I am ruminating on what transmission to use in my '62 C10. Right now I am going back and forth between automatic and Muncie. If I go auto it would probably be a TH350 with a one piece driveshaft. At least that is whay I would want to do. The question is: Long or Short tailshaft? Has anyone done this and what do you recommend?
Ted, Saginaw 4 speed is a boltin, infact the use the 3sp case IIRC Muncie is another option, but i'm not sure if its a bolt in. T5 is the best option (IMO) since the OD lets you keep your stock gears. Thats what I'm using in my 64. T350 is not an option
My truck uses a hydraulic clutch, is there a difference in the pedals used between hydraulic and mechanical?
different bellhousing, pedal, etc. The manual ****** would be easier because you won't have to deal with the bellhousing crossmember that's in the way, and finding a rear trans crossmember, etc. I suggest the Saginaw 4 speed
yeah, the frame is different, 66 is much easier to do the swap than either the 60-62 or 64-65, because the parking brake **** is out of the way.
The ones with 3 grooves on the input shaft are like a granny gear. I think they are a 3.5? first gear. I think the 1 and 2 grooves are a more conventional ratio.
The ****** has to be out to see. There are grooves that run around the input shaft. There will be 3,2,1 or none. It indicates that gearing. Here's a chart I found. I had a 3 groove in my coupe for a while, with 3.55 rear gears. It would leave real hard, but I had to shift pretty much right away. I got a really good deal on a Muncie, and I needed to pull it apart for a ****ter shield, so I ditched the Saginaw. It held up to a lot of abuse. I tore the rear gears out once and the rear suspension out once and never hurt the ******. In fact, I have it in the corner of the garage. If I don't find a cheap T5 pretty soon, I'm going to put it in my '64 C10. But the overdrive would be nice with the stock gears. # of grooves 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Notes: 0 2.85 2.02 1.35 1.00 1 2.56 1.81 1.37 1.00 Third gear on cluster has 25 teeth 1 2.56 1.81 1.44 1.00 Third gear on cluster has 21 teeth 2 3.11 2.20 1.47 1.00 3 3.50 2.48 1.65 1.00
I'm running a muncie in my 64. I hope to go to a T5 later. Engine is a 292 with aftermarket intake and hedders. These days muncie's are quite expensive so for my .02 look for a saginaw.
on the rearend gearing....when I had my 66 suburban I bought a rearend out of a mid 70s van cheap, it had 3.07 gears, which I swapped into the suburban. Sure helped on the highway compared to the original 3.73s. need the diff case too, as the spacing is different between 3.40 down and 3.73 up ratios.
I use to have a 63 Chevy truck with a 307 engine and turbo 400 long shaft automatic. The engine was out of a nova and the transmission came from a truck as I recall. I towed with the truck and drove it to work every day. No problems ever. Turbo 400s are real tough transmissions.