[John Wood]

Stretching my memory here, but I think you will be OK on the axles. IIRC Automatic and manual axles were the same unless you are dealing with an L body car. In 1986 and earlier, smaller axle ends were used so you shouldn't have any worries with the years you are working with.

According to all the manuals I have read, you should never roll the vehicle without an axle inserted through the hub and the nut tightened. The suggested way to move a vehicle without a transmission is insert an outer CV joint through the hub and tighten the axle nut. (Like we all have extra outer CV joints laying around ). Supposedly, with no pre-load on the hub bearings, they can be destroyed by rolling them with the weight of the vehicle.

 

[John Wood]

I've never heard of vehicles that have both until reading the posts in that link. I think those are very special applications. The diagram is to illustrate the parts that could possibly be used for either setup. All cars that I worked on had a flex plate with a starter ring gear in automatic setups, and flywheels with the starter teeth machined in the steel flywheel for manual setups.


With automatic flex plate setups, there is a spring steel thin plate that the bolts pass through to help spread the concentration of bolt pressure over the inner surface of the flex plate (sometimes they still crack around the bolt circle or outside of the steel flange). That is item 24 in the diagram. This piece is not required for a thicker flywheel used on manual trannies.

To answer your question, yes, you will need a flywheel and it would be fine to get it off your donor vehicle (get the crank bolts too!). You should get the flywheel machined and I'd recommend a new pressure plate. There is nothing worse than having a pressure plate with uneven spring force. The clutch will chatter and it's a lot of labor to replace it.

Be happy that you are making this swap on a Chrysler engine that does not use a crankshaft pilot bearing.

 

[John Wood]

You are wise to get a new flywheel. Because transmission R & R's are never fun it is always best to have all new parts, and those should last the life of the vehicle unless you are racing or in certain competition events.

When you get your flexplate off, inspect the back of the crankshaft for any rear main seal leakage. If it looks good, I wouldn't worry, but if you see oil seepage, your rear main seal should be replaced. These can be a little tricky to do and not have them leak. I always put a crankshaft repair sleeve on the crank (learned the hard way, more than once, plus they are cheap in the big picture of things). That spring steel disc that I referred to (item 24) is a good installation tool for a sleeve. Never throw it away.

You'll enjoy better gas mileage with the manual, especially at highway speeds.

Thanks for posting the progress updates.