I bought the wrong transmission for my 66.

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RustyRatRod said:
Hard to tell, really from the pictures. It's certainly not an A body transmission.
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I agree. Kind of looks like an E. I need to get some tailshaft measurements from a E and compare to what I have now. If the same, then , all I have to do is buy an E, may have to change slip yoke, not sure if what I have is 26 or 30.
 
jpl572103 said:
So you think I have the truck a833?
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I see you measured the tailshaft of the unit in your car, but the picture is fuzzy. Your loose trans shows about 12.75" for the tailshaft not including the seal. What is that measurement for the one in the car? I have both truck and car 833OD's handy to compare and help sort this out.
 
halfafish said:
I see you measured the tailshaft of the unit in your car, but the picture is fuzzy. Your loose trans shows about 12.75" for the tailshaft not including the seal. What is that measurement for the one in the car? I have both truck and car 833OD's handy to compare and help sort this out.
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approx 16.5" without the seal. But i was upside down and measured 3 times. :thumbsup:
 
So this is from Brewers. Same casting number on my tailshaft.

Extension housing casting number C-99539 (with dual shifter pads, BOTH GOOD) for 1970-up B/E-body (also used on Dodge truck A833 overdrive 1976-1987) 18/23 spline input transmissions with 30 spline output/308 bearing. Baked and shot blasted. Uses SR229 bearing snap ring, NOT INCLUDED. (See EH539RO for extension housing, for use on E-body rear shifter location ONLY, $179.95)

I'm pretty sure my transmission is from a dodge truck 76-87 23 spline input, 30 out. And because the rear shift mount bosses have not been drilled, I bet this is not a B/E trans, but is out of a truck. 10-4. But!!!! I wonder if the B/E 4 speed will bolt right in due to the tailshaft housing casting numbers being the same.
As long as the trans mount location is the same? maybe. Great info on this site btw. Off to bed, have to wake at 3:15.
 
FYI
I took my overdrive long mainshaft to a machine shop, and had them make me a brass/bronze bushing for to accept a regular third gear.
Then I threw all the regular gears into an F-body alloy box, but used the od front synchronizer hub, then bolted on the B-body tail.
I already had the BIG-hole BH, so it was a bolt-in deal. I used the rearmost mounting pad, and fabricated an adapter plate to put the shifter where I wanted it and then just fabbed up some new tubular rods using cut-off bits from an old shifter set.


I happen to like my new further-back, raised, and moved to the left, shifter location. I installed a very short stick, Mr.Gasket BANG! shifter.

I got the bushing idea from, IIRC, the Ford top-loader, or maybe it was an old BW T-10, From the 70s, I forget.

The bushing hardly cost me anything.

All those regular gears will fit in a standard box with the small retainer, and then fit in a regular BH; all you need to do is to match the bearings to the bearing holes.

The long M/S only comes with 727-sized splines. In this way you should be able to reuse your $400 driveshaft.
 
jpl572103 said:
So this is from Brewers. Same casting number on my tailshaft.

Extension housing casting number C-99539 (with dual shifter pads, BOTH GOOD) for 1970-up B/E-body (also used on Dodge truck A833 overdrive 1976-1987) 18/23 spline input transmissions with 30 spline output/308 bearing. Baked and shot blasted. Uses SR229 bearing snap ring, NOT INCLUDED. (See EH539RO for extension housing, for use on E-body rear shifter location ONLY, $179.95)

I'm pretty sure my transmission is from a dodge truck 76-87 23 spline input, 30 out. And because the rear shift mount bosses have not been drilled, I bet this is not a B/E trans, but is out of a truck. 10-4. But!!!! I wonder if the B/E 4 speed will bolt right in due to the tailshaft housing casting numbers being the same.
As long as the trans mount location is the same? maybe. Great info on this site btw. Off to bed, have to wake at 3:15.
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Here’s a great article with a bunch of info on the 833, and specifically the 833 OD.

4 Speed Transmissions transmission

If your transmission is an OD then it’s a truck transmission with that tailshaft housing. The B/E 833’s are the same length and use the same tail housing, but they never had OD transmissions as the OD’s didn’t start until ‘75.

The trucks used the forward shift pad mount (as did the B bodies), and E bodies used the rear pad. Since the rear pad isn’t drilled it means it was made after the E-body run ended, so, truck transmission. The F bodies also got overdrives but they used the A-body tail housing. The shift pad on the A/F body transmission is not in the same spot as the forward B body/truck shift pad location.

If your transmission is an OD it also has the 5.125” input bearing retainer.

So, if you want to keep your car as is, you can use a ‘70-74 B/E body 833. Driveshaft length will be the same, use the forward shift pad. You’ll need a spacer ring to keep your current bellhousing, or you’ll have to swap out the input bearing retainer on the B/E 833. I can’t remember if all the B/E transmissions had the 308 bearing but if it does you can just swap on the larger outer diameter bearing retainer because it has the same bolt pattern. There was also an “adapter” input bearing available for while that had a 307 bearing bolt pattern but the larger 5.125” outer diameter.

This article covers putting a B/E body 833 in an A-body, so it has some information on what was probably changed in your car

B/E body four-speed in an A-body
 
Some Questions I would like to interject into this thread. 66 Dart with a slant six, right? Is the bell housing you are working with cast aluminum? What kind of clutch linkage do you have? I'm up to my ears in a 65 Barracuda /6 trying to convert the 904 to A833. I have an aluminum "truck bell housing." (circa 1978) My A833 is a 1965 with a four-bolt flange type output shaft. The opening for the bearing support in the bell housing I have measures 5.125, my bearing support measures 4.354. there is a reducing bushing availible which is one hurdle to overcome, but the real issue is the overall clutch linkage of which I have all of it. Pedals, rods etc. The issue is the linkage will not work with the bell housing I have. Z bar pivot, located in different position, I could solve all of my problems by buying the right bell housing from Brewers ($500 before shipping), but I'm not ready to cross that road yet, not until I exhaust all of my options. If you come up with a fix on what you are doing, I would be very interest in what you did. A 66 dart /6 is not a great deal different than a 65 Barracuda /6.
Norm
 
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circlepilot said:
Some Questions I would like to interject into this thread. 66 Dart with a slant six, right? Is the bell housing you are working with cast aluminum? What kind of clutch linkage do you have? I'm up to my ears in a 65 Barracuda /6 trying to convert the 904 to A833. I have an aluminum "truck bell housing." (circa 1978) My A833 is a 1965 with a four-bolt flange type output shaft. The opening for the bearing support in the bell housing I have measures 5.125, my bearing support measures 4.354. there is a reducing bushing availible which is one hurdle to overcome, but the real issue is the overall clutch linkage of which I have all of it. Pedals, rods etc. The issue is the linkage will not work with the bell housing I have. Z bar pivot, located in different position, I could solve all of my problems by buying the right bell housing from Brewers ($500 before shipping), but I'm not ready to cross that rode yet, until exhaust all of my options. If you come up with a fix on what you are doing, I would be very interest in what you did. A 66 dart /6 is not a great deal different than a 65 Barracuda /6.
Norm
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I bought the car in running condition. Bell is aluminum, has a Z bar installed. Looks like a piece of steel was fabricated and installed in the driver side inner fender well to hold one side of the 3 bolt Z bar pivot. Then the Z bar is run horizontally level with the bell housing and attached to the other pivot on the bell housing side mounting holes like factory would have done it. I didn't do any of the work.
 
circlepilot said:
Some Questions I would like to interject into this thread. 66 Dart with a slant six, right? Is the bell housing you are working with cast aluminum? What kind of clutch linkage do you have? I'm up to my ears in a 65 Barracuda /6 trying to convert the 904 to A833. I have an aluminum "truck bell housing." (circa 1978) My A833 is a 1965 with a four-bolt flange type output shaft. The opening for the bearing support in the bell housing I have measures 5.125, my bearing support measures 4.354. there is a reducing bushing availible which is one hurdle to overcome, but the real issue is the overall clutch linkage of which I have all of it. Pedals, rods etc. The issue is the linkage will not work with the bell housing I have. Z bar pivot, located in different position, I could solve all of my problems by buying the right bell housing from Brewers ($500 before shipping), but I'm not ready to cross that rode yet, until exhaust all of my options. If you come up with a fix on what you are doing, I would be very interest in what you did. A 66 dart /6 is not a great deal different than a 65 Barracuda /6.
Norm
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I recommend to you and @jpl572103 get the Passon a833 book and a Factory Service Manual.

1966 DODGE DART Bishko Automotive Literature 2631 Bishko Service Manual DVDs | Summit Racing

SA Design SA389 SA Design Chrysler A-833 Transmissions: How to Rebuild and Modify | Summit Racing
 
Just curious, what's wrong with the trans in the car? (i might have missed it skimming through) I would much rather have the OD trans..
 
At this point, You have 2 different routes to take.

1. Fix the cobbled mess you have. Use the 5.125 bearing retainer on the A-Body A-833, get the trans tunnel where it should be for the A-Body shifter, and get the A-Body rods and arms. Get a new drive shaft or a used driveshaft from an A-Body Barracuda, Duster, or Valiant with a 904 and your rear. That should be easy to find.

2. Find a B or E body standard transmission, since you are using the front shifter mount, and use everything else you have.
 
66fs said:
At this point, You have 2 different routes to take.

1. Fix the cobbled mess you have. Use the 5.125 bearing retainer on the A-Body A-833, get the trans tunnel where it should be for the A-Body shifter, and get the A-Body rods and arms. Get a new drive shaft or a used driveshaft from an A-Body Barracuda, Duster, or Valiant with a 904 and your rear. That should be easy to find.

2. Find a B or E body standard transmission, since you are using the front shifter mount, and use everything else you have.
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Yes those are the only options. Thank you.
 
jpl572103 said:
I bought the car as is. 3rd gear grind. 4th gear howl. Seems to have gotten worse since the 8 3/4 swap.
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Those are easy to fix problems and cheap too.

What cannot be fixed in that trans is the wide 1-2 split. If that is NOT your complaint, then I would just fix it. If I lived next door, I could probably fix you up in a couple of hours, if the trans was on the floor and clean.
 
AJ/FormS said:
Those are easy to fix problems and cheap too.

What cannot be fixed in that trans is the wide 1-2 split. If that is NOT your complaint, then I would just fix it. If I lived next door, I could probably fix you up in a couple of hours, if the trans was on the floor and clean.
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The 1-2 seems to be normal, although at times when coming to a stop light, with the clutch in, it's difficult to put into 1st gear unless I goto 2nd and then it will fall right into 1st with no problem. When taking off, 1-2 shifting is normal, third has that "crunch" whether upshifting or downshifting into that gear and 4th has the howl and a vibration I was speaking of in another post. So I need to just get the car on ramps and remove it. Thank you for your knowledge.
 
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