4-Speed ID

[DRIVEN]

You can remove the plate that's between the shifter and the transmission and bolt the shifter directly to the tail housing. You'll probably need to adjust/shorten the shift rods. Nice keeper on the 1-2 shift lever, BTW :lol: . I've run Saginaws in several vehicles and never broken one. I have acquired a couple for parts that were damaged and it always seems to be the reverse gear on the cluster. Be sure that you always have it ALL the way into reverse before letting out the clutch and NEVER try to go into reverse while the vehicle is rolling. Other than those two rules, you can expect a long, reliable life out of it. I would suggest replacing the front bearing while you have it out unless the previous owner swears that it's quiet. They don't cost much and you only need to remove the front retainer and one snap ring to replace it. You don't have to disassemble anything. In my experience that is the first thing to wear out under normal conditions. Good luck and enjoy.

 

[Bonnewagon]

No, you really need a proper installation kit with shifter mount, rods, and levers. Unfortunatly the proper one for our cars mounts the shifter forward of those holes on the tailhousing. The shifter mount bolts to one if the big bolts on the maincase and a couple of the tailhousing holes. The shifter ends up in that spot between the maincase and the speedo hole. Now for the bad news. See how that spot is round like the rest of the tailhousing? You will need a tailhousing with a flat area there or else the shifter mount won't fit. Guess how I know? The Firebirds and every other car mounted the shifter at the end of the tailhousing and the flat spot was neccessary for the A/G bodies only because the base cars came with bench seats and this mounting position cleared the dash and seat, barely. Now, you CAN use a 67'-68'-69' Firebird mounting kit, or universal mount that is similar, it will just place the shifter about 6" to the rear and will work fine, just not with a bench seat, you will need buckets and I liked it farther back. Here is a shot of where the proper mounting kit puts the shifter. The cut open area to the rear is where the shifter was with a Firebird mount. Notice even the correct tailhousing still lacked all the holes and I had to use a big "U" bolt for one of the mounting points. The second picture shows how close to the dash the shifter ends up with the correct kit, which is why I tried the 68' Firebird kit and it was better for me anyway. Unfortunatly I broke a shifter rod and had to switch back. By the way, that is a 68' shifter with the offset arm, to place the handle more to the center so I could use a 77' Firebird console. Just some thoughts to get you going in the right direction. I also just noticed that your shifter is installed backwards.Wowsers!

 

[3XBrownCutty]

wow, a lot of good info there!

I'm still undecided if i want to do this swap or not, I just dont think i can swing the linkage kit plus the correct bellhousing and clutch and stuff. The chevy bellhousing i got with it is pretty desireable, i already cleaned it up and threw some paint on it, I might just clean the transmission up and sell it also... I'm not sure, just dont think i can swing it this point in time. although it would be ****in awesome to be rippin gears in the olds

Yeah like i said before about the car it was in, I'm not suprised the shape the transmission is in (only externally i hope)

 

[Doober]

There is a G-Body specific installation kit for around $130, everything should bolt right up, given you have the right shifter, which doesn't look to be the case here.

You can get all the info for the shifter here:
http://www.maliburacing.com/forum/viewt ... =7&t=89587

I see 2 rings, making it 3.11:1 1st gear. You can use highway gears (2.41s would be a decent match) and still have good acceleration, and turn decent RPMs on the expressway (from that standpoint you can look at it from the standpoint that it's similar to an overdrive trans with 3.xx gears). I have 2.29s with a 3.50:1 1st gear Saginaw, and it pulls hard through every gear but 4th ("overdrive"). It's very close to a 2004R trans with 3.42s. The gear spacing on yours would be a little tighter.

With the 3.23s you have, 1st will be like 4.00:1 with the TH350 you have now. Sounds great, but when you get to 4th you'll still have to stay in the 55-60mph range to keep RPMs under 2500. With a set of 2.41s you can drive 70mph and only turn about 2100RPM.

With the 2.29s I have in the '81 and 235/70/15s, it only turns 1900RPM at 70.

 

[Doober]

Here's the correct G-Body shifter/linkage... stick I had laying around, so I used it (not factory correct but it works).

 

[3XBrownCutty]

Who makes that kit?

 

[Doober]

It's a kit from Hurst.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/HUU-3730017/

The only thing is it doesn't look like you have correct shifter for the kit, which you will need for the plates inside the shifter to line up correctly.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/HUU-3918794/

Without the stick
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/HUU-3915401/

Good news is you can find some of this stuff on eBay. I got a rebuilt shifter body for $99, a little over half what it goes for new. Mine was shot and in major need of a rebuild, which Hurst also offers as a service (I think like $150, way more than I was going to spend).

Each of the numbers listed is the actual Hurst number you're looking for. If you want to get a different stick, get just the body and look at the thread I posted with the Hurst info, you can pretty much use any stick you want, but it may not fit, be abnormally long, etc.

 

[Bonnewagon]

That hillbillie hookup is about worthless on a street car unless you want to have the shifter sticking up like a Rat Fink car. And like I said, that tailhousing won't work with the up-front shifter mount. But there's no reason you can't find the rest of the parts one at a time and when it's all there you can swap it over. Here's the clutch pedals for $75 right here on G-body. http://gbodyforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=20921&p=154576#p154576 So look at it this way- you got a transmission. It's the first step.

 

[3XBrownCutty]

Thanks for all the info guys! All this is super helpful, now i just need some money :lol:

 

[Bonnewagon]

You got swap meets by you? I get lots of great deals at those, especially Hurst shifters sometimes even with rods and mounts. Allmost all Hursts are very similar and can be used on cars not originally made for. If you turn that one around correctly it just may just be a good one.