5/01 - The car came with a console shifted 5-speed Performance MTX tranny.
10/01 - Some progress has finally been made in this area of the project. We made a decision to stop any further progress on the engine until we get the tranny and start the required conversion. We went to Speedway salvage yard in Madison, Illinois and found several Neon ATX's that could have been good candidates but after further inspection we found only 1 or 2 that were viable donor transmissions (since the rest were missing the damn dipsticks. No dipstick + water = unhappy transmission). We finally ended up with the tranny from a 1995 SOHC Highline with an undisclosed amount of miles on it since someone yanked the gauge cluster long before we got to the tranny.
1/02 - The New transmission is composed of:
A Neon A413 automatic transmission for a Non-Lockup conversion - If you are wondering what it is that we are up to on this one I can only tell you what I know. At one time back in the 80's Chrysler had a period of time that they produced turbo cars. In some of those cars they had a non-lock up torque converter, which meant that the torque converter never locked itself up at any rpm. This meant that it was always slipping which tended to create heat but more to the point it was always ready to do its job when the throttle was applied. Another reason why this is being done is so that it will allow me to install a beefy torque converter specifically designed for racing and convert the transmission to a non-lock-up which is the only way the Full Manual Valve body will work with a Neon transmission.
Cheetah Reverse Action Full Manual Valve body - This part is in there to replace the stock valve body, which doesn't always allow you to shift the car on your own. So with the new valve body I am now able to shift the car whenever I want to with out the fear that the tranny will try to shift itself. This will allow it to act as a semi-automatic tranny or clutchless manual tranny.
Limited Slip Differential - After the turbo install I will be needing this item to keep the wheels moving in the same direction so I can preserve the axles and differential.
B&M Tranny Cooler from Summit - Since the torque converter will be constantly spinning and creating heat we will be installing this to keep the transmission as cool and happy as possible.
2/02 - We started the day off with a mission to get the transmission ready for installation and needless to say we did just that. We plugged the hole for the torque converter lock up with a hex set screw after Dennis proceeded to drop one of his taps into the transmission. Thank goodness it didn't find a permanent home somewhere where we couldn't get it out without disassembling the entire transmission. We then proceeded to remove the transmission and differential pans. In removing the transmission pan we got the tap out of the tranny and we drilled a hole to access the line pressure adjustment screw, tapped it, and put a hex set screw in there. After that we installed the side gears, differential pin, and Limited Slip Differential conversion into the differential and proceeded to install the differential into the tranny. After that we installed the FM Torque converter and called it a day.
Forward Motion A413 Racing Torque converter - I am springing for a beefier torque converter from the get go so I don't blow the darn thing up like the stock ones tend to do when large amounts of boost are pushing on them. If a TC goes it will destroy a good percentage of the parts inside the tranny like the pumps and the valve body. Besides no one has been able to blow this one up and some are pushing well over 300 HP and 350 ft/lbs. through the engines that they are attached to with no problems.
3/02 - We spent the day at Speedway again collecting parts for the tranny swap. We got the ATX shifter assembly, ATX shifter cables, and Brake pedal assembly (which looks a whole heck of a lot like the brake pedal assembly for the MTX).
I spent the day working on the MTX to ATX conversion. Nothing really very sophisticated or difficult about the entire process it just takes time to remove the center console, seats, shifter assembly, shifter cables, floor pan grommet, pedal assembly, and replace them with the ATX counter parts.
The next day I pulled the console back off so we could break a piece of plastic that holds the shifter in park until the car is started. We would prefer to be able to move the shifter out of park and to neutral with out putting the key in the car and turning the key to the on position just to push the car around.
After pulling the 2.0L block and tranny from the ACR we split the motor and tranny for ease of transport from Dennis's house to my house for temporary storage before I sell the block, cylinder head, and intake & exhaust manifolds. I am however keeping the 3.94 ACR tranny for a future ATX to MTX tranny swap in the GT Neon (yeah I know I just converted an ACR to an ATX but it would be to difficult to explain my reasoning behind doing it).
7/02 - Stage 2 Racing Axles from The Driveshaft Shop - I originally bought these to withstand the immense amount of power output that the car was putting down but after further testing I noticed that the stock axles were doing just fine during autocrosses, drag races, and road races. The only reason why I had to replace the stock axles was that the drivers side axle CV boot had developed a hole which caused axle grease to get slung all over the inside of my wheel and Koni strut.
Less then a week later I went to an autocross and got 2 runs in on the Stage 2 axles and drivers side axle bit the dust on the third run which sounded like a gun going off. Now I have one good axle and one trashed axle. I am really not looking forward to installing a set of stock axles back into the car while I wait for the exchange of the Stage 2 axles for a set of Stage 3 axles. Oh well the stock rebuilds should hold out for a little while until I get the Stage 3 axles.
Finally got around to replacing the axles 2 weeks after I broke them due to bad weather, extreme heat, and a business trip to Miami, Florida. I am going to be returning the Stage 2 axles next week for my Stage 3 axles and rather then keep them I will probably sell them and look into a better/cheaper alternative such as using Turbo Shadow (P-Body) axles, hub bearings, and knuckles. I will update my findings after I get the chance to look into it more thoroughly.
10/02 - 1 week after I did the work on the motor to remove the bolt from the block to install the AC bracket the tranny lines blew off causing the car to loose about 6 quarts of tranny fluid. This would have been a non-issue but I just happened to be driving the car to work and I noticed that the car slipped out of gear (felt like a neutral drop) 3 times going up a big hill which I didn’t really pay much attention to since I was half asleep. I got to work and left the car in its parking space to cool down. After a few hours I came back to the car and noticed a big puddle of tranny fluid under the car. I didn't know what to think. Dennis and my father came to bail me out. Dennis determined that I blew one of the cooling lines off the radiator so he managed to replace it and we filled the car back up so I could see if it would hold fluid and be able to drive it home. It did so I drove it home really slow. We got it back to my house and for some strange reason Dennis wanted me to brake torque it to see if the car would make boost in reverse. It did and it managed to blow the hose off again causing 6 quarts of fluid to dump all over my parent’s driveway. I cleaned up the mess and out of shear frustration I put the car away so I could have time to cool down and attack it with a clear head.
11/02 - 2 weeks after the tranny fluid dumped all over the driveway I began the process of tearing down the tranny pan to see if any damage was done. I first replaced the tranny cooler lines with new lines. To replace the lines I had to drain the radiator a little bit, remove the upper radiator hose, remove the throttle body, and remove the radiator fans. With all of that out of the way I replaced the lines with new 3/8" high-pressure transmission cooler lines and new worm clamps. I dropped the pan to look for the famous thrust washer to see if it was making a new home in my tranny pan. If any of it was hanging out in the pan the tranny would need a rebuild. I never found the washer so I proceeded to put the car back together. Unfortunately for me Mother Nature had different ideas and decided that it was a good idea to start sleeting on me while I worked on the car. In my rush I managed to strip out one of the bolts on the pan again bringing the total of Heli-coils in the tranny pan to 3. I also stripped out 2 of the holes that held the tranny cooler to the underside of the radiator core support. I also forgot to reattach a ground wire and put more engine coolant back in the car.
1 week later I mopped up all of the missed items and finally fired the car back up after 3 weeks of being idle. The next day I drove the car and to my surprise the car did rather well and only leaked tranny fluid from the axle seals due to it being over filled. Time will only tell if the transmission was actually damaged from the incident.
3/03 - The car has been in hibernation for a few months but after the suspension was fixed I reset the PCM at took the car out for a drive again. The transmission still seems like it hasn't suffered any serious damage from the incident back in December. I have been driving it for a few days now and everything seems fine the car shifts nice and crisp so I am hoping that the transmission is as durable as people say it is and it can take the abuse that I throw at it.
1/04 - Amazingly enough the tranny is still holding up to the abuse. That stupid buzzing sound that I use to have has gone away which either means something is going to let go any day now or what ever was causing the buzzing sound finally got worn out. Who knows. I can still brake torque the car and now that the brakes have been bled I can hold up to 6psi of boost at a dead stop. After I let go of the brakes is usually a loud whoosh from the turbo spinning up to max boost and the tires looking for traction all the way through 1st gear.
6/04 - I spent the last half of the day working on installing the transmission coolers and getting the hoses ran from them to the transmission. After that was finished I put the car away and called it a day.
7/04 - Once the tranny coolers were in and the lines were installed that finished up the list of things to do with the transmission so I put new transmission fluid in, checked that item off the list, and called it a day.