Anybody using a B/E body 4 speed in their A body?

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mshred

mshred

The Green Manalishi
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If so, how did it all work out for you? I have a nice B/E body fourspeed in mint condition, and i have read about the modification for shifter relocation on the big block dart tech pages for putting one in an abody, but im curious to know how many of you are using non abody 4 speeds and what you did to make it work...also, this is a street/strip car and i dont know if this sounds goofy but will modifying shifter location affect shifter performance at all?

thanks
matthew
 
someone must be....anybody? bump!
 
Yep I have one in my 68 Barracuda. It was a very easy swap.

One of the bosses on the front shifter mount comes awful close to the torsion bar cross member and in my case would just touch during right turns and send an awful vibration through the car. You can either dent the area for clearance or do as I did and cut the boss off.

In regards to relocating the shifter if you use a good stiff piece of material I can't see it flexing enough to be noticeable. I used 1/2" thick aluminum plate. I have no noticeable flex. BTW, the shifter winds up in the stock location and you use stock A-body rods.

I don't recall the exact dimension but I had to have the drive shaft shortened about 3"+. I measured the length of the 3spd I was removing and the 4spd and used the difference for tha amount to shortend the shaft.
 
hey Dave,

thanks for the info on the clearance of the boss...I was thinking of just cutting the boss off as well and not have to worry about it afterwards at all...Im pretty sure i have the a-body rods for the shifter...is there a way to identify whether they are a-body ones or not?
 
Well if you mock it up with the shifter in the A-body position and they fit you are good to go. I am sure someone will have the actual lengths and will post them.

I purchased a Hurst Indy shifter for mopar A-bodies and it came with the shifter. rods, tranny levers, the adapter and all the hardware necessary to install it. The only thing I didn't like about the Indy was it came with a straight handle that was only 7" long. I picked up a handle at a swap meet for a couple of bucks and use that. The Indy doesn't have the adjustable positive stops of Comp+ shifter but the frame is dimpled where they go so I drilled them out, tapped the holes and installed them.
 
limelite70 said:
do you also have to shorten the driveshaft??
Click to expand...

Yes, reread the last sentence of my first post, its a little over 3". Also, since I was going from a 3spd to a 4spd I had to replace the slip yoke with one with the larger spline the A833 and 727 tranny uses.
 
Keeping shift rods from binding at the strip is a major issue. There are a couple shifter brackets that mount the shifter body up and back from the original position in order that Supershifter STRAIGHT rods can be used. These brackets are made of steel, not aluminum, and they are very heavy duty parts. I have broken many shifter brackets. I've pulled them right off the stransmission, I've had the shifter come off the bracket in my hand, and I broke a bracket by cracking it in half once. It is hard enough to keep the shifter working correctly at the strip with the correct pieces. I wouldn't want to use any home made brackets that might get damamged, rendering the car unsuable until another is fabbed.

bracket.jpg


bracket II.jpg
 
wow outside, sounds like some pretty serious breakage goin on lol...thanks for the insight from everyone, wanted to see what it would entail if i entertained the swap...thanks
 
Outsider,how many years have you been bangin 4 speeds at the track?And I bet you still are!Fun isn,t it?(breakage,fixin,fabin)Nothing beats shiftin 4 speed at the track!(I,m in my own little race world here)Smoke time.
 
pettybludart said:
Outsider,how many years have you been bangin 4 speeds at the track?And I bet you still are!Fun isn,t it?(breakage,fixin,fabin)Nothing beats shiftin 4 speed at the track!(I,m in my own little race world here)Smoke time.
Click to expand...
30 years. I've never owned an automatic trans equipped vehicle in my life. I'm not even sure how an auto works. :-D
 
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