Anyone know if anybody still offers these kits for the TH400? I did a little searching and the few places that did aren't around anymore, or changed over to Ford products. Either that or I just didn't look hard enough. Thanks.
Switch pitch conversion kit for TH400?
- Thread starter G-Body_Vet
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It's not so much the converter, but the other parts for conversion. I can think of two companies that used to sell them but aren't around anymore....I must be getting old.
85GPLef41 said:
I'm still debating which trans I want to run so I'm looking into what's the best bang for the buck. The SP set-up goes hand in hand with the old Q-jet sayings as being junk. When transmission builders didn't understand them, or when torque converters were too expensive at the time; people simply wrote them off for one reason or another and converted them to standard stall.
Now...the upside to the TH400 is that it's the cheapest and strongest of my options without shelling out a ton of money. The SP set-up will allow me to compensate for a high rear end gear, yet still have good highway manners by having the variable pitch. There's the advantage of running a converter with 1800 and 2800 stall (or whatever you want to have built).
Since I'm going for low end grunt and running a tall gear there's no need for an expensive OD trans.
I was kicking around TH350's too, but I need to buy a few expensive parts for it to live.
Either way, I'm weighing options and pricing at the moment.
I don't think I would bother with the switch pitch. On my last Malibu I was quite happy with my 2.41 gears, th350, and 2500 stall. Of course the 500-550lb-ft made it possible.
there was an article awhile back, in CHP i believe, about the switch pitch system. it was the trans ans VB, expensive as hell, but very good. but since you seem to be going for less expensive, i think you're better off with an OD trans.
Wow, there's a lot of bad information in this thread.
The whole point of a switch pitch converter is to provide a higher stall speed converter when you need it and a lower stall speed when you don't. The higher stall speed was originally intended to provide torque multiplication for improved acceleration, but it also works well if you have a radical cam, since you can wire the converter solenoid to your brake pedal switch and have the high stall speed when you're stopped with the trans in gear.
This has nothing to do with a trans brake. In fact, you can run a trans brake in addition to the switch pitch if you want to at the track. Again, the trans brake shocks the suspension at launch, where the switch pitch provides the higher stall speed.
Now the bad news. I did one of these conversions in the 1980s when Kenne-Bell was still selling the kits. It worked great, but obviously they don't sell the parts anymore. Up until a few years ago you could buy the hardware from PAE Enterprises, but their website has gone dark. I don't know where you can get new parts today. The only possibility might be Fatsco, which specializes in parts for obsolete automatics.
The whole point of a switch pitch converter is to provide a higher stall speed converter when you need it and a lower stall speed when you don't. The higher stall speed was originally intended to provide torque multiplication for improved acceleration, but it also works well if you have a radical cam, since you can wire the converter solenoid to your brake pedal switch and have the high stall speed when you're stopped with the trans in gear.
This has nothing to do with a trans brake. In fact, you can run a trans brake in addition to the switch pitch if you want to at the track. Again, the trans brake shocks the suspension at launch, where the switch pitch provides the higher stall speed.
Now the bad news. I did one of these conversions in the 1980s when Kenne-Bell was still selling the kits. It worked great, but obviously they don't sell the parts anymore. Up until a few years ago you could buy the hardware from PAE Enterprises, but their website has gone dark. I don't know where you can get new parts today. The only possibility might be Fatsco, which specializes in parts for obsolete automatics.
Cptech on this site had a SP T-400 for sale last year, as I recall he still has it. I don't remember if it was a dual bolt pattern but he had it behind a worked Chevy. He's near Philly.
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