I'm currently going through swapping the drivetrain in my '70 Duster from 318/904/7.25 to 360/904/8.25. I was planning on having the original A-904 rebuilt with lots of goodies by A-R-T Automotive in Franktown, CO but have now come to the conclusion that it's out of my budget. It was going to get an A&A reverse-manual VB,
Why? You gonna drive it on the street? At any rate, if you REALLY want a manual unit, get the Mopar Performance chassis manual. It tells you how to modify YOUR auto valve body to make it manual yourself. Nuthin to it.
A-999 low gear set,
The 999 gearsets were introduced to get the heavy, high rear geared cars of the late 70s and early 80s going off the line better. No need for them in a light A body with a decent gear. Waste of money.
deep cast aluminum pan,
Get the steel one with the tubes runnin through the bottom. They're called cooler pans. MUCH better than cast aluminum any day. cheap on Ebay.
PTC converter, heavy-duty everything else... Basically the works. I know this would be the "right" way to get a good performance trans behind my 360 but I just can't afford it, unless I wait three months to save up the cash (and that's aside from all the other stuff I still have to buy for my car). What should I do? Find a used one in good shape and pull it apart myself? I've never played around with transmissions so it would be my first experience. One important point, I do plan to convert to a manual tranny (4- or 5-speed) in the near future (few years?) so the trans I run now doesn't have to be totally bulletproof. But I would still like to have peace-of-mind that it won't blow on me a few months down the road.
