1981 Truck 4 speed in an A Body

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wayneswirld2

wayneswirld2

I need a vacation...
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I have a good shot at purchasing a 1981 truck 833 with the bellhousing, new clutch, pp, tob, and flywheel for a great price. I know some mods will need to be done to my 65 Valiant, but just how difficult is this swap? Currently has a 3 speed manual on column.

Wayne
Austin, TX
 
I think the truck 833 has a different tail shaft. You'll need to swap that out and then all the rest would be standard swap material. Biggest thing will be installin the 4 speed transmission hump in the floor. Nobody makes those for the early A body but the later hump will work with some trimming.
 
You might want to talk to Brewer's Performance. They told me the OD bell housing won't work in the early A body. They said you need to get the A body 10.5" clutch bell housing & have the register machined for a 4.8" input bearing retainer. Then replace the 5.125" retainer on the OD trans with a 4.8" one. After that's been done you can use the parts they have & run a 10.5 " clutch. You'll also have to deal with the tailshaft as was mentioned by SS. I'm just repeating what Brewer's told me on the phone. I had already done the 10.5" swap on my car many years ago & was asking about putting in an OD trans & that was what they said was necessary. If you're good at rigging things you might be able to make a factory OD bell housing work, I haven't ever messed with one.

One other thing to check, I THINK the truck bell housing/flywheel/clutch might be 11" or larger. If it is, you probably won't be able to use it in an A body.
 
'64 Cuda said:
You might want to talk to Brewer's Performance. They told me the OD bell housing won't work in the early A body.
Click to expand...

Did they now? Well, that's the swap I'm doin and I bet I make it work. lol
 
Hey StrokerScamp, keep us posted on your swap...I'm seriously thinkin' of buyin' that trans and stuff for roughly $200. I figure I can MAKE it fit somehow, it's not a show car or anything.....

Wayne
 
StrokerScamp said:
Did they now? Well, that's the swap I'm doin and I bet I make it work. lol
Click to expand...

You probably will. My guess is that it'll just take a bit more work because you won't be able to use Brewer's Z-Bar, etc to make the 10.5" clutch a bolt in deal. I did the 10.5" clutch swap into my 64 over 35 years ago & there wasn't any internet to help & very few people for me to bounce ideas off of to figure out how to make it work. Just me & a couple friends, a welder, some trial and error, and we made it happen. Oh, there might have been some beer involved too. :drinkers::drinkers::drinkers:
 
Well I have a car 833 OD. But the way I read the above, Brewer's said the OD bellhousing wouldn't fit. I think that's wrong. According to Doug Dutra's article on transmissions, that bellhousing fits "any" A body. Now, as for the truck transmission, I have no idea. Either way, I gotta OD transmission that's GOIN in my 63 Dart.
 
Turns out that the guy that has the trans has a bunch of other cool slant 6 stuff as well, so I'm working on a deal to get ALL of it. Here's a short list; 225 long block .030 over, flat top pistons, head shaved .100, big valves, direct connection .460 lift cam 268 duration with lifters, new (in box) aluminum 4bbl intake, some funky looking dual exhaust manifolds that look similar to the "LOG" style, Hurst truck shifter, new clutch and pressure plate, factory 1bbl aluminum intake...and a bunch more stuff I won't take the time to list.

Looks like installing the 4 speed is a fairly straight forward deal, a little fabbin' here and there, some weldin', some drinkin'.....now if I can only find a BLOWER for this thing!

Wayne
Austin, TX, y'all
 
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