I have 1968 Firdbird with a pontiac 350 out of a 1972 lemans currently running in it, the transmision currently in there is a th350.
I picked up the car as a shell and have got it running now, i picked up a cherry 12 bolt not sure what year or gearing but with the th350 i am taching almost 3600 at approx 60mph.
I picked up a 200r4 transmission out of a 1988 monte carlo SS and it looks really clean and apparently only has about 58,000 miles on it before someone did a LS1 swap.
When i put the motor and trans in the car i had done it in one unit with a cherry picker motor and trans together. Now i'd like to drop the th350 out and put in the 200R4. what is the best way to get to the bell housing bolts so i can drop the transmission. any tricks or shortcuts?
The trick is patience!! + long extensions and good wrenches + a few scraped knuckles:thumbup: :welcome: welcome to the club! If you never did it before be very careful and rent a trans jack!!! more people get hurt from a trans falling on them then you can imagine :nono:!!! Murphys Law:thumbup:
I use offset box end wrenches (long) for the upper bellhousing bolts and a ratchet and short extension for the 4 side ones. You can drop the trans with a floor jack by yourself but you better get a helper and a tranny jack to put it back in!
First of all, your going to need some help, from someone who has had a little experience, because it sounds like you've never done this before. First is safety. right tools, and don't take SHORTCUTS. Tranny jack is realy helpful. Do remember to triple drop the torque convertor when you install the 200 4r. Remember the tranny crossmember is going to set back farther. You may have to drill new holes. You may even have to notch the tang on the crossmember so you can later reach the bolts on the tranny pan incase you want to drop the pan later for modifications. While you got the 200 4r out, drop the pan and put in a new filter and a tranny drain plug. You' find out later why, if you don't do it first. You'll need a couple of gallons of ATF. well, NOW IS THE HARD PART You have to set up the TV cable right or all you're work will be for nothing. You'll burn those clutches in no time flat. You'll need a tranny preasure gauge to help set it up. There is alot of information on the NET to help you I did a 200 4r in my nova and have enjoyed it. I rebuilt mine myself and beefed it up and modified it. I have no idea what gears you have in that thing to run those kind of RPMs but the 200 4r will drop them to about 2400 when locked up. Once you get that thing going, you can look at some other gears later based on how it runs down the road.
someone has to know why this 200 4r tranny has a different code one the bell housing. All the other 200's have 409 G on the bell housing, but this one has 407 G on it. It tag shows it a 86 CR F I'M going to use it for parts only, but curious about why its number were different. Any help will give me an idea if maybe I should rebuild this one or use it for parts as I originaly planned to do.
I got under the car today, i can see the bottom bellhousing bolts, the two other above then, but i can't figure out how i would get to the top two, they seem to be in the tunnel with basically a 1 inch gap between the bell housing and tunnel. anyone ever dropped the tranny and installed on in a 68 bird?
i think the ratchecy swivel head wratchets are going to be the tickect, i looked at it the bird yesterday and i think i can get the top two bolts out that way. thanks!
next question, i bought the painless wiring kit for the torque covertor lock up.
It says i need a vacuum delay valve. the part number they have listed is discontinued. if i use another one how do i know which way it is supposed to go in line?
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