New FMRVB into OLD tranny... good idea?

[Mark Ashford]

My situation:

the 727 in my racer (currently being resurrected, regrettably low-budget style) leaks, seems to work but is an unknown, my kick-down linkage it hooky at best (non-stock carb, cobbled linkage) and I prefer to manually shift it anyway.

Need to get the truck back together and running for a shake-down in a couple weeks and a club run in a month or so.

Have a new winters (art-carr) shifter to use for full-manual shifting. Eventually I want to rebuild the tranny with a full-manual, reverse valvebody, but no $$ or time for that now.

So:

1) is it just plain stupid to buy and install a fmrb into a "junk yard" tranny? Will it be salvageable for later use or it there a possibility of trashing it between then and now? Is the installation even a "in truck, on you back" operation, or it is it a bench thing.

2) I want to use the new shifter to get rid of the stock one, plus it has a better gate pattern for my use. Ignoring the fact that I wouldn't have a reverse pattern (I can live with that for now), are there simple mods I can do without killing the tranny that would allow me to eliminate the kick-down linkage and relay only on manual shifting?

Short of an immediate rebuild, or running it as-is. Anyone have any advice/suggestions based on what [I think] I've described my intentions?


Fyi, this is a trail/race rig only. Not anysort of road/driver other than terrorizing the neighborhood for "test runs" (open headers, 392... Good combo :d). So "street" manners, or "drivabiliy" or even "longevity" is not top of the priority (its got to survive racing and a day of 4-wheeling/rock crawling however and still get me on the trailer)

 

[Michael Mayben]

Screw the change-up in the shift pattern/method. Spend the money now to build a decent transmission that will hold up in the long haul once it's built and run, then do all the bells and whistles if that serves your purpose.

No way I'd change out the valve body and/or the shift mechanism onna junker trans. That's a prime method for turning a kinda ok tranny into a no-go version.

 

[Mark Ashford]

Kind of figured that would be your answer Mike. And trust me, if it was in the cards right now I would just call Mike or Jeff and sweet talk my way into one all done like I want (and you and I have talked about). But not this year.

I just need to cobble this one together for now to get it serviceable for my upcoming trip (my only wheeling trip this year it looks like) and hopefully a short local run to shake down the rest of the truck (all new, the old one got scrapped as it was done). My kickdown linkage is sloppy at best, and I'm not sure if its doing more harm than good. The stock shifter is pretty sloppy, and just a "touch" to far forward when I'm strapped into the harnesses. I could move it back but I'd rather "do it right" and put that effort into installing the new shifter.

The shifter is here-nor-there, I can use the winters shifter in place of the stock one, and it will row through the gears just fine, it will just be a fancy 'stock' shifter that would still allow me to up and down shift "semi manually", as well as the stock shifter (and tranny) would let me previously. Just with more precision and less chance of over-shifting or dropping it into a gear I don't want to.

So I guess the real question is what can/should I do with the kickdown. Is there a way to eliminate it without toasting stuff and just shift manual, or should I just leave it alone, adjust it best I can and hope for the best?

What should the adjustment be? Iirc, at wot the linkage should be back as far as reasonable possible, or should it be there before wot, then all the way forward at or before closed throttle.

If it would just stop pissing all its tranny fluid (doesn't seem to do it running, just after sitting), that would be nice as well... But thats another days project, till then I just carry spares :d

what other simple "tricks" can I do to improve the shifting (firmness, hold) without a huge investment. Is "stop leak" even a decent thought to help control some of the fluid loss?