of the garage and get it ready to sell, repair the gazebo and re-install the screens and canvas top, open up the pool and start cleaning the water, hook up the small trailer and go get some top soil for the garden, get the air conditioners out of the cellar and install them in the bedroom windows, help the furnace guy install a new stainless steel flue pipe, junk the 20 year old lawn mower and buy a new one, trim the hedges and remove some winter kill from the ornamentals..., oh yeah, and then there's a little matter of installing the 5 speed in the Raider.

With all the 5 speed parts assembled, the auto trans removal began. The respective driveshafts are different lengths as the 5 speed transmission and transfer case unit is about 3 inches shorter than the auto. The main crossmember is different as well, although it bolts to the frame in the same place. Fortunately, I saved everything from Blackie. Back-up light wiring is different too, as the 5 speed uses a switch on the tranny and enters the main frame wiring harness from underneath, while the auto switches the back-up lights on via the shift selector, along with the safety neutral switching, and enters the wiring harness from inside the cabin.

Pulling the tranny was easy, as there was very little rust underneath 'Lil Red. Everything came apart relatively simply, and with the two units side by side, the difference in length became apparent. From this vantage point, figuring out the wiring was a snap. Unfortunately, the transfer mount that secures the unit to the left frame rail doesn't line up, it's off by that same 3 inches, and that could be the only major engineering headache. However, this mount, which is welded in place to the frame, is really only an anti-torque connection, so rigging up a band-aid could wait until later.

Removing the flex plate proved to be problematical. I suspect the bolts hadn't been moved since the 20 year old car was manufactured, and with the normal torque at more than 100 ft. lbs., there wasn't enough engine compression to counteract my breaker bar leverage. The extra lower pulley for the a/c compressor prevented me from putting a large socket on the front of the engine to hold it from turning, so what now? A piece of angle iron bolted to the plate at the torque convertor holes and jammed into the concrete floor finally stopped the turning. From here it was a quick matter of removing the flex plate and installing the flywheel,clutch and pressure plate.

Next on the agenda was the installation of the clutch pedal, clutch master cylinder and release cylinder. The Raider has hose looms on the firewall for the brake lines and clutch line, so these were loosened to give some wiggle room. The location of the clutch master cylinder is already embossed and ready to be drilled out with a 1 1/4 inch hole saw, and the gasket made a perfect template to locate the two mounting holes. In addition, the bracketing and architecture is already in place under the dash to hang the clutch pedal, so that end of the swap went well with no modifying or cobbing up mounts.

With all the clutch parts laid out, the fitment was checked and the firewall was drilled out. Yes, honey, I know that the pool water is still green, I'm working on that too...

Drilling progressed smoothly, the cylinder attached nicely and the wire looms all returned to their respective locations with the clutch hydraulic line filling the slots that had been vacant for 20 years. Everything fell into place under the dash as well, and the wider brake pedal from the automatic was removed in favor of the narrower brake pedal for the 5 speed.

With the clutch hydraulics in place, and the slave cylinder temporarily hanging by its rubber hose, the 5 speed was popped in. I say "popped in" with tongue in cheek. As fellow cardomainer RXINHED knows, that's easier said than done. It took me three tries with a transmission jack, a few choice words and more patience than I thought I possessed. But I was in my garage, with temps in the 60's, and my other Raider still on the road. RXINHED took all of a very hot July in California to do his clutch and my heart goes out to him. Sorry Bro...

The tranny has to be tipped forward so the tail shaft can go up above the rear crossmember first, then as you lose all the gear oil all over the floor, the front end can be lifted and the whole assembly rolled forward. Input shaft goes into the clutch splines, while not disturbing the throwout bearing alignment, and hopefully it all slides together. Like I said, it took me three tries, 3 bottles of brewski and 3 very carefully selected words from my special auto repair dictionary.

The auto uses two holes in the floorboards. The front one for the transfer lever, and the rear one for the auto shifter assembly. The 5 speed puts both levers in the front hole and the rear one is closed off. A couple of shots with the chisel on the spot welds and the plate making the forward hole smaller, suddenly makes it bigger to accept both levers. They install cleanly, and a simple piece of plastic stock will be cut to fit the rear hole and close it off. The center console and shift boots are all different, but fortunately Blackie donated all that before meekly boarding the roll-back for the trip to the graveyard.

Figuring out the wiring was all that was left before closing off the rear hole. It turns out that the back up lights and the safety neutral switch contacts all reside in the same 4 conductor plug. A jumper was used to eliminate the safety neutral switching, and wires for the backup lights were run down to the transmission mounted switch on the 5 speed. The other plugs provide a hot lead to the auto shifter's safety neutral switches and power to light up the auto shifter at night. Both were capped off and eliminated.

A final trip underneath secured the clutch release cylinder to the bell housing. The system was filled with fluid and bled and clutch action was smooth. All wiring was soldered and shrink tubed and the transfer mount was tackled. As mentioned, the 5 speed is a couple of inches shorter, so the welded frame mount was not lined up. However, a piece of threaded rod and a hunk of bushing will take care of the anti-torque duties. Driveshafts were greased and installed and the underneath work was finished.

New pedal covers installed, along with the ram floor mats, and this baby is ready to roll. Good news, friends, with its new tranny 'Lil Red gets 17.6 mpg in all the stop and go of my daily in-town commute. The second fill-up, with half stop & go and half 70mph "zip-way" driving, netted 19.6 mpg! With the "slush-o-matic" the best I could get was 14 mpg around town. And the power is great! There's a spot where I have to merge with traffic every morning at a yield sign. Now I can find my hole in the oncoming traffic, grab a lower gear and roar into it. Before I had to slow down or stop at the yield and meekly wait for a bigger hole. Awesome! And don't even get me started on the extra service life I'll get out of my nearly new front disc pads by gearing down to a stop rather than braking against a torque converter! Yeah, man.

POSTSCRIPT: JUNE 2007. Yeah, the pool is opened and clean, the gazebo is repaired for the 3'rd and last time and the camper is outside, popped up and cleaned out. We've got a special sale going here on a good shifting automatic transmission, flex plate, cooling lines, main crossmember, shifter, brake pedal, center console, drive and transfer shafts, skid plates and tons of other Raider parts.

Our camper is a 1981 Rockwood in great condition that has the pull out stove and sink, canvas awning and sleeps 7. She's ready to roll for $2495. E-mail me if you are interested in any of the parts or the camper. Plus, if you are a 5 speed owner and want to go to an automatic (I don't know why, but what the hey?), I've got everything you need and will take your 5 speed stuff in trade.

Stay tuned. The next project will be resurrecting a 64 Plymouth Belvedere two door hardtop. Let me know if you have one laying around.