833 to 833OD

It just so happens that I've been ivnolved in a lot of research & back and forth emails lately on this very subject with somebody who seems to know what he's talking about. The swap probably can't be easily made. The OD transmission case has a much larger opening in the front, apparently to fit the gears through. This requires a larger input bearing retainer (IBR) on the front of the transmission. The IBR is what indexes the trans to the bell housing. This means you need a transmission case & IBR from an OD trans, & a small block bell housing for an OD transmission (I don't think there is any bell housing to mate an OD trans to a big block, but it might be possible to have the stock bell housing machined to the larger diameter). It would be easier to find a complete OD trans & bell housing & use them to make the swap. But, I've been told that the stock OD trans can't handle high horspower, so I don't know how well it would hold up. They did use them in some pickups, though.

I checked with Passon performance a while back because I had read they have a new gearset that allows an overdrive ratio in an A 833. I don;t remember the OD ratio, but it was somewhere around 0.8 to one. The conversion kit is $1695. At that price you could probably afford to go through a few stock OD transmissions, as I don't think they're very popular so they should be cheaper than the non-OD trans. The Passon Gearset is (in their words) a "hemi" gearset, so It should be able to handle more power.

Sounds like you probably want the same thing that I do, the best of both worlds. Like everything else, it's probably going to be a compromise. :sad5:


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