When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I'll agree with you on traffic. My daily drive is an Automatic. This is my weekend toy. It is much funner to drive a stick in the mountains then an auto. And yes i live about 1/2 mile from the lake.
Gotcha man.....My daily driver is an auto(SAAB TURBO) as is my vette....I have a friend that owns a shop in Atlanta and he has done two auto to 4 speed conversions..I was thinking about it as well...It is a pain in the butt he says.....I can ask him if ya like what it will cost....
that would be great. Right now my 77 is striped down and no front clip. I plan on taking the body of the car within the next couple of month. By doing this, it may make the change over a lot easier.
While the swap is not hard it is very labor intensive and on the tension scale it is a ten. The transmission is easy to swap but go with a five speed T5 instead for the overdrive. The transmission will stand up if driven decently. The hard part with the swap is the peddles. The steering column must come out along with the drivers seat. The dash remain intack. The 10 bolts are mostly easy to remove except for a few witch are a pain in the foot. One bolt took me all evening. You can use a complete hydraulic setup from a camaro or even a mid 80's half to one ton chevy truck. The slave cylinder and master cylinder bolt right on.
The crossmember needs a small amount of work in the form of welding but this is minor.
Keep my address handy if you do this swap and e-mail me anytime for advice. I did this swap last year and it came out very well.
Good luck
Norval
If you're going that far.. I would look into a Tremec 5 speed. They have a nice 5th gear overdrive and a lower first gear to get you out of the hole. I converted my 66 Nova and it made a hugh improvement over the Muncie. It was an automatic originally which I changed to a 4 speed then the 5 speed.
Tremecs are definitly nice transmissions but hard to find used. A T5 has alot to offer and if not beaten will stand up. They are rated up to 330ftlbs which isn't that far behind the tremec at 350 and 405 for the TKO. If you don't power shift the T5 is will last. It has a 3.35 first and a .68 overdrive. It is small compact but the shifter comes out in the middle of the consule rather in off to one side. This can be modified by bending the shifter of using a spacer. In extreme cases a mustang T5 fits with just a 1/2 inch adaptor plate.
Norval