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700R4 output shaft swapping - how difficult?

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Old Dec 2, 2008 | 11:35 AM
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Default 700R4 output shaft swapping - how difficult?

I tried a search on this and came up with nothing.

I have a pretty good deal on a rebuilt 700R4 that was set-up for a street rod with all the internal right parts, except it has the longer 2wd output shaft.

I can use my original 82s output shaft, but was told by a guy that the entire guts of the tranny need to come out to make this swap!!?

What is involved in swapping the 700R4 output shaft and housing to fit the Vette?
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Old Dec 2, 2008 | 11:44 AM
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I don't recall exactly what's involved but I helped a guy swap a TH700R4 on his truck and the replacement had a different tail on it. We dropped the transmission off at a local transmission shop. The shop seemed to have a lot of extra ends and they swapped it out in less than an hour for one hours labor. I don't think it's a very involved process but I have never done one.
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Old Dec 2, 2008 | 04:33 PM
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IT IS MY UNDERSTANDING the output shafts are in fact indentical no matter the application.....it's the housing on the back of the case that's switched for vette to other applications...there MAY be a difference from one to another for trucks/cars....but I know the vette was different for the C4 supposedly a standard car housing will work in a '82.......

the confusion came in from the different lengths of the older 350-400 turbos....they had 3 different lengths believe it or not....

but in a 700, the actual output shaft is the same, and does not come out with any surrounding tail housing....

your authority on that is TimAT....he knows....

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Old Dec 2, 2008 | 09:32 PM
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There are diffrent length output shafts for the 700. Two wheel vs four wheel drive. And diffrent speedo application manual speedo gear vs electronic speedo. Yes the trans has to come apart to change it
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Old Dec 2, 2008 | 09:37 PM
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2wd output shafts are all the same length and spline for 700R4. Sounds like you need nothing. The trans has to come completely apart to change the output shaft.
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Old Dec 2, 2008 | 10:52 PM
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So its not the output shaft+housing that gets changed, but just the housing itself (w/ speedo gear set-up) for the shorter Vette 700R4?
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Old Dec 2, 2008 | 11:35 PM
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Maybe a moment of clarity for me.

700R4s have the following output shaft housings:

1) 2WD =30 3/4 inch overall length
2) C4 Vette = 30 inch overall length
3) 4WD
4) Cyclone 4wd

I dont recall my tailshaft looking like this one below, so it looks like we DONT use the C4 tailshaft (hence the name):


Pics of C3 700r4
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Old Dec 3, 2008 | 02:45 AM
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Originally Posted by MN-Brent
Maybe a moment of clarity for me.

700R4s have the following output shaft housings:

1) 2WD =30 3/4 inch overall length
2) C4 Vette = 30 inch overall length
3) 4WD
4) Cyclone 4wd

I dont recall my tailshaft looking like this one below, so it looks like we DONT use the C4 tailshaft (hence the name):


Pics of C3 700r4
Yes, the 700 in the lower pix looks like what I had in my '72 here some years ago.....I have a 200 4r in there now....

I suppose with enough fab work you CAN use a C4 tail housing, but why bother???

now in that fit up, MY shark was a muncie car, so I modded the tranny mounting shoe off the cross support there, to accept the new mount location of the 700.....keep in mind MY car was a welded in cross support, so if you have a automatic , you should be able to move that support fore and aft for the correct spot, I had some parking brake cable interference with the output yoke....apparently YMMV because somehow I am led to believe from many of these conversations, that QC/consistancy of product from one to another was NOT much of a concern at St. Louis......
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Old Dec 3, 2008 | 09:30 AM
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http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/w...ssions#THM700R

Even this is incomplete but gives you something to measure
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Old Dec 3, 2008 | 10:32 AM
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Brent, the top pic looks like a 200r4 trans tail housing for a Camaro/trans-am torque arm application.
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Old Dec 3, 2008 | 10:33 AM
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Originally Posted by hugie82
Brent, the top pic looks like a 200r4 trans tail housing for a Camaro/trans-am torque arm application.

Except I didn't think the TH2004R even had a removable tail housing unless there were two different cases.
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Old Dec 3, 2008 | 01:38 PM
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The top pic is the "Vette" C4 tailshaft housing. Of course this doesnt apply to the 82 Vette, which rcvd the 700R4 2WD housing as OEM. Some places ID it as C4, others dont. This leads to confusion.

The street rod tranny Im buying has the 2wd housing, so all the advice I rcvd saying I need the "Vette" tailshaft housing was bad advice, even though I was VERY clear this is going into the C3-not C4-1982 version Vette.

I want to thank all the guys who piped in on this, it helped. I thank the lord there are forums like this these days also. Its another example of how much misinformation is out there.

B....
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Old Dec 3, 2008 | 01:40 PM
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Originally Posted by mrvette
Yes, the 700 in the lower pix looks like what I had in my '72 here some years ago.....I have a 200 4r in there now....

I suppose with enough fab work you CAN use a C4 tail housing, but why bother???

now in that fit up, MY shark was a muncie car, so I modded the tranny mounting shoe off the cross support there, to accept the new mount location of the 700.....keep in mind MY car was a welded in cross support, so if you have a automatic , you should be able to move that support fore and aft for the correct spot, I had some parking brake cable interference with the output yoke....apparently YMMV because somehow I am led to believe from many of these conversations, that QC/consistancy of product from one to another was NOT much of a concern at St. Louis......
Gene-What happened over at the DC?
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Old Dec 3, 2008 | 03:45 PM
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Originally Posted by MN-Brent
Gene-What happened over at the DC?
They did not like my poly sticks in their bad shark lounge....

Chicago mafia/polyticks my taking apart their boy....

so I was perma band.....woopie doo.....

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