[beetle9]

getting ready to start gathering parts for my transmission set up. I just want to know a little more before I buy anything. I will go with a muncie and will be using a hydraulic clutch to make fabrication easier. I understand the principle, but have never used one before. Do I need a bellhousing especially made for use with a hydraulic clutch, or will any bellhousing work. Also, do the muncies have a universal bolt pattern that will match any chev bellhousing, or does it have to be from a particular year etc. Also, I notice the early muncies and t-10s especially don't bring much on ebay. Wondering if they were poor performers. Also, is there particular models/years to avoid. I know most want an automatic, but in my stretrod, I want the fun of jammin' some gears. Please give me your thoughts on the above and thanks.

[BOBCRMAN@aol.com]

I'VE DONE THIS ONE BEFORE IF YOU CAN COME UP WITH AN EARLY GMC (wOOps) truck slave cylinder you can use a stock chevy aluminum bellhousing and throwout arm, you have to match it to the correct master for a clutch setup. the original GMC was a dual side by side master and won't work with modern brakes. this hydraulic clutch works well but don't expect to do a lot of drag racing the clutch action isn't like a mechanical setup.
As for the muncie and borg thing the early mincies had a too small counter shaft and weak syncro rings, also had some bearing problems- the early borgwarner was just a three speed with an extra gear designed in it wasn't made for high horses, they shifted like butter but didn't have the load capacity for the bigger engines , this caused lots of bearing and gear problems. mostly input bearings. and thrusts. thanks bob

[BOBCRMAN@aol.com]

THEbetter muncies were made after 67 or so if you look at an early case and compare it to a late case you can see the larger countershaft on the later piece, also most of the later muncies had the speedo gear on the right side upper tailshaft and the shifter arms bolt on where early ones had studs sticking out. the bolt pattern was the same from 55 till the early 80's the super t-10 and the t-10 also used it along with the lowly 3-spd.thanks bob

[HotRodMan]

Before you make the final decision to put a manual shift transmission in your street rod, try to determin where the shifter is going to come thru the floor. I have a muncie 4 speed in my Model A street rod, and if I had it to do all over again, I would install an automatic transmission. The shifter comes up between my legs, is cumbersome to work, and I had to bend the shifter with a torch to keep it from hitting the seat when you come back to 2nd and 4th gears. It just has never been comfortable to work with. It was also more expensive than an automatic would have been.

[engineguy]

You can use the hydraulic clutch slave cylinder from a Ford truck too. I had a '35 Ford too, back in high school (many, many, many years ago), which I put an Olds V-8 into. Used the Ford truck cluch setup, from a late '50's or early '60's truck. Problem I had was with the pedals. I put them on the firewall and had to shorten the pedal arms. This caused some interference problems in the engine compartment, but I cannot remember the extent of the problem (its been about 40 years!!).