Is a strong 4 speed w/a lower first gear? I know the Borg Warner T-10 from late 70's Chevy Camaros have a lik4 3.42:1 first. But I have heard it is a weak tranny. Any ideas/tips/info? Thanx.
They are Super T-10's with fine spline input and a Turbo 400 output. Just as strong as those that came out in 'musle cars' A little newer too. You can find the A833 that was a New Process (Mopar style, like the Hemi Trans) that has a low first gear and fourth is overdrive. Fits GM bell housing and clutch, uses a Turbo 350 output. Used in mid 80's GM trucks.
Hey John, What's going on? How's the wagon coming along? Probably your best bet would be looking into a '904' cast iron case Super T-10with 2.88 first gear. Make sure it has an iron mid-plate as well. Back in the day, these trannys could be bought at speed shops under the 'Power Brute' name. The gears in these boxes were made of higher nickel content. The 2.88 first gear is more dufficult to come by than the 2.64 first and if you find one, expect to pay $800 - $1200 for a decent one. I paid $800 for mine and it had been rebuilt and works excellent. BTW, I just pulled out and in process of installing a Jerico drag race box, with road race sliders, v-gate Long shifter and McLeod clutch. I will be driving this thing on the street very soon. See Ya, Wes
Thats what I run in my Regal. They have a 3.00-1 first gear. I'm happier with that than the horrible ST-10 I had in there for a year. Technically, GM calls them MY6s
Wholly crud. What is the A833 in a GM business? Never heard of that one. And you have one & like it, huh Dan? Are these pricey? I am thinking of running a Muncie 3 speed until I can afford a Richmond 5 speed. Why am I thinking this nonsense? I watched the video of the 4-speed riviera on you tube, and I was green with envy. I have had quite a few 4 speed cars, and now that I have my 4l80e in working nicely, it is time to fix what is not broken.
I am having a hard time finding much info on this A833 trans for GM trucks. Do they shift nice? Are they strong? Thanx again.
OK, heres the dirt on the GM A-833. I have never pulled one from a vehicle, I have only found them at swaps or junkyards. The most I ever paid for one was $125. They are Chevy truck issue. 4th gear is OD. .079 I believe. They were used in the late 70s early 80s. I had four at one time, put gave them to friends when I switched to a ST-10 for awhile, a move I regret to this day. When I finally had enough of the over rated ST-10, I had to buy one from the junkyard (turns out it had a bad bearing), and that was the $125 one. Are they strong? Good question. Passon performance is the noted A-833 gurus. I've contacted them before. They say the week point is the floating countershaft in the aluminum case. I've never had the power to blow one apart, but the one in my Regal does have a worn 3rd gear syncro these days. Do they shift nice? Better than the ST-10 fron hell! My future plans are to put the GM shafts into an iron Moper case and redrill the scatterbell bolt pattern. That is so I'll have a durable four gear that I can drive to the track in OD and hopefully run 12s with the brand X engine I'm building. Now, I don't know the when they did this, but some of them had the Moper bolt pattern instead of the GM. Which required a special Chevy bell with a moper bolt pattern. Best find the GM bolt one. (I'm talking tranny to bell bolt pattern, not engine to bell). Now, there is a mod needed. The input shaft bearing cover is way bigger in diameter than a GM trans. Simply remove it by the four bolts and have it machined down to correct size. Thats about it. They take a TH350 yoke, fit your speedo cable, and the back-up light switch is right on the trans! Are they as strong as a Muncie? In stock form....no. But for the price of an M-22 you can by 6 of these.:3gears:
Great info Floyd! I really appreciate it. I can't wait to see the photos (my computer @ work filters them out). Great reading. Thanx again!
I have to disagree with Floydsbuick and say that even the alluminum A833 is much stronger than a Muncie. All you have you have to do is take one apart and look at the size diference in all the gears, the A833 gears are much larger than the Muncie. Over the years I have fixed and seen lots of broken Muncies and very few broken A833s. The first gear in the the overdrive A833 is 3.09 and I think 2nd is 1.67 with a .73 over. There are GM A833 models with a cast iron case also, the very early ones. They are odd cases though the left side is a GM bolt pattern and the right side is still the crysler. Weird huh. They used a special bellhousing that had a half GM half crysler bolt pattern. I have adapted these to a BOP bellhousing they are very strong. I never liked the gear splits in the overdrive A833, way to big especially 2nd to 3rd. I took the guts out of a crysler 3.09 1:1 fourth tranny and adapted it to fit in the GM style case and extension housing. Had a GM 10 spline input, GM 27 spline output, 3.09 first 1.9 second, 1.4 third and 1:1 fourth. Next to my Richmond 5 speed that was the best set up I ever used. Good luck with your project. Thanks Brent
Good info Brent, thanx. If I find a good 3 speed Muncie, I will grab it, for now. Long term would be a Richmond 5 speed (of course, so not to sound like a B.S.'er, this is what I want to do, but finances dictate what I can & can't do).
I have been looking around e-bay & craigslist (craigshelper) and I have failed to find one of these trannys online. If a Mopar one was found, and I was willing to modify my BOP bellhousing, how hard/expensive would it find/install a Chevy input shaft & retainer? Actually, if I had a friend who could do the machine work, I wonder it it would be just a easy to have the hole enlarged on the bellhousing for the larger retainer.
Brent, Great info! As you can see, even though I use these, I still have much to learn. I hope they are indeed stronger, because I'm sticking with them. Unlike you though, I'm a wide ratio fan:3gears: jmmcart, If your talking about enlarging the the bellhousing hole to fit the larger bearing retainer/input shaft cover, I think thats barking up the wrong tree. The pivot ball for the fork would be to close to the hogged out area. even if it would clear, you'd remove its re-enforcement gussets. Also, remember www.Passonperformance.com Jamie is very helpful and is an expert in these matters of interchangeibility on these.
Thanx Floyd. Good point on the pivot ball, I did not think of that. You & Brent got my wanting one. Like I said earlier, finding one of these on line seems a tad rough. I like the idea of just getting a Mopar piece & changing the input (if I can't find one). I like the big shifter in the regal, it looks fun to drive.
John, Remember if you get a dodge one and change the input shaft you will still need to fabricate a crossmember mount and build a hybrid dodge/gm driveshaft. This adds to the cost and makes the gm one look better. The gm unit when installed is the same length and mounting point as a th350 or saginaw etc. The crossmember goes in the same spot, uses the same mount and even the same driveshaft. Things to think about. Look around and you will find one, their is one for $200 on a local classifieds website here, so they are around. I have an extra one but by the time you shipped it the cost would not be worth it. If you want to build a "poors mans Richmond" with a non-overdrive unit I can let you know all the mods you have to do. Brent
Brent, You seem to know these well. I'm wanting to load all the GM stuff into a Chrysler iron case. I'm hoping the GM tailshaft housing bolts to the Chrysler iron case. Any experience with that? I don't have the Chrysler case yet so I can't compare.
I wonder how long the trans is w/the long shaft? I have a 4l80e in my car now and it is longer than crap. A 3:1 first to a 1:1 would be great w/a 3.08:1.
Dan, Yes the GM stuf bolts to the dodge case. I built one to get an iron case, I had to machine out the front bearing hole bigger though. I did one like that before I found the GM iron case's. After that I just used those. If you look around you can find an iron case one. Brent
