So I bought a 300 Ford motor, from a 1982 Frito Lay yard truck, for the bellhousing and clutch setup I wanted, plus a free NP435 four speed. Does this tranny meet the historical requirements for HA/GR?
Howdy, There are no age requirements for gearboxes in HA/GR. The accepted reasoning is that manual gears are pretty much manual gears, and the basic tech for'em was well settled by the mid fifties, even the synchros. Also applies to rear ends, as they're the same sort of mechanics. Modern shifting systems could be a "quibble-able" aspect, as most of the multi lever and in-line ratchet systems're far too recent. That being said, in the period more-speeds were often swapped in. Gearboxes, shifters and aftermarket shifters were regularly well butchered to make'em smoother & faster. Tooth removal, synchro buffing/roughing/drilling, gate & cross pin shaving, lever lengthening/shortening, pattern reversal/inversion ..... you get the idea. Hell, this's what the class is intended to be all about.