4 speed aluminum Overdrive for A body

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gregpurcell

gregpurcell

Greg Purcell
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I have a friend who was trying to convert a truck (B&E body style twin shift plate) OD transmission to go into a 72 Dart. I told him it would probably be easier to find the 73-76 A body 4 speed aluminum OD transmission. He already has the bellhousing for the larger bearing retainer. If you have an A body aluminum 4 speed OD trans that you can deliver to Carlisle (I don't want to ship), please tell me the condition and how much you want for it and I'll relay the info to him.
Thanks in advance!
 
This conversion is absolutely easier with the "A" body trans. I would suggest you look for an iron unit however. The all aluminum trans is not so good for high HP/hot rod applications. Not to mention they are exceedingly rare. Good luck in your search.
 
The long tail shaft in an A-body really is not a big deal. I have one in my 68 Barracuda. All you need is to shorten the drive shaft ( cost me $75 at the local drive shaft shop) and an adapter that bolts to the rear mount and positions the shifter to the stock A-body location (bigblockdart.com has a drawing). Otherwise it is just a bolt in.

An A-body tranny would be easier for sure but if you already have the long tail shaft unit it will beca lot cheaper to use it. As for the aluminum case it's not as weak as folks make it out to be, lots of big blocks running around with them. Certainly not the best for racing but you wouldn't want the OD tranny anyway.

FWIW, I have put almost 50k miles on mine behind a ~370hp 360 that is driven aggressively with no issues. That is on top of the 30k I drove it with a /6 and the 100k+ on it in the pickup it came from.
 
His big problem is the twin shift pads on the B/E body style unit. He created an adapter plate similiar to the one on bigblockdart.com
http://www.bigblockdart.com/techpages/abconv.shtml
but it's cumbersome and unattractive. This unit used the large bearing retainer bellhousing like the A body OD and he's running a mild 340 street setup so strength is not that big an issue. It would be nice to get the shorter tail shaft tranny that would fit his bellhousing AND have the shifter mount in the correct position.
 
i have both a alumn and a iron OD unit here that i'd sell. but not sure if i can get it to carlisle for ya.
 
You are in Berlin NJ. How close is that to Bridgeton? Moparfgod (Frank Godish) lives there and he will be at Carlisle. Pm me with the prices if you're close to Bridgeton.
 
We may have located a local FABO member who wants to trade the long tailshaft trans for the short one because he is trying to put the short one into a B/E body..If the deal goes down, everybody wins!
THANKS FABO!
 
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