Can someone educate me on 4-speeds

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e50095

e50095

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I was thinking of starting to collect some parts for a future small block 4 speed project. My local U-pick it yardhas a mid 70's pickup with a V8 and a 4 speed. It got me to thinking.

1. How can I tell if this 4 speed has a granny low gear?

2. If it does, is it completely unusable for a street mild preformance application?

3. Assuming number 2 is a no, would I need to change the tail shaft to use it in an A-body?

4. If I didn't change the tail shaft, would it work in an E or B body as is?

5. I suppose if the tranny isn't much good for a performance application, I assume I could use the bellhousing and flywheel as a start to putting a project together, correct?

I appreciate any feedback you can provide...thanks guys...

Ken in Pa.
 
The first thing to do is determine "what it is."

If it is a so called "truck" four speed, then you won't be putting it into any car, and the bell, I believe, is equally useless.

The only other possibility is that it's either an "overdrive" 4 speed, or that someone has actually swapped in a conventional "car" (A-833) 4 speed. In either case, the transmission will have a separate shifter, whereas the "truck" 4 speed will have the shift lever integrated into the top plate of the gearbox.

If it IS either a "car" A-833 or a factory "overdrive" A-833, it will NOT have a "granny gear."
 
1. If it is in a 2WD truck, it's most likely the 833 O/D, which has the very low first gear with a 0.73:1 4th gear.

2. The 833 O/D's are not known for their strength. However, Passon Performance could probably hook you up with what is needed to beef it up.

3. I believe all trucks came with the B/E-body tailhousing. You can make this tailhousing work. You'll just have to make a bracket that moves the shifter mount in between the 2 factory mounts, if that makes sense.

4. I ran into shifter and linkage problems with my truck 833 O/D when putting it in my B-body. I just got the required B-body shifter and linkage. Problem solved.

5. Not sure on bellhousing/flywheel applications, but I'm assuming the truck has a small block. That bellhousing should work on any small block.

I hope I got all that straight and correct.
 
If the shifter comes up through the floor in the center of the tunnel and under the dash then its the heavy truck 4spd, if the shifter comes up close to the seat and offset to the driver side then its a 833od.
 
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