After 5 long years I am finally getting ready to get the 84 back on the road. I was driving it home from my then fiance's place and all of the sudden I saw tons of smoke out the back and the car is stuck in 4th gear. Later I found a hole in the transmission case. Fast forward 5 years and I am putting in a 5 speed Isuzu out of an 86 car in my 84. This should help to keep the duke from having to work so hard to go 65 mph!

[This message has been edited by yieldsign27 (edited 03-07-2025).]

Nice! That's awesome... is the transmission already back in? Or were those pictures before the transmission failure?

The photos were from before the car got parked.. I got the old 4 speed munci out, and I got the 5 speed Isuzu in tonight. Cradle is back in with new mounts all around, hopefully I can get it driving here this week. I live in the upper Midwest and we have 0 snow at the moment, but have a chance at a 12-14” blizzard next weekend, would sure hope to take it out once

I think you have TXGOOD cup holders.

You will love the end result of your endeavor.

Yep, I have Mike Good’s cup holder/arm rest. I only drove the car twice after getting it before the transmission crapped out.. I have talked to a few who have done the swap, and they’ve all said the same thing. Finding the time to work on it is hard, as my wife and I have a 10 month old, and another on the way due in August.

So a bit of an update- I got the 5 speed all in and everything put back in the rear of the car. Ended up putting new ball joints and tie rod ends in cause mine fell apart when I took the cradle down. I sand blasted and painted the cradle before going back in the car, looks much better. I had purchased a 5 speed Getrag shifter from a fella on Facebook a year or so ago who him and his son had cleaned up and painted. I got that in the car, then I pulled my 4 speed cables out of the fire wall, I made a huge mistake ordering 5 speed cables from rock auto. They said they’d fit the Isuzu shifter, they definitely were for the Getrag. So back they went and I ordered the correct cables from Rodney like I should’ve done to begin with. I got this routed tonight, but I am having trouble with a couple things. 1. Getting these cables adjusted correctly, I have a 84 shop manual but of course this only covers the Muncie procedure, not the 5 speed. I don’t really want to purchase a shop manual for a later car .. also has anyone set these cables using a Getrag shifter with an Isuzu?
2. This Getrag shifter needs to be rebuilt, and honestly I think that’s my problem. It’s had an enormous about of slop in the shift pin. I just put in an order to Rodney for his rebuild kit, hopefully he’s got them in stock still. Anywho, it’s unfortunately at a stand still till I get the rebuild kit, and find a manual that talks about setting the cables for an Isuzu.

[This message has been edited by yieldsign27 (edited 03-17-2025).]