42RH / A-500 in a Duster with pictures.

Tantibus-74 said
I'm thinking long and hard about doing a OD swap in.

My dilemma:
Right now I have an A999 that is only a year old on a rebuild with the works: kolene, red eagle components, Cheetah valve body and non lockup conversion. With a Hughes converter. This has been a very good trans, but I think I've been too spoiled by OD trucks/cars cruising at 70 mph and while spinning only around 1900-2200 rpm's
Of course I could sell the A999 once I get a good A500.

I also have a good buddy of mine (a GM fanatic but that's ok he's got good beer so it equals out) who is selling a rebuilt 700R4 for $700. I priced a Wilcap 360 to GM conversion set for $710.

So for over $1900 (+500 for other mods to fit this) I can get a setup for an GM overdrive.

Something tells me if I'm frugal enough I can do an A500 for cheaper. I did a 60% rebuild (the shop did the rest) on my A999 and did the conversion to non-LU myself.
Sooo, do I dare try to rebuild the A500? It should be similar but that OD unit seems intimidating as I've never even touched an A500 or A518.

A rebuild kit for the A500 (with premium clutches, bands and kolene steels) is around $700-$800+ a set. A shop quoted me $1300 to rebuild an A500.
A junkyard trans is $145.

I believe the Mopar A-500 is a better transmission than the GM TH700R4. The problem with the 700 is the OD clutches and gear is not very rugged and is only meant for part throttle low load cruising. In fact the 700 will not go into or stay in OD under heavy throttle. The OD units on the Mopar 500 and 518 are much beefier than the GM 700. The only good reason to use a 700 instead of the 500 would be to avoid the heavy rework of the torsion bar and trans crossmembers. Also $700 plus for an adapter kit is a big chunk of money that could be spent buying good parts for the 500. One more big advantage to using the 500 over the 700 is if you're planning on keeping the factory column shifter and linkage and/or kickdown linkage it will hook up to the 500 exactly like it does to your 999. Same thing with the cooler lines, they're the same as your 999.