I just bought a 401 with the turbo 400 attached. It should be a direct bolt in to my 59 buick where a 364 used to be, shouldn't it? also the trans has an electrical plug on the side that ran up to a switch on the accelerator pedal. Is this a swith-pitch trans? I got all the brackets and power steering pump and alt-a/c brackets. Will any T-4oo drive shaft yolk fit it or does it have to be a buick? Thanks TP
The electrical connection is for the kickdown. You will want to fabricate something to duplicate the function on your '59. A switch-pitch trans uses two electrical connections. Switch-pitch was offered in '65, '66, and '67. The '64 transmission is a real oddball. A one-year-wonder. '68 and up are common as dirt. Do I remember correctly? The '59 Buick uses a floor-mounted starter switch? I bet you could wire something from the starter switch to activate the kickdown at full-throttle. Better than nothing, not as good as having kickdown at part throttle. Just make sure that when you're done, you aren't activating the starter when the engine is running. There are different versions of the 400 drive shaft yoke. Some are vented, some are not. They all should have the same spline count, though. Be sure to get the right one for your application. I suspect you need a non-vented yoke, but I don't know for sure.
schurkey, i got the arm off of the riv. I don't think it will be hard to make it work. Once I cleaned everything up today it had initials and a 02 date on it. Seems to have been rebuilt. also it has BS 65 1476 on the plate on the trans. I looked through a few sites and it seems to have come on a dual quad car if I am reading everthing right. What do you think? TP
