over drive trans

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72duster72

72duster72

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can any body tell me why lets say a overdrive trans out of newer car or truck are not being used for older cars. Will they not fit or computers will not work what any help. I think $4200 for aoverdrive is too much for me.
 
there size is often a problem, plus they are pretty much all electronic, which requires a factory ecu, or a aftermarket controler, or toggle switches for od/lock up.
 
i got a quote for the toggles switch type and it cut price in half are the switch one a pain is it worth cost or do the electronics drive the price way up
 
I have a 700R4 in my Duster and its no easy task to do this. A lot of Mopar guys won't go this route because of the R4 being a GM trans. It's was in the car when I bought it.
 
put a a518 its a 727 with overdrive you find it from a ramcharger etc and the electronics its just a cable to a button to turn on off the od , i think it requires to modify the floor tho
 
space, the final frontier.
I wish I hadn't sold the 87 Grand Fury I had. It might be easier to french in the entire tunnel from such a car into the a-body floor, cross member and all.
 
DODGESTRIKE said:
put a a518 its a 727 with overdrive you find it from a ramcharger etc and the electronics its just a cable to a button to turn on off the od , i think it requires to modify the floor tho
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http://www.moparts.org/Tech/Archive/auto/28.html
i believe there is some issues with some of the shafts needing oil holes drilled in them. when i spoke with my trans guy about a 518, he suggested getting a gas and a diesel case, apparently the diesel unit has got some better parts in it. valve body choice is somewhat limited for the 518, at least this is what Chris Andrews told me a while back. the electronics adds $$ to it, some controllers are in the $1200-1400 area. i was planning on using a gm4l80e in my car, don't really care about the cutting. but problems are that is an expensive trans, needs a 500-600 bellhousing adapter, the electronic speedometer on the trans would need another $$ adapter to work with my cars speedo, it is about 100 pounds heavier than a 727..
 
inkjunkie said:
http://www.moparts.org/Tech/Archive/auto/28.html
i believe there is some issues with some of the shafts needing oil holes drilled in them. when i spoke with my trans guy about a 518, he suggested getting a gas and a diesel case, apparently the diesel unit has got some better parts in it. valve body choice is somewhat limited for the 518, at least this is what Chris Andrews told me a while back. the electronics adds $$ to it, some controllers are in the $1200-1400 area. i was planning on using a gm4l80e in my car, don't really care about the cutting. but problems are that is an expensive trans, needs a 500-600 bellhousing adapter, the electronic speedometer on the trans would need another $$ adapter to work with my cars speedo, it is about 100 pounds heavier than a 727..
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That's why the previous owner of my car went with the 700R4. It's light weight, plentiful and won't cost an arm and a leg to replace. He(Mark is a GM tech that loves MOPARS) has told me also that the trans can handle up to 600 hp in stock form. I've also heard from other sources that the 727 can rob the engine 40 hp just to move the car.
But, the down side is all of the fab work that has to be done to get the trans in there. The original cross member has to be cut. A new cross member has to be fabricated. The drive shaft has to shortened. A $400 adapter plate has to be ordered. A bracket for the TV cable has to be fabricated. Last you have to have a electric speedo as well. Unless you are real good at doing fab work this is not for you.
The OD is nice when you are on the highway however. I have mine switched and normally leave it off when I'm on back roads. When I get on the highway I'll turn the OD on. Cruising at 80 and 85 it's nice to have.
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What about the 727 with lockup? That what car originally had.
Never mind. I just read where that is really an A-518
 
If it's just for gas, the lockup 727/904s are decent and require nothing but the switch. That's not hard to set up either. The next cheapest is the Gear Vendors unit. I consider that a deal at $2500 and it is basically a bolt in. I'm not a fan of the GM transmissions in my mopars. More of a personal taste thing than anything technical but the adaptors do add to the cost dramatically.
 
72duster72 said:
can any body tell me why lets say a overdrive trans out of newer car or truck are not being used for older cars. Will they not fit or computers will not work what any help. I think $4200 for aoverdrive is too much for me.
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72duster72 -
Here's my post from July about another option using the GM 200-4R rather than the 700R4:
I've been thinking about a 200-4R behind a 360 magnum crate motor in a '69 Dart for the past week or so. Talked to several tranny companies about it and finally contacted Art Carr at California Performance Transmissions last week. He estimates total cost including converter and installation at about $3300. This does not include a new 8" longer driveshaft since the 200-4R is 8" shorter than a 727. It's also lighter and doesn't have as much HP loss through the transmission. The gear ratios are better than the 727 and it does not require trans tunnel surgery to fit. Art says he has a customer in PA with one behind a 406 stroker that runs 11.80s and still pulls down 25 mpg on the freeway.
Somebody tell me something bad about this setup......

I never did get any negative response to this idea other than the expected 'GM tranny in a Mopar' negative comments. I'm still thinking about this but haven't pulled the trigger yet since a couple of things have put my '69 Dart build on the back burner for a while.
 
moper said:
If it's just for gas, the lockup 727/904s are decent and require nothing but the switch. That's not hard to set up either. The next cheapest is the Gear Vendors unit. I consider that a deal at $2500 and it is basically a bolt in. I'm not a fan of the GM transmissions in my mopars. More of a personal taste thing than anything technical but the adaptors do add to the cost dramatically.
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thats exactly what i sayd ramcharger's 518 only require a switch/button , and the car is a mopar keep it mopar if you want to use gm trans buy a camaro :toothy10:
 
DODGESTRIKE said:
thats exactly what i sayd ramcharger's 518 only require a switch/button , and the car is a mopar keep it mopar if you want to use gm trans buy a camaro :toothy10:
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I would have rather had the 727 that was in my car to begin with, but that is in past and now. I have to live with it. Know one knows there is one in there unless I tell them. I don't think any less of my car. As far as I'm concerned its still a Mopar.
 
ocdart said:
72duster72 -
Here's my post from July about another option using the GM 200-4R rather than the 700R4:
I've been thinking about a 200-4R behind a 360 magnum crate motor in a '69 Dart for the past week or so. Talked to several tranny companies about it and finally contacted Art Carr at California Performance Transmissions last week. He estimates total cost including converter and installation at about $3300. This does not include a new 8" longer driveshaft since the 200-4R is 8" shorter than a 727. It's also lighter and doesn't have as much HP loss through the transmission. The gear ratios are better than the 727 and it does not require trans tunnel surgery to fit. Art says he has a customer in PA with one behind a 406 stroker that runs 11.80s and still pulls down 25 mpg on the freeway.
Somebody tell me something bad about this setup......

I never did get any negative response to this idea other than the expected 'GM tranny in a Mopar' negative comments. I'm still thinking about this but haven't pulled the trigger yet since a couple of things have put my '69 Dart build on the back burner for a while.
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I hear ya. I love my 700R4 in my Duster. My Duster responds very well with this setup. Before this change the 727 the Duster was getting about 10.5 mpg. After the swap it manages about 15mpg with 323 gears. True, I would not have done this myself but I'm not complaining about either.
 
Man when are you Mopar guys going to get over the perceived need for a big huge torque wasting truck transmission? The 904 is fine for anything less than about 650 HP. The A500 o/d version is just as good. You'll never find a 727 in my cars.
 
It's all up to personal taste. I've been all Mopar since i was 15. I woned a Pontiac for two weeks once, and I learned to drive in a Pontiac. but No GM in my cars. Just my taste. I also dont expect 40yr old technology to perform like my Neon in terms of comfort and mileage.
 
Guitar Jones said:
Man when are you Mopar guys going to get over the perceived need for a big huge torque wasting truck transmission? The 904 is fine for anything less than about 650 HP. The A500 o/d version is just as good. You'll never find a 727 in my cars.
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Well, I have to say again that the 727 was in the car when the previous owner bought it. The Duster had a 318 from the factory with I guess a 904 trans. Sometime later a 360 with the 727 trans was installed in the car. The whole deal was trying to get better gas mileage which is nothing I care about. I bought the car cause I'm very good friends with the previous owner. The car looked good and I know the car was done right. I could hoop in it now and drive to Virgina and back and not worry about anything. I love MOPAR's and would love to have it all mopar but this is one thing I have to over look.
 
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