[north]

My mixup about STT, thinking about another car.

For most of 69 when you ordered a 350 2bbl with AC and turbo hydramatic on an A or F body you got the M40 TH400 instead of the M38 TH350 but they billed you the M38 price. Not sure why all this happened, was it because the AC took the car weight higher than what they thought was a safe limit for M38 or was it simply some way to manage manufacturing capacity constraints on the then brand new transmission? As for why they billed the M40 in those applications at the price of the M38 who knows? Perhaps they didn’t want to de incentivize people ordering AC or perhaps they thought it would only be temporary.

My 4 door hardtop LeMans is the same in that it has the 2 bbl and AC with an M40 billed at the M38 price.

Interestingly my 69 LeMans wagon also has the 2bbl and AC but it has a M38. Perhaps it’s because the car was built in august 69 and by then they had dropped that application for the M40? That wagon also has some 70 type bits on it like aluminum (rather than stainless) window moldings and one of the rocker moldings is aluminum and the other is stainless (but both are 68-69 spec in that they have the tapered front point to follow the 68-9 fender contour.

Also interesting is that wagon was also built with a Chevy 10 bolt diff rather than the BOP. Apparently A body wagons all used this diff in 1970 and I guess this late car was built with a 70 spec drivetrain in some respects. (Engine is a normal 69 assembly though).