700r4 Behind /6?

grumpuscreature said
Why go through all the hacking and headaches to wind up with a POS GM tranny, when all you have to do is bolt a Gearvendors overdrive unit to your 904 and shorten the drive shaft? You will wind up with a 6 speed auto for about the same money. Just my $.02.

Because:

A) The extra length of the GV unit creates problematic pinion angles in cars as short as A-bodies. Longer cars like B-bodies, not so much.

B) The GV requires trans tunnel modifications to fit (real "hacking"), where as I think the 700R4 wouldn't. Crossmember mods could be reversed by replacing the crossmember with an original. What other "hacking" are you referring to?

C) GV aren't cheap, and allowing the driver to manually split gears doesn't result in a 6-speed auto. Talk to a few owners NONE seem to split gears on a regular basis (it seems to require a LOT of practice and coordination). The owners I've talked to just activate the unit and use the it for overdrive.

D) The GV is only .78:1 overdrive, as opposed to the 700R4's .70:1. I'd prefer as much overdrive as I can get for the money.

I'm not against GV overdrives, but there are alternatives to consider as well.

VM