4 Speed swap in wood grain wagon!

I believe I have the cross-member thing sorted. I will move the cross member forward, clearance the floor with the BFH, and fab an extension for the mounting pad.

For accuracy I took the angle measurement from the mounting pad with my digital angle finder {last Pic}. This will allow me to ensure that the extension I will be adding will be the same {not pitched low or high}.

I slid the cross-member it's self forward and through a bolt through the front-most frame hole and the rear-most cross-member hole. This kept the CM square and moved it up 2". I will have to drill 1 new hole on each side of the car to put bolts into the front-most CM hole. No biggy.

Moving the CM forward means I do not have to make some stupid long extension to the mounting pad and it gets the exhaust hump on the pass side a little more toward the well in the floor.
The pass exhaust hump is still touching the floor {pic 1 on top} but just barely. I will clearance the floor with my tranny jack and/or a big hammer.

Mounting pad still needs an extension but now it will be a shorter one. I fabbed up a piece of 1/4" thick C channel that is the same width as the mounting pad {pic 2}. I will cut it into the original mounting pad location buy cutting away a portion of the original mounting pad and splicing/butt welding in the new 1/4" material with my 180 amp TIG. I'm holding it in place in pic 3. Big ears on the fabbed piece will be cut away and blended for a factory type look.
I will also drill and slot the new mounting pad for both the single stud trans mount AND the 2 blot trans mount. Give me options if I need to lower trans for U joint working angles.

 

Is the Doug Nash trans a 5 speed with the 5th gear still being 1:1??
I believe I heard that some where but am unsure.

 

This is the mortal enemy of parts producers. At some point or another, they became aware that grease zerks were prolonging the life of the parts they were connected to. Talk about Pre-programmed Obsolescence

 

Engineered failure.
If at all possible I'll stab zerks into anything I can. I bought adjustable rear 4 link bars for my Cutlass. Came with un-greasable poly bushings. Took em apart, drilled and threaded the metal housing for a zerk and spun a groove in the polly bushing on the lathe. Not a squeak to be had.

 

I think the Tremec is the non-OD 5-speed, but I'll have to look it up, it's been so danged long. Oh, and a member on Ranchero.us got an S-10 T-5 to put behind a Cleveland, and I linked him these posts to educate him.

 

got the cross-member done this weekend.
Slid the 2004R member forward 2.5" as mentioned in my last post. Redrilled 1 new mounting hole per side. extended the mounting pad as explained in the last post as well.

fabbed a piece for the drives side to facilitate true duel exhaust. All worked out well.

I'm told on another site that a good ol' TH350 CM would have worked but I don't have one but Ill keep my eye out. I would have had to drill all new mounting holes in the frame to use the TH350 CM.

Here is the process for the driver's side exhaust cut out.




Welded a 1"X1" bar to keep every thing in line. Marked and cut away the section. DON"T clamp the piece on before cutting. Lay the bar loose and tack weld. Clamping will pre-load the CM or bar and it will spring out of shape when the section is cut away. Healthy tacks are helpful too.


Bolted the CM back into the car to set the C channel piece making sure that it is even. Tacked the piece and removed for welding.

TIG welded the C channel into place. Thick filler wire and big amps.




All done. Just have to drill slotted hole for trans mount which I did after this was taken

 

This is the extension to the mounting pad.
I'm told that a TH350 CM would work better than all this cutting and welding. I'll e keeping and eye out for one.
I cut out what I didn't want. The out riggers are just to keep the sides from flexing in or out as I cut

This is that 1/4" thick piece slipped into place and tacked

All TIGed up and ground



I TIG welded the bottom as well. VERY strong. The mounting point for the trans mount was moved 2.75" from stock. The piece here is a little long.

 

Stabbed my shifter into the car on the weekend as well. My cell had no charge but I will be posting pics tomrrow.

Pulled the carpet back... what a chore! That shit bends like a piece of plywood. Floors are unbelievably mint!

I used a strong magnet to locate the shifter placement from the bottom/under of the car. From the top I was able to find the magnet using some drill shavings as they are light and stick to the magnet's pull through the sheet metal.

I cut the hole from the inside of the car. Cut small and had to sneak up on the final fit. The shifter protrudes into the cock pit quite a bit. I am unsure if the F body trans tunnel bracket will work. I may have to fab up a cover piece.
Shifter is quite far forward as well. I actually had to heat and bend the shift arm so it would clear the dash in 1st and 2nd gear. No big deal. I was happy I did not have to mess with the seat.

Next is the clutch pedal. Looking forward to contorting my fat ass under that dash.....

 

Since the pedal assembly isn't braced by the dash, do you think removing the dash would help? I have a feeling, even though you'll be on your back, you won't really be able to get far up enough from underneath, and if you have to weld, you want to be able to put out a fire easily.

 

It depends on what's catching fire. This might have once been a party wagon

 

I see what your saying. Removing the dash sounds terrifying tho
! LOL
I pulled the brake pedal out yesterday. Not as gnarly a job as I was expecting.

The F body clutch pedal hangs single shear off the side of the brake pedal assembly/brace. One big grade 5, 1/2" bolt is all it hangs on. In the first picture you can see it's just stuck on the side.

The B body has the same type of pedal assembly/brace/booster mount. Caprice brake pedal is similar to the F body one with some different bends {standard specific} and the piviot point/bolt mount is a little wider.

Bottom picture is the B and F body brake pedals bolted together for comparison. I will simply heat and bend the B body pedal to the same shape as the Fbody pedal and swap over the foot pad.
I believe the clutch pedal will work as GM intended just hanging off the side of the B body brake assembly {same as it did in the F body}. I will need a 1" longer bolt and I will reuse the mechanical locking nut.

I may still have to do some under dash welding as I am hoping to fit in the rubber clutch stop from the F body,,, but we'll see.

 

shoved in the shifter this last weekend.
I was little dissapointed as the shift linkage interfered with the driver's side of the trans tunnel. That means I had to do a little more tunnel sugary than I would have liked. Shifter it's self and it's bracket are quite big and required a sizable hole to clear. The trans it's self with out the linkage fit beautifully BUT linkage and shifter are a bit big and bulky.
A833 IS a truck trans so I should not be this surprised that it's a little bigger that the ol' muncie. Muncie just fell into place on my 84 cutlass {last pic}.
I put a T56 in my 59 Bel-Air and had to raise the entire trans tunnel, split and lift the tow board for the bell, section and move an under body brace and put a good size notch in my bench seat,,,, so with that said this mod is pretty tame. LOL

The shifter it's self is quite a ways forward as well. I had to heat and bend the shift arm as it would have hit the dash/radio {right at that bend} going into 1st, 3rd and reverse. I may be bending it a little more OR just be making a new one. It clears the bench by quite a bit which was nice as I wanted my wife to be able to slide the seat up as she is shorter.
Looks like the F body tunnel bracket and trim ring will not work well either.

All small things in the grand scope of it all.



I pulled and replaced this dash in the Cutlass BTW. Nightmare!

 

I read in one of my hot rod mags that it was/is the Doug Nash 5 speed that is the NON-O/D trans. Not a technical source mind you. They talked about it while featuring a 1980's built 67 vette. "Indestructible" was the word used to describe it.

 

Yeah, on the same plane as a Rockcrusher, when I read about it 20+ years ago. But I just can't remember details about it.

 

I went and bent the stock brake pedal last night, Went well I think.
Used the acetylene to heat it up and then copied the bends in the F body brake pedal.

I cut off the entire B body brake pad, tossed it and salvaged the F body pad to swap it over to the B body pedal.
I bolted the clutch and modded brake pedal together as if they were installed. This will allow me to reattach the F body pad to the modded brake pedal and have the clutch and brake line up perfectly {like the F body set was}. I had to shorten the B body brake by a mere 1/4" to line up perfect.