1979 Malibu wagon 4 speed questions

[Bonnewagon]

The only reason the factory moved the shifter forward is because the base cars came with the three speed Saginaw and a bench seat stock. Then the shifter could clear the bench seat. An upgrade to a four speed did not necessarily include buckets so the shifter still had to clear the bench. Using the Muncie or BW places the shifter about six inches rearward and will interfere with the bench seat. There are complicated ways to avoid this but the easiest is to slap some nice bucket seats in there. What are the gear ratios in those transmissions? That will decide if they play nice with that rear.

 

[Mighty]

Opened the super t10 up to see if anything was broken or there was metal shavings. It was supposed to have been rebuilt but I have no idea how long ago. Guy I bought it off of is gone now.
The muncie is out of the equation. A lot of the guys on here and one other forum said use the super t10 and some of the screw holes for the side cover on the muncie are stripped out. It’s a bunch of different muncie parts mixed together anyways. I haven’t made up my mind on what I want to do yet. The saginaw needs a new tails shaft bushing which was my screw up a long time ago. I’ll give it some thought and try to price out some parts. I have to keep the bench seat in it!!

 

[gnvair]

I wrote the article on the Super T10 with the shifter in the factory location.
I have since swapped to a Tremec TKX 5 speed and again kept the stock shifter location.

 

[Mighty]

Yep, you’re write up on the super t10 is the one I saved to read through.

 

[Bonnewagon]

What are the ratios? I once used an ST-10 with the 3:42 first gear with a 3.08 rear and I still could take off from a stop easily in second gear. But I only needed 2000 rpm to do 60mph. In my Bonnewagon I have a Saginaw with the 3:50 first gear and a 3:23 rear. In normal driving I use 2nd gear to take off all the time. I use it to tow a small boat and with the 11.03 overall ratio I can climb a tree with it in first gear.

 

[Mighty]

Someone posted some reading material in one of my threads about how to determine the ratios, I’ll have to go back and look and compare them to what I have. My saginaw has 2 rings on the input shaft as does the t10. I’m going back up to the shop tomorrow and I’ll do some investigating. I was just going to put a new bushing in the saginaw but when we pulled the t10 apart nothing really looked very beat up so I’m thinking hard about doing the swap. I don’t know anything about these older 4 speeds though. Can you tell just by looking at the synchronizers if they’re worn out or not? All I plan on doing with the car is going to a handful of car shows in the summer, and just cruise around here or there. I told everyone if it goes to the drag strip it won’t be this year.

 

[pagrunt]

Someone posted some reading material in one of my threads about how to determine the ratios, I’ll have to go back and look and compare them to what I have. My saginaw has 2 rings on the input shaft as does the t10. I’m going back up to the shop tomorrow and I’ll do some investigating. I was just going to put a new bushing in the saginaw but when we pulled the t10 apart nothing really looked very beat up so I’m thinking hard about doing the swap. I don’t know anything about these older 4 speeds though. Can you tell just by looking at the synchronizers if they’re worn out or not? All I plan on doing with the car is going to a handful of car shows in the summer, and just cruise around here or there. I told everyone if it goes to the drag strip it won’t be this year.

For '79 the MVMA form list both the 3.11 & 2.85 first gear Saginaws. I'd say it being a wagon which had 3.08 rear gears yours should be the 2.85

 

[stew86MCSS396]

I had the 2 ring input on my Saginaw and seem to remember it to be a 3.10 1st gear. See chart for ST-10...oh and according to the chart don't forget that you're going to need a 32 spline yoke and 26 spline clutch disk as well.

 

[gnvair]

A 2 ring Saginaw is a 3.11 first gear. 3 ring is a 3.50.
The 78-81 Chevrolet A bodies with a V8 and a 4 speed would have a 2.85 1st gear which has no rings on the input. I have poured over the Chevrolet info and have never seen anything stating any other ratio in an A body. The V6 cars would have a 3.50 1st gear 3 speed.
The 78 and 79 Oldsmobile Cutlass could have a 3.11 1st gear behind the Chevrolet 305.

 

[Mighty]

Yep, I was already looking at prices for the clutch disk. I want to make some calls this week about shift levers