They all were 4 on the tree, including his. The 4th gear is reverse. I drove a SAAb, I think it was, once that had 4 forward gears on the column. If I remember it had an odd number of cylinders--either 3 or 5 maybe.
All my father ever drove were Chevy Biscayne's with straight six's and three on the tree, no radio, poverty hubcaps, no whitewalls. He saved a lot of money, enough to have positive cash flow even though he's now in the dementia unit of an ALF at 95.
Well, finally got around to working on the conversion this last month. Muncie M20 went it like it was meant to be there! Also, replaced idiot lights with rally gauges, removed clock delete for in dash tach, replaced 2 barrel with TA Performance intake and Holley 650 and Ram air cleaner and swapped bench seat for newly re-upholstered buckets and mini console. Just need to have the Fiberglass Ram Air hood painted, nice wash and wax and ready for summer... Oh and at the very last minute, went to put the top up and had a hydraulic puddle in the trunk.. another $150 for new lines and bleeder tool and 3.5 hours last night I am back in action... You'll notice I am keeping the Skylark badges of course and opted for the "350-4" sticker rather than GS-350 sticker since that's what it is a Skylark and proud of it ! ....(I just like the Ram air set up and couldn't afford a GS 4 speed)....Shared some pics if anyone interested. The only bummer is that I might need to keep the manual column shift lever on the steering column as the "Reverse" lockout I installed only works to turn on the reverse lights and not let the key out without moving the handle.... I can't find the happy medium of adjustment of key out position and revere lights..... Thanks for everyone's help and input. Oh, one last thing. the last picture is of the bottom of the Saginaw 3 speed. There is a switch on the tranny that looks like it was engaged when in and out of 2nd, 3rd and neutral...it had one red wire. Does anyone know what that is/does? Originally I thought it was reverse lights or neutral safety switch but I guess those are in the pedal and column on 72's ....I left it unplugged and car runs fine without it... I'd love to know what it is though.... Thanks.
The switch is for the "transmission controlled spark" feature. It delays vacuum advance till 4th gear for emissions.
I'm betting that switch was for the vacuum advance. Switch engaged a solenoid mounted on the front RH side of the carb.. Sonenoid, known as the TCS, had 3 vacuum lines. 1 was output, 2 were sources. At highway speeds, in high gear, the TCS allowed more vacuum to the distributor. TH350 set-up is similar & I'd guess the TH400 as well.
thanks guys.. The quality of the hood is well..its built well and light ... however, it doesn't fit very well... seems to rest on the firewall and high in the back... the guy painting the hood said he thinks he can get it on right..... we'll see..
