smuggler85

I finished an SST TKO 600 installation in my 64 L76 roadster this past winter. I used .007" offset bellhousing pins, a pilot bushing and a CF dual friction clutch but no removable cross-member. It's definitely a huge PITA with a fixed cross-member and will test your ability to remain calm - but not really all that difficult. I completed a rotisserie restoration on my car a few years ago so all the body mounts were new but I still installed the floor spacers (hockey pucks) included in the kit. I did have to use an additional (side pipe) transmission shim to get the driveline angle correction needed. These cars are all different and some require up angle adjustments at the transmission ands some a down angle adjustment shim or two at the differential pinion bushing. A bit of trial and error with the driveline angle may be necessary but you won't be disappointed with the results of the SST conversion. I've got about 2000 miles on the car now and its one of the best mods I could have done. And since I didn't cut the cross-member -- it's completely reversible.

Factoid

Drothgeb

Patrick03

Per my discussions with SST, the internals of the 500 and 600 are essentially the same, with the exception of the 5th gear ratio. Pick the trans that works best with your rear end gearing and don't get hung up on the 600 handling "more torque".

GearheadJoe

You do not need to install a removable crossmember to get a TKO 600 in and out with the engine in the car. I installed a TKO 600 in my '67 by simply following the (non-obvious) step-by-step instructions from Keisler. The key is to use a 3-axis transmission jack to hold the transmission in certain intermediate positions while you fiddle with the bellhousing and clutch. It's not hard, bit it's tedious and the 3-axis transmission jack is essential.

If you presently have the body off the frame, just install the engine/trans before body drop. Hopefully the trans will never have to come out after body drop, but if it does have to come out, rest assured that it can come out even with a fixed crossmember.

Regarding drive line angle, the bolt-in rear transmission mount from SST makes it easy to raise the TKO-600 tail shaft by simply adding some flat washers. The ideal driveshaft angle is obtained with the tail shaft set a bit higher than the tunnel clearance will allow. Initially, I simply raised the tail shaft until the transmission hit the tunnel, then lowered it a tad and installed some flat washers between the rear mount and the transmission boss to set the height at that level. The angles weren't great, but I had no vibration problems.

Later I needed to raise the body a bit to provide hood clearance for a Z28 intake manifold. That turned out to be very easy to do by simply adding four shims to every body mount. As I recall, the only thing I had to do for that modest lift was to loosen the bolts where the steering column comes through the firewall, and loosen all the bumper mounts. The brake lines from the master cylinder should also be monitored. The extra body height allowed me to further lift the transmission tail shaft and make the drive shaft angles more ideal.

Regarding your question about whether the body weight needs to be on the chassis for checking drive shaft angles, the answer is no. Those angles are set by the engine mounts, the rear transmission mount, and the differential mounts. As I recall, the goal is to have the transmission angles be equal but opposite, and less than 3 degrees. Achieving this typically requires lifting the transmission tail shaft and/or pushing the differential pinion down. An easy way to measure the relative angles is with an inexpensive magnetic digital angle gauge that is designed for use by carpenters using table saws.

You will not be sorry for the expending the extra cost and effort to put in a 5-speed. I've made several bolt-in modifications to my '67, but putting in the TKO 600 was best one of them all.