A500

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JR

JR

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Anyone running a A500 in anything behind an older (nonmagnum) smallblock? Im getting the motor and tranny from my dads 95 Dakota for free when he swaps in the 2001 360. The motor is a 95 318 that has a bad oil pump and was starting to knock a little this weekend and the tranny has been rebuilt. I was thinking about putting the tranny behind a 76 360 with a mild (340ish) cam. Please tell me it will work, Im not going racing it's just a driver.
 
I put a 518 in a motor home for my uncle, its sitting behind 300 hp 360 crate engine. We fabbed a new rear trans mount as the back of the 518 is quit a bit bigger than the old 727. That being said there is a lot of room under a motor home so it wasn't hard. In a car you would have to do some floor cutting.
 
Big drawback to the A500 is the lockup torque converter. 904 lockups have never been known as rugged pieces. I'd bet there may be some decent after market parts, but the factory stuff was sorta weak. Oh, you have to do the same rear crossmember and mount fabrication as the 518.

The 500 does have the lower gear set, which is a good swap, and can be put in a 904 as well.
 
My Dart is in the shop at this moment getting a 518 put under it.:thumbup:

Since the trans is free you can probably afford to put a few $$ in to beefing up the A500. I was under the impression that Dodge had gone to the 42RH/E by 95...or did that come later?
 
Are you sure it's an A500. V8 Dakota's came from the factory with the A518, it was the v6 and 4cyl motors that used the A500. FWIW, in the early 90's mopar renamed the A500 to 42RH and the A518 to the 46RH, same tranny different name.

A buddy of mine put an A518 in his 67 Barracuda behind a 340 6-pak motor with 4.10 gears. It's a real nice set up. It does require some significant surgury to the floor of the car but he was still able to put the factory console and floor shifter back and from inside the car you would never know.
 
At first I thought it was a 518 but then I was reading on a website that the 500 came behind the V6 and the 318 and the 518 was behind the 360 and anything heavy duty. The truck is a 95 dakota with a 318.
 
I believe the info you saw was not accurate. The few second generation V8 Dakota's that I have seen came with the A518.
 
Well I am planning on swapping a A500 into my dart. I got the tranny out of a '89 Van with a 318 and it is a A500. SMR transmissions has some good stuff for the overdrive trannies, including a non- lock up race converter for the A500 it gets rid of the weak lock up tangs on the converter that tend to break.
 
Look at the tranny pan. should be easy to tell. If it's "square" with a corner "cut" out of it, it's a 904/500, if it has a bump diagonal from the "cut" corner it's a 727/518.
 
I would crawl under and check it but the truck sits a little low...

DSC05078.jpg


I will find out when we pull the motor and tranny to swap in the 2001 360 and tranny out of a dakota R/T.
 
My 93 Dakota had a tag on the front underside of the hood that told which engine and trans. it had. You might look there and see if has a tag that tells.
 
From everything I have read, the 89 Shelby Dak came with an A500 behind it's 318.

DGC: so the 42RH and the A500 are actually the same trans?

Out of curiosity - Does anyone know if the current 45RFE/545RFE series is an updated version of something else, or an all new trans?
 
Yes the A500 and 42RH is the same tranny. The 42RE is the elctronically controlled version that came latter. The 45RFE/545RFE is an all new tranny and only bolts to the 4.7/3.7.

The 89 Shelby Dakota was an oddball built by Shelby when there were no v8 option for the Dakota.

FWIW, there were A500's, A518's and A618's. The A618 is a beefed up 518 that came behind diesel engines. There was also a 44RE which was a beefier version of the 42RE.
 
when you get it out or get under it just compare it,,either way they will both work,since they are over drive 4th being a reduction,first or low gear is lower then a 904/727,making it launch/leave from a standing start a little quicker,,,we are puting a 518 in a street rod behind A desoto hemi, in an A body,you will probably need to do a little cutting to the tunnel to make room for the over drive /tail shaft unit,,unless this is some low production big dolar car,,it is wel worth the effort for driveability and fuel mileage gains,,

i cant remember the year cut off,,i believe it is 96 and earlier,,,look at the plug if it is a 2 pin plug it is a non lock up converter,if it is a 3 pin plug the converter locks up electricly,,
you wil need to have some body that knnows the conversion of the over drive switch/and the hydralic pressure switch conversion,,,we havent gotten that far yet with our 518,,the trans wont act correctly if you just put a switch in line for the over drive,,you need to do some hyd pressure plumbing,from what i have heard its no big deal,,sory i dont have all the corect details,,,,just getting started with out convsersion,,,hope this helps a little,,,,dont let it scare ya from doing it,,,it works,ive seen plenty of street rods with this conversion,,,
 
dgc333 said:
Yes the A500 and 42RH is the same tranny. The 42RE is the elctronically controlled version that came latter. The 45RFE/545RFE is an all new tranny and only bolts to the 4.7/3.7.

The 89 Shelby Dakota was an oddball built by Shelby when there were no v8 option for the Dakota.

FWIW, there were A500's, A518's and A618's. The A618 is a beefed up 518 that came behind diesel engines. There was also a 44RE which was a beefier version of the 42RE.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah..forgot the Shelby was pre-factory V8 (doh!)

The 5.7L bolts up to the 545RFE also....
 
superdart said:
The 5.7L bolts up to the 545RFE also....
Click to expand...

Didn't know that! I figured they were using a Mercedes derived tranny like the car do. The 5.7 has the same bolt pattern as magnum engines so they must have revised the 545RFE case for the 5.7
 
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