Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

looks like a good project Stan, I will be following the conversion. i guess this will go a a little faster than the one you tackled last year?

67ss wrote:

---

I thought you were going manual transmission?

---

Chris, I'm enjoying not shifting since this is more of a cruiser ride, but still wanted overdrive.

Yeah Bruce, after last winter, this should be pretty straightforward and not take near as long.

In my opinion nobody makes a good control for TCC on carbed cars. They all basically lock up when in fourth gear and will not unlock unless you apply the brake or downshift. Their is nothing to sense load to make it unlock for slight acceleration. I had John at Master remove TCC on the 700 I put in the 55 and love it. The 200-300 RPM difference without lock up is not really noticed and no mess of wiring to add or hook up. Yes it will require a different torque converter but if you are also still thinking of the engine swap you may want to tailor the converter for that anyway. With the tranny out now would be the time to think about having it removed.

Lost in the 60s wrote:

---

One thing I would recommend is to measure your frame to make certain the cross member can move back 3" from where it is now. That's about how much I had to modify mine in the '38 since I couldn't move it on the frame...

---

When I installed the 200R4 in the last blue Chevelle, I used a TH350 drive shaft with no mods, and the cross member went into the last two aft holes without having to drill new ones.  It's a pretty slick install.

I decoded the trans serial tag, and from what i can tell, the 861 stands for built in 86 on first shift....CZ = Monte Carlo SS H/O w/3.73 gears.....F=200r4........and 0474 is the production number.  This all checks out with what the seller told me and what I saw in the Monte in his garage.  Thanks to Steven and Mitch for the info from his post on decoding the trans he bought.  I've also reviewed his post and picked up a couple of tips regarding the lockup vs. non-lockup.

Steven, in your post you mentioned with the lockup kit, the trans works fine under throttle when shifting, but it was searching some when decellerating or at slower speeds.  Sounds like that is what some are describing by using the lockup kit.  Did you resolve that, or are you living with it for now by using the manual switch to shut off the lockup until you get up to highway speeds?

 

I'm just living with it for now using a manual switch. The only problem that I really have with the electronic lock-up is in town. It shifts into OD way to early and bogs the engine down to 1000 RPM's. So I flip the switch to unlock the converter, give it that extra rpms and good to go. If I'm accelerating up to 60 at a decent click, it feels like it shifts when it should and doesn't bog the engine down. If I remember right, B&M and maybe another company, makes an electronic lock-up kit that runs off of the speedo cable. Once the unit hits the speed at which you want the converter to lock-up or unlock, it then sends the power to the converter. I would have gone with this set-up, but they were a little bit more expensive than what I was looking for. Here's the link for that http://www.jegs.com/p/B-M/B-M-Converter-Lock-Up-Control/748070/10002/-1 When I installed mine, I did have to make new brackets for the cross-member to sit on, so hopefully you don't have that problem. When I had talked with John, he also recommended no lock up, but for myself that was going to add the extra price of a new converter, and honestly, I can't really say anything bad about the lockup besides it kicking in too early.