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Thread: 89 3.0 Grand Caravan "RoadRunner" 5 speed swap

  1. #1
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    89 3.0 Grand Caravan "RoadRunner" 5 speed swap

    Back in March while I was working in Texas, Vigo and my wife convinced me to buy this ugly van. It was a LWB C/V that was converted to a conversion van by a company called RoadRunner. Vigo and I drove 5 hours from San Antonio to Dallas and drove this thing back. I ended up having to go back to MD and then bought a house in PA. Life got in the way of me coming back down when I wanted to. So when I got settled into my house I made plans with Vigo to come back down and do a 5 speed swap to the van and drive it home.

    Pic of the van when we picked it up.




    When I was still in Texas last time we did some small mods to it. We advanced the timing, added a larger TB, and knocked the plenum divider out of the lid. While I was gone Vigo had some students of his change my rear shocks and do some small maintenance work on it for me.


    We started on the Friday I landed and after some issues finished on Monday. I started my drive on Tuesday and made it home Wednesday night. 1650 miles mostly problem free. It got 24MPG at 80 MPH. When rain forced me to go 60MPH it got 27MPG which I think is insane for a van.


    Before we got started, this was a perfectly running 3.0 41TE van that got 18 MPG.





    And we started taking it apart.














    Pre heating the bobble strut bracket





    Boogered on





    Had to modify this to work in the van





    We only had the pedal parts for a car. We both assumed the shafts and pedals were the same. The shaft was juuuust the right length if we put a bolt and washer on the end.








    And we ended up modifying the stock brake pedal to work in the van.














    Turns out the cable we used had tii much slack. So Vigo positioned it and then mashed a nut on the cable to keep the tension correct.








    Getting the 5 speed ready for re entry








    I eye balled the shifter position and we mounted it. I don't have any pictures of the spacers we found and used to get the height correct for the console. I also don't have a picture of the console cleaned up.








    It's a little funny looking with both shifters in it. My wife thinks the auto shifter is funny and wants to keep it.







  2. #2

    Re: 89 3.0 Grand Caravan "RoadRunner" 5 speed swap

    Yup, clutch pedal cam and the shaft are different. I would love to see more details/information on what you did to make the shaft work.

  3. #3
    Moderator Turbo Mopar Staff Vigo's Avatar
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    Re: 89 3.0 Grand Caravan "RoadRunner" 5 speed swap

    On the pedal shaft we essentially got the extra length we needed by taking a car pedal shaft, leaving the stock locknut only threaded until the bolt was flush inside the nut (with loctite) and drilling and tapping the other end to hold a bolt and washer. It's not ideal but all the pedal bushings are still touching some amount of smooth pedal shaft surface and it was a faster solution than trying to extend a pedal shaft by cutting and adding length in the middle. The amount that was trimmed off the clutch pedal cam was purely eyeballed but ended up working out ok, because if you pull up on the clutch pedal the cam hits the firewall and lets the spring tensioner auto-adjust the cable as it would in a stock setup. The one failing is that it wasn't cut precisely enough to serve to limit the pedal's up-travel, so it can still stick up higher than the brake pedal until something else is done about that.

    This is the fifth 5spd conversion i've done to a K-car (2nd van swap). I'm still finding things I didn't know!

    Dont push the red button.You hear me?

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    Re: 89 3.0 Grand Caravan "RoadRunner" 5 speed swap

    Here's some pics from the road trip. Vigo had some car struts and springs that we threw on. It slammed the front end but it was better than my blown struts and springs for the ride home.













    And the only shot of the interior I have. I slept in the back on my ride back home and it wasn't too bad. More comfortable than Vigo's futon





    Pic after I got home. In this is also my SRT swapped LeBaron I picked up a few years ago. It needs some work that I'll finish up in the spring.





    I still need to do some small stuff to this van, like the shift cables aren't right and one is slightly broken. Also the clutch pedal doesn't have its stop so it's resting up against the dash. Long term plans are eventually to turbo the 3.0. It won't ever be very fast but it is a lot of fun.

  5. #5
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    Re: 89 3.0 Grand Caravan "RoadRunner" 5 speed swap

    It's acting funny so I can't edit my post, but this is the interior shot I have.



    I had a lot of fun driving home. Only issue I had was the passenger wiper arm bolt backing off slightly and the wipers getting hung up in pouring down rain. The little socket set I bought from Auto Zone paid off right then.

  6. #6

    Re: 89 3.0 Grand Caravan "RoadRunner" 5 speed swap

    Quote Originally Posted by Vigo View Post
    The amount that was trimmed off the clutch pedal cam was purely eyeballed but ended up working out ok, because if you pull up on the clutch pedal the cam hits the firewall and lets the spring tensioner auto-adjust the cable as it would in a stock setup.
    I believe the mini-van pedal shaft is about 1" closer to the firewall.

  7. #7
    Moderator Turbo Mopar Staff Vigo's Avatar
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    Re: 89 3.0 Grand Caravan "RoadRunner" 5 speed swap

    this is the interior shot I have.
    I guess that answers my question about turning the middle seats backwards!

    #dataccentlightingtho


    I believe the mini-van pedal shaft is about 1" closer to the firewall.
    Did you do a van swap at some point? If so i'm wondering how I didn't already know!

    Dont push the red button.You hear me?

  8. #8

    Re: 89 3.0 Grand Caravan "RoadRunner" 5 speed swap

    Quote Originally Posted by Vigo View Post
    Did you do a van swap at some point? If so i'm wondering how I didn't already know!
    Years ago (15?) I converted my '91 Voyager to 5-sp when the A604 failed... I was able to get one of the last mini-van clutch pedals and shafts available.

  9. #9
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    Re: 89 3.0 Grand Caravan "RoadRunner" 5 speed swap

    Quote Originally Posted by Vigo View Post
    I guess that answers my question about turning the middle seats backwards!

    #dataccentlightingtho
    yeah the "bed" although it goes flat is about only big enough for my son to lay on. It's not very big at all. I ended up putting my feet on the middle seat I turned around and napped like that.

    Anyway I suppose I need to find a set of van cables here soon.

  10. #10
    Moderator Turbo Mopar Staff Vigo's Avatar
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    Re: 89 3.0 Grand Caravan "RoadRunner" 5 speed swap

    I dont know if they need to be van cables since the ones in there aren't and would be working fine if one of them wasn't broken. Of course van cables would be ideal. Don't forget the factory clips!

    - - - Updated - - -

    Years ago (15?) I converted my '91 Voyager to 5-sp when the A604 failed... I was able to get one of the last mini-van clutch pedals and shafts available.
    I had no idea you had built a 3.0/5spd van! What became of it? Did you modify it in any other ways?

    Dont push the red button.You hear me?

  11. #11
    turbo addict Turbo Mopar Contributor
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    Re: 89 3.0 Grand Caravan "RoadRunner" 5 speed swap

    Quote Originally Posted by Vigo View Post
    I dont know if they need to be van cables since the ones in there aren't and would be working fine if one of them wasn't broken. Of course van cables would be ideal. Don't forget the factory clips!

    - - - Updated - - -



    I had no idea you had built a 3.0/5spd van! What became of it? Did you modify it in any other ways?
    All sorts of dyno testing many years ago. Developmental platform for a bit.

    Sorta glad you guys had a shifter cable problem almost the same day mine started to fail so I didn't just ignore it. I have all my shifters on top of electrical boxes which causes some of my cable issues but puts the shifter up much higher. Looks like you need that.

    I have only had to deal with using the wrong firewall hole locations, A/P vs G/J body cables, and 1990 vs 1992 style clutch cable arm and cable length. Now I swap them around though I think one of my cars ran for a long time with a stack of washers on top of the transmission when things were wrong.

    Hoping to find time to work a few more kinks out of the AEM FIC though I am thinking you will have more luck being batch fire. Sequential might be the real problem and thought neons were batch..
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  12. #12
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    Re: 89 3.0 Grand Caravan "RoadRunner" 5 speed swap

    To be honest the shifter placement isn't too horrible once we put the rubber spacers under the shifter base. I think neons are sequential from the factory.

    I did find a crossover cable on rockauto but it'll have to wait until January before I buy it.

  13. #13
    Moderator Turbo Mopar Staff Vigo's Avatar
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    Re: 89 3.0 Grand Caravan "RoadRunner" 5 speed swap

    The shifter and its location are totally stock. The only difference from stock is that a stock 5spd van has a small sheetmetal standoff plate raising the shifter body off the floorpan. We replicated it with spacers instead. But aside from that it's a van shifter in stock 5spd van location with a stock van trim console over it.

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