6 speed-Richmond or Tremec?

My Pontiac currently has an older Doug Nash 5 speed, 327 low, 1-1 Hi, nice close ratio fun to drive box outside of being a little stiff to shift at times. But with my short tires (25.5) and 3.36 gears I need an overdrive to get any where. Only experience I have with Tremec was the 3 speed standard that the 70's dodge vans came with and they were junk. Looking for opininions and/or experiences/options. Thanks, Mike.

 

I had the Richmond 6 speed in my '65 Biscayne. I originally built it to drag race but the shifting was stiff. It was difficult to get into 1st gear from a stop unless you downshifted first. I also had a couple of friends that used theirs for drag racing. They had a back-up trans due to blowing 3rd gear. Seems 3rd gear is the weak link. Otherwise, it's a great cruising trans.

 

The Tremec is a NON speed shifting trans without spending some money. Pretty strong and smooth if patient.

 

You don't need an overdrive trans, you need to use the underdrive richmond as it's intended and get a higher rear gear. You're looking at $2500 solutions to a $250 problem.

good luck

 

Yep I agree throw some 2.75 in there.

 

The T56 is as good as it gets for a factory 6-speed box. Plenty strong and smooth as silk.

The Richmonds are based on the old Doug Nash boxes. Super strong and harsher to shift by comparison.

I've driven both, and when it came time to choose one for my own project, I went with a beefed up T56 from Rockland Standard Gear (www.rsgear.com). No regrets- I beat the snot out of it in a heavy car (3,600 lb station wagon) with a good amount of torque (500 ft-lbs at 4,600 rpm) and it hasn't missed a beat. I use factory (LT1) hydraulic clutch components and have had no issues.

I'd look into what Shifty said too though...

 

Sorry Mike- I called your Doug Nash a richmond, didn't mean to confuse anyone. In my head they're the same for the reason that Scotch noted with the Nash evolving into the richmond. Point being with the deep first gear they're designed to use 1:1 5th gear and highway gears out back. Your tires don't know what gears are in the transmission or rearend, they only know the combined effect of the two.

Good luck

 

I run a DNE 4+1 behind my BBC with a 3.25 gear and 29" tall tyres.

Pulls around 2700rpm at around 70-75mph, which is the sweet spot for the engine, and get 20+mpg.

Solved the shifting problem by using a fancy long shifter with rose joints, expensive but worth the money.

I concur with the others, borrow a set of taller tyres and see what difference that makes. If it works drop the ratio, problem solved.

Good luck, let us know how you get on.

P.

 

Like Shifty said,,change the rear gear,,,a whole lot cheaper.
Unless,,you are just looking for an excuse to buy a new ******.
I have a Doug Nash in my Challenger,,Compe***ion model,,,(no synchros),,noisey,,but you can't hardly hurt it.
My Dana 60 has a 3.54 gear and 33 inch tall tires,,the engine still lopes at 55 mph in 5th gear,,LOL.
It is a lot of fun to drive,,just have to be paying attention when I downshift.

Save the money,,buy a rear gear.

Tommy

 

OK Guy's, a little back story. When the Nash/Richmond was first installed the rear gear was a 2.56. Perfect for the low 1st and 1:1 hi. But when it barfed all I could find new was a 3:36 and a new Auburn. To go back down I would need a new gear set and a new Auburn(different offset for the ring). Thats certainly more than $250.00. At the same time the 5 speed is in need of some work. I thought maybe a smoother shifting 6 speed (it's a canyon carver/autocross/roadcourse type of car) might cure a couple problems at the same time. Plus I have another project that would work well with the 5 speed once it's freshened.

I guess my question wasn't how to fix the top end speed of the car, as much as it was which trans shifts smoother, can take 5-600 lbs of torque, and still be fairly close ratio? The Richmond should bolt right back in the car, whereas I think the Tremec will need alot of floor mods.

Thanks for all the comments and fire away, Mike.

 

I have a Tremec TKO600 behind a fairly healthy big block in my 56 with 4.10 rear gears and a 28" tall tire. I have had the trans in the car for 3 years and drive the car on the street and stip as well. The TKO600 is rated for 600 pounds of torque.

This trans if quite a bit larger than the muncie I took out and required some trans tunnel mods. The internal rail shifter has multiple potential shifter locations which is nice. The shifting itself is notchier than the muncie but is a more positive shift. Also, be ready for a fairly involve process of aligning the bellhousing to the block as the Tremec will not tolerate as much out of alignment in this area as the muncie will due to internal tolerances. When I installed my trans I had to call Tremec with my run out reading as a requirement to initiate the warranty. Adjustable, offset dowl pins are your friend here. Since the install the trans has given me zero problems.

As mentioned ealier, if your plans include speed shifting or shifts above 6000 RPM you may want to look elsewhere. The 6000 RPM thing is actually something that Tremec itself says is a no no.

But, if you are looking for a robust overdrive trans with a deep fifth gear for cruising and never misses a shift this would be a good trans for you. Exspensive? Yes. Worth it if you do any highway driving with 3.73 gears or taller? Absolutely. Just my 2 cents.

 

I am in agreement with Gofaster as we have also used the TKO600 in two of our builds and have never had any problems and love the double overdrive. We are now building an off topic 1970 Cuda 440 6pack with another TKO600 behind it so that the customer can drive it on the Hotrod Power Tour.

 

I have an older TKO and am extremely happy with it other than the dump truck shift quality. It's smoothing out now that it's got 10K miles.

The dumbest thing I did to mine was use a hurst shifter. It really aggravated the dump truckiness. Stock shifter is a good piece and reinstalling it was a quantum leap in shift quality.

good luck