[therabbittree]

The Excursion had a Enterprise Engine dual disk pulling clutch. It was very strong but you could not shift it too fast. When you shift it you shift it without the clutch , floating the gears like in a big truck. I got the hang of it relatively quick , I have my cdl and used to Drive for a living. Shaun had modified a Ford manual trans pedal and hydrualic clutch pushrod to work with the NV4500. For those of you not used to the ford clutch pedal bushing / retaing system it is a pain in the butt. The stock setup has a plastic bushing with little ears that presses into the hydraulic pushrod where it attaches to the pedal. It likes to break eve nbrand new..it can allow the clutch pedal to swing free if the pushrod pushs off the pedal stub..argh. as you can imagine this happend several times during my drive home ha.. it is not cool to be stuck in a interesction at a light...with a free swing clutch pedal haha. I fixed that problem asap. I removed the pedal and drilled the stub for a push pin and shimmed a new bushing to fit. No pedal problems now. My wife drives standard and has no problem witha normal clutch and transmission ha. But a transmission that needs to be shifted with out the clutch was a little tricky for her. Plus the pedal pressure was very high ha..a 5' tall woman climbing into a 8" lifted Excursion with no side steps is pretty sporting ha. Then pushing the pedal in and mastering floating the gears was a little tough.. i could see where this was headed. I had purchases a new takeout '07 G56 6Spd and Sothbend Single disk FE clutch for a swap into my first gen. Of course she says why don't you swap the transmissions ha...well I finally decided to do that.
I decided to redo the Excursion adding a 6 spd G56 single & disk FE clutch, drooping the 8" lift for a 4 " lift, completely fix the MANY misc electrical gremlins, add a 4" remote exhaust brake, add a Kid and mud proof Vinyl floor, etc etc.. more to come.
Thanks
deo