Question on Gearvendors overdrive . Is it a basic bolt in operation for a

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jerry6

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1970 Dart , 340 with a 727 ? I drive a lot of highway just to get to the track 45 miles at 3200rpm is just killing me . With the O/D i figure 2000 or less highway and great at the track with 6 speeds .
Are there mods to the floor pan on the A body ? And would you buy one 2nd hand .
Thanks , first week with the car , thought it would never get out of storage with the weather we have had .
 
From what I heard GV only wants to deal with people that buy from them. So if you buy used and need parts you are screwed. Think you need to dimple the floor board to make it fit.
 
Dimple I can handle . So only new unit , oh well time to save up some $$$ .
Thanks
 
If Supershafts doesn't chime in, PM him and see. I think he's done it before. From what I have gathered, there is minimal work to do to the floor.
 
Only one I have ever seen installed took a strategically placed shot with a hammer to the floor. Owner did complain of a drive line vibration, but he had yet to look into it. Good luck finding a complete used kit. That is all I am going to say about it....
 
I bought a used one for a ford transmission. traded in the ford adapter + $750 if I remember right for a 904 adapter at gear vendor. My thoughts on used if you can pick them up for under a thousand dollars you are probably fine. Gear Vendor will rebuild them or exchange the unit if it doesn't work for somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,000. I think a new unit is about $3,000

It don't think it will lower your cruise by 1200 rpm. My car has 4:10 gear 28" tall tires and I run about 70 to 75 on the fwy, the rpms are about 2800.

Gear Vendor says no tunnel work required. Most people that install say they had to hammer the tunnel on the A body cars. I chose to just lower the transmission about a 1/2" on my install. Someday I might hammer the tunnel to get the trans back in the factory position.

Overall I'm really happy with my gear vendor and yes I would chose one again. It's a great item for a true street strip car. Although I didn't see any benefit in mph or ET when split shifting during drag racing. The gear vendor makes freeway driving so much nicer.
 
Wow. For 3K you'd figure to cruise at a lower RPM. The good old A833 OD beats that all to hell.
 
RustyRatRod said:
Wow. For 3K you'd figure to cruise at a lower RPM. The good old A833 OD beats that all to hell.
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I have no idea what the HP rating or warranty is on a A833 OD but a new gear vendor does have a warranty and I'm thinking they are rated at about 750HP maybe more.

I rolled the dice with used and ended up with a good unit for close to half of new price. Bottom line is overdrive in these old cars is really cool no matter how you do it!:D
 
jerry6 said:
1970 Dart , 340 with a 727 ? I drive a lot of highway just to get to the track 45 miles at 3200rpm is just killing me . With the O/D i figure 2000 or less highway and great at the track with 6 speeds .
Are there mods to the floor pan on the A body ? And would you buy one 2nd hand .
Thanks , first week with the car , thought it would never get out of storage with the weather we have had .
Click to expand...

I love the idea of a Gear Vendors, in fact I've been offered a brand new unit as a trade for some video work a local business wants done, but seriously you can't drive 45miles at 3200rpm?

My closest 1/4mile is over 200 miles away and 3200rpm is nothing compared to buzzing along at 4000rpm+. I wish I had a GV in that car.

Fitting a GV won't drop your RPM below 2000rpm, it'll drop it to about 2500rpm and that will depend on what converter you have.
 
I hope i'm not stepping out of bounds here Jerry, but for those that don't know, he has a few physical issues he's dealing with and the manual 4spd OD idea is probably not on the table. I believe a Auto trans solution is best.
 
1970Duster said:
I'd rather have a 200R4, but thats just me.
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I've been debating between these two lately. At the moment i'm leaning towards the GV though, just because the 904/727 is cheaper to rebuild.

I think it depends on the setup, the 200r4 might be a better choice for an NA build, but the GV could be perfect for a forced induction setup.
 
67cudafb said:
From what I heard GV only wants to deal with people that buy from them. So if you buy used and need parts you are screwed. Think you need to dimple the floor board to make it fit.
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This is not true. They have been totally cool to me and I bought mine used from a pal that decided to switch to a 6 speed trans.
You will NOT get a 36 % drop in RPMs.
If you are travelling at 3200 RPMS, the 22% reduction in overdrive will get you down to about 2500. The OD is .78.
My Charger has a 727 with the GV Overdrive and a 3.91 axle. This puts me at 3.05 in OD. I don't know what mods are required with a Dart, but I'd bet that they are more extensive than with the larger B body tunnel. I had to dimple the trans tunnel at 10:30 and 1:30 to clear two bolts on the GV unit.
I am quite happy with mine. It upshifts just like a tight 727. I have taked 2 1000 mile trips with it and got 12.8 mpg with an engine that is far from optimized for economy. I got 11.3 with a 3.23 and NO overdrive the year before. Now I have great acceleration and better highway manners. I'd like it if the OD ratio were .69 or .70, but the .78 is the only ratio offered.
 
I'd like it if the OD ratio were .69 or .70, but the .78 is the only ratio offered.
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thats the thing i don't like abou tit.. the od ratio sucks.

i don't care about gear splitting or any of that crap. i want OD for cruising. a .69 would be so much nicer especially at the price they are asking for a GV set up.

problem with just about everything else is the major surgery needed to install it. some just dn't want to cut the car like needed which makes gv a good choice. if only they would make a .69 version as an option. i think they would sell a ton more.
 
abodyjoe said:
thats the thing i don't like abou tit.. the od ratio sucks.

i don't care about gear splitting or any of that crap. i want OD for cruising. a .69 would be so much nicer especially at the price they are asking for a GV set up.

problem with just about everything else is the major surgery needed to install it. some just dn't want to cut the car like needed which makes gv a good choice. if only they would make a .69 version as an option. i think they would sell a ton more.
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I'm not an expert on figuring ratios but remember that the GV unit splits
all gears it's not meant for just a final overdrive ( 1st OD - 2nd OD 3rd OD ) so when the .69 is stated that would be in 3rd OD and with that there MAY be too much variance for 1st - 2nd and 2nd - 3rd when using the overdrive unit for each gear change you would want to land as close as possible in the middle ratio on each gear change to try and keep as much constant RPM as you can. Could they make one just for final OD probably but not likely
 
magnumdust said:
I've been debating between these two lately. At the moment i'm leaning towards the GV though, just because the 904/727 is cheaper to rebuild.

I think it depends on the setup, the 200r4 might be a better choice for an NA build, but the GV could be perfect for a forced induction setup.
Click to expand...

200R4 came from forced induction car, Grand National!
Besides, a 200R4 can be built to withstand a crap load of power.
 
dodge71demon said:
I'm not an expert on figuring ratios but remember that the GV unit splits
all gears it's not meant for just a final overdrive ( 1st OD - 2nd OD 3rd OD ) so when the .69 is stated that would be in 3rd OD and with that there MAY be too much variance for 1st - 2nd and 2nd - 3rd when using the overdrive unit for each gear change you would want to land as close as possible in the middle ratio on each gear change to try and keep as much constant RPM as you can. Could they make one just for final OD probably but not likely
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Like I said. Splitting gears means nothing to me. Maybe if I was towing I would care about it but I'm not.

Personally I'd rather do the extra work and have a trans with a better 1st gear ratio and a lot better od ratio. Now if the GV was only 1000 dollars it would be a different story.
 
My old auto body shop teacher put one in his 69 dart and he didn't have to do any major floor mods to get it to fit.
 
dbphemi said:
My old auto body shop teacher put one in his 69 dart and he didn't have to do any major floor mods to get it to fit.
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how much h.p. will a 200r4 take ? always thot they were pretty weak when it comes to bis h.p. what about cost , and the adapter?-------bob
 
i tried one, it was a big expense for 700 rpm, it blew up twice in under 500 miles and they wouldn't warranty their last rebuild so i tried selling it but after i would explain the situation [ i'm to honest ] no one was interested so i gave it to a buddy who has been fitghing a vibration for over a year now.
 
abodyjoe said:
thats the thing i don't like abou tit.. the od ratio sucks.

i don't care about gear splitting or any of that crap. i want OD for cruising. a .69 would be so much nicer especially at the price they are asking for a GV set up.

problem with just about everything else is the major surgery needed to install it. some just dn't want to cut the car like needed which makes gv a good choice. if only they would make a .69 version as an option. i think they would sell a ton more.
Click to expand...


You have the 200r4 ? or another .69 variation ?

Think about spending all that and the other issues for a single gear added at the end.

Atleast the GV can offer help other than just at the tail end.


jerry6 said:
1970 Dart , 340 with a 727 ? I drive a lot of highway just to get to the track 45 miles at 3200rpm is just killing me . With the O/D i figure 2000 or less highway and great at the track with 6 speeds .
Are there mods to the floor pan on the A body ? And would you buy one 2nd hand .
Thanks , first week with the car , thought it would never get out of storage with the weather we have had .
Click to expand...


You may or may not need to play with the tunnel ever so slightly toward or say around 4" from the crossmember area.
You can expect a 800/900 rpm drop, unless you have a really bad tc

However im curious why you think or believe that cruising at 2000 RPM or less is going to be more efficient ????

Why is everyone under this magical idea that a motor runs CLEANER and more EFFICIENT below 2000 rpm rather than 2200 or 2600.
 
zhandfull said:
I have no idea what the HP rating or warranty is on a A833 OD but a new gear vendor does have a warranty and I'm thinking they are rated at about 750HP maybe more.

I rolled the dice with used and ended up with a good unit for close to half of new price. Bottom line is overdrive in these old cars is really cool no matter how you do it!:D
Click to expand...

I understand completely. I know it's a nice unit. Maybe they have some other OD ratios to choose from. If not, they should.
 
11.2 said:
i tried one, it was a big expense for 700 rpm, it blew up twice in under 500 miles and they wouldn't warranty their last rebuild so i tried selling it but after i would explain the situation [ i'm to honest ] no one was interested so i gave it to a buddy who has been fitghing a vibration for over a year now.
Click to expand...


I have 4 of them, behind all kinds of things from a truck at 6800 lbs with 500/500 to 3 street cars from 600 all the way up to 1400+
I am no easy pansy take it easy driver, even towing, how in the hell you blew up two in 500 miles is beyond me, but you most definitely had to be doing something wrong, as my oldest GV is over 20 years old and seen more drag racing in that 6800 lb truck than it has towing, it has even embarrassed a few ricers with the trailer on power shifting and never ever hurt the GV once in over 20 years.

Vibrations can be from people using the GV and trying to cruise around at low rpms, as i have had customers try and cruise around at 1200 rpm... why in the hell would anyone want to or THINK their motor is going to be it's most efficient at 1200 rpms....
Vibrations can also be caused from people lowering the trans mount rather than slightly make the room needed.
Vibrations could be from the shaft that was made and the lack of balancing or lack of correct work.
Vibrations can be from the person who measured it and doesn't know how important it is that slip yoke be in the right location in that GV, and the driveline shop having no experience with that either and gave it more slip then it needs.
.
 
You have the 200r4 ? or another .69 variation ?

Think about spending all that and the other issues for a single gear added at the end.

Atleast the GV can offer help other than just at the tail end.
Click to expand...


??? what?

gv isn't helping me anywhere else but an extra gear. its not giving me a better first gear. if i wanted to split gears (which i do not) it would only give me a gear between 1st and 2nd and between 2nd and 3rd then of course the OD.

with a trans i'll get a lower 1st gear so it would help me in first and again in OD.


and no i do not have either set ups. car is still in the gathering parts/planning stages..

like i have stated in a couple other threads when this comes up. i have two friends that are running GV units. they both like them and have had no issues with them. i just think its way too much money for just an OD unit that doesn't offer me so good of an OD ratio. they both run a 3.55 gear which turns to around a 2.76 in OD.

that .69 ratio gets me like 8mph at a given rpm over the .78 ratio. thats qutie a bit in my book..
 
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