[pfilean]

There has always been concern about floorboard clearance when replacing the old transmission in a Catlina/Ventura body. Look close at the picture and you can see some hammer work a the rear tail shaft mount bolts. That was the only real problem and not bad either. The accumulator is close and maybe could have had some hammer work but it has not been a problem. Also the dipstick area should have been worked if we had used a factory dipstick but the Lokar unit seems to have solved the problem








The rear mount is not the arrangement I might have preferred. The load point is way forward of the cross member and imparts a twist to the cross member. The cross member to frame mounds have been beefed up some to compensate. I didn't want to move the cross member forward as the exhaust pipes would have to be changed. I know I could have had a better mounting point on the transmission with a 200R4 but thane I would have had to change the rear end also. I have a 2.87 rear end and an overdrive with that would not work.

[pfilean]

I got a Chevy, 9 inch tailshaft transmission. With the 9 inch the overall transmission length seems to be about the same as the old Slim Jim. The driveshaft should be about 1/2 to 3/4 shorter that the original which allows for the adaptor thickness. I had a new driveshaft made as I thought the rubber shock absorber in the old drive shaft should go.

For shift linkage a Lokar ACA-1800 works fine.


And a Lokar KD-2350U works for the kickdown. We used the old TV linkage mounted on the rear of the head. May still need a little adjustment as the slide slot is to long for the short throw on the lever.

[pfilean]

For the modulator I added a hollow stud to the center carb to get vacuum. The exhaust pipe still needs a little work as it hits the floor above the cross member and is way too close to the starter. The Wilcap adaptor moves the starter location a little and this was a tight place anyway. Don't try to use long branch header with this adaptor.

[pfilean]

Neutral Safety switch and shift indicator are another problem. The old safety switch mounts below an actuator arm on the steering column. Nothing quite like that is available for the new PRNDL order of the shifting in the transmission I have seen various solutions to this, but my approach was to buy a PM238X for a 65-68 with console from Ames. That uses the same type of actuating rod but as it was to be mounted to a console the configuration is reversed and it works with the new shift sequence when mounted above (not below) the actuating arm on the steering column. For the shift indicator I was going to engrave a new glass to the new shift sequence. But that got to be a lot of trouble so I went with Lil'Abner's solution with a Shiftworks S147 that I stuck to the background plate so now the pointer is i front of the letters not behind the letters. Looks like the factory did it. But damn it that stuff hard to get out of and back in the dash.

[pfilean]

And one more picture of the new shift indicator. I got lucky of the speedometer as my core transmission had the same gears ratios as my old Slim JIm. Reads right and the tranny seems to work properly.

[lilabner]

Nice job, and yes the under dash stuff is tough for us Octogenarians.