I need some HELP

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george clark

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I have 1968 Dart I need to know how much change to the floor of the car to go from a 727 Trans to a ( A-518 or a 46-RH a 3 wire ) trans. or will it fit with out any change to the floor?????????
 
I'm a huge fan of people not introducing themselves and wanting all my knowledge...
Welcome to The Forum... please tell us about your car and your project and pictures we all love pictures...
 
Welcome to the forum, George.

The OD unit is a bit big for an A body, like your Dart. The floor side of the torsion bar crossmember will have to be modified, as well as the support/trans crossmember. Do you have a welder? You'll need it.
 
I'd like to see somebody weld the reinforcement plate to the top of the tunnel; inside the car; then just cut out some carpet padding for it to clear. Or maybe cut the tunnel from inside the car; removing the entire tunnel bracing; followed by a couple layers of 1/8" over the hole. All this cutting and welding underneath is a pain. Why limit the reinforcement to just a couple inches wide? Why not go like 4" wide inside the car? 6"?; in 2" strips so it's fastened to the floor every couple inches. I've been reading these conversion threads trying to get a more precise understanding of just exactly how much of the reinforcement MUST be removed.
 
No floor pan mods needed, just the t-bar crossmember. Pull your old trans and do some measuring, you will see what to do. If you can’t weld and cut you better get a buddy who can. Take out your seat and carpet so it doesn’t catch on fire.

I modified the stock trans mount crossmember to work with the gm style mount, welded a 2 inch wide strap against the floor pan in place of the original, welding it to the ends of the cross member where I cut it off. The worst part was cleaning everything so I could weld it.

The factory crossmember was barely tacked to the floor... didn’t seem very heavy duty. The replacement strap I welded in is only .150 or so thick but I’m confident it’s stronger now than it was. I did away with the inner two trans mount bolts and only use the outer ones.

I used the empty trans case and extension housing to check fittment as I went. Did it all on the floor with jack stands. I wish I had a lift.
 
Probably not nessesary, at the time it seemed like the right thing to do. I was just making it up as I went along.
 
I'm thinking that two bolts on each side would help to stiffen the floor more than one on each side that would allow some pivotal movement; maybe not. The torsion bars are trying to pull the center part of the braces downward. I would think that a really hard bump could actually cause the tunnel to go downward. That along with the weight of the trans I would think could cause some movement.
 
The factory crossmember seemed pretty flimsy to me, I was confident at the time that the mods I did strengthened the car.
 
True those ends are just sheet metal that bend pretty easy. Do you think you could have left all the bolt holes in and still had room for the trans?
 
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