What are the most likely Donor vehicles for the A 500 4 speed automatic?
Go to my profile page and look at the profile posts. Second page. Long ago I was contemplating and made / copied some notes.
As noted:
Note to self...
A few notes on the a500:
The a500(42rh) is the 904 based tranny with overdrive. I believe the 42rh was introduced in 1988, but I recommend getting the 1993/4/5 because the 42rh had a lot of little changes by 1993/4 and the reliability factor went up. The a500 has 2 major versions, the 42rh (1988-1995ish), and the 42re (1995ish and up). You won't use the 42re, it requires a computer (TCM) to control it. Doable, but expensive. You can tell the difference between a 42rh and 42re by the electical connector located by the shifter linkage. The 42rh will have an oblong 3 pin (one hot wire, one ground to control the OD, and one ground to control the lockup torque converter) and the 42re will have a larger round connector with 8 or 9 pins. Some 46rh (larger 727 based)trannys came with 2 pins on the early model (1988-1992?) because they didn't have a lockup converter. To my knowledge, all 42rh's had lockup converters and cam with the 3 pin connector.
More:
Note to self......
- Get a 1993/1994 (and some 1995's) a500 (42rh) overdrive transmission. You may want to add some upgraded clutch discs and a few other things if you're going to drive it hard.
- Modify your transmission tunnel so the larger overdrive rear end of the a500(42rh) will fit in it.
- Get the PATC PATC 727 to 518 Conversion Kit (Overdrive/Lockup controller) to control these features on the tranny. $85 for the kit, and not hard to install. There's a deluxe kit for $325, you won't need this.
Dodge Transmissions - Torque Converters and Transmission Parts.
- Have your drive shaft shortened and balanced (the overdrive tranny is longer than the 904 and requirs the shaft to be shortened).
***********************************************************************************************************************
Thank you, Gdrill !
