First off, before the flaming begins, I know how to use a search button, I know how to PM people, but I need a post count of 10 to PM. This isn't my first time on a forum. The last few threads on a swap like this was over a year ago and the people doing the swaps haven't been active on here in over a few months, so PMing them wouldn't do me much good.

Now that that is out of the way...

Like the title says I'm swapping an OM617 into my s10. I have the complete 82 merc. I want to put an ax15 behind it. I want my factory gauges to work (speedo especially) Do the ax15s have a speedo cable or a speed sensor setup? I keep searching but nobody specifies how they got the speedo to work.

Any other info would be appreciated. I had an entire list of questions, but the wife is pestering me and cant concentrate...

Thanks!

 

It depends on the year, older units have the cable, newer use an adapter with sensor. Why don't you just use the t-5 that came in the s-10?

 

Thank you, that's kinda what I figured. I'm not sure what 5 speed came in a 2000 2wd s10. I heard it was an nv3500. I was under the impression that the t5 stopped when they went to the round body s10. But I could be wrong, I really don't know for sure.
My truck right now has the 4l60e so either way it would be a manual swap. There is just more info and parts for the om to ax which is why I was thinking ax. I'm even considering keeping the Mercedes auto for now, its still strong.

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Just looked in an s10 Chilton's manual, the 4cyl had an nv1500 and the 6 cyl had the nv3500. Also, a big factor for me is that the nv3500 adapter is about $950 + s$h. The ax15 adapter stuff is about $395 + s$h.

I really would like to have a manual in the truck rather than the auto.

 

Here's what I did in my Ranger conversion:

OM to AX15 using a the adapter kit from Nathan Koch.

I found an AX including the clutch plate, flywheel, slave cylinder, and drive shaft from a guy who was parting out a 96 Cherokee.

I took the crank adapter from the kit, the flywheel, and ring gear from the OM all to a machine shop and had the assembly balanced (it was around 15 grams off iirc).

Bolted it all together and everything fit perfectly. The easiest part of the swap was the drive shaft to output from the tranny. They both use the exact same universal bearing so I swapped the end from the Jeep shaft onto the Ford shaft and it was perfect.

As for the clutch cylinder, I kept the Ford pedal, and master, cut the line along the firewall and the line from the slave cylinder. put them together with a 5/16" brass compression union and it works perfectly.

The AX came with an electronic version of speedo, but I called a tranny shop in Wisconsin about converting it to a manual cable. He told me I needed to buy the long shaft 35 tooth gear($95), and housing for a mechanical AX($80), then measure how long the cable needed to be and they would make one with a Ford end, and a Jeep end for $75.

So, for around $250 plus shipping I could buy from them what I needed to make it work.

Instead, I found the gear, and housing on eBay for $22.38 including shipping. Went to the local junkyard and found the cable end from a tranny already removed from a car for $10. I just needed the nut to screw the cable to the gear housing.

I took it to my shop and fabricated a c-clip to hold the nut onto the Ford speedo cable and works perfectly. The Ford cable attached to the original tranny in almost the same position as the AX so the cable was the right length.

My truck is an 1990 Ranger ext cab and worked great until I overheated it a couple weeks ago. Turns out I blew my head gasket, so now I'm about to fix that and get it back on the road.

Good luck with your project.

Rick

 

Nice work! How many miles do you have on your swap and what kind of mpg's are you seeing? I have the same truck as you, (2wd I assume) and was planning on this swap but went a different direction, just curious what it would have been like.

 

fte,

Thanks for the kudos!

I've put about 8000 miles on it since I got it on the road last summer. Lots of miles on the freeway going back and forth from Charlevoix to Hastings.

Mileage varies a little with the load I'm carrying, but I pretty consistently get 28-29.5. The lowes I've seen was 25 mpg, but I was maxed out and later found out I had a vacuum problem. fixed that and the mileage went right back up.

Unfortunately, I lost all my coolant a few weeks ago and overheated it big-time. It's sitting in the shop waiting for me to make time to get to the bottom of it and get it fixed.

Not sure, but I think I blew the head gasket. Just had changed the oil the day before and everything seemed fine. got about 45 minutes down the freeway when I suddenly had no heat in the cab. When I pulled off at the next exit, it was so hot, it stalled at the end of the ramp. Had to have it towed home. Has not started since.

Should have some time later this week to work on it. Had to get the new house ready to move into before Christmas so this project had to wait. Getting a place ready in the new house, and a bathroom ready for my mother in law was a higher priority.

I miss driving it. I like getting weird looks from guys around town when they hear that diesel in a Ranger. Some of the double-takes are pretty funny.

Happy New Year all!

Rick

 

I did a om617/ax15 on my 97 Sonoma. I took about two weeks. All my gauges work except my speedo. Tapped the thermostat housing for the temp sensor and adapted the stock gm oil pressure sensor to the. Motor. Worked well. Now pulled it all apart and am putting it in my 2000 exxtreme