You'll cave eventually.
Suckers like us always cave to the new stuff pressure.
My motto in life is generally "what would Brandon approve of?"
Good to have positive confirmation that I'm making the correct life choices.
Totally worth it assuming you don't throw the non-VFD parts in the garbage.
Tacos are bueno and my favorite painting method is to not do it for as long as possible.
With all that said: feel free to mentally insert a meaningless platitude and incredibly humorous yet accurate comment on society and/or current events in my typical style at this point because there is no time for me to do any of that right now.
Here it is.
Yes, the long awaited D-1 bag.
Gaze upon its individually packaged glory! Have you ever seen anything so sublime? Only a chimp that is both blind and lobotomized could not see the marvel contained within.
There is also a bunch of other pretty good stuff in the box too but all of that is fairly unimportant.
Since some of you are as quick as Yukon Territory maple syrup in January, allow me to open said bag of goodness.
Yes friends, it is the VFD transmission. The heart of what makes the VS4-10 Pro so professional, prolific, and pro-stigious. We will dive into the special parts of the transmission later.
My plan was always to put the VFD in my current VS4-10 because it looks so damn awesome, the D44 axles are my preference over the F9s, and I love the fancy aluminum chassis braces, bumpers, and sliders that have been removed on the Pro kit.
All successful transplants require a certain degree of patient preparation and the VFD swap into the OG VS4-10 is no different.
The basis for everything is the new VFD skidplate since everything about how the transmission mounts is different. I'm glossing over the install here because it is little more than unbolting a few screws and reinstalling them except for 1 key difference.
The area of the skidplate that fits into the optional upper link holes has to be trimmed to clear the aluminum chassis brace like so.
Minor cutting and we are back on our way.
We have now arrived at the later portion of the post where things get explained.
Starting off, there is an aluminum motor plate that from my best estimates measures at "thick as hell". Aluminum support braces get attached to the motor plate to form what can only be a very rigid structure for supporting the extra long top shaft.
A new 56T spur bolts to the familiar Incision slipper eliminator.
The instructions say to install the motor at this point but it seems to make more sense to install it a couple steps later.
Next, you slide the transmission housing pieces over the aluminum support tubes to form something resembling a 1:1 transmission.
I couldn't install these pieces with the motor installed as the tabs were blocking the way as you can see.
After this step is when the motor makes more sense to be installed. Of course, things may vary with your motor of choice but it wouldn't hurt anything waiting until now to install the motor.
And everyone remember, labels out on the support tubes for maximum brand awareness.
After all that, we finally arrive at the first internal transmission gears.
The gears are big, wide, and steel, there is little to worry about here other than what grease to use. I used Vanquish because it is what Brandon would do.
Next comes the transfer case portion of the assembly where all the overdrive magic happens.
These aluminum gear plates are pure genius and should be celebrated as one of the true victories of the VFD design. They make sure gear mesh is maintained 100% of the time with zero deflection from plastic flex and they allow different gear ratios to be used without changing the outer case. Someone deserves a raise for this bit alone.
Four more wide steel gears were dropped into the transfer case after being greased up.
Then the outer bearing plate was dropped on.
Some other fun bits of information: all the bearings are regular, old 5x11s and the transfer case gear plates have a steel spacer that keeps the plates from pressing on the gears when tightening the outer cover of the case.
Now we have a fully assembled transmission.
The stock gearing on the transmission is 56/15 but I went with a 12T pinion to pretty much match the 60ish:1 ratio I was running with the old transmission at the rear. With the Holmes Puller Pro 3500kv, it will have all the torque.
Because I know you can't get enough of this transmission.
One last bit of "making the new trans fit the old truck" stuff. The front transmission mounts are different from the old battery tray mounts and are molded as part of the servo mount in the Pro kit.
It seems if Vanquish is thinking about people like me because there is a molded line in the Pro servo mount of where to cut transmission mount portion off.
And here is the complete VFD in its new home.
So cozy.
One of those other parts from the Pro kit that will be needed is the electronics trays so they were bolted in.
The stock Pro battery tray does not fit with the aluminum rear chassis brace in place so the options are either raise it to clear the brace or find a new home for the battery. One of those options is easy and the other is what I did.
I told the part making robot to make me a battery tray and it listened.
The new battery tray bolts to the stock electronics plate and gives the battery a flat mounting surface without the pesky slider bolts being in the way.
The battery may not be flat on the plate but it still ends up lower than the stock tray.
Now, here we sit waiting for the rest of the electronics.
I will be changing a few things up from the previous version of this truck so it isn't as simple as dropping the old stuff back in.
One last change I made while wrenches were turning was to add this GRC fairlead. It matches the finish on the bumper much better than my steel printed Shapeways fairlead that just seems to be oxidizing to a more and more gold hued shade by the day.
One of the cool upgrades with this fairlead is the winch line is routed through a pair of bearing rollers before exiting the front of the truck.
Even if it doesn't work any better, it looks better and that is a win.
An original VS4-10 has been combined with the Pro to make something even better. Names to be considered are the VS4-10 All Pro, VS4-10 All Star, VS4-10 Hall of Famer, and VS4-10 GOAT; cast your votes!
We have now reached our conclusion of this extravaganza installment. Join me next time when we have a functioning truck again. :mrgreen:
